LUND UNIVERSITY Si 



the nomenclature of his discoveries. He was at this 

 time especially interested in examining the lower forms 

 of animal life. 



Most Swedes think this furia is no worm, but that 

 it owes its origin to a poisonous matter injected into the 

 flesh by the sting of an insect. Though fruitless the 

 result of all the researches made since Linnasus's time 

 to discover an example of this worm, yet the disorder is 

 common in the fenny parts of Eastern Sweden in autumn. 1 



Darwin, in his book on worms, says, i In Scandinavia 

 there are eight species, according to Eisen, but two of 

 these rarely burrow in the ground, and one inhabits very 

 wet places, or even lives under the water.' It was most 

 probably a moist place where Linnaeus was botanising ; 

 but Eisen says nothing about stinging worms, and 

 Darwin does not concern himself with flesh-burr owers. 

 In Scandinavia worm-burrows (in the earth) run down 

 to a depth of from seven to eight feet. 



1 Linnseus thus describes the Furia, in his Sy sterna, Natures : 

 'Habitat in Bothniae Suecise Septentrionalis vastis paludibus 

 caespitosis ; ex sethere deciduassepein corpora hominum animaliumque 

 momento citus penetrat summo omnium dolore, immo interdum 

 intra quadrantem horae pras dolore occidit, quo et ipse Lundini 1728 

 laboravi. Anima 1 nonnisi rude siccatum vidi. Animalibus chao- 

 ticis videtur proprietatibus affine. Quomodo aera petat, unde decidit 

 a solstitio aestivali in hyemale, nullus dixit.' Linnaeus was no deep 

 classical scholar : his Latin was fluent rather than accurate. 



- Sir J. E. Smith. Linnaeus's pupil Solander has recorded 

 several cases of this accident or disease, and describes the animal as 

 if he had seen it, in the Nova Acta Upsaliensia, vol. i. p. 55. The 

 Furia infernalis seems an animalcule one-sixth of an inch long. 

 Dr. Solander describes it as dropping out of the air in autumn. 

 Art . ' Furia ' in Rees' Cyclopedia. 



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