53 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



sidered as " terrors by night." 1 But however horrible bugs may have been 

 in the estimation of some, or nauseating in that of others, many of the 

 good people of London seem to regard them with the greatest apathy, and 

 take very little pains to get rid of them ; not generally, however, it is to be 

 hoped, to such an extent as the predecessor of a correspondent in 

 Nicholson's Journal, who found his house so dreadfully infested by them, 

 that it resembled the Banian hospital at Surat 2 , all his endeavours to 

 destroy them being at first in vain. And no wonder ; for, as he learned 

 from a neighbour, his predecessor would never suffer them to be disturbed 

 or his bedsteads to be removed, till, in the end, they swarmed to an 

 incredible degree, crawling up even the walls of his drawing-room ; and 

 after his death millions were found in his bed and chamber furniture. 3 



The winged insects of the order to which the bed-bug belongs, often 

 inflict very painful wounds. I was once attacked by a small species, near 

 Cimex Nemorum L. (Hylophila K.), which put me nearly to as much torture 

 as the sting of a wasp. The water boatman (Notonecta glauca), an insect 

 related to the Cinricid<z, which always swims upon its back, made me suffer 

 still more severely, as if I had been burned, by the insertion of its rostrum ; 

 but the wound was not followed by any inflammation ; and long before me 

 Willoughby had made the same discovery and observation. 4 St. Pierre, in 

 his Voyage to Mauritius, mentions a species of bug found in that island, 

 the bite of which is more venomous than the sting of a scorpion, and is 

 succeeded by a tumour as big as the egg of a pigeon, which continues for four 

 or five days. 5 You are well acquainted with the history and properties of 

 the Ram Torpedo and Gymnotus electricus ; but I dare aver, have no idea 

 that any insect possesses their extraordinary powers. Yet I can assure 

 you, upon good authority, that Reduvius serratus, commonly known in the 

 West Indies by the name of the wheel-bug, can, like them, communicate an 

 electric shock to the person whose flesh it touches. The late Major- 

 general Davis, of the Royal Artillery, well known as a most accurate 

 observer of nature, and an indefatigable collector of her treasures, as well 

 as a most admirable painter of them, once informed me, that when abroad, 

 having taken up this animal and placed it upon his hand, it gave him a con- 

 siderable shock, as if from an electric jar, with its legs, which he felt as 



1 Hence our English word Pug-bear. In Matthews's Bible, Ps. xci. 5. is ren- 

 dered, " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night." The word in this 

 sense oftens occurs in Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, act aii. sc. 2, 3. Hen. VI. act v. 

 sc. 2. Hamlet, act v. sc. 2. See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, i. 329. in quoting 

 which work it may be observed that the author was a zealous entomologist. {Life 

 in Annual Obituary.} 



2 The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution. At my visit, 

 the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, 

 and a variety of birds. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats 

 and mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently 

 hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night amongst the fleas, 

 lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without 

 molestation. Forbes's Oriental Memoirs. 



5 Nicholson's Journal, xvii. 40. 



4 Proboscis in cutem intrusa acerrimum dolorem excitat, qui tamen brevi cessat. 

 Rai, Hist. Ins. 58. 



5 The Benchucha, or great black bug of the Pampas of South America, a species of 

 Reduvius, is a far more obnoxious species than our common bed-bug. See C. Dar- 

 win's Personal Narrative, iii. 403. 



