THE BED-BUG 299 



be the best insecticide capable of application on the large 

 scale. This gas, which is the cause of the suffocating 

 odour when sulphur is burnt, is easily produced in 

 sufficient quantity by burning a little brimstone in a 

 metal dish. Of course the room to be operated upon 

 must be kept closed as completely as possible during 

 the process, to prevent the escape of the fumes. A 

 thorough fumigation by this method may be expected 

 to destroy all that happen to be beyond the egg state ; 

 but unless the gas is in a very concentrated condition, 

 the bugs will withstand its action ; also further fumiga- 

 tions may become necessary to reach those that were 

 in the egg condition at the time, and do not hatch 

 till afterwards. 



In the days of wooden bedsteads, the extermination 

 of these pests was a much more difficult matter than it 

 is to-day. A good four-poster, with all its parapher- 

 nalia of trappings, was a perfect paradise for them, and 

 afforded endless retreats in which they could secrete 

 themselves by day, creeping out at night to assail their 

 unconscious victims. Their eradication then became so 

 formidable a business that it was necessary to call in 

 the aid of experts. John Southall himself made bug- 

 hunting his specialty, and evidently regarded himself as 

 a great benefactor to humanity in consequence of the 

 prowess he achieved in this direction. Of course he 

 had a specific of his own, the composition of which he 

 kept a profound secret, relating that he had obtained 

 the knowledge of it from an old grey-haired negro whom 

 he met in Jamaica. On the title-page of his " Book of 

 Bugges " he describes himself, with the customary cir- 

 cumlocution of the period, as the " Maker of the Non- 

 pareil Liquor for destroying Buggs and Nits, living at 

 the Green Posts in the Green Walk near Faulcon Stairs, 



