19* LECTURE Xlt. 



Among the most extraordinary of the Lin- 

 nsean Vermes is that which he calls Furia. There 

 is only one species, which is called Furia inf ema- 

 ils, m the Infernal Fury; and not without good 

 reason, if we may rely on the accounts which have 

 been given of the torments it sometimes inflicts on- 

 the person it happens to attack. Its character is, a< 

 thin, thread-shaped body, edged along each side 

 with a row of sharp, reversed prickles, lying close 

 to the edge of the body, OF at very acute angles. 

 It bears a resemblance therefore to a minute Sco- 

 lopendra or Centipede, and from the structure of 

 its body, is enabled to perforate the skin in an in- 

 stant, so as not to be extracted without extreme 

 difficulty. It is pretended that this worm, in the 

 marshy parts of Sweden,* and some other coun- 

 tries, is conveyed by some means or other through 

 the air, and drops on the bodies of cattle and men; 

 producing almost immediately a pain so insup- 

 portable as sometimes to prove fatal in the space 

 of a quarter of an hour. Linnasus tells us that he 

 himself once experienced the effects of this ani- 

 mal, near the city of Lund in Sweden. Dr. So- 

 lander once gave a slight description of this worm; 

 but, from the difficulty of obtaining recent speci- 



