dye, which was used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians; for it is
employed by the Syrian translator.[898] Among the Jews, after their
captivity, the Aramæan _zehori_ was more common. This dye was known also
to the Egyptians in the time of Moses; and it is most probable that the
color mentioned in Exodus[899] as one of the three which were prescribed
for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the “holy garments” of
Aaron, and which the English translators have rendered by the word
_scarlet_ (not the color now so called, which was not known in James the
First’s reign when the Bible was translated), was no other than the
blood-red color dyed from the _Coccus ilicis_.
The Arabs received the name _Kermes_ or _Alkermes_ for the insect and
dye, from Armenia and Persia, where the insect was indigenous, and had
long been known; and that name banished the old name in the East, as the
name scarlet has in the West. For the first part of this assertion we
must believe the Arabs. The Kermes, however, were not indigenous to
Arabia, as the Arabs appear to have no name for them. To the Greeks this
dye was known under the name of _Coccus_, as appears from Dioscorides,
and other Greek writers.[900]
From the epithets _kermes_ and _coccus_, and that of _vermiculus_ or
_vermiculum_, given to the Kermes in the middle ages, when they were
ascertained to be insects, have sprung the Latin _coccineus_, the French
_carmesin_, _carmine_, _cramoisi_ and _vermeil_, the Italian _chermisi_,
_cremisino_, and _chermesino_, and our _crimson_ and _vermilion_.
The imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries were
derived from the Kermes; and, in short, previous to the discovery of
cochineal, this was the material universally used for dyeing the most
brilliant red then known. At the present time the Kermes are only
gathered in Europe by the peasantry of the provinces in which they are
found, but they still continue to be employed as of old in a great part
of India and Persia.[901]
Brookes says the women gather the harvest of Kermes insects before
sunrise, tearing them off with their nails; and, for fear there should
be any loss from the hatching of the insects, they sprinkle them with
vinegar. They then lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red
color.[902]
The scarlet grain of Poland, _Coccus polonicus_, found on the German
knot-grass or perennial knawel (_Scleranthus perennis_), was at one time
collected in large quantities in the Ukraine and other provinces of
Poland (here under the name of _Czerwiec_), and also in the great duchy
of Lithuania. But though much esteemed and still employed by the Turks
and Armenians for dyeing wool, silk, and hair, as well as for staining
the nails of women’s fingers, it is now rarely used in Europe except by
the Polish peasantry. A similar neglect has attended the Coccus found on
the roots of the Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_, Linn.), which was used,
particularly by the Moors, for dyeing wool and silk a rose color; and
the _Coccus uvæ-ursi_, which with alum affords a crimson dye.[903]
Cochineal, the _Coccus cacti_, is doubtless the most valuable product
for which the dyer is indebted to insects, and with the exception
perhaps of indigo, the most important of dyeing materials. It is found
on a kind of fig, called in Mexico, where the insect is produced in any
quantity, Nopal or Tuna, which generally has been supposed to be the
_Cactus cochinilifer_, but according to Humboldt is unquestionably a
distinct species, which bears fruit internally white.
Cochineal was discovered by the Spaniards, on their first arrival in
Mexico, about the year 1518; but who first remarked this valuable
production, and made it known in Europe, Mr. Beckman says, he has been
unable to discover. Some assert that the native Mexicans, before the
landing of Cortes, were acquainted with cochineal, which they employed
in painting their houses and dyeing their clothes; but others maintain
the contrary. Be that as it may, however, the Spanish ministry, as early
as the year 1523, as Herrera informs us, ordered Cortes to take measures
for multiplying this valuable commodity; and soon after it must have
begun to be quite an object of commerce, for Guicciardini, who died in
1589, mentions it among the articles procured then by the merchants of
Antwerp from Spain.
Professor Beckman, who has given the subject particular attention,
thinks that with the first cochineal, a true account of the manner in
which it was procured must have reached Europe, and become publicly
known. Acosta in 1530, and Herrera in 1601, as well as Hernandez and
others, gave so true and complete a description of it, that the
Europeans could entertain no doubt respecting its origin. The
information of these authors, however, continues this gentleman, was
either overlooked or considered as false, and disputes arose whether
cochineal was insects or worms, or the berries or seeds of certain
plants. The Spanish name _grana_, confounded with _granum_, may have
given rise to this contest.
