THE LOUSE. 155 



Formerly numerous in Mexico. 



than that the moment the nit, which is no other 

 than the egg of the louse, gets rid of its super- 

 fluous moisture, and throws off its shell, it begins 

 to breed in its turn. Nothing so much prevents 

 the increase of this nauseous animal as cold, and 

 want of humidity. The nits, unless they are laid 

 in a place that is warm, do not produce any 

 thing; and from this it is that many of the nits 

 laid on the hairs in the night-time are destroyed 

 by the cold of the succeeding day. 



Lice were formerly so numerous in Mexico, 

 that the ancient kings found no other means of 

 ridding their subjects of them than by the im- 

 position of an annual tribute of a certain quan- 

 tity. Ferdinand Cortes found bags full of them 

 in the palace of Montezuma. 



This nauseous insect is equally troublesome on 

 every part of the human body, and among the 

 ancients what is called the phiriasis, or lousy 

 disease, was not uncommon; Antiochus, Herod, 

 Epiphanes, Alcman the poet, Pherecydes, Cas- 

 sander, Callisthenes, Sylla, and several others are 

 said to have died of that disorder. The use of 

 mercury, which was unknown among the an- 

 cients may probably have relieved the moderns. 



This tribe of insects is so general, that there is 

 scarce an animal or vegetable which does not 

 suffer the persecutions of its own peculiar louse. 

 The sheep, the horse, the hog, and the elephant 

 are all teazed by them: the whale, the shark, 



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