Christianity or advancing civilization! All the nations armed to the
teeth and watching stealthily for some occasion to use their vast
armaments for their own aggrandizement and for the injury of their
neighbors are Christian nations, but their Christian governments do not
exist for the good of the governed, still less for the good of humanity
or civilization, but for the aggrandizement and greed and lust of the
ruling classes.
The devastation caused by the tyrants and conquerors of the middle
ages and of antiquity has been reproduced in our times by the rush to
obtain wealth. Even the lust of conquest, in order to obtain slaves
and tribute and great estates, by means of which the ruling classes
could live in boundless luxury, so characteristic of the earlier
civilization, is reproduced in our time.
Witness the recent conduct of the nations of Europe toward Crete and
Greece, upholding the most terrible despotism in the world because each
hopes for a favorable opportunity to obtain some advantage, leading
ultimately to the largest share of the spoil.
Witness the struggles in Africa and Asia, where millions of foreign
people may be enslaved and bled for the benefit of their new rulers.
The whole world, says Wallace, is but a gambling table. Just as
gambling deteriorates and demoralizes the individual, so the greed
for dominion demoralizes governments. The welfare of the people is
little cared for, except so far as to make them submissive taxpayers,
enabling the ruling and moneyed classes to extend their sway over new
territories and to create well-paid places and exciting work for their
sons and relatives.
Hence, says Wallace, comes the force that ever urges on the increase
of armaments and the extension of empire. Great vested interests
are at stake, and ever-growing pressure is brought to bear upon the
too-willing governments in the name of the greatness of the country,
the extension of commerce, or the advance of civilization. This state
of things is not progress, but retrogression. It will be held by the
historian of the future to show that we of the nineteenth century were
morally and socially unfit to possess the enormous powers for good and
evil which the rapid advance of scientific discovery has given us,
that our boasted civilization was in many respects a mere superficial
veneer, and that our methods of government were not in accord with
either Christianity or civilization.
Comparing the conduct of these modern nations, who call themselves
Christian and civilized, with that of the Spanish conquerors of
the West Indies, Mexico, and Peru, and making some allowances for
differences of race and public opinion, Wallace says there is not much
to choose between them.
Wealth and territory and native labor were the real objects in both
cases, and if the Spaniards were more cruel by nature and more reckless
in their methods the results were much the same. In both cases the
country was conquered and thereafter occupied and governed by the
conquerors frankly for their own ends, and with little regard for
the feelings or the well-being of the conquered. If the Spaniards
exterminated the natives of the West Indies, we, he says, have done the
same thing in Tasmania and about the same in temperate Australia. Their
belief that they were really serving God in converting the heathen,
even at the point of the sword, was a genuine belief, shared by priests
and conquerors alike--not a mere sham as ours is when we defend our
conduct by the plea of "introducing the blessings of civilization."
It is quite possible, says Wallace, that both the conquest of Mexico
and Peru by the Spaniards and our conquest of South Africa may have
been real steps in advance, essential to human progress, and helping on
the future reign of true civilization and the well-being of the human
race. But if so, we have been and are unconscious agents in hastening
the "far-off divine event." We deserve no credit for it. Our aims have
been for the most part sordid and selfish, and our rule has often
been largely influenced and often entirely directed by the necessity
of finding well-paid places for young men with influence, and also by
the constant demands for fresh markets by the influential class of
merchants and manufacturers.
More general diffusion of the conviction that while all share the
burdens of war, such good as comes from it is appropriated by the few,
will no doubt do much to discourage wars; but we must ask whether there
may not be another incentive to war which Wallace does not give due
weight--whether love of fighting may not have something to do with wars.
As we look backward over history we are forced to ask whether the greed
and selfishness of the wealthy and influential and those who hope to
gain are the only causes of war. We went to war with Spain because our
people in general demanded war. If we have been carried further than
we intended and are now fighting for objects which we did not foresee
and may not approve, this is no more than history might have led us to
expect. War with Spain was popular with nearly all our people a year
ago, and, while wise counsels might have stemmed this popular tide,
there can be no doubt that it existed, for the evil passions of the
human race are the real cause of wars.
