552 THE LOtJSE,, 



Genus IV.^-Pedlculas, The Loufii 



JL HE charadlers of this unfeemly tribe ^re, fix feet forai- 

 ed for walking ; a mouth containing an exferted (ling ) 

 antennas as long as the thorax ; and an abdomen depref- 

 fed, and formed of. different lobes or fegments f . 



It is remarkable that almofl every animal and vege- 

 table is frequented by its particular loufe, although only 

 about fifty difTcreut fpecies of this tribe have yet found 

 their way into the fyilems of natural hillory. Even man, 

 whofe fancied prerogatives lead him to boaft of being the 

 lord of the creation, has often the mortification of being 

 trampled upon by the moll defpicable of all animals. 



Pediculus humarais, the huinan loufe. Of this infedl 

 there are two varieties ; the one inhabits the head, and 

 the other the body. No medical inquiries have yet found 

 out why fome families of the fame tribe choofe thefe dif- 

 ferent abodes. Infants and children are mod infeiled 

 with the former cf thefe kinds, and failors, foidiers, and 

 old men are moft liable to be troubled with the latter. 

 Ckanlinefs is the bcft antidote againft thefe hideous in- 

 truders ; and their naufeous fociety feems a very proper 

 puniihment iniiifbed by nature on its negleft. The pthi- 

 riafis, or loufy difeafe, tliough very little known in latter 

 tiaies, was not uafrcqaent among the ancients. Herod^ 

 Antiochus^ Callij^hmcs, and SvHa, v;ith many others, died 



o£ 



t Syl. Nat. p. Hi. 



