152 ONISCUS ASELLUS. 



able station in the materia medica, being regarded as expectorant, 

 aperient, and diuretic. They have been highly extolled in 

 humoral asthmas, dropsies, jaundice, and many other diseases. 

 They are usually taken in powder in a dose of one drachm or more 

 thrice a-day, enveloped in syrup ; or swallowed alive, like pills, in 

 their contracted state. In very large doses, Dr. Lewis thinks it 

 probable their activity may be considerable ;* but Dr. Cullen says 

 he has known a hundred given twice a-day without any sensible 

 action on the kidneys, and without any effect in curing the diseases 

 for which they were prescribed. The Porcellio scaler, of Latreille, is 

 used in Scotland for the same purposes, where it is called sciuter. 



ONISCUS ASELLUS. 

 The Wood- Louse. 

 Pl. XXIV. fig, 3. 



Order Isopoda. Family Oniscides, Latr. 



Gen. Char. Antennae inserted beneath the anterior 

 margin of the head, on a prominent part ; body oval. 



Spec. Char. — Body above obscure cinereous, rough ; 

 sides, and a series of dorsal spots, yellowish. 



Ovktkos ; Grcec. Uo\{nrovs ; Ari.it. v. 30. Asellus, Porcellio, Multipede, Oniscus; 

 Lat. Oniscus Asellus; Syst.Nat. Gmelin, p. 3013 ; Latr. Gen. Crust. et Ins. 

 i. p. 70. Colporte aselle ; De Geer, Mem. s. I. Ins. vii. t. 35, f. 3. Oniscus 

 niurarius ; Fabr. Suppl. Entom. Syst. p. 300. 



Le Colporte ordinaire ou commun t Fr. 



The Wood-louse inhabits rotten wood and old walls throughout 

 Europe. It is somewhat larger than the preceding, with which it 

 has generally been confounded in the British pharmacopoeias. It 

 is about three- fourths of an inch in length ; the body is oval, with 



* Treatise on the Materia Mtdica, p. 365. 