The great problem of the twentieth century, as of all that have gone
before, is the development of the wise and prudent self-restraint which
represses natural passions and appetites for the sake of higher and
better ends.
SPIDER BITES AND "KISSING BUGS."[2]
BY L. O. HOWARD,
CHIEF OF THE DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE.
On several occasions during the past ten years, and especially at
the Brooklyn meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science in 1894, the writer has endeavored to show that most of
the newspaper stories of deaths from spider bite are either grossly
exaggerated or based upon misinformation. He has failed to thoroughly
substantiate a single case of death from a so-called spider bite,
and has concluded that there is only one spider in the United States
which is capable of inflicting a serious bite--viz., _Latrodectus
mactans_, a species belonging to a genus of world-wide distribution,
the other species of which have universally a bad reputation among the
peoples whose country they inhabit. In spite of these conclusions, the
accuracy of which has been tested with great care, there occur in the
newspapers every year stories of spider bites of great seriousness,
often resulting in death or the amputation of a limb. The details of
negative evidence and of lack of positive evidence need not be entered
upon here, except in so far as to state that in the great majority
of these cases the spider supposed to have inflicted the bite is not
even seen, while in almost no case is the spider seen to inflict the
bite; and it is a well-known fact that there are practically no spiders
in our more northern States which are able to pierce the human skin,
except upon a portion of the body where the skin is especially delicate
and which is seldom exposed. There arises, then, the probability that
there are other insects capable of piercing tough skin, the results of
whose bites may be more or less painful, the wounds being attributed
to spiders on account of the universally bad reputation which these
arthropods seem to have.
[2] A paper read before Section F of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science at the Columbus meeting in August, 1899.
[Illustration: DIFFERENT STAGES OF CONORHINUS SANGUISUGUS. Twice
natural size. (After Marlatt.)]
These sentences formed the introduction to a paper read by the writer
at a meeting of the Entomological Society of Washington, held June
1st last. I went on to state that some of these insects are rather
well known, as, for example, the blood-sucking cone-nose (_Conorhinus
sanguisugus_) and the two-spotted corsairs (_Rasatus thoracicus_ and
_R. biguttatus_), both of which occur, however, most numerously in the
South and West, and then spoke of _Melanotestis picipes_, a species
which had been especially called to my attention by Mr. Frank M.
Jones, of Wilmington, Del., who submitted the report of the attending
physician in a case of two punctures by this insect inflicted upon
the thumb and forefinger of a middle-aged man in Delaware. I further
reported upon occasional somewhat severe results from the bites[3] of
the old _Reduvius personatus_, now placed in the genus _Opsicostes_,
and stated that a smaller species, _Coriscus subcoleoptratus_, had
bitten me rather severely under circumstances similar to some of those
which have given rise in the past to spider-bite stories. In the
course of the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, Mr.
Schwarz stated that twice during the present spring he had been bitten
rather severely by _Melanotestis picipes_ which had entered his room,
probably attracted by light. He described it as the worst biter among
heteropterous insects with which he had had any experience, and said
he thought it was commoner than usual in Washington during the present
year.
[3] When the word "bite" is used in connection with these bugs, it must
be remembered that it is really a puncture made with the sharp beak or
proboscis (see illustration).
No account of this meeting was published, but within a few weeks
thereafter several persons suffering from swollen faces visited the
Emergency Hospital in Washington and complained that they had been
bitten by some insect while asleep; that they did not see the insect,
and could not describe it. This happened during one of the temporary
periods when newspaper men are most actively engaged in hunting for
items. There was a dearth of news. These swollen faces offered an
opportunity for a good story, and thus began the "kissing-bug" scare
which has grown to such extraordinary proportions. I have received
the following letter and clipping from Mr. J. F. McElhone, of the
Washington Post, in reply to a request for information regarding the
origin of this curious epidemic:
"WASHINGTON, D. C., _August 14, 1899_.
