Volume 1

The natural history of insects / [James Rennie].

  • Rennie, James, 1787-1867.
Date:
1829-1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of insects / [James Rennie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Willan, in modem times, have recorded dreadful instances of the sufferings which they have inflicted upon the human race. They penetrate under the skin, and multiply in little tumors, which, when opened, swarm with these creatures. Mauffet states of the Lady Penruddock, that mites swarmed on every part of her body ; on the eyes, nose, gums, head, soles of the feet, putting her to daily and nightly torture ; so that all the flesh of her body being consumed, she at length had the happiness to die 1 It has been also asserted that the itch is caused by the presence of a mite. The insect, says Linnaeus, insinuates itself under the skin, and there produces a little vesicle from whence it never moves. An expe- rienced eye will readily detect its lurking place, and an experienced hand as readily remove it with the point of a pin. If it be placed on the nail it remains immoveable until warmed by the breath, when it rims witli great agility. Almost all the vegetable and animal matter used by man is infested by some species of this insect: dried meat, old bread, flour, sweetmeats, cheese, soon swarm with an extremely minute and active race of mites, any of which, when viewed with the microscope, appear covered with hair ; and, what is curious, each hair is as moveable as the quills of the porcupine: consequently in an animal invisible to the naked eye, it is probable that each hair has a muscle attached to it. These insects multiply both in winter and sum- mer, and as they arrive at perfection in a week, it may be imagined what myriads must be generated. In fact, to these little creatures is entrusted the task of clearing away much of the dead matter which