98 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



out what objects they mean; and expressions which, 

 strictly taken, should be understood of larvae, may pro- 

 bably sometimes have been used to denote the cause of 

 either the pedicular or acarine disease. Bulce., which 

 term, though given by Hesychius as synonymous with 

 Scolex, is by Plutarch used as of different import % seems 

 properly to mean those larvae which are generated in 

 dead carcases, at least so Homer has more than once 

 applied it b : it is therefore a word of a much more re- 

 stricted sense than Scolex, which probably belongs to the 

 larvae of every order of insects ; for so Aristotle employs 

 it, when he says that all insects produce a Scolex, or are 

 larviparous e . Yet when Homer compares Harpalion 

 stretched dead upon the ground to a Scolex d , it should 

 seem as if he used the word for an earth-worm, which 

 Aristotle commonly calls by a figurative periphrasis, 

 " Entrails of the earth e ." In the Holy Scriptures this 

 word is used to signify larvae which prey upon and are 

 the torment of living bodies f . It may on this account, 

 perhaps, be regarded as generally meaning such larvae, 

 to whatever order or genus they belong. 



Dr. Mead, therefore, is most probably right when he 

 considers the disease stated by the ancients to be caused 

 by Eulce or Scoleches, commonly translated worms, as 

 distinct from Phthiriasis ; and if so, the inhuman Phe- 

 retima, who swarmed with Eultf, and Herod Agrippa, 

 who was eaten of Scoleches &, were probably neither of 

 them destroyed either by Pediculi or Acari, but by 



In Artaxerx. b //. #. 1. 59.9. a. 1. 414. 



Toe. ()? evTOftot, Kotyrot, ax,uKyK<)TQx,fi. De General. Animal.}. 2. c. 1. 



//. v. 1. 654-5. 



r*7f eyrs^ot. De Animal. Incessu, c.9. De General. Animal. 1. 3. c.l 1. 



Mark ix. 44. 46. 48. g SxaA^xoSTOf. Acts xii. 23. 