"_Dr. L. O. Howard, Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C._
"DEAR SIR: Attached please find clipping from the Washington Post of
June 20, 1899, being the first story that ever appeared in print, so
far as I can learn, of the depredations of the _Melanotestis picipes_,
better known now as the kissing bug. In my rounds as police reporter of
the Post, I noticed, for two or three days before writing this story,
that the register of the Emergency Hospital of this city contained
unusually frequent notes of 'bug-bite' cases. Investigating, on the
evening of June 19th I learned from the hospital physicians that a
noticeable number of patients were applying daily for treatment for
very red and extensive swellings, usually on the lips, and apparently
the result of an insect bite. This led to the writing of the story
attached.
"Very truly yours, "James F. McElhone."
[Illustration:
The Washington Post.
TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1899.
BITE OF A STRANGE BUG.
Several Patients Have Appeared at the Hospitals Very Badly Poisoned.
Lookout for the new bug. It is an insidious insect that bites without
causing pain and escapes unnoticed. But afterward the place where it
has bitten swells to ten times its normal size. The Emergency Hospital
has had several victims of this insect as patients lately and the
number is increasing. Application for treatment by other victims are
being made at other hospitals, and the matter threatens to become
something like a plague. None of those who have been bitten saw the
insect whose sting proves so disastrous. One old negro went to sleep
and woke up to find both his eyes nearly closed by the swelling from
his nose and cheeks, where the insect had alighted. The lips seems to
be the favorite point of attack.
William Smith, a newspaper agent, of 327 Trumbull street, went to the
Emergency last night with his upper lip swollen to many times its
natural size. The symptoms are in every case the same, and there is
indication of poisoning from an insect's bite. The matter is beginning
to interest the physicians, and every patient who comes in with the now
well-known marks is closely questioned as to the description of the
insect. No one has yet been found who has seen it. ]
It would be an interesting computation for one to figure out the amount
of newspaper space which was filled in the succeeding two months by
items and articles about the "kissing bug." Other Washington newspapers
took the matter up. The New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore papers
soon followed suit. The epidemic spread east to Boston and west to
California. By "epidemic" is meant the _newspaper_ epidemic, for every
insect bite where the biter was not at once recognized was attributed
to the popular and somewhat mysterious creature which had been given
such an attractive name, and there can be no doubt that some mosquito,
flea, and bedbug bites which had by accident resulted in a greater than
the usual severity were attributed to the prevailing osculatory insect.
In Washington professional beggars seized the opportunity, and went
around from door to door with bandaged faces and hands, complaining
that they were poor men and had been thrown out of work by the results
of "kissing-bug" stings! One beggar came to the writer's door and
offered, in support of his plea, a card supposed to be signed by the
head surgeon of the Emergency Hospital. In a small town in central
New York a man arrested on the charge of swindling entered the plea
that he was temporarily insane owing to the bite of the "kissing
bug." Entomologists all through the East were also much overworked
answering questions asked them about the mysterious creature. Men of
local entomological reputations were applied to by newspaper reporters,
by their friends, by people who knew them, in church, on the street,
and under all conceivable circumstances. Editorials were written about
it. Even the Scientific American published a two-column article on
the subject; and, while no international complications have resulted
as yet, the kissing bug, in its own way and in the short space of two
months, produced almost as much of a scare as did the San José scale in
its five years of Eastern excitement. Now, however, the newspapers have
had their fun, the necessary amount of space has been filled, and the
subject has assumed a castaneous hue, to Latinize the slang of a few
years back.
The experience has been a most interesting one. To the reader familiar
with the old accounts of the hysterical craze of south Europe,
based upon supposed tarantula bites, there can not fail to come the
suggestion that we have had in miniature and in modernized form,
aided largely by the newspapers, a hysterical craze of much the same
character. From the medical and psychological point of view this aspect
is interesting, and deserves investigation by competent persons.
