PULICID.E — FLEAS. SOY 



Yenice and Augsburg Fleas for sale, and at a small price 

 too, decorated with steel or silver collars around their neck^;, 

 of which AVillughby purchased one. When they are kept in 

 a box amongst wool or cloth, in a warm place, and fed once 

 a day, they will live a long time. When they begin to suck 

 they erect themselves almost perpendicularly, thrusting their 

 sucker, which originates in the middle of the forehead, into 

 the skin. The itching is not felt immediately, but a little 

 afterwards. As soon as they are full of blood, they begin 

 to void a portion of it, and thus, if permitted, they will con- 

 tinue for many hours sucking and voiding. After the first 

 itching no uneasiness is subsequently felt. Willughby's 

 Flea lived for three months by sucking in this manner the 

 blood of his hand ; it was at length killed by the cold of 

 winter.'" 



We read in Purchas's Pilgrims that a city of the Miantines 

 is said to have been dispeopled by Fleas ;^ and Messrs. 

 Lewis and Clarke, who found these insects more tormenting 

 than all the other plagues of the Missouri country, say they 

 sometimes here compel even the natives to shift their quar- 

 ters.^ 



Dr. Clarke was informed by an Arab Sheikh that "the 

 king of the Fleas held his court at Tiberias.''* 



To prevent Fleas from breeding, Pliny gives the following 

 curious recipe : " Since I have made mention of the cuckow," 

 says this writer, "there comes into my mind a strange and mi- 

 raculous matter that the said magicians report of this bird ; 

 namely, that if a man, the first time that he heareth her to 

 sing, presently stay his right foot in the very place where it 

 was when he heard her, and withal mark out the point and 

 just proportion of the said foot upon the ground as it stood, 

 and then digg up the earth under it within the said compasse, 

 look what chamber or roume of the house is strewed with 

 the said mould, there will no Fleas bread there. "^ 



Thomas Hill, in his Naturall and Artificial! Conclusions, 



1 Ray, Hist, of Ins., p. 8. 



2 Pilgr., iii. 997. 



Myas, a principal city of Ionia, was abandoned on account of 

 Fleas. — Wanley's Wonders, ii. 507. 



3 K. and S. Introd., i. 100. 

 * Travels, vol. ii. 



5 Xat. HisL, XXX. 10. Holl. Trans., p. 387. 



