108 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



suffer them to be disturbed or his bedsteads to be re- 

 moved, till, in the end, they swarmed to an incredible 

 degree, crawling up even the walls of his drawing-room ; 

 and after his death millions were found in his bed and 

 chamber furniture a . 



The winged insects of the order to which the bed-bug 

 belongs, often inflict very painful wounds. — I was once 

 attacked by a small species, Cimex Nemorum, L. I be- 

 lieve, which put me nearly to as much torture as the 

 sting of a wasp. The water boatman, {Notonecta glauca, 

 L.,) an insect related to the Cimicidce, which always 

 swims upon its back, made me suffer still more severely, 

 as if I had been burned, by the insertion of its rostrum ; 

 but the wound was not followed by any inflammation ; 

 and long before me Willughby had made the same dis- 

 covery and observation 15 . St. Pierre, in his Voyage to 

 Mauritius, mentions a species of bug found in that island, 

 the bite of which is more venomous than the sting of a 

 scorpion, and is succeeded by a tumour as big as the 

 egg of a pigeon, which continues for four or five days. 

 You are well acquainted with the history and properties 

 of the Raia Torpedo and Gymnotus electricus ,■ but, I 

 dare aver, have no idea that any insect possesses their 

 extraordinary powers. — Yet I can assure you, upon good 

 authority, that Reduvius serratus, F., commonly known 

 in the West Indies by the name of the wheel-bug, can, 

 like them, communicate an electric shock to the person 

 whose flesh it touches. The late Major-general Davies, 

 of the Royal Artillery, well known as a most accurate 



a Nicholson's Journal, xvii. 40. 



b Proboscis in cutem intrusa acerrimum dolorem cxcitat, qui 

 tamen brevi cessat. Rai. Hist. Ins, 58, 



