DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 71 



deleterious quality of the juices of this insect, it is the most venomous 

 animal that is known ; for he describes it as much smaller than a bug. 

 The only remedy to which the natives have recourse for preventing the ill 

 effects arising from its venom is, on the first appearance of the swelling, 

 to swing the patient over the flame of straw or long grass, which they do 

 with great dexterity : after this operation he is reckoned to be out of 

 danger. 1 The poisoned arrows which Indians employ against their 

 enemies have been long celebrated. The Coya may, in the western world, 

 have furnished the poison for this purpose. An author quoted in Lesser 

 tells us that an ant as big as a bee is sometimes used, and that the wound 

 inflicted by weapons tinctured with their venom is incurable. Patterson 

 also gives a receipt by which the natives of the southern extremity of 

 Africa prepare what they reckon the most effectual poison for the point of 

 their arrows. They mix the juice of a species of Euphorbia, and a cater- 

 pillar that feeds on a kind of sumach (Rhus L.), and when the mixture is 

 dried it is fit for use. 2 



And now I think you will allow that I have made out a tolerable list of 

 insects that attack or annoy man's body externally, and a sufficiently 

 doleful history of them. That the subject, however, may be complete, I 

 shall next enumerate those that, not content with afflicting him with 

 exterior pain or evil, whether on the surface or under the skin, bore into 

 his flesh, descend even into his stomach and viscera, derange his whole 

 system, and thus often occasion his death. The punitive insects here 

 employed are usually larvae of the various orders, and they are the cause 

 of that genus of diseases I before noticed, and proposed to call Schole- 

 chiasis. 



I shall begin my account with the first order of Linne, because people in 

 general seem not aware that any beetles make their way into the human 

 stomach. Yet there is abundant evidence, which proves beyond contro- 

 versy that the meal-worm (Tenebrio Molitor), although its usual food is 

 flour, has often been voided both by male and female patients ; and in one 

 instance is stated to have occasioned death. 3 How these grubs should 

 get into the stomach it is difficult to say perhaps the eggs may have been 

 swallowed in some preparation of flour. But that the animal should be 

 able to sustain the heat of this organ, so far exceeding the temperature to 

 which it is usually accustomed, is the most extraordinary circumstance of 

 all. Dr. Martin Lister, who to the skill of the physician added the most 



1 Ulloa's Voyage, b. vi. c. 3. Hamilton ( Travels in Colombia, as quoted in the 

 Literary Gazette, April 28. 1827) also mentions a spider called the Caya, rather 

 large, found in the broken ground and among the rocks, from the body of which a 

 poison so active is emitted, that men and mules have died in an hour or two after 

 the venomous moisture had fallen on them. This is evidently the same insect 

 with that mentioned by Ulloa, and confirms the above account of its venomous 

 effects. 



2 Waterton (Wanderings in S. America. 53.) gives the recipe by which the 

 Macousho Indians prepare the poison in which they dip their arrows. It consists 

 of a vine called the Wourali, which is the principal ingredient; the roots and 

 stalks of some other plants ; two species of ants, the sting of one of which is so 

 venomous that it produces a fever; a quantity of the strongest Indian pepper (Cap- 

 sicum), aud the pounded fangs of two kinds of serpents. 



3 Tulpius, Obs. Med. 1. ii. c. 51. t. 7. f. 3. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. 

 n. 35. 4248. Derhain, Physic. Theol 378. note 6. Lowthorp, Phiks. Trans. 

 iii. 135. 



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