100 



DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



animals creep every where, even into beds, they must be very 

 annoying in warm climates where they abound. Dr. Martin 

 Lister in his Travels, has given us a figure of an insect related 

 to this genus, that he saw inPlumier's collection, which appears 

 to have been eighteen inches in length, and three quarters 

 of an inch in width, having ninety-five legs on each side, the 

 first eight of which are armed with double claws, and two 

 inches of the tail being without legs. It may form a distinct 

 genus, and is probably a native of South America. Yet even 

 this monstrous insect is nothing to those at Carthagena, men- 

 tioned by UUoa (if indeed we may credit his account, or if 

 his translator has not mistaken his meaning), which sometimes 

 exceeded a yard in length and five inches in breadth ! The 

 bite of this gigantic serpent-like creature, he tells 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 I 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 ( Theridium YZ-guttaturn) the bite 

 of which is said to be very dangerous, and even mortal. 



I Ulloa's Voyage^ i, 6 1 . 



2 Amoreux, 217. 226. See also 67 — ^70. 



