ORDER X. 



APH ANIPTERA. 



Pulicidse — Fleas. 



The name Pidex, given to the Flea by the Romans, is 

 stated by Isodorus to have been derived from pulvis, dust, 

 quasi pulveris filius. Our English name Flea, and the 

 German Flock, are evidently deduced from the quick mo- 

 tions of this insect. 



As to the origin of Fleas, Moufet had a similar notion to 

 that contained in the word Pulex, if we adopt the etymol- 

 og}^ of Isodorus, for he says they are produced from the 

 dust, especially when moistened with urine, the smallest 

 ones springing from putrid matter. Scaliger relates that 

 they are produced from the moistened humors among the 

 hairs of dogs.^ Conformable to the curious notion of Mou- 

 fet, Shakspeare says : 



2 Car. I think this be the most villainous house in all London 

 road for fleas: I am stung like a tench. 



1 Car. Like a tench ? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Chris- 

 tendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. 



2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jorden, and then we leak 

 in your chimney; and your chamber-ley breeds fleas like a loach. ^ 



" Martyr, the author of the Decads of Navigation, writes, 

 that in Perienna, a countrey of the Indies, the drops of 

 sweat that fall from their slaves' bodies will presently turn 

 to Fleas. "5 



Ewlin, in his book of Travels in Turkey, has recorded a 

 singular tradition of the history of the Flea and its confra- 

 ternity, as preserved among a sect of Kurds, who dwelt in 

 his time at the foot of Mount Sindshar. "When Noah's 



1 Hist, of Ins. (Murray, 1838), ii. 313. 



2 Henry IV. Pt. I., Act ii. Sc. 1. 



3 Moufet, Theatr. Ins., p. 276. ToipseVs Hist, of Beasts, p. 1102. 



2T (305) 



