DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 77 



which term, though given by Hesychius as synonymous with 

 Scolex, is by Plutarch used as of different import^, seems 

 properly to mean those larvae which are generated in dead 

 carcases, at least so Homer has more than once applied it ^ : 

 it is therefore a word of a much more restricted sense than 

 Scolex, which probably belongs to the larvae of every order 

 of insects : for so Aristotle employs it, when he says that all 

 insects produce a Scolex, or are larviparous.^ Yet when 

 Homer compares Harpalion stretched dead upon the ground 

 to a Scolex^y it should seem as if he used the word for an 

 earth-worm, which Aristotle commonly calls by a figurative 

 periphrasis, " Entrails of the earth." ^ In the Holy Scrip- 

 tures this word is used to signify larvae which prey upon and 

 are the torment of living bodies. ^ It may on this account, 

 perhaps, be regarded as generally meaning such larvae, to 

 whatever order or genus they belong. 



Dr. Mead, therefore, is most probably right when he con- 

 siders the disease stated by the ancients to be caused by EuIcb 

 or Scolechesy commonly translated worms, as distinct from 

 Phthiriasis ; and if so, the inhuman Pheretima, who swarmed 

 with Eul(E, and Herod Agrippa, who was eaten of Scoleches \ 

 were probably neither of them destroyed either by Pediculi 

 or Acari, but by larvae or maggots. And when Galen pre- 

 scribed a remedy for ulcers inhabited by Scoleches, observing 

 that animals similar to those generated by putrid substances 

 are often found in abscesses, he probably meant the same 

 thing. The proper appellation of this genus of diseases would 

 be Scolechiasis.^ 



This dissertation may perhaps appear to you rather prolix 

 and tedious ; yet to settle the meaning of terms is of the first 

 importance. To inquire what ancient writers intended by 

 the words which they employ, and whether such as have 

 been usually regarded as synonymous are really so, may often 

 furnish us with a clue to some useful or interesting truth ; 



1 In Artaxerx. 2 599^ f^. 1. 414. 



3 Ta 5e eurofxa iravra (rK(»}\r]KOTOKei. De General. Animal. 1.2. c. 1. 



4 //. V. 1. 654, 655. 



a Tr\s eurepa. De Animal. Incessu, c. 9. I>e Generat. Animal. 1. 3. c. II. 

 6 Mark, ix. 44. 46. 48. 7 ^KoKijicoSpcaTos. Acts, xii. 23. 



s See Memoir by the Rev. F. W, Hope, containing a great number of cases 

 of Scolechiasis, in the 2d volume of the Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of London. 



