THE LOUSE. 
269 
dangerous. Such are the symptoms related of the tarantula 
poison ; but the truth is, that the whole is an imposition of 
the peasants upon travellers who happen to pass through that 
part of the country, and who procure a iriHe for sufferum 
themselves to be bitten by the tarantula. Whenever they 
find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily 
oiler themselves ; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train 
of symptoms which music is said to remove. It is thus that 
falsehoods prevail for a century or two; and mankind at last 
begin to wonder how it was possible to keep up the delusion 
so lonir. 
o 
The Flea. The history of those animals with which we 
are best acquainted is one of the first objects of our curiosity. 
If the flea be examined with a microscope, it will be observed 
to have a small head, large eyes, and a roundish body. It 
has two feelers, or horns, which are short, and composed or 
fourjoints ; and between these lies its trunk, which it buries 
in the skin, and through which it sucks the blood in large 
quantities. The body appears to be all over curiously adorn- 
ed with a suit of polished sable armour, neatly joined, and 
beset with multitudes of sharp pins, almost like the quills of a 
porcupine. It has six legs, the jointsof which are so adapt- 
ed, that it can, as it were, fold them up one within ano- 
ther ; and when it leaps, they all spring out at once, whereby 
its whole strength is exerted, and the body raised above two 
hundred times its own diameter. 
The young fleas are at first a sort of nits or eggs, which are 
found and smooth ; and from ihese proceed white worms, of 
a shining pearl colour: in a fortnight’s time they come to a 
tolerable size, and are very lively and active; but if they are 
touched at this time, they roll themselves up in a ball : soon 
after this they begin to creep like silk-worms that have no 
legs ; and then they seek a place to lie hid in, where they 
s pina silken thread from their mouth, and with this they en- 
close themselves in a small round bag or case, as white with- 
in as writing paper, but dirty without : in this they continue 
for a fortnight longer : after which they burst from theii 
confinement perfectly formed, and armed with powers to 
disturb the peace of an emperor. 
Of the Louse. In examining th e human louse with the 
microscope, its external deformity first strikes us with dis- 
gust: the shape of the fore part of the head is somewhat 
oblong ; that of the hind part somewhat round : the skin is 
bard, and being stretched, transparent, with here and there 
