DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 135 



No one would suppose that caterpillars, which feed 

 upon vegetable substances, could be met with alive in 

 the stomach; yet Dr. Lister gives an account of a boy 

 who vomited up several, which, he observes, had sixteen 

 legs a . The eggs perhaps might have been swallowed in 

 salad; and, as vegetables make a part of most people's 

 daily diet, enough might have passed into the stomach 

 to support them when hatched. — Linne tells us that the 

 caterpillar of a moth (Cr ambus pinguinalis, F.), common 

 in houses, has also been found in a similar situation, 

 and is one of the worst of our insect infesters. — In a 

 very old tract, which gives a figure of the insect, a cater- 

 pillar of the almost incredible length of the middle fin- 

 ger is said to have been voided from the nostrils of a 

 young man long afflicted with dreadful pains in his 

 head b . — But the most extraordinary account with respect 

 to lepidopterous larvae (unless he has mistaken his in- 

 sects) is given by Azara, the Spanish traveller before 

 quoted; who says that in South America there is a large 

 brown moth, which deposits its young in a kind of saliva 

 upon the flesh of persons who sleep naked ; these intro- 

 duce themselves under the skin without being perceiv- 

 ed, where they occasion swelling attended by inflam- 

 mation and violent pain. When the natives discover it, 

 they squeeze out the larvae, which usually amount to five 

 or six c . 



But amongst all the orders, none is more fruitful in 



a Philos. Trans, ubi supra. 



b Fulvius Angelinus etVincentius Alsarius de verme admirando per 

 nares egresso. Ravennse 1610. 



c Azara, 217, I cannot help suspecting this to be synonymous with 

 the CEstrus Hominis next mentioned. 



