134 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



have been long celebrated. The Coya may, in the 

 western world, have furnished the poison for this pur- 

 pose. An author quoted in Lesser tells us that an ant 

 as big as a bee is sometimes used, and that the wound 

 inflicted by weapons tinctured with their venc^u is in- 

 curable. Patterson also gives a recipe by which the 

 natives of the southern extremity of Africa prepare 

 what they reckon the most effectual poison for the point 

 of their arrows. They mix the juice of a species of 

 Euphorbia, and a caterpillar that feeds on a kind of su- 

 mach, (R/iKS, L.) and when the mixture is dried it is 

 fit for use. 



And now I think you will allow that I have made out 

 a tolerable list of insects that attack or annoy man's 

 body externally, and a sufficiently doleful history of 

 them. That the subject, however, may be complete, 

 I shall next enum.erate those that, not content with af- 

 flicting him wi^h exterior pain or evil, whetlier on the 

 surface or under the skin, bore into his flesh, descend 

 even into his stomach and viscera, derange his whole 

 system, and thus often occasion his death. The puni- 

 tive insects here employed are usually larvae of the va- 

 rious orders, and they are the cause of that genus of 

 diseases I before noticed, and proposed to call Scole- 

 chiasis. 



I shall begin my account with the first order of Lin- 

 ne, because people in general seem not aware that any 

 beetles make their way into the human stomach. Yet 

 there is abundant evidence, which proves beyond con- 

 troversy that the meal-worm, ( Tenebrio Molitor, L.) al- 

 though its usual food is flour, has often been voided 



