192 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



becomes of the size of a pea, causing 1 no further pain 

 than a disagreeable itching 1 . In process of time its 

 operation appears in the form of a small bladder, in 

 which are deposited thousands of eggs, or nits, and 

 which, if it breaks, produce so many young chigoes, 

 which in course of time create running ulcers, often 

 of very dangerous consequence to the patient ; so 

 much so indeed, that I knew a soldier, the soles of 

 whose feet were obliged to be cut away before he 

 could recover : and some men have lost their limbs 

 by amputation, nay, even their lives, by having neg- 

 lected, in time, to root out these abominable vermin. 

 The moment, therefore, that a redness and itching 

 more than usual are perceived, it is time to extract 

 the chigoe that occasions them. This is done with 

 a sharp-pointed needle, taking care not to occasion 

 unnecessary pain, and to prevent the chigoe from 

 breaking in the wound. Tobacco ashes are put into 

 the orifice, by which in a little time the sore is per- 

 fectly healed *." Old Ligon tells us that in this way 

 he had ten chigoes taken out of his feet in a morning 

 " by the most unfortunate Yarico f," whose tragical 

 story is so well known from the popular drama. 

 Walton mentions that a Capuchin friar, in order to 

 study the history of the chigoe, permitted a colony of 

 them to establish themselves in his feet : but before 

 he could accomplish his object, his foot mortified and 

 had to be amputated J. No wonder that Cardan calls 

 the insect "a very shrewd plague ." 



Another troublesome sort of insects, less dangerous 

 perhaps, though equally pertinacious, arid more 

 widely diffused than the chigoe, is the family of gnats 

 (Culicidai). Even these, however, sometimes pro- 

 duce formidable consequences ; for M. Reaumur 



* Stedman's Surinam ; and Svvartz, Swedish Trans., ix. 40. 



f History of Barbadoes, p. 65. J Walton's Hispanioia. 



Subtilia. lib. ix. 



