160 SUPPLEMENT TO THE ORDERS 



vice which must be first eradicated if we are desirous of 

 being protected from their inroads, or if already attacked 

 by them, of rendering more efficacious any other means em- 

 ployed for their destruction. 



The remedies employed against these vermin act in two 

 ways. Some of them, such as oily and fatty substances, or 

 such as contain azotic gas, close up the stigmata of these 

 insects, or the apertures destined for the admission of air, 

 and smother them. Others, such as the seeds of staphis 

 agria, of larks-spur, tobacco, &c. reduced to a powder, pro- 

 duce the effect of a violent poison, and exercise their in- 

 fluence on the general organization of the animals. Mercu- 

 rial preparations are, of all others, the most certain and 

 speedy agents of their destruction. They may also be em- 

 ployed for the extinction of the species which infest our 

 domestic animals. 



It is said that lice, by piercing the skin, often produce 

 pustules which may be converted into itch or tinea. Their 

 multiplication, in certain subjects, is carried to such an ex- 

 tent as to produce the mortal malady which has been already 

 noticed, namely, morbus pedicularis or phthiriasis. His- 

 tory has afforded us many examples of this ; Pheretima, men- 

 tioned by Herodotus ; Sylla, Antiochus Epiphanes, the two 

 Herods, Maximin, and Philip the Second, perished of this 

 disease, or something very analogous to it. Mr. Kirby is 

 prone to think that it has fallen particularly as a judgment 

 from God on the oppressors of mankind and the persecutors 

 of religion. But this and all such notions ought to be ad- 

 mitted with caution, or rather rejected altogether. Until it 

 is shewn that the disease in question has fallen upon such 

 persons alone, and on no others, we must discard the idea of 

 its being an instrument of Divine vengeance. But this is so 

 far from being the case, that the reverend entomologist him- 

 self informs us that " this most loathsome of all maladies, or 