Illustrative of this great difference of opinion, Mr. Beckman narrates
the following anecdote: “A Dutchman, named Melchior de Ruusscher,
affirmed in a society, from oral information he had received in Spain,
that cochineal was small animals. Another person, whose name he has not
made known, maintained the contrary with so much heat and violence, that
the dispute at length ended in a bet. Ruusscher charged a Spaniard, one
of his friends, who was going to Mexico, to procure for him in that
country authentic proofs of what he had asserted. These proofs, legally
confirmed in October, 1725, by the court of justice in the city of
Antiquera, in the valley of Oaxaca, arrived at Amsterdam in the autumn
of the year 1726. I have been informed that Ruusscher upon this got
possession of the sum betted, which amounted to the whole property of
the loser; but that, after keeping it a certain time, he again returned
it, deducting only the expenses he had been at in procuring the
evidence, and in causing it to be published. It formed a small octavo
volume, with the following title printed in red letters: _The History of
Cochineal proved by Authentic documents_. These proofs sent from
New-Spain are written in Dutch, French, and Spanish.”[904]
Among the important discoveries made by accident, the following in the
history of Cochineal may be instanced: “The well-known Cornelius
Drebbel, who was born at Alcmaar, and died at London in 1634, having
placed in his window an extract of Cochineal, made with boiling water,
for the purpose of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped into
it from a phial, broken by accident, which stood above it, and converted
the purple dye into a most beautiful dark red. After some conjectures
and experiments, he discovered that the tin by which the window frame
was divided into squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was
the cause of this change. He communicated his observation to Kuffelar,
an ingenious dyer at Leyden. The latter brought the discovery to
perfection, and employed it some years alone in his dye-house, which
gave rise to the name of Kuffelar’s color.”[905]
That innocent cosmetic, so much used by the ladies, and commonly known
by the French term Rouge, is no other than a preparation of
Cochineal.[906]
Kermes-berries, _Coccus ilicis_, and Cochineal, _C. cacti_, Geoffroy
says, “are esteemed to be greatly cordial and sudorific, being very full
of volatile salt. They are given also to prevent abortion from any
strain or hurt.”[907]
_Lac_ is the produce of an insect supposed by Amatus Lusitanus to be a
kind of ant, and by others a bee, but now ascertained to be a species
belonging to the Coccidæ--the _Coccus ficus_ or _C. lacca_. It is
collected from various trees in India, where it is found so abundantly,
that, were the consumption ten times greater than it is, it could be
readily supplied.
Lac is known in Europe by the different appellations of _stick-lac_,
when in its natural state, adhering to, and often completely
surrounding, for five or six inches, the twigs on which it is produced
by the insects contained in its cells; _seed-lac_, when broken into
small pieces, garbled, and the greater part of the coloring matter
extracted by water; when it appears in a granulated form; _lump-lac_,
when melted and made into cakes; and _shell-lac_, when strained and
formed into transparent laminæ.
Lac, in its different forms, is made use of in the manufacture of
varnishes, japanned ware, sealing-wax, beads, rings, arm-bracelets,
necklaces, water-proof hats, etc., etc. Mixed with fine sand it forms
grindstones; and added to lamp or ivory black, being first dissolved in
water with the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not easily
acted upon by dampness or water. It has been applied also to a still
more important purpose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh about the
year 1790--that of a substitute for Cochineal in dyeing scarlet.[908]
From this suggestion, under the direction of Dr. Bancroft, large
quantities of a substance termed _lac-lake_, consisting of the coloring
matter of stick-lac precipitated from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were
manufactured at Calcutta and sent to England, where at first the
consumption was so great, that, according to the statement of Dr.
Bancroft, in 1806, and the two following years, the sales of it at the
India House equaled in point of coloring matter half a million of
pounds’ weight of Cochineal. Soon after this, a new preparation of lac
color, under the name of _lac-dye_, was substituted for the lac-lake,
and with such advantage, that in a few months £14,000 were saved by the
East India Company in the purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this
color and Cochineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the color
obtained.[909]
The Coccidæ, although they furnish an invaluable dye and many articles
of commerce, are among the most hurtful of insects in gardens and
hot-houses. In 1843, the orange-trees of the Azores or Western Islands
were nearly entirely destroyed by the _Coccus Hesperidum_; and in Fayal,
an island which had usually exported twelve thousand chests of oranges
annually, not one was exported.[910]
ORDER VIII.
