DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 141 



the brain. Cornelius Gemma, in his Cosmocritica, p. 241, 

 says that on dissecting the brain of a woman there were 

 found in it abundance of vermicles and jpunaises a . 



It was customary in many countries in ancient times 

 to punish certain malefactors by exposing them to be de- 

 voured by wild beasts : but to expose them to insects for 

 the same purpose was a refinement in cruelty, which 

 seems to have been peculiar to the despots of Persia. 

 We are informed that the most severe punishment 

 amongst the Persians was that of shutting Up the offender 

 between two boats of equal size J they laid him in one of 

 them upon his back, and covered him with the other, his 

 hands, feet, and head being left bare. His face, which 

 was placed full in the sun, they moistened with honey, 

 thus inviting the flies and wasps, which tormented him 

 no less than the swarms of maggots that were bred in his 

 excrements and body, and devoured him to the very en- 

 trails. He was compelled to take as much food as was 

 necessary to support life, and thus existed sometimes for 

 several days. Plutarch informs us that Mithridates, whom 

 Artaxerxes Longimanus condemned to this punishment, 

 lived seventeen days in the utmost agony ; and that, the 

 uppermost boat being taken off at his death, they found 

 his flesh all consumed, and myriads of worms gnawing 

 his bowels b . Could any natural objects be made more 

 horrible and effectual instruments of torture than insects 

 were in this most diabolical invention of tyranny ? 



In this enumeration of evils derived from insects, I 

 must not wholly pass over the serious and sometimes 

 fatal effects produced upon some persons by eating honey, 



a Mem. Apterolog. 79. 



b Universal History, iv. 70. Ed, 1779. 



