134? DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



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 enumerate those that, not content with afflict- 

 ing him with exterior pain or evil, whether on the sur- 

 face 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 punitive insects 

 here employed are usually larvae of the various orders, 

 and they are the cause of that genus of diseases I before 

 noticed, and proposed to call Scolechiasis. 



I shall begin my account with the first order of Linne, 

 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\ al- 

 though its usual food is flour, has often been voided both 

 by male and female patients; and in one instance is stated 

 to have occasioned death a . How these grubs should 

 get into the stomach it is difficult to say perhaps the 

 eggs may have been swallowed in some preparation of 

 flour. But that the animal should be able to sustain the 

 heat of this organ, so far exceeding the temperature to 

 which it is usually accustomed, is the most extraordinary 



their arrows. It consists of a vine called the Wourali, which is the 

 principal ingredient; the roots and stalks of some other plants; two 

 species of ants, the sting of one of which is so venomous that it pro- 

 duces a fever ; a quantity of the strongest Indian pepper (Capsicum), 

 and the pounded fangs of two kinds of serpents. 



a Tulpius, Obs. Med. 1. ii. c. 51. t. 7- f. 3. Edinb. Mcd. and Surg. 

 Journ. n. 35. 42-48. Derham, Physic. T/icol. 378. note b. Lowthorp, 

 Philos. Trans, iii. 135. 



