302 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



smoke, when burnt, being believed to be obnoxious to 

 the insects. Cow-dung and horse-hair were used in a 

 similar way. Superstition and credulity went so far as 

 to place confidence in the occult influences of such 

 objects as stags' horns, rabbits' feet, foxes' ears, &c., 

 when hung up near beds. 



So disgusting an insect as Cimex lectularius could not 

 fail to have medicinal virtues attributed to it at a time 

 when the pharmacopoeia contained multitudes of name- 

 less horrors. Pliny states that it was in his time 

 regarded, as an antidote to the bite of serpents, 

 " especially of asps," adding that fowls which had eaten 

 bugs would not be injured if bitten on the same day by 

 an asp. Another Roman author says that an infusion 

 of the bodies of seven crushed specimens was adminis- 

 tered to patients who were sinking into an insensible 

 condition, with the intention of rousing them from their 

 lethargy ! 



The bed-bug is not the only species of its genus that 

 is found in this country, though by 

 far the commonest. Three others 

 have been described, none of which, 

 however, are to be regarded as di- 

 rectly parasitic on man, though some 

 of them, and probably all, do not 

 object to a meal of human blood 

 when they can get the chance. One 

 is found in pigeon- cotes, where it 

 attacks the birds, another in martins' 



FIG. TOO. Nymph of Lye- . . 



tocoriscampestris(some- nests, and the third in bats nests. 



times mistaken for Bed- mi ,, , ,., , 



Bug). They are all very much alike, and 



closely resemble our domestic pest. 



The first two may sometimes be found climbing the 



walls of houses, or on window-sills, in the neighbour- 



