14 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
as stone-blue, laid on thick with vinegar or water. 
Perhaps there may be some comfort from the local 
application in the same way as dredging with flour 
gives unquestionable comfort in erysipelas. But I 
must be allowed to express a doubt whether there is 
anything more than this, and whether red-ochre,* or 
whiting would not do nearly as well as indigo,f 
which, once famous in medicine, has, in its turn now 
dropped out of the Pharmacopoeia. Nearly as well: 
but there is a great charm in the colour; something 
must be allowed for that; and such an opportunity of 
making a mess, under authority too, is a great event 
in a little child’s life. Hunter,t who had large per- 
sonal experience of stings of bees and wasps, dis- 
misses the subject in one lne:—“JI have heard of 
cures, but. I never experienced one.” Ammonia or 
soda will sometimes relieve the pain, and chloro- 
form more certainly and speedily, should it be at 
hand. Ipecacuanha is a favourite Indian remedy. 
But the best way is gently to withdraw the sting, 
and suck the wound if we can get at it, and then to 
leave it alone. Some persons swell very much after 
a sting, and for these rest and a good dose of purga- 
tive medicine are the best treatment. But, above all, 
leave the wound alone. And so far as whiting or 
indigo conduce to this end by excluding the air from 
the swelled tender skin, by finding the poor little 
child something to do, or keeping the older patients 
* Mr. Lord, ‘At Home in the Wilderness,’ London, 1867, p. 281, 
says that the North American Indians of Columbia use vermilion for 
a similar purpose, and with equal success, medical and artistical. 
+ Beckmann, ‘ History of Inventions, ad rem. 
+t Hunter's ‘Posthumous Works by Owen,’ Vol. II, p. 447. 
