and the Sting of Scorpions in India. gg 



general in the months of December, January, and February; 

 it then rages in several districts at once : at other seasons 

 fewer persons are affected with it. 



The symptoms of this malady are almost always the same. 

 A disagreeable sensation is felt for a few davs, accompanied 

 by head-ache, pain in the stomach, and nausea; two or 

 three days before the pain is fixed in the place in which the 

 worm appears, an eruption of small pimples takes place, ac- 

 companied with a very disagreeable itching; this itching 

 becomes more violent at the place where the worm is about 

 to force a passage, until the pain is entirely fixed to one 

 place. The part then swells, and inflammation soon fol- 

 lows. 



In this case, the worm often comes awav with the pus, 

 or when the suppuration is upon the point of ceasing; some- 

 times the place where it is lodged swells like a bladder full 

 of limpid matter, and sometimes only a simple induration is 

 seen, without inflammation. 



The period necessary for the discharge of the worm vanes' 

 much ; sometimes it happens at the end of ten days, and 

 sometimes not for two or three months, and during all this 

 time the limb continues in a state of inflammation and sup- 

 puration. 



Sometimes it comes out all at once, if means are taken 

 to facilitate it, and then it is often alive. I have frequently- 

 seen these insects move about for several minutes after comino- 

 out of the leg. - In general, however, it comes out by little 

 and little. About an inch of it comes out in a day, and it is 

 carefully rolled round a straw, or something else, to hinder 

 it from returning. 



If drawn out roughly it breaks, and the piece which re- 

 mains occasions swelling and inflammation, accompanied by 

 acute pain and followed by suppuration. In this case, the 

 disease becomes very obstinate and very painful. 



However severe this disease is, it is never followed by 

 gangrene ; it sometimes happens, however, that the prin- 

 cipal nerves are so injured that the limb becomes short or 

 deformed. 



These worms are of different sizes; some of them I saw 

 G 2 were 



