CHAP. VI. INJURIOUS INSECTS. FLEAS, ETC. 211 



host of these furies that assailed him, as to rub down 

 a strong division in the stable, in his attempts to get 

 rid of his tormentors. By pouring boiling water into 

 their retreats, the colony was at last destroyed. The 

 Caris penetrans Guild, (fig. 6*5.), in a young state, 

 called, in St. Vincent's, the fowl-borer, was associated 

 with them by hundreds : it is a more nimble animal, 

 and is equally the scourge of our domestic poultry." * 

 Its snout, when magnified (a), is seen to be barbed. 



(225.) Fleas are certainly troublesome, but by no 

 means disgusting, animals. In themselves, they are 

 particularly cleanly ; and, although they are more at- 

 tached to the lower orders than to the higher, yet ex- 

 cessive dirt seems to drive them away. Townson men- 

 tions that the Hungarian shepherds grease their linen 

 with hog's lard, as an effectual antidote against the 

 attacks both of fleas and lice. Although these " little 

 merry things " suck our blood, their attacks produce no 

 other effect than a momentary tickling, which some 

 people think rather an agreeable sensation than other- 

 wise. But there is another species, peculiar to the hot 

 parts of America, which can not only inflict severe pain, 

 but cause the mortification of a limb. This is the 

 well-known chegoe or jigger of the West Indies, the 

 Pulex penetrans of systematic writers. Of this pest 

 we can also speak from personal experience. It gets 

 into the feet of the most cleanly; and attacks, indis- 

 criminately, the blacks and whites. The slight itching 

 it at first occasions, is hardly thought of; but in two 

 or three days appears a little white round ball beneath 

 the surface of the skin, with a small dark speck in the 

 middle: the ball is the nidus, or nest; the speck is the 

 chegoe itself. Some skill is necessary to extract both ; 

 the skin is gently removed from the little round white 

 ball or nest, precisely as we should peel an orange; 

 this ball is covered by a thick outer skin, and, by 

 pressing the flesh all round, it may be squeezed out 



'* Guilding*s MSS., in the possession of hi widow. 

 P 2 



