236 
HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. 
innocent and harmless, subsisting upon decaying vegetable 
'and animal substances. They afford a dainty bit to domestic 
fowls, which devour them with avidity, and are always scratch- 
ing our yards in search of these more than any other article 
of diet. This is their chief importance in an economical 
aspect, and being so abundant they form an item of no small 
value to the poultry-breeder, though one of which but little 
notice is taken. In former times the species of this family 
were highly reputed for their supposed medicinal virtues, and 
old books upon the Materia Medica inform us that when 
dried and pulverized * they have a faint, disagreeable smell, 
and a somewhat pungent, sweetish, nauseous taste, and are 
highly celebrated in suppressions, in all kinds of obstruc- 
tions of the bowels, in the jaundice, ague, weakness of sight, 
and a variety of other disorders/ And the wine of Milli- 
pedes, prepared by crushing these animals, when fresh, and 
infusing them in * Rhenish wine/ is spoken of as f an ad- 
mirable cleanser of all the viscera, yielding to nothing in the 
jaundice and obstructions of the kidneys/ In the light of 
modern science we can impute the cures attributed to these 
creatures only to the effect produced upon the imagina- 
tion of the patient, and the curative powers of nature, 
for, beyond some slight demulcent qualities, they must be 
