THE BUG KIND. 



757 



beds, particularly in their inns, swarm with 

 them ; and every piece of furniture seems to 

 afford them a retreat. They grow larger also 

 with them than with us, and bite with more 

 eruel appetite. 



This animal, if examined minutely, appears 

 to consist of three principal parts ; the head, 

 the corselet, and the belly. It has two brown 

 eyes, that are very small, and a little promi- 

 nent, besides two feelers, with three joints : 

 underneath these there is a crooked trunk, 

 which is its instrument of torture, and which, 

 when in motion, lies close upon the breast. 

 The breast is a kind of ring, in which are 

 pi iced ihe two first pair of legs. The belly 

 consists of nine rings ; under which are placed 

 two pair of legs more, making six in all. 

 Each leg has three joints, which form the 

 thigh, the leg, and the foot, which is armed 

 with a crooked claw, like a hook. The body 

 is smooth, except a few short hairs, that may 

 be seen by the microscope, about the vent, 

 and on the two last rings. Its motion is slow 

 and unwieldy ; yet its sight is so exquisite, 

 that the instant it perceives the light, it gene- 

 rally makes good its retreat ; and they are 

 seldom caught, though the bed swarms with 

 them. 



If we examine this insect internally, we 

 shall find the great artery, which in all insects 

 performs the functions of the heart ; we shall 

 find (he apertures of the lungs on the right 

 side and the left, through which the animal 

 breaths ; we shall find a stomach and intes- 

 tines, which, as in other anim.ds, run from the 

 month to the anus. If the insect has been 

 kept long fastin-i, there will be a mucus found 

 in its body, like the white of an egg ; but if 

 crushed afrer a full meal, the human blood 

 which it has sucked in, will appear a little 

 darkened, by having passed through the in- 

 sect's body. 



The male and female of these animals are 

 plainly distinguishable from ench other ; and 

 the parts of generation are obvious enough. 

 f, v ,nH rmmiins: tail to tail ; 



,,.. ,. 0D ., 



and in this state are very easily destroyed. 

 The female has an ovary filled with eggs, 

 joined together like a bunch of grapes ; tach 

 egg being oblong, almost cylindrical, inclining 

 to white, and pretty transparent. In about 

 two days after impregnation by the male, she 

 deposites her eggs to the number of about a 

 hundred and fifty, in some convenient place 

 where they are likely to receive no disturbance. 

 There they continue for some months; during 

 which time, neither cold nor heat, neither 

 moisture nor fumigation, can in the lenst re- 

 tard their exclusion ; but they come forth ac- 

 tive, and ready for mischief. It is this hardi- 

 ness in the shell that seems to continue the 

 breed ; as the old ones die every winter, or 

 are easily destroyed by any fumigation that is 

 used for that purpose. But the eggs seem in- 

 capable of destruction ; even those men who 

 make a livelihood by killing these nauseous 

 insects, though they ran answer for the parent, 

 can never be sure of the egg. For this reason 

 they usually pay those houses to which they 

 are called, a second or a third visit, and at last 

 exterminate them by perseverance. 



The manner of destroying themseems rathet 

 the effects of assiduity than antidote ; for the 

 men called in upon this occasion, take every 

 part of the furniture asunder, brush every part 

 of it with great assiduity, anoint it with a 

 liquid which I take to be a solution of corro- 

 sive sublimate, and having performed this 

 operation twice or thrice, the vermin are most 

 usually destroyed. 



Cleanliness, therefore, seems to be the best 

 antidote to remove these nauseous insects; and 

 wherever that is wanting, their increase seems 

 but a just punishment. Indeed, they are some- 

 times found in such numbers among old fur- 

 nituie, and neglected chambers, exposed to the 

 south, that, wanting other sustenance, they 

 devour each other. They are also enemies to 

 other vermin, and destroy fleas very effectual- 

 ly ; so that we seldom have the double perse- 

 cution of different vermin in the same bed. 

 Of the bug kind Linnaeus reckons up forty. 



