DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 99 



by Euld j or Scoleches, commonly translated worms, as 

 distinct from Phthiriasis ; and if so, the inhuman Phe- 

 retima, who swarmed with Eulce, and Herod Agrippa, 

 who was eaten of Scolechcs*, were probably neither of 

 them destroyed either by Pediculi or Acari, but by 

 larvae or maggots. And when Galen prescribed a re- 

 medy for ulcers inhabited by Scoleches, observing that 

 animals similar to those generated by putrid substances 

 are often found in abscesses, he probably meant the same 

 thing. The proper appellation of this genus of diseases 

 would be Scolechiasis. 



This dissertation may perhaps appear to you rather 

 prolix and tedious: yet to settle the meaning of terms is 

 of the first importance. To inquire what ancient writers 

 intended by the words which they employ, and whether 

 such as have been usually regarded as synonymous are 

 really so, may often furnish us with a clue to some useful or 

 interesting truth ; and not seldom enable us to rescue their 

 reputation from much of the censure which has been in- 

 considerately cast upon it. Because they did not know 

 every thing, or so much as we do, we are too apt to think 

 that they knew nothing. That they fell into very con- 

 siderable errors, especially in subjects connected with 

 Natural History, cannot be denied ; but then it ought 

 to be considered that they possessed scarcely any of 

 those advantages by which we are enabled to penetrate 

 into nature's secrets. The want of the microscope alone 

 was an effectual bar to their progress in this branch of 

 science. Yet, in some instances, when they took a ge- 

 neral view of a subject, they appear to have had very 

 correct ideak This observation particularly applies to 



* IxaX wZpoiToc. Acts xii. 23. 

 H 2 



