DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 67 
us, is mortal, as well it may, if a timely remedy be not applied, From its 
cylindrical form it should be a Julus,* 
In this catalogue of noxious insects IT must not omit those which every- 
where force themselves upon our notice, and are viewed with general 
disgust. I mean the numerous family of Arachne, the insidious spiders. 
Few of these, however, are really personal assailants of man. The 
principal is that which has given rise to so much discussion, and has 
so much employed the pens of naturalists and physicians—the famous 
Tarantula (Lycosa Tarantula). The effects ascribed to its wounds, and 
their wonderful cure supposed to be wrought by music and dancing, have 
long been celebrated: but after all there seems to have been more of fraud 
than of truth in the business ; and the whole evil appears to consist in 
swelling and inflammation. Dr. Clavitio submitted to be bitten by this 
animal, and no bad effects ensued; and the Count de Borch, a Polish 
nobleman, bribed a man to undergo the same experiment, in whom the only 
result was a swelling in the hand, attended by intolerable itching. The 
fellow’s sole remedy was a bottle of wine, which charmed away all his pain 
without the aid of pipe and tabor.? 
There is, however, a spider (Zheridium 13-gultatum) the bite of which 
is said to be very dangerous, and even mortal. Thiébaut de Berneaud, in his 
Voyage to Elba®, affirms that in the Volterrano he knew that several country 
people and domestic animals died in consequence of it. And, according to 
Mr. Jackson, a spider, called there the Zendaraman, is found in Marocco, 
which has venomous powers equally formidable. The bite of this insect, 
which is about the size and colour of a hornet, but rounder, and spins a 
web so fine as to be almost invisible, is said to be so poisonous that the 
person bitten survives but a few hours. In the cork-forests the sportsman, 
eager in his pursuit of game, frequently carries away on his garments this 
fatal insect, which is asserted always to make towards the head before in- 
flicting its deadly wound.* 
I suspect you will think this list long enough ; and I believe it includes 
the most remarkable insects that assail the surface of our bodies, to answer 
either the demands of hunger or the stimulus of revenge. There is how- 
ever a third class of insect annoyers, as I observed at the beginning of this 
letter, which, though they neither make us their food, nor attack us under 
the impulse of fear or revenge, incommode us extremely in other ways. 
These must now be detailed to you. 
How extremely unpleasant is the sensation which that very minute fly 
(Thrips physapus) excites in sultry weather, merely by creeping over our 
skin! I have sometimes found this almost intolerable. A similar torment, 
reckoned by Ulloa a kind of mosquito, infests the inhabitants of Cartha- 
gena in South America. They are there called Mantas Blancas, and 
creeping between the threads of the gauze curtains that keep off the former 
pest, though they do not bite, occasion an itching that is dreadfully tor- 
menting.» But these are nothing compared with the teasing attacks of 
1 Ulloa’s Voyage, i. 61. 2 Amoreux, 217. 226. See also 67—70. 
5p. 31. 4 Jackson’s Maroero, second edit. 
5 Ulloa, i. 64. Probably the Cafafi, a white fly noticed by Humboldt, is 
Synonymous with this of Ulloa, which could only be prevented from creeping 
ee the threads of the curtains by keeping them wet. Personal Narrative. 
» T. v. 107, 
F2 
