ANOPLURORUM BRITANNIA. 19 



Pediculus tabescentium. Burmeister Handbuch I. pt. 1 . p. 60. Genera In- 

 sectorum. Ord. Rhyn. sp. 3. Alt. dissert, de Phthiriasi, Bonn, 1824, 4. t, 

 adj. fig. 4. Goldfuss. Zoologis, Atlas, vol. iii. p. 45. 3. tab. 213. fig. 5. 



I have introduced this species in the list of indigenous 

 Pediculi from a supposition, that it has been confounded 

 with the preceding species, not from any actual knowledge 

 of its occurrence. But as it is described as producing the 

 louse distemper, or Phthiriasis, there is every probability of 

 its infesting Great Britain, as well as Germany. In the 

 dissertation referred to, a case is described of an old woman, 

 70 years of age, labouring under this disease ; she was 

 formerly healthy, though afflicted with the gout from the 

 age of 60. She was infected for four months, at first only 

 at night, and especially when in bed ; she suffered from an 

 unbearable itching of the skin, which in her case from age, 

 poverty, and unwholesome diet, was wrinkled, flaccid, rough, 

 and partially discoloured, and covered with small scales or 

 scurf, under which the lice appeared to reside. These 

 occurred most on the breast, neck, and back ; they were 

 quiet and disappeared, when the body was kept cool. Bed- 

 fellows were not infected, a rubbing with oil of turpentine 

 cured the patient. 



No writer perhaps ever carried his researches on the 

 habits of the louse to a greater height than Leeuwenhoek, 

 who allowed his zeal for science to overcome the disgust, 

 which such creatures generally produce. In describing 

 its mode of taking food, &c. he observes, " In my experi- 

 ments and observations on this creature, although I had at 

 several times had a number of them on my hand drawing 

 the blood, yet I very rarely felt any pain from their punc- 

 tures, which is not to be wondered at, when we consider 

 the excessive slenderness of the piercer, for upon comparing 

 this with a hair taken from the back of my hand, I judged 



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