272 CIMICIDiE — BED-BUGS. 



parties have been tossing about, and have curled the sheets 

 round tiie bu<?s. 



"The finest and fattest bugs I ever saw were those I 

 found in a black man's bed. He was the favorite servant 

 of an Indian general. lie didn't want his bed done by me ; 

 he didn't want it touched. His bed was full of 'em, no bee- 

 hive was ever fuller. The walls and all were the same, 

 there wasn't a patch that was not crammed with them. He 

 must have taken them all over the house wherever he 

 went. 



"I've known persons to be laid up for months through 

 bug-bites. There was a very handsome fair young lady I 

 knew once, and she was much bitten about the arms, and 

 neck, and face, so that her eyes were so swelled up she 

 couldn't see. The spots rose up like blisters, the same as 

 if stung with a nettle, only on a very large scale. The 

 bites were very much inflamed, and after a time they had 

 the appearance of boils. 



*' Some people fancy, and it is historically recorded, that 

 the bug smells because it has no vent ; but this is fabulous, 

 for they have a vent. It is not the human blood neither 

 that makes them smell, because a young bug who has never 

 touched a drop will smell. They breathe, I believe, through 

 their sides; but I can't answer for that, though it's not through 

 the head. They haven't got a mouth, but they insert into 

 the skin the point of a tube, which is quite as fine as a hair, 

 through which they draw up the blood. I have many a 

 time put a bug on the back of my hand, to see how they 

 bite ; though I never felt the bite but once, and then I sup- 

 pose the bug had pitched upon a very tender part, for it was 

 a sharp prick, something like that of a leech-bite. 



" I once had a case of lice-killing, for my process will an- 

 swer as well for them as for bugs, though it's a thing I 

 never should follow by choice. Lice seem to harbor pretty 

 much the same as bugs do. I find them in the furniture. 

 It was a nurse that brought them into the house, though 

 she was as nice and clean a looking woman as ever I saw. 

 I should almost imagine the lice must have been in her, 

 for they say there is a disease of that kind ; and if the tics 

 breed in sheep, why should not lice breed in us ? for we're 

 but live matter, too. I didn't like m^^self at all for two or 

 three days after that lice-killing job, I can assure you ; it's 

 the only case of the kind 1 ever had, and I can promise 

 you it shall be the last. 



