274 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
into a worm, which soon devours and destroys the animal 
from whose body it sprung. 
The Bug is another of those nauseous insects that intrude 
upon the retreats of mankind and often banish that sleep, 
which even sorrow and anxiety permitted to approach. 
This to many men, is of all insects the most troublesome 
and obnoxious. The night is usually the season when the 
wretched have rest from their labour : but this seems the 
only season when the bug issues from its retreats, to make 
its depredations. By day it lurks, like a robber, in the 
most secret parts of the bed ; takes the advantage of every 
chink and cranny, to make a secure lodgment ; and con- 
trives its habitation with so much art, that scarce any in- 
dustry can discover its retreat. It seems to avoid the light 
with great cunning; and even if candles be kept burning, 
this formidable insect will not issue from its hiding place. 
But when darkness promises security, it then issues from 
every corner of the bed, drops from the tester, crawls from 
behind the arras, and travels, with great assiduity, to the 
unhappy patient, who vainly wishes for rest and refreshment. 
It is generally vain to destroy one only, as there are hun- 
dreds more to revenge their companion’s fate; so that the 
person who thus is subject to be bitten, remains the whole 
nio-ln, like a centinel upon duty, rather watching the ap- 
proach of fresh invaders, than inviting the pleasing approach 
of sleep. 4 
Nor are these insects less disagreeable from their nauseous 
stench, than their unceasing appetite. When they begin to 
crawl, the whole bed is infected with the smell ; but if they 
are accidentally killed, then it is insupportable. 
These area part of the inconveniences that result from the 
persecution of these odious insects; but, happily for Great 
Britain they multiply less in that Island, than in any part of 
the Continent. In France and Italy, the beds, particularly 
in their inns, swarm with them ; and every piece of furniture 
seems to afford them a retreat. They grow larger also with 
them than in England, and bite with more cruel appetite. 
This animal, if examined minutely, appears to consist 
of three principal parts; the head, the coiselet, and the 
belly. It has two brown eyes, that are very small, and a little 
prominent, besides two feelerr, with three joints; underneath 
these there is a crooked trunk, which is its instrument of 
torture anil which, when in motion, lies close upon the 
breast ’ The breast is a kind of ring, in which are placed the 
