ON CRUSTACEA. 
289 
pears to be G. pictvs , is employed as an excellent alexi- 
pharmic ; it is pulverized and mixed with wine. We see from 
passages of Aristotle, of Pliny, of Galen, &c., that the same 
virtues were for a long time attributed to divers Crustacea. 
The grapsus pictus is found upon the sea-shore concealed 
under the roots of the manchineel, ( Hippomane , Lin.) A 
species of the same genus burrows in the sand. 
Rochefort, author of a natural history of the Antilles, and, 
anterior to Pere Labat, does not speak of the ceriques . But 
he equally distinguishes three sorts of land Crustacea ; the 
tourlourous , the white crabs, and the painted crabs. M. 
Latreille was of opinion, that by the last term, he meant the 
grapsus ; but their habits are so different, that our naturalist 
was led to presume that the first Crustacea are no other than 
the violet-crabs of Pere Labat. 
The species most commonly named tourlourou is the 
smallest of the three. It is a deep red, bordering on brown or 
black, in the middle of the back; its claws are unequal* and 
the left is always smaller than the right. These animals use 
them in cutting roots, fruits, leaves, &c., on which it is re- 
ported that they feed. They pinch very strongly, and do not 
let go when they are seized ; their flesh is delicate, wholesome, 
except, as it is said, when they have eaten of the fruit of the 
mancinella hippomane , Lin. But Jacquine, however, denies 
that they attack this fruit, and it is much more probable, that 
like others of the tribe, they subsist on animal substances. 
It would be important to ascertain from what cause proceeds 
the deleterious quality, which, under certain circumstances, 
they possess ; this has been attributed to the submarine veins 
of copper upon which they live ; but this opinion requires the 
corroboration of facts. 
* 
What we shall presently relate respecting the singular 
instinct of the painted crabs, is specially applied by Pere 
Labat, to the tourlourous. But lie gives it as a general rule, 
VOL. XIII. 
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