INSECTS AND WAR 13 



but it is only too common in the poorer quarters 

 of our great cities. The iron bedstead which 

 has so rapidly replaced the wooden bedstead 

 was at one time thought to render the bug's 

 position untenable a belief much cherished by 

 the manufacturers of metal bedsteads. But this is 

 not so. Bugs will shelter in its metallic crevices 

 almost as comfortably as in the wooden chinks 

 of its predecessor. Its presence does not neces- 

 sarily indicate neglect or want of cleanliness. 

 It is apt to get into trunks and luggage, and in 

 this way may be conveyed even into the best- 

 kept homes. It is also very migratory, and will 

 pass readily from one house to another, and 

 when an infested dwelling is vacated these insects 

 usually leave it for better company and better 

 quarters. Their food supply being withdrawn, 

 they make their way along gutters, water-pipes, 

 etc., into adjoining and inhabited houses. Cimeoc 

 is particularly common in ships, especially emi- 

 grant ships, and, although unknown to the 

 aboriginal Indians of North America, it probably 

 entered that continent with the " best families " 

 in the " Mayflower/' 



Perhaps the most disagreeable feature of the 

 bed-bug is that it produces an oily fluid which 



