122 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



drive out the impious inhabitants of Canaan, or subdue 

 them under the hand of the Israelites a . The effect pro- 

 duced by the sting of these animals is different in diffe- 

 rent persons. To some they occasion only a very slight 

 inconvenience or a momentary pain ; others feel the 

 smart of the wounds which they inflict for several days, 

 and are thrown into fevers by them ; and to some they 

 have even proved fatal 5 . Yet these insects are certainly, 

 in general, but a trifling evil. They become, however, 

 especially wasps, a very serious one to many, from the 

 mere dread of being stung by them, even though they 

 should not carry their fears to the same length with the 

 lady mentioned by Dr. Fairfax , in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, who had such a horror of them, that du- 

 ring the season in which they abound in houses, she al- 

 ways confined herself to her apartment. 



Ants are insects of this order, which, though our in- 

 digenous species may be regarded as harmless, in some 

 countries are gifted with double means of annoyance, 

 both from their sting and their bite. A green kind in 

 New South Wales was observed by Sir Joseph Banks 

 to inflict a wound scarcely less painful than the sting of 

 a bee d . Another, from the intolerable anguish occa- 

 sioned by its bite, which resembles that produced by a 

 spark of fire, and seems attended by venom, is called 

 the fire-ant. Captain Stedman relates that this caused 

 a whole company of soldiers to start and jump about as 

 if scalded with boiling water ; and its nests were so nu- 

 merous that it was not easy to avoid them e . We are 

 told of a third species, which emulates the scorpion in 



a Deut. vii. 20. Josh. xxfv. 1 2. b Amoreux, 242. 



c Philos. Trans, i. 201 . d Hawkesworth's Cook, iii. 223. 



r Stedman, ii. 94. 



