Volume 2

A natural history, general and particular containing the history and theory of the earth, a general history of man, the brute creation, vegetables, minerals, &c, &c / by George Louis Le Clerc, count of Buffon ; translated from the French by William Smellie.

  • Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A natural history, general and particular containing the history and theory of the earth, a general history of man, the brute creation, vegetables, minerals, &c, &c / by George Louis Le Clerc, count of Buffon ; translated from the French by William Smellie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE FLEA.—THE LOUSE. At first the pain is scarcely felt ; but a few hours after come on a violent sickness, difficulty of breathing, faint- ing, and sometimes trembling. The person bit after this does nothing but laugh, dance, skip about, putting him- self into the most extravagant postures, and sometimes also is seized with a most frightful melancholy. At the return of the season in which he was bit, his madness begins again ; and the patient always talks of the same things. Sometimes he fancies himself a shepherd ; some- times a king; appearing entirely out of his senses. These troublesome symptoms have been said to return for several years successively, and at last terminate in death. But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, not been left without a remedy ; which is no other than a well- played fiddle. For this purpose the medical musician plays a particular tune, famous for the cure, which he begins slow, and increases in quickness as he sees the patient affected. The patient no sooner hears the music but he begins to dance ; and continues so doing till he is all over in a strong perspiration, which forces out the venom that appeared so dangerous. This dancing sometimes continues for three or four hours, before the patient is weary, and before the sweating is copious enough to cure the disorder. Such are the symptoms related of the tarantula poison ; symptoms which some of the best and gravest physicians have credited, and attempted to ac- count for. But the truth is, that the whole is an impo- sition of the peasants upon travellers who happen to pass through that part of the country, and who procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be bitten by the taran- tula. Whenever they find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily offer themselves, and are sure to counterfeit the whole train of symptoms which music is supposed to remove. A friend of mine, who had passed through that par* of the country, had a trusty servant bitten without ever administering the musical cure : the only symptoms were a slight inflammation, which was readily removed, and no other consequence ever attended the bite. 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 for so long a period. OF THE FLEA. The history of those animals with which we are the best acquainted are the first objects of our chiefest curiosity. There are few but are well informed of the agility and blood-thirsty disposition of the flea; of the caution with which it comes to the attack; and the readiness with which it avoids the pursuit. This insect, which is not only the enemy of mankind, but of the dog, cat, and several other animals, is found in every part of the world, but bites with greater severity in some countries than in others. Its numbers in Italy and France are much greater 3 So than in England ; and yet its bite is much more trouble- some here than I have found it in any other place. It would seem that its force increases with the coldness of the climate ; and, though less prolific, that it became more predacious. 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 of four joints ; 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 adorned with a suit of polished sable armour, neatly jointed, and beset with multitudes of sharp pins, almost like the quills of a porcupine. It has six legs, the joints of which are so adapted, that it can, as it were, fold them up one within another ; and when it leaps, they all spring out at once, whereby its whole strength is exerted, and the body raised above two hun- dred times its own diameter. The young fleas are at first a sort of nits or eggs, which are round and smooth ; and from these 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 seek a place to lie hid in, where they spin a silken thread from their mouth, and with this they inclose themselves in a small round bag or case, as white within as writing-paper, but dirty without : in this they continue for a fortnight longer ; after which they burst from their confinement perfectly formed, and armed with powers to disturb the peace of an emperor. OF THE LOUSE AND ITS VARIETIES. The antipathies of mankind are various ; some consider- ing the toad, some the serpent, some the spider, and some the beetle, with a strong degree of detestation ; but while all wonder at the strangeness of each other’s aversions, they all seem to unite in their dislike to the louse, and regard it as their natural and most nauseous enemy. Indeed it seems the enemy of man in the most odious degree ; for wherever wretchedness, disease,' or hunger seize upon him, the louse seldom fails to add itself to tire tribe, and to increase in proportion to the number of his calamities. In examining the human louse with the microscope its external deformity first strikes us with disgust : the shape of the fore part of the head is somewhat oblong ; that of the hind part somewhat round: the skin is hard, and, being stretched, transparent, with here and there several bristly hairs : in the fore part is a proboscis or sucker, which is seldom visible ; on each side of the head are 3 D 2