DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 125 



and dimness of sight, which symptoms last from twenty- 

 four to forty-eight hours. The only means of saving 

 the lives of our soldiers who were stung by them in 

 Egypt, was amputation. One species is said to occasion 

 madness ; and the black scorpion, both of South Ame- 

 rica and Ceylon, frequently inflicts a mortal wound a . 

 No known animal is more cruel and ferocious in its man- 

 ners ; they kill and devour their own young without pity- 

 as soon as they are born, and they are equally savage to 

 their fellows when grown up. Terrible however and re- 

 volting as these creatures appear, we are gravely told 

 by Naude, that there is a species of scorpion in Italy 

 which is domesticated, and put between the sheets to 

 cool the beds during the heats of summer b ! ! 



I must next say something of insects that annoy us 

 solely by their jaws. Of this description is Soljpuga 

 araneoid.es, F. (Gcdeodes, Oliv.) which is related to the 

 scorpion, although devoid of a sting. The bite of this 

 animal, which is a native of the- Cape of Good Hope 

 and of Russia c , is represented to be often fatal both to 

 man and beast. Another species of Solpuga is described 

 by Professor Lich ten stein, which, from the trivial name 

 that he has given it (faiale), may be supposed to be as 

 venomous as the former d . 



The bite of one of the centipedes (Scolopendra morsi- 

 tansy L.) — the under-jaws of which are armed with a 

 strong claw, furnished like the sting of the scorpion with 

 an orifice, visible under a common lens e , from which 



a Ulloa's Voy. i. 61, 62. Dr. Clarke's Travels, i. 480. Amo- 

 reux, 197. 



b Andrews's Anecdotes, 427- See on the subject of Scorpions Amo- 

 reux, 41-54. 176-205. c Fab. Suppl. 294. 2. 



d Catal. Ham. 1797- 151-195. e Plate VII. Fig. 13./. d, 



