104 



DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



and causes much pain, is called there the eye-fly. At this 

 season the eyes are attacked by a disease, supposed to be oc- 

 casioned by eating the mangoes, but more probably the result 

 of the irritation produced by the fly in question, which, how- 

 ever, they admit, carries the infection from one person to 

 another. 



You know that the hairs taken from the pods of Doliclios 

 pruriens and urens L., commonly called Cowhage and Cow-itcW^ 

 occasion a most violent itching, but perhaps are not aware 

 that those of the caterpillars of several moths will produce 

 the same disagreeable elFect. One of these is the procession 

 moth ( Cnethocampa processionea) of which Reaumer has given 

 so interesting an account. In consequence of their short stiff 

 hairs sticking in his skin, after handling them, he suffered 

 extremely for several days ; and being ignorant at first of the 

 cause of the itching, and rubbing his eyes with his hands, he 

 brought on a swelling of the eyelids, so that he could scarcely 

 open them. Ladies were affected even by going too near the 

 nest of the animal, and found their necks full of troublesome 

 tumours, occasioned by short hairs, or fragments of hair, 

 brought by the wind.^ 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 Avas 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 



1 Cowhage has been admhilstered with success as an anthelmintic, as has 

 likewise spun glass pounded ; the spieula of these substances destroying the 

 worms. The hair of the caterpillars here alluded to, and perliaps also of 

 the larva of Euprepia Caja (the Tiger-Moth), might probably be equally effi- 

 cacious. 



2 Reaum. ii. 191. 195. According to Dr. Nicholai, the processionary cater- 

 pillars 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 Ent. 510.) 



3 MoufFet, 185. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. Amoreux, 158. 