HETEROPTERA.
Cimicidæ--Bed-bugs.
“In the year 1503,” says Moufet, “Dr. Penny was called in great haste to
a little village, called Mortlake, near the Thames, to visit two noble
ladies (_duas nobiles_), who were much frightened by the appearance of
bug-bites (_ex cinicum vestigiis_), and were in fear of I know not what
contagion; but when the matter was known, and the insects caught, he
laughed them out of all fear.”[911]
This fact disproves the statement of Southall, that the _Cimex
lectularius_ was not known in England before 1670, and that of Linnæus,
and the generality of later writers, that this insect is not originally
a native of Europe, but was introduced into England after the great fire
of London in 1666, having been brought in timber from America.
The original English names of the _C. lectularius_, were _Chinche_,
_Wall-louse_, and _Punaise_ (from the French); and the term _Bug_, which
is a Celtic word, signifying a ghost or goblin, was applied to them
after the time of Ray,[912] most probably because they were considered
as “terrors of the night.”[913]
In the Nicholson’s Journal[914] there is mention of a man who, far from
disliking Bed-bugs, took them under his protecting care, and would never
suffer them to be disturbed, or his bedsteads removed, till in the end
they swarmed to an incredible degree, crawling up even the walls of his
drawing-room; and after his death millions were found in his bed and
chamber furniture.
Gemelli, in 1695, visited the Banian hospital at Surat, and says that
what amazed him most, though he went there for that express purpose, was
to see “a poor wretch, naked, bound down hands and feet, to feed the
Bugs or Punaises, brought out of their stinking holes for that
purpose.”[915]
Mr. Forbes, speaking of this remarkable institution for animals, says:
“At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats,
monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds. The most
extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats and mice, Bugs, and
other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire
beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night among
the Fleas, Lice, and Bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to
enjoy their feast without molestation.”[916]
Navarette says that a species of Bugs (most probably a _Cimex_), which
swarm in some parts of China, are a source of great amusement to the
natives; for they take particular delight in killing them with their
fingers, and then clapping them to their noses.[917]
Democritus says that the feet of a hare, or of a stag, hung round the
feet of the bed at the bottom of the couch, does not suffer Bugs to
breed; but, in traveling, Didymus adds, if you fill a vessel with cold
water and set it under the bed, they will not touch you when you are
asleep.[918]
A superstition prevails among us that beds, in order to rid them
effectually of Bugs, must be cleaned during the dark of the moon.
The medicinal virtues of the Cimex are given by Pliny (doubtless quoting
Dioscorides, ii. 36) as follows: “The Bug is said to be a neutralizer of
the venom of serpents, asps in particular, and to be a preservative
against all kinds of poisons. As a proof of this, they tell us that the
sting of an asp is never fatal to poultry, if they have eaten Bugs that
day; and that, if such is the case, their flesh is remarkably
beneficial to persons who have been stung by serpents. Of the various
recipes given in reference to these insects, the least revolting are the
application of them externally to the wound, with the blood of a
tortoise; the employment of them as a fumigation to make leeches loose
their hold; and the administering of them to animals in drink when a
leech has been accidentally swallowed. Some persons, however, go so far
as to crush Bugs with salt and woman’s milk, and anoint the eyes with
the mixture; in combination, too, with honey and oil of roses, they use
them as an injection for the ears. Field-bugs, again, and those found
upon the mallow (perhaps the _Cimex pratensis_ is meant here; neither
this nor the _Cimex juniperinus_, the _C. brassicæ_, or the _Lygæus
hyoscami_, has the offensive smell of the _C. lectularius_) are burnt,
and the ashes mixed with oil of roses as an injection for the ears.
