DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 105 



them. I suspect that this was the dog-tick (A. Ricinus, 

 L.) which is often found on plants; but I am not cer- 

 tain, as I neglected to examine it, my attention at that 

 time being almost wholly given to Coleoptera. Lyonnet 

 seems to have been attacked, in one of his entomological 

 excursions, by the same or a similar insect, which he 

 broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, in endeavouring to 

 extract it ; and he was obliged to lay open the place lest 

 an abscess should be formed a . But the worst of all the 

 tick tribe is the American (Acarus americanus, L.) de- 

 scribed by Professor Kalm. This insect, which is re- 

 lated to the preceding, is found in the woods of North 

 America, and is equally an enemy to man and beast. 

 They are there so infinitely numerous, that if you sit 

 down upon the ground, or upon the trunk of a tree, or 

 walk with naked feet or legs, the}' will cover you, and, 

 plunging their serrated rostrum into the bare places of 

 the body, begin to suck your blood, going deeper and 

 deeper till they are half buried in the flesh. Though at 

 first they occasion no uneasiness, when they have thus 

 made good their settlement, they produce an intolerable 

 itching, followed by acute pain and large tumours. It 

 is now extremely difficult to extract them, the animal 

 rather suffering itself to be pulled to pieces than let go 

 its hold ; so that the rostrum and head being often left 

 in the wound, produce an inflammation and suppuration 

 which render it deep and dangerous. These ticks are 

 at first very small, sometimes scarcely visible, but by 

 suction will swell themselves out till they are as big as 

 the end of one's finger, when they often fall to the ground 



a Lesser L. ii. "2,22, note *. 



