Ch. VII. SOUTH AMERICA. % 



pierced through the fkin, an incifion muft be made 

 before it can be taken out. If they are not foon per- 

 ceived, they make their way through the fkin, and 

 take up their lodging between that and the membrane 

 of the fiefli ; and fucking the blood, form a nidus or 

 nefc, covered with a white and fine tegument, refembling 

 a flat pearl ; and the infed: is, as it were, inchafed in 

 one of the faces, with its head and feet outwards, for 

 the convenience of feeding, while the hinder part of 

 the body is within the tunic, where it depofits its 

 eggs ; and as the number of thefe increafes, the nidus 

 enlarges, even to the diameter of a line and a half, or 

 two lines, to which magnitude it generally attains in 

 four or five days. There is an abiblute neceflity for 

 extradling it; for otherwife it would burft of itfelf, and 

 by that means fcatter an infinite number of germs, 

 refembling nits, in fize, (hape, and colour, which be- 

 coming niguas, would, as it were, undermine the whole 

 foot. They caufe an extreme pain, efpecially during 

 the operation of extracting them for fometimes 

 they penetrate even to the bone and the pain, even af- 

 ter the foot is cleared of them, lafts till the flefli has 

 filled up the cavities they had made, and the fkin is 

 again clofed. 



The manner of performing this operation is both 

 tedious and troublefome ; the fiefh contiguous to the 

 membrane, where the eggs of the infe(5l are lodged, is 

 feparated with the point of a needle, and thofe eggs fo 

 tenacioufly adhere to the flefh and this membrane, that, 

 to complete the operation without burfting the tegu- 

 ment, and putting the patient to the moil acute pain, 

 requires the greateft dexterity. After feparating on 

 every fide the fmall and almoft imperceptible fibres, 

 by which it was fo clofely conneded with the mem- 

 branes and mufcles of the part, the perilla, as they 

 term it, is extradled, the dim^enfions of which are pro- 

 portional to the time it has exifted. If unfortunately 

 it fnould burft, the greateft care mud be ufed to clear 



Vol. L F away 



