27 



felt to shoot up the arm to the under jaw, and the sickness lasted for a 

 number of days. A fourth case, at Fort Bliss, Tex., is interesting as 

 having occurred in bed. The patient was bitten on the hand with very 

 painful results and bad swelling. 



The third of the eastern species, Coriscus subeoleoptratus (fig. 20), is 

 said by Uhier to have a general distribution in the Northern States, and 

 is, like the species immediately preceding, a native insect. There is no 

 record of any bite by this species, and it is introduced here for the 

 reason that it attracted the writer's attention crawling upon the walls 

 of an earth closet, in Greene County, N. Y., where on one occasion it 

 bit him between the fingers. The pain was sharp, like the prick of a 

 pin, but only a faint swelling followed and no further inconvenience. 

 The insect is mentioned, however, for the reason that occurring in such 

 situations it is one of the forms which are liable to carry pathogenetic 

 bacteria. 



There remain for consideration the South- 

 ern and Western forms, Easahus thoracicus 

 and E. biguttatus, and Conorhinus sangu- 

 isuga. 



The two-spotted corsair, as Easahus bi- 

 guttatus (fig. 21) is popularly termed, is 

 said by Riley to be found frequently in 

 houses in the Southern- States and to prey 

 upon bedbugs. Lintner, referring to the 

 fact that it preys upon bedbugs, says: "It 

 evidently delights in human blood, but 

 prefers taking it at second hand." Dr. A. 

 Davidson, formerly of Los Angeles, Cal., in 

 an important paper entitled " So-called 

 Spider Bites and their Treatment," pub- 

 lished in the Therapeutic Gazette of 

 February 15, 1897, arrives at the conclusion that almost all of the 

 so-called spider bites met with in southern California are produced by 

 no spider at all, but by Easahus biguttatus. The symptoms which he 

 describes are as follows: "Next day the injured part shows a local 

 cellulitis with a central dark spot; around this spot there frequently 

 appears a bulbous vesicle about the size of a 10-cent piece and filled 

 with a dark grumous fluid; a small ulcer forms underneath the vesicle, 

 the necrotic area being generally limited to the central part, while the 

 surrounding tissues are more or less swollen and somewhat painful. 

 In a few days with rest and proper care the swelling subsides, and in a 

 week all traces of the cellulitis are usually gone. In some of the cases 

 no vesicle forms at the point of injury, the formation probably depend- 

 ing on the constitutional vitality of the individual or the amount of 

 poison introduced." The explanation of the severity of the wound 

 suggested by Dr. Davidson, in which the writer fully concurs, is not 

 that the insect introduces any specific poison of its own, but that the 



Fig. 21. — Iiasahux biguttatus: adult, 

 once enlarged (original). 



