DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 107 



night a ." But however horrible bugs may have been in 

 the estimation of some, or nauseating in that of others, 

 many of the good people of London seem to regard 

 them with the greatest apathy, and take very little pains 

 to get rid of them ; not generally, however, it is to be 

 hoped, to such an extent as the predecessor of a corre- 

 spondent in Nicholson's Journal, who found his house 

 so dreadfully infested by them, that it resembled the 

 Banian hospital at Surat b , all his endeavours to destroy 

 them being at first in vain. And no wonder ; for, as he 

 learned from a neighbour, his predecessor would never 

 suffer them to be disturbed or his bedsteads to be re- 

 moved, till, in the end, they swarmed to an incredible 

 degree, crawling up even the walls of his drawing-room ; 

 and after his death millions were found in his bed and 

 chamber furniture . 



The winged insects of the order to which the bed-bug 

 belongs, often inflict very painful wounds. I was once 

 attacked by a small species, near Cimex Nemorum, L. 

 (Hylophila, K.), which put me nearly to as much torture 

 as the sting of a wasp. The water boatman (Notonecta 



a Hence our English word Bug-bear. In Matthews's Bible, Ps.xci.5. 

 is rendered, " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night." 

 The word in this sense often occurs in Shakespear. Winter's Tale, 

 act iii. sc. 2. 3. Hen. VI. act v. sc. 2. Hamlet, act v. sc. 2. See Douce's 

 Illustrations of Shakespear, i. 329. 



b The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution. 

 At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, 

 monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds. The most extra- 

 ordinary warcl was that appropriated to rats and mice, bugs, -and other 

 noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beg- 

 gars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night amongst the 

 fleas, lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to en- 

 joy their feast without molestation. Forbes's Oriental Memoirs. 



c Nicholson's Journal, xvii. 40. 



