194 PULEX PENETRANS. 



ever, a small bladder or membranous sac is formed, containing the 

 nits or ova, which speedily multiply to such a degree as to be 

 attended by the most fatal consequences, rendering amputation 

 necessary, and sometimes causing death. Mr. Waterton, in his 

 " Wanderings in South America," speaking of this insect, says, 

 " It looks exactly like a small flea, and a stranger would take it for 

 one. However, in about twenty-four hours he would have several 

 broad hints that he made a mistake in his ideas of the animal. It 

 attacks different parts of the body, but chiefly the feet, between 

 the toe-nails and the flesh. There it buries itself, and at first 

 causes an itching not unpleasant. In a day or two, after examin- 

 ing the part, you perceive a place about the size of a pea, some- 

 what discoloured, rather of a blue appearance. Sometimes it 

 happens that the itching is so trivial you are not aware that the 

 miner is at work. Time, they say, makes great discoveries. The 

 discoloured part turns out to be the nest of the Chegoe, containing 

 hundreds of eggs, which, if allowed to hatch there, the young ones 

 will soon begin to form other nests, and in time form a spreading 

 ulcer. As soon as you perceive that you have got the Chegoe in 

 your feet, you must take a needle or a sharp-pointed knife and take 

 it out. If the nest be formed, great care must be taken not to 

 break it, otherwise some of the eggs remain in the flesh, and then 

 you will soon be annoyed with more Chegoes. After removing 

 the nest, it is well to drop spirits of turpentine into the hole, that 

 will effectually destroy any Chegoe that may be lurking there 

 Sometimes I have taken four nests out of my feet in the course of 

 a day." The female slaves in the West Indies extract these ani- 

 mals with uncommon dexterity. Yarico, so celebrated in prose 

 and verse, performed this kind office for honest Ligon, who says, 

 in his History of Barbadoes, " I have had ten (Chegoes) taken out 

 of my feet in a morning by the most unfortunate Yarico, an Indian 

 woman." 



