DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 51 



fatal result, it seems to have been a different and much more terrific animal. 

 He supposes in this instance the insect to have been generated by drink- 

 ing goat!s milk too copiously. This, if correct, would lead to a conjecture 

 that it might have been the A. Lactis L. 1 



These cases I hope will satisfy you that mites, as well as lice, are the 

 cause of diseases in the human frame. This, indeed, as has been before 

 observed, is allowed on all hands with respect to that of the itch ; and it 

 is, certainly, not more improbable that man should be exposed to the 

 attack of several species of this genus, than that three or four kinds of 

 Pedicu/us should infest him. If you are convinced by what I have written, 

 you will concur with me in thinking that the one are as much entitled to 

 give their name to the disease which they produce as the other; and the 

 term Acariasis, by which, with due reverence to medical men, I propose to 

 distinguish generically all acarine diseases, will not be refused its place 

 amongst your Genera Morborum. 



I shall now proceed to the remaining class of diseases mistaken for 

 Phthiriasis ; those, namely, which are produced by larvae. There are two 

 terms employed by ancient authors, Eulas (BiAai), and Scolex (S/cwXi?^), 

 which seem properly to denote larvae; but there is often such a want of 

 precision in the language of writers unacquainted with Natural History, 

 that it is very difficult to make out what objects they mean ; and ex- 

 pressions which, strictly taken, should be understood of larvae, may pro- 

 bably have sometimes been used to denote the cause of either the pedicular 

 or acarine disease. Eiilce, which term, though given by Hesychius as 

 synonymous with Scolex, is by Plutarch used as of different import 2 , seems 

 properly to mean those larvae which are generated in dead carcases, at 

 least so Homer has more than once applied it 8 : it is therefore a word of 

 a much more restricted sense than Scolex, which probably belongs to the 

 larvae of every order of insects : for so Aristotle employs it, when he says 

 that all insects produce a Scolex, or are larviparous. 4 Yet when Homer 

 compares Harpalion stretched dead upon the ground to a Scolex 6 , it should 

 seem as if he used the word for an earth-worm, which Aristotle commonly 

 calls by a figurative periphrasis, " Entrails of the earth." 6 In the Holy 

 Scriptures this word is used to signify larvae which prey upon and are the 

 torment of living bodies. 7 It may on this account, perhaps, be regarded 

 as generally meaning such larvse, to whatever order or genus they belong. 



Dr. Mead, therefore, is most probably right when he considers the 

 disease stated by the ancients to be caused by Eulce or Scoleches, com- 

 monly translated worms, as distinct from Phthiriasis ; and if so, the in- 

 human Pheretima, who swarmed with Euke, and Herod Agrippa, who 

 was eaten of Scoleches 9 , were probably neither of them destroyed either by 

 Pediculi or Acari, but by larvae or maggots. And when Galen prescribed 

 a remedy for ulcers inhabited by Scoleches, observing that animals similar 

 to those generated by putrid substances are often found in abscesses, he 



1 A new species of mite has just been described by M. Simon, which lives in the 

 diseased and normal hair-sacs of man. Mailer's Archiv. 1842, p. 278. 



3 In Artaxerx. 5 11, x . 1. 599. ,. 1. 4H. 



4 Ta 5s evrc^a Travra <7xa;X>jxoTox. De General. Animal. 1. 2. c. 1. 



5 //. v. 1. 654, 655. 



6 r>jf i/Tpa. De Animal Incessu, c. 9. De General. Animal. 1. 3. c. 11. 



7 Mark, ix. 44. 46. 48. 



8 2xo\rjXopwTO;. Acts, xii. 23. 