“As to the other remedial virtues attributed to Bugs for the cure of
vomiting, quartan fevers, and other diseases, although we find
recommendations given to swallow them in an egg, some wax, or in a
bean,[919] I look upon them as utterly unfounded, and not worthy of
further notice. They are employed, however, for the treatment of
lethargy, and with some fair reason, as they successfully neutralize the
narcotic effects of the poison of the asp; for this purpose seven of
them are administered in a cyathus of water; but in the case of
children, only four. In cases, too, of strangury they have been injected
into the urinary channel.[920] So true it is that nature, that universal
parent, has engendered nothing without some powerful reason or other. In
addition to these particulars, a couple of Bugs, it is said, attached to
the left arm in some wool that has been stolen from the shepherds, will
effectually cure nocturnal fevers; while those recurrent in the daytime
may be treated with equal success by inclosing the Bugs in a piece of
russet-colored cloth.”[921]
Guettard, a French commentator on Pliny, recommends Bugs to be taken
internally for hysteria; and Dr. James says “the smell of them relieves
under hysterical suffocations!”[922]
At the present time the Bed-bug is sometimes given by the country people
of Ohio as a cure for the fever and ague.
Moufet says: “The verses of Quintus Serenus show that they are good for
tertian agues:
Shame not to drink three Wall-lice mixt with wine,
And garlick bruised together at noon-day.
Moreover a bruised Wall-louse with an egg, repine
Not for to take, ’tis loathsome, yet full good I say.
“Gesner in his writings confirms this experiment, having made trial of
it among the common and meaner sort of people in the country. The
ancients gave seven to those that were taken with a lethargy, in a cup
of water, and four to children. Pliny and Serenus consent to this in
these verses:
Some men prescribe seven Wall-lice for to drink,
Mingled with water, and one cup they think
Is better than with drowsy death to sink.”[923]
Anatolius says that if an ox, or other quadruped, swallows a leech in
drinking, having pounded some Bugs, let the animal smell them, and he
immediately throws up the leech.[924]
Mr. Mayhew, in his work on the London poor and their labor, has an
interesting chapter devoted to the Destroyers of Vermin, from which we
have taken the liberty of quoting pretty largely in the course of this
work. His statements can be relied on, and we give them as nearly in his
own words as possible. Concerning Bugs and Fleas, and the trade carried
on in the manufacture and vending of poisons to destroy these pests, we
learn from him: The vending of bug-poison in the London streets is
seldom followed as a regular source of living. He has met with persons
who remembered to have seen men selling packets of vermin poison; but to
find out the venders themselves was next to an impossibility. The men
seem to take merely to the business as a living when all other sources
have failed. All, however, agree in acknowledging that there is such a
street trade; but that the living it affords is so precarious that few
men stop at it longer than two or three weeks.
The most eminent firm, perhaps, of the bug-destroyers in London now is
that of Messrs. Tiffin and Son. They have pursued their calling in the
streets, but now rejoice in the title of “Bug-Destroyers to Her Majesty
and the Royal Family.”
Mr. Tiffin, the senior party in this house, kindly obliged Mr. Mayhew
with the following statement. It may be as well to say that Mr. Tiffin
appears to have paid much attention to the subject of Bugs, and has
studied with much earnestness the natural history of this vermin. He
said:
“We can trace our business back as far as 1695, when one of our
ancestors first turned his attention to the destruction of bugs. He was
a lady’s stay-maker--men used to make them in those days, though, as far
back as that is concerned, it was a man that made my mother’s dresses.
This ancestor found some bugs in his house--a young colony of them, that
had introduced themselves without his permission, and he didn’t like
their company, so he tried to turn them out of doors again, I have heard
it said, in various ways. It is in history, and it has been handed down
in my own family as well, that bugs were first introduced into England,
after the fire in London, in the timber that was brought for the
rebuilding of the city, thirty years after the fire, and it was about
that time that my ancestor first discovered the colony of bugs in his
house. I can’t say whether he studied the subject of bug-destroying, or
whether he found out his stuff by accident, but he certainly _did_
invent a compound which completely destroyed the bugs, and, having been
so successful in his own house, he named it to some of his customers who
were similarly plagued, and that was the commencement of the present
connection, which has continued up to this time.
“At the time of the illumination for the Peace, I thought I must have
something over my shop, that would be both suitable for the event and to
my business; so I had a transparency done, and stretched on a big frame,
and lit up by gas, on which was written
MAY THE
DESTROYERS OF PEACE
BE DESTROYED BY US.
