130 
CONCERNING DEATH-WATCHES. 
[Nature and Art, October 1, 1866. 
in liis “History of Northumberland,” attributes 
the sounds in question to the Anobium tesselatum. 
“ The small scarab,” lie says, “ called the death- 
watch ( Scarabceus galeatus pulsator) is frequent 
among dust and in decayed rotten wood, lonely 
and retired. It is one of the smallest of the 
vagipennia, of a dark brown, with irregular light- 
brown spots, the belly plicated, and the wings 
under the cases pellucid ; like other beetles the 
helmet turned up, as is supposed for hearing, 
the upper lip hard and shining. By its regular 
pulsations, like the ticking of a watch, it sometimes 
surprises those that are strangers to its nature and 
properties, who fancy its beating portends a family 
change and the shortening of the thread of life. 
Put into a box, it may be heard and seen in the 
act of pulsation with a small proboscis against the 
side of it, for food more probably than for hymeneal 
pleasure, as some have fancied.” 
The well-known lines of the witty Dean of St. 
Patrick’s identify the death-watch with some kind 
of wood-worm ; whether he had any knowledge 
of the matter and was speaking of the larvse of 
Anobium tesselatum, which some writers affirm do 
also produce the ticking sounds, is doubtful. The 
following are his lines : — 
“ A -wood-worm 
That lies in old wood, like a haro in her form, 
With teeth or with claws it will bite, or will scratch, 
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch ; 
Because, like a watch, it always cries click : 
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick ; 
For as sure as a gun they will give up the ghost, 
If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post. 
But a kettle of scalding- hot water injected, 
Infallibly cures the timber affected ; 
The omen is broken, the danger is over, 
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.” 
Brand cpiotes from the “ British Apollo,” vol. ii., 
No. 70. To an inquiry “ concerning a death-watch, 
whether you suppose it to be a living creature,” 
answer is given, “ It is nothing but a little worm 
in the wood.” And again from the “ Secret 
Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell ” 
(Bond., 1732, p. Gl), “How many people have I 
seen in the most terrible palpitations, for months 
together, expecting every hour the approach of 
some calamity, only by a little worm which breeds 
in wainscot, and endeavouring to eat its way out, 
makes a noise like the movement of a watch ! ” 
The early volumes of the “ Philosophical Trans- 
actions ” contain some interesting matter on the 
subject of the insects known as death-watches. 
According to the observations of Mr. Benjamin 
Allen, the ticking in question is produced by the 
beetle Scarabceus galeatus pulsator ,* that is, the 
Anobium tesselatum of modern systematists. This 
writer, who kept living specimens for several days, 
says the beetle produces the sound “ by beating his 
head on the subject fit for sound. The part it 
beats with is the extreme end of the edge of the 
face, which I may call,” he adds, “the upper lip, 
the mouth being protected by this bony part and 
lying underneath, out of view.” 
We now come to the remarks of the learned and 
observant William Derham, who, in a letter to the 
publisher of the “ Phil. Transactions ” “ concerning 
an insect that is commonly called the death-watch,” 
dated Upminster, July 21st, 1701, says he has 
observed two sorts of these insects. The first is 
clearly an Anobium, and probably A. tesselatum, 
the second is the little louse-like animal to which 
I have already referred, the Atropos pulsatorius of 
modern entomologists. Of the beetle, Mr. Derham 
remarks that he kept two specimens alive in a box 
(a male and female), for about three weeks, in the 
month of May, and that he could make one of them 
beat whenever he pleased by imitating his beating. 
As to the beetle’s motive in producing the sound, 
he was perfectly satisfied from ocular evidence that 
“ these pulsations are the way whereby these insects 
woo one other.” With reference to the mode by 
means of which the ticking is produced, Mr. Derham 
differs from Mr. Allen, who asserts that it is made 
by “ the extreme edge of the face, which may be 
galled the upper lip,” and states that he “ observed 
the insect always to draw back its mouth and beat 
with its forehead.” We have already seen that 
Baxter was acquainted with the Atropos pulsatorius, 
which he describes as “ a little, nimble, running 
worm, just like a louse, but whiter and quicker,” 
and that he attributes the ticking noise to this 
insect which he had “ oft found by trial” to be the 
case. This, so far as I have been able to trace 
the matter, is the earliest account extant of the 
ascription of the death-watch sounds to the Atropos 
pulsatorius. But observations in natural history 
require to be made with great care, and Baxter was 
no naturalist ; and probably his remarks would have 
appeared questionable, had they not been completely 
verified by the observations and experiments of 
Derham, who, however, does not appear to have been 
in any degree aware that the non-conformist divine 
had anticipated his own discovery. The following 
is Mr. Derham’s account of Atropos pulsatorius : — 
“The other death-watch is an insect in appearance quite 
different from the last [i.e. the Anobium tesselatum ], which 
I lately discovered about the beginning of this July. The 
other death-watch [i.e. the beetle] beateth only about seven 
or eight strokes at a time and quicker, but this will beat 
some hours together without intermission, and his strokes 
are more leisurely, and like the beats of a watch. I have 
several years observed these two sorts of beating, but took 
it to be made by one and the same animal. The insect 
which makes this long- beating is a small greyish insect, 
much resembling a louse when looked on onty with the 
naked eye. For which reason (for want of another name) 
1 call it Pediculus pulsatorius.. It is very nimble in running 
* An account of the Scarabceus galeatus pulsator, or the 
death-watch, taken August, 1695. “ Phil. Trans.,” vol. xxi. 
p. 376. 
