456 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



If the flea be examined with a microscope, 

 it will be observed to have a small head, large 

 eyes, and a roundish body. It has two feel- 

 ers, or horns, which are short, and composed 

 of four joints : and between these lies its trunk, 

 which it buries in the skin, and through which 

 it sucks the blood in great quantities. The 

 body appears to be all over curiously adorned 

 with a suit of polished sable armour, neatly 

 jointed, and beset with multitudes of sharp 

 pins, almost like the quills of a porcupine. It 

 has six legs, the joints of which are so adapted, 

 that it can, as it were, fold them up one with- 

 in another ; and when it leaps, they all spring 

 out at once, whereby its whole strength is ex- 

 erted, and the body raised above two hundred 

 times its own diameter. 



The young fleas are at first a sort of nits or 

 eggs, which are round and smooth; and from 

 these proceed white worms, of a shining pearl 

 colour : in a fortnight's time they come to a 

 tolerable size, and are very lively and active ; 

 but if they are touched at this time, they roll 

 themselves up in a ball: soon after this they 

 begin to creep like silk-worms that have no 

 legs; and they seek a place to lie hid in, 

 where they spin a silken thread from their 

 mouth, and with this they inclose themselves 

 in a small round bag or case, as white within 

 as writing-paper, but dirty without : in this 

 they continue for a fortnight longer; after 

 which they burst from their confinement per- 

 fectly formed, and armed with powers to dis- 

 turb the peace of an emperor. 1 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE LOUSE AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THE antipathies of mankind are various ; 

 some considering the toad, some the serpent, 



men behind it, and a postilion riding on one of the fore 

 horses, which was easily drawn along by a flea. He 

 likewise had a cuain of brass, about two inches long, 

 containing two hundred links, with a hook at one end, 

 and a padlock and key at the other, which the flea drew 

 very nimbly along. 



1 The Chigoe- This troublesome insect, which is a 

 kind of small sand flea, i? so diminutive as to be almost 

 imperceptible. Its legs have not the elasticity of those 

 of fleas; for had the chigoes their power of leaping, there 

 is not a living creature of the climates where they abound 

 that would not be full of them ; and this lurking race 

 would destroy three-fourths of mankind by the evils they 

 would produce. They are common in Surinam, and in 

 many parts of America, and are always found among the 

 dust, and principally in filthy places ; they fix themselves 

 on the legs, to the soles of the feet, and even to the fin- 

 gers. 



The chigoe gets in between the skin and the flesh, 

 and generally under the nails of the toes, in such a sub- 

 tile manner, that, at th time, the person is not sensible 

 of it; nor is it to be perceived till it begins to extend it- 



some the spider, and some the" beetle, with a 

 strong degiee of detestation : but while all 

 wonder at the strangeness of each other's aver- 

 sions, they all seem to unite in their dislike to 

 the Louse, and regard it as their natural and 

 most nauseous enemy. Indeed, it seems the 

 enemy of man in the most odious degree, for 

 wherever wretchedness, disease, or hunger, 

 seize upon him, the louse seldom fails to add 

 itself to the tribe, and to increase in proportion 

 to the number of his calamities. 



In examining the human louse with the 

 microscope, its external deformity first strikes 

 us with disgust: the shape of the forepart of 

 the head is somewhat oblong ; that of the hind 

 part somewhat round : the skin is hard, and 

 being stretched, transparent, with here and 

 there several bristly hairs: in the forepart is a 

 proboscis or sucker, which is seldom visible 

 on each side of the head are antennas, or horns, 

 each divided into five joints, covered with 

 bristly hair ; and several white vessels .are 

 seen through these horns : behind these are 

 the eyes, which seem to want those divisions 

 observable in other insects, and appear encom- 

 passed with some few hairs : the neck is very 

 short, and the breast is divided into three 

 parts; on each side of which are placed six 



self. At first it is not difficult to extract it; but, al- 

 though it may only have introduced its head, it makes s 

 firm a lodgment that a part of the skin must be sacrificed 

 before it will quit its hold. If it be not soon perceived, 

 the insect completes its lodgment, sucks the blood, and 

 forms a nest of a white thin tunicle, in the shape of flat 

 pearl. It extends itself in this space in such a manner, 

 that its head and feet are towards the exterior side, for 

 the convenience of nourishment ; and the other part of 

 the body answers to the inner side of the tunicle, in or. 

 der to lay its eggs there. In proportion as these are 

 laid, the little pearl is enlarged ; and in four or five days 

 it is at least four or five lines in diameter. It is then of 

 the utmost consequence to have it extracted ; for if this 

 be neglected it bursts of itself, and spreads an infinity of 

 nits, which, when hatched, fill the whole part, and pro. 

 duce excessive anguish ; and the difficulty of dislodging 

 them becomes very great. These penetrate to the very 

 hones ; and even when the sufferer has got rid of them, 

 the pain will last till the flesh and skin are entirely 

 healed. 



The operation of extracting them, at which the black 

 girls are extremely dexterous, is long and painful. It 

 consists in separating, with the point of a needle, the 

 flesh next to the membrane where the eggs are lodged ; 

 which is not easily done without bursting the tunicle. 

 After having separated even the most minute ligaments, 

 the nest is to be extracted. If unfortunately it bursts, 

 particular care must be taken to extract every root of it, 

 and especially not to leave behind the principal insect. 

 This would begin to lay its eggs again before the wound 

 could be healed ; and penetrating much farther into the 

 flesh, would increase the difficulty of extracting. During 

 the great heats extreme care must be taken not to wet 

 the parf aflected. Without this precaution, experience 

 has proved that the patient is subject to consequences that 

 frequently prove fatal. Tobacco ashes are put into the 

 orifice, by which, in a little time, the sore is perfectly 

 healed. Some, by .having neglected in time to root out 

 these detestable vermin, have not only lost their limbs by 

 amputation, but even their lives. 