TIFFIN & SON,
BUG-DESTROYERS TO HER MAJESTY.
“Our business was formerly carried on in the Strand, where both my
father and myself were born; in fact, I may say I was born to the bug
business.
“I remember my father as well as possible; indeed, I worked with him for
ten or eleven years. He used, when I was a boy, to go out to his work
killing bugs at his customers’ houses with a sword by his side and a
cocked-hat and bag-wig on his head--in fact, dressed up like a regular
dandy. I remember my grandmother, too, when she was in the business,
going to the different houses, and seating herself in a chair, and
telling the men what they were to do, to clean the furniture and wash
the woodwork.
“I have customers in our books for whom our house has worked these 150
years; that is, my father and self have worked for them and their
fathers. We do the work by contract, examining the house every year.
It’s a precaution to keep the place comfortable. You see, servants are
apt to bring bugs in their boxes; and, though there may be only two or
three bugs perhaps hidden in the woodwork and the clothes, yet they soon
breed if let alone.
“We generally go in the spring, before the bugs lay their eggs; or, if
that time passes, it ought to be done before June, before their eggs are
hatched, though it’s never too late to get rid of a nuisance.
“I mostly find the bugs in the bedsteads. But, if they are left
unmolested, they get numerous and climb to the tops of the rooms, and
about the corners of the ceilings. They colonize anywhere they can,
though they’re very high-minded and prefer lofty places. Where iron
bedsteads are used, the bugs are more in the _rooms_, and that’s why
such things are bad. They don’t keep a bug away from a person sleeping.
Bugs’ll come if they’re thirty yards off.
“I knew a case of a bug who used to come every night about thirty or
forty feet--it was an immense large room--from the corner of the room
to visit an old lady. There was only one bug, and he’d been there for a
long time. I was sent for to find him out. It took me a long time to
catch him. In that instance I had to examine every part of the room, and
when I got him I gave him an extra nip to serve him out. The reason why
I was so bothered was, the bug had hidden itself near the window, the
last place I should have thought of looking for him, for a bug never, by
choice, faces the light; but when I came to inquire about it, I found
that this old lady never rose till three o’clock in the day, and the
window-curtains were always drawn, so that there was no light like.
“Lord! yes, I am often sent for to catch a single bug. I’ve had to go
many, many miles--even 100 or 200--into the country, and perhaps only
catch half a dozen bugs after all; but then that’s all that are there,
so it answers our employer’s purpose as well as if they were swarming.
“I work for the upper classes only; that is, for carriage-company and
such like approaching it, you know. I have noblemen’s names, the first
in England, on my books.
“My work is more method; and I may call it a scientific treating of the
bugs rather than wholesale murder. We don’t care about the thousands,
it’s the last bug we look for, whilst your carpenters and upholsterers
leave as many behind them, perhaps, as they manage to catch.
“The bite of the bug is very curious. They bite all persons the same
(?); but the difference of effect lies in the constitutions of the
parties. I’ve never noticed that a different kind of skin makes any
difference in being bitten. Whether the skin is moist or dry, it don’t
matter. Wherever bugs are, the person sleeping in the bed is sure to be
fed on, whether they are marked or not; and as a proof, when nobody has
slept in the bed for some time, the bugs become quite flat; and, on the
contrary, when the bed is always occupied, they are round as a
lady-bird.
“The flat bug is more ravenous, though even he will allow you time to go
to sleep before he begins with you; or at least till he thinks you ought
to be asleep. When they find all quiet, not even a light in the room
will prevent their biting; but they are seldom or never found under the
bedclothes. They like a clear ground to get off, and generally bite
round the edges of the nightcap or the nightdress. When they are found
_in_ the bed, it’s because the parties have been tossing about, and
have curled the sheets round the bugs.
“The finest and fattest bugs I ever saw were those I found in a black
man’s bed. He was the favorite servant of an Indian general. He didn’t
want his bed done by me; he didn’t want it touched. His bed was full of
’em, no beehive was ever fuller. The walls and all were the same, there
wasn’t a patch that was not crammed with them. He must have taken them
all over the house wherever he went.