| 
they are likely to receive no difturbance. There they continue fof 
52 NATURAL HISTORY, | 
in thefe iflands, than in any part of the continent. In France and Italy 
the beds, particularly in their inns, {warm with them; and every piecé 
of furniture feems to afford them a retreat. They grow larger alfo 
with them than with us, and bite with more cruel appetite. 
This animal, if examined minutely, appears to confift of three prin- 
cipal parts; the head, the corfelet, and the belly. It has two brown 
eyes, that are very fmall and a little prominent, befides two feelers, 
with three joints: underneath thefe there is a crooked trunk, which is 
its inftrument of torture, and which, when in motion, lies clofe upon 
the breaft. The breaft is a kind of ring, in which are placed the two 
firft pair of legs. The belly confifts of nine rings; under which are 
placed two pair of legs more, making fix in all. Each leg has three 
joints, which form the thigh, the leg, and the foot, which is arme 
with a crooked claw, like an hook, ‘The body is fmooth, except a few 
fhort hairs, that may be feen by the microfcope, about the vent, and 
on the two laft rings. Its motion is flow and unwieldy; yet its fight 
is fo exquifite, that the inftant it perceives the light, it generally makes 
good its retreat; and they are feldom caught, though the bed {warms 
with them, - 
If we examine this infect internally, we fhall find: the great artery, 
which in all infects performs the fundions of the heart; we fhall find 
the apertures of the lungs on the right fide and the left, through which 
the animal breathes ; we fhall find a ftomach and inteftines, which, as 
jn other animals, run from the mouth to the anus. If the infe& has 
been kept long fafting, there will be a mucus found in its body, like 
the white of an egg; but if cruthed after a full meal, the human bloods 
which it has fucked in, will appear a little darkened by having pafled 
through the infeét’s body. 
The male and female of thefe animals are plainly diftinguifhable 
from each other; and the parts of generation are obvious enough: 
They are often found coupling tail to tail; and in this fate are very 
eafily deftroyed. The female has an ovary filled with eggs, joined tox 
gether like a bunch of grapes; each egg being oblong, almoft cylin 
drical, inclining to white, and pretty tranfparent. In about tw? 
days after impregnation by the male, fhe depofits her eggs to the nun” 
ber of about an hundred and fifty, in fome convenient place wher? 
fome months; during which time, neither cold nor heat, neithet 
moifttre nor fumigation, can in the leaft retard their exclufion; bul 
they come forth aétive, and ready for mifchief. It is this hardinefs i# 
the fhell that feems to continue the breed; as the old ones die every 
winter, or are eafily deltroyed by any fumigation that is ufed for that 
purpofe. But the eggs feem incapable of deltruétion ; even thofe me# 
who make a livelihood by killing thefe naufeous infects, though they 
¢an anfwer for the parent, can never be fure of the egg. For thié 
reafon they ufually pay thofe houfes to which they are called a fecon® 
or a third vifit, and at laft exterminate them by perfeverance. 
The manner of deftroying them feems rather the effeds of affiduitf 
than antidote; for the men called in upon this occafion, take evel) 
part of the furniture afunder, brufh every part of it with great afliduity® 
anoint it with a liquid which 1 take to be 4 folution of corrofive im 
