212 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. TI. 



without breaking ; the cavity which it has left is then 

 filled with snuff or tobacco, and will heal up in a 

 few days. If the bag or nest break, it is ten to one 

 but some of the eggs which are very minute re- 

 main in the wound; and to guard against the possibility 

 of a fresh colony being thus formed, the use of the snuff 

 is adopted. New comers are particularly subject to these 

 creatures, and they should immediately be extracted. 

 We have seen negroes, who, from sheer idleness or 

 negligence, in the first instance, have been lamed for 

 life, and become loathsome to the sight. In such a 

 state, these miserable objects are incurable ; and death 

 only puts a period to their sufferings. Europe is for- 

 tunately exempt from this scourge; but we have 

 another, which, if not timely subdued, would rob us 

 of necessary rest. This is the bed-bug, who feeds 

 upon us by sucking, and not, as is generally supposed, 

 by biting. The English houses are but little infested 

 with these disgusting creatures ; although the beds of 

 lodging-houses in London are seldom free from them. 

 In the warmer parts of Europe they abound; nor shall 

 we ever forget the following circumstance, which hap- 

 pened to us in one of the miserable inns of Italy. 

 Notwithstanding the fatigue of a long day's journey, 

 we were awoke, in the middle of the night, by swarms 

 of bugs, which were on every part of the bed. A light 

 being in the room, we commenced a general massacre, 

 by drowning : and, after placing the mattress on the 

 floor, in the middle of the room, endeavoured once 

 more to gain repose ; but this was in vain. We were 

 again awoke, and totally disconcerted by seeing fresh 

 parties crawling from out the perforated plaster of the 

 walls, and resolutely advancing from all sides of the 

 room towards the mattress where we lay. To sleep, 

 in such a den of Cimices, was utterly impossible ; so 

 we turned in, for the rest of the night, into an ah- 

 joining hay-loft. Strange, indeed, must have been the 

 feeling of those Orientalists who founded the hospital 

 at Surat, mentioned by Forbes, where a ward was ap- 



