70 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 
sioned by short hairs, or fragments of hair, brought by the wind.t Of 
this nature also, is the famous Pityocampa of the ancients, the moth of 
the fir (Cnethocampa Pityocampa), the hairs of which are said to occasion 
a very intense degree. of pain, heat, fever, itching, and restlessness. It was 
accounted by the Romans a very deleterious poison, as is evident from the 
circumstance of the Cornelian law “ De sicariis” being extended to persons 
who administered Pityocampa? 
In these cases the injury is the consequence of irritation produced by 
the hair of the animal; but there are facts on record, which prove that the 
juices of many insects are equally deleterious. Amoreux, from a work of 
Turner, an English writer on cutaneous diseases, has giving the following 
remarkable history of the ill effects produced by those of spiders. When 
Turner was a young practitioner, he was called to visit a woman, whose 
custom it was, every time she went into the cellar with a candle, to burn 
the spiders and their webs. She had often observed when she thus 
cruelly amused herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had so much 
affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn round, which was occa- 
sionally succeeded by faintings, cold sweats, and slight yomitings: but, 
notwithstanding this, she found so much pleasure in tormenting these 
poor animals, that nothing could cure her of this madness, till she met 
with the following accident: the legs of one of these unhappy spiders 
happened to stick in the canile, so that it could not disengage itself ; and 
the body at length bursting, the venom was ejaculated into the eyes and 
upon the lips of its persecutrix. In consequence of this, one of the former 
became inflamed, the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and gums 
were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting attended these symptoms. 
In spite of every remedy the swelling of the lips continued to increase, 
till at length an old woman, by the simple application for fifteen days of 
the leaves and juice of plantain, together with some spider’s web, ran 
away with all the glory of the cure. Ulloa gives us a remarkable account 
of a species:of spider, or perhaps mite, of a fiery red colour, common in 
Popayan, called Coya or Coyba, and usually found in the corners of walls 
and among the herbage, the venom of which is of such malignity, that on 
crushing the insect, if any fall on the skin of either man or beast, it imme- 
diately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large tumours, which are soon 
succeeded by death. Yet, he further observes, if it be crushed between 
the palms of the hands, which are usually callous, no bad consequence 
ensues. People who travel along the valleys of the Neyba, where these 
insects abound, are warned by their Indian attendants, if they feel any- 
thing stinging them, or crawling on their neck or face, not so much as to 
lift up their hand to the place, the texture of the Coya being so delicate 
that the least force causes them to burst, without which there is no 
danger, as they seem otherwise harmless animals. The traveller points 
out the spot where he feels the creature to one of his companions, who, 
if it be a Coya, blows it away. If this account does not exaggerate the 
* Reaum, ii. 191.195. According to Dr. Nicholai, the processionary caterpillars 
also secrete from the external surface of their skin a sharp juice which assumes a 
farinaceous form, and is very injurious to those that inspire it, causing workmen, who 
are occupied in woods where the caterpillars are numerous, to sicken very rapidly. 
(Burmeister, Manual of Bint. 510.) 
2 Mouffet, 185. Plin. Hist, Nat, 1. xxxviii. c, 9. Amoreux, 158, 
5 Amoreux, 210—212, 
