THE FLEA. 



455 



three quarters of an inch long, and about as 

 thick as one's little finger ; the colour is gene- 

 rally an olive brown, variegated with one that 

 is more dusky ; it has eight legs and eight 

 eyes, like the rest, and nippers, which are 

 sharp and serrated: between these and the 

 fore legs, there are two little horns, or feelers, 

 which it is observed to move very briskly 

 when it approaches its prey. It is covered all 

 over the body with a soft down, and propa- 

 gates, as other spiders, by laying eggs. In 

 the summer months, particularly in the dog 

 days, the tarantula, creeping among the corn, 

 bites the mowers and passengers; but in win- 

 ter it lurks in holes, and is seldom seen. 



Thus far is true; but now the fable begins: 

 for though the bite is attended with no dan- 

 gerous symptoms, and will easily cure of it- 

 self, wonderful stories are reported concerning 

 its virulence. The part which is bitten, as 

 we are told, is soon after discoloured with a 

 livid, black, or yellowish circle attended with 

 an inflammation. At first the pain is scarcely 

 felt ; but a few hours after, come on a violent 

 sickness, difficulty of breathing, fainting, and 

 sometimes trembling. The person bit, after 

 this does nothing but laugh, dance, skip about, 

 putting himself into the most extravagant pos- 

 tures, and sometimes also is seized with a most 

 frightful melancholy. At the return of the 

 season in which he was bit, his madness be- 

 gins again ; and the patient always talks of 

 the same things. Sometimes he fancies him- 

 self a shepherd, sometimes a king ; appearing 

 entirely out of his senses. These troublesome 

 symptoms sometimes return for several years 

 successively, and at last terminate in death. 

 But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, riot 

 been left without a remedy; which is no other 

 than a well-played fiddle. For this purpose 

 the medical musician plays a particular tune, 

 famous for the cure, which he begins slow, and 

 increases in quickness as he sees the patient 

 affected. The patient no sooner hears the 

 music, but he begins to dance ; and continues 

 so doing till he is all over in a sweat, which 

 forces out the venom that appeared so danger 

 ous. This dancing sometimes continues for 

 three or four hours, before the patient is weary 

 and before the sweating is copious enough to 

 jure the disorder. Such are the symptoms re- 

 ited of the tarantula poison; symptoms which 

 )me of the best and gravest physicians have 

 credited, and attempted to account for. Bui 

 the truth is, that the whole is an imposition oi 

 the peasants upon travellers who happen to 

 pass through that part of the country, and who 

 procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be 

 bitten by the tarantula. Whenever they find 

 a traveller willing to try the experiment, they 

 readily offer themselves, and are sure to coun- 

 terfeit the whole train of symptoms which mu 



ic is supposed to remove. A friend of mine, 

 vho passed through that part of the country, 

 lad a trusty servant bitten, without ever ad- 

 ministering the musical cure : the only symp- 

 oms were a slight inflammation, which was 

 readily removed, and no other consequence 

 ever attended the bite. It is thus that false- 

 ioods prevail for a century or two ; and man- 

 dnd at last begin to wonder how it was possi 

 Die to keep up the delusion so long. 



CHAP. IV. 



OF THE FLEA. 



THE history of those animals with which we 

 are the best acquainted, is the first object of 

 our chiefest curiosity. There are few but who 

 are well-informed of the agility and blood- 

 thirsty disposition of the Flea ; of the caution 

 with which it comes to the attack ; and the 

 readiness with which it avoids the pursuit. 

 This insect, which is not only the enemy of 

 mankind, but of the dog, cat, and several other 

 animals, is found in every part of the world, 

 but bites with greater severity in some coun- 

 tries than in others. Its numbers in Italy 

 and France are much greater than in Eng- 

 land ; and yet its bite is much more trouble- 

 some here, than I have found it in any other 

 place. It would seem that its force increased 

 with the coldness of the climate; and, though 

 less prolific, that it becomes more predaceous. 1 



1 The Common Flea. At a meeting of a Scientific 

 Society at Oxford, some time ago, Mr Hussey, of Christ 

 Church, read a paper on the growth of the flea, in which 

 the changes through which the flea passes were described, 

 and an account was given of some observations of the 

 manner in which changes may be retarded. The flea, 

 it was stated, lays from eight to twelve eggs, which fall 

 down into crevices, or among dust, where they are 

 hatched in about five days; they produce small white 

 maggots like cheese-mites, which increase in size for 

 about fourteen days, when they spin a bag or case of silk 

 around them, and become chrysalids. Within this case 

 they gradually darken in colour, until, at the end of 

 about sixteen days, they come out of it perfect fleas; hav- 

 ing been, on the whole, about thirty-four days from the 

 laying of the egg to the perfect state. M. Defrance's 

 opinion concerning the food of the young maggot, was 

 quoted : namely, that it is fed by small grains of dried 

 blood, which the parent has the power of extracting from 

 the skin of the animals on which it feeds. 



The strength of this animal is astonishing for its size. 

 A flea will drag after it a chain a hundred times heavier 

 than itself; and, to compensate for this force, will eat 

 ten times its own weight of provisions in a day. Mr 

 Boverich, an ingenious watch-maker who some years 

 ago lived in the Strand, London, exhibited to the public 

 a little ivory chaise, with four wheels, and all its proper 

 apparatus, and a man sitting on the box, all of which 

 were drawn by a single flea. He made a small landau, 

 which opened and shut by springs, with six horses har- 

 nassed to it ; a coachman sitting on the box, and a dog 

 between his legs, four persons in the carriage, two foot. 



