DIRECT INJURIES FROM MOTHS. 45 



the hairs of which adhered to his skin, and he suffered 

 considerable uneasiness from them for some days. 

 He was not aware of the cause of his disquietude ; 

 and, having also rubbed his eyes while his hands 

 were studded with these spines, they produced such 

 a degree of inflammation and swelling in the eyelids, 

 that he opened them with much difficulty. Dis- 

 agreeable effects were also produced in ladies who 

 went near the nests of these caterpillars. Tumours 

 were induced on their necks, which could only be 

 accounted for by the short hairs, or fragments of them, 

 being forced into their skin from standing in the 

 direction of the wind.* The larva of the moth of 

 the Fir (Bombyx pityocampa of Fabricius) produces 

 similar effects, causing even intense pain, fever, itching, 

 and great restlessness. This was the celebrated 

 Pityocampa of the ancients, considered by the Romans 

 as a deadly poison, as will appear from the Cornelian 

 law, " De sicariis," being made to include those who 

 administered Pityocampa.^ 



We are informed, in a paper in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, by Dr Lister, a celebrated naturalist 

 and physician in the reign of Queen Anne, that a boy 

 vomited up several living caterpillars, with sixteen 

 legs. It is easy to suppose that he must have 

 swallowed insects' eggs, while eating some vege- 

 table substance on which they had been deposited, 

 and that they had been transformed into the larva 



* REAUMUR, Mem. des Insectes, ii. p. 191-5. 

 f FLINT, Hist, Nat. \. 38, c. 9. 



