DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 67 



us, is mortal, as well it may, if a timely remedy be not applied. From its 

 cylindrical form it should be a Julus. 1 



In this catalogue of noxious insects I must not omit those which every- 

 where force themselves upon our notice, and are viewed with general 

 disgust. I mean the numerous family of Arachne, the insidious spiders. 

 Few of these, however, are really personal assailants of man. The 

 principal is that which has given rise to so much discussion, and has 

 so much employed the pens of naturalists and physicians the famous 

 Tarantula (Lycosa Tarantula). The effects ascribed to its wounds, and 

 their wonderful cure supposed to be wrought by music and dancing, have 

 long been celebrated : but after all there seems to have been more of fraud 

 than of truth in the business ; and the whole evil appears to consist in 

 swelling and inflammation. Dr. Clavitio submitted to be bitten by this 

 animal, and no bad effects ensued ; and the Count de Borch, a Polish 

 nobleman, bribed a man to undergo the same experiment, in whom the only 

 result was a swelling in the hand, attended by intolerable itching. The 

 fellow's sole remedy was a bottle of wine, which charmed away all his pain 

 without the aid of pipe and tabor. 2 



There is, however, a spider (Theridium I3-guttatum) the bite of which 

 is said to be very dangerous, and even mortal. Thiebaut de Berneaud, in his 

 Voyage to Elba 3 , affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several country 

 people and domestic animals died in consequence of it. And, according to 

 Mr. Jackson, a spider, called there the Tendaraman, is found in Marocco, 

 which has venomous powers equally formidable. The bite of this insect, 

 which is about the size and colour of a hornet, but rounder, and spins a 

 web so fine as to be almost invisible, is said to be so poisonous that the 

 person bitten survives but a few hours. In the cork-forests the sportsman, 

 eager in his pursuit of game, frequently carries away on his garments this 

 fatal insect, which is asserted always to make towards the head before in- 

 flicting its deadly wound. 4 



I suspect you will think this list long enough ; and I believe it includes 

 the most remarkable insects that assail the surface of our bodies, to answer 

 either the demands of hunger or the stimulus of revenge. There is how- 

 ever a third class of insect annoyers, as I observed at the beginning of this 

 letter, which, though tliey neither make us their food, nor attack us under 

 the impulse of fear or revenge, incommode us extremely in other ways. 

 These must now be detailed to you. 



How extremely unpleasant is the sensation which that very minute fly 

 [Thrips physapus) excites in sultry weather, merely by creeping over our 

 skin I I have sometimes found this almost intolerable. A similar torment, 

 reckoned by Ulloa a kind of mosquito, infests the inhabitants of Cartha- 

 gena in South America. They are there called Manias Blancas, and 

 creeping between the threads of the gauze curtains that keep off the former 

 pest, though they do not bite, occasion an itching that is dreadfully tor- 

 menting. 5 But these are nothing compared with the teasing attacks of 



i Ulloa's Voyage, i. 61. 2 Amoreux, 217. 226. See also 6770. 



5 p. 31. 4 Jackson's Marocco, second edit. 



6 Ulloa, i. 64. Probably the Cafafi, a white fly noticed by Humboldt, is 

 synonymous with this of Ulloa, which could only be prevented from creeping 

 between the threads of the curtains by keeping them wet. Personal Narrative, 

 E. T. v. 107. 



P 2 