As an entomologist, however, the writer confines himself to the actual
authors of the bites so far as he has been able to determine them. It
seems undoubtedly true that while there has been a great cry there
has been very little wool. It is undoubtedly true, also, that there
have been a certain number of bites by heteropterous insects, some
of which have resulted in considerable swelling. It seems true that
_Melanotestis picipes_ and _Opsicostes personatus_ have been more
numerous than usual this year, at least around Washington. They have
been captured in a number of instances while biting people, and have
been brought to the writer's office for determination in such a way
that there can be no doubt about the accuracy of this statement. As
the story went West, bites by _Conorhinus sanguisuga_ and _Rasatus
thoracicus_ were without doubt termed "kissing-bug" bites. With regard
to other cases, the writer has known of an instance where the mosquito
bite upon the lip of a sleeping child produced a very considerable
swelling. Therefore he argues that many of these reported cases may
have been nothing more than mosquito bites. With nervous and excitable
individuals the symptoms of any skin puncture become exaggerated not
only in the mind of the individual but in their actual characteristics,
and not only does this refer to cases of skin puncture but to certain
skin eruptions, and to some of those early summer skin troubles which
are known as strawberry rash, etc. It is in this aspect of the subject
that the resemblance to tarantulism comes in, and this is the result of
the hysterical wave, if it may be so termed.
Six different heteropterous insects were mentioned in the early part
of this article, and it will be appropriate to give each of them
some little detailed consideration, taking the species of Eastern
distribution first, since the scare had its origin in the East, and has
there perhaps been more fully exploited.
[Illustration: MELANOTESTIS ABDOMINALIS. Female at right; male at left,
with enlarged beak at side. Twice natural size. (Original.)]
[Illustration: HEAD AND PROBOSCIS OF CONORHINUS SANGUISUGUS. (After
Marlatt.)]
_Opsicostes personatus_, also known as _Reduvius personatus_, and which
has been termed the "cannibal bug," is a European species introduced
into this country at some unknown date, but possibly following close in
the wake of the bedbug. In Europe this species haunts houses for the
purpose of preying upon bedbugs. Riley, in his well-known article on
Poisonous Insects, published in Wood's Reference Handbook of Medical
Science, states that if a fly or another insect is offered to the
cannibal bug it is first touched with the antennæ, a sudden spring
follows, and at the same time the beak is thrust into the prey. The
young specimens are covered with a glutinous substance, to which
bits of dirt and dust adhere. They move deliberately, with a long
pause between each step, the step being taken in a jerky manner. The
distribution of the species, as given by Reuter in his Monograph of the
Genus _Reduvius_, is Europe to the middle of Sweden, Caucasia, Asia
Minor, Algeria, Madeira; North America, Canada, New York, Philadelphia,
Indiana; Tasmania, Australia--from which it appears that the insect is
already practically cosmopolitan, and in fact may almost be termed
a household insect. The collections of the United States National
Museum and of Messrs. Heidemann and Chittenden, of Washington, D. C.,
indicate the following localities for this species: Locust Hill, Va.;
Washington, D. C.; Baltimore, Md.; Ithaca, N. Y.; Cleveland, Ohio;
Keokuk, Iowa.
[Illustration: CORISCUS SUBCOLEOPTRATUS: _a_, wingless form; _b_,
winged form; _c_, proboscis. All twice natural size. (Original.)]
The bite of this species is said to be very painful, more so than that
of a bee, and to be followed by numbness (Lintner). One of the cases
brought to the writer's attention this summer was that of a Swedish
servant girl, in which the insect was caught, where the sting was
upon the neck, and was followed by considerable swelling. Le Conte,
in describing it under the synonymical name _Reduvius pungens_, gives
Georgia as the locality, and makes the following statement: "This
species is remarkable for the intense pain caused by its bite. I do not
know whether it ever willingly plunges its rostrum into any person, but
when caught or unskillfully handled it always stings. In this case the
pain is almost equal to that of the bite of a snake, and the swelling
and irritation which result from it will sometimes last for a week. In
very weak and irritable constitutions it may even prove fatal."[4]
[4] Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,
vol. vii, p. 404, 1854-'55.
The second Eastern species is _Melanotestis picipes_. This and the
closely allied and possibly identical _M. abdominalis_ are not rare in
the United States, and have been found all along the Atlantic States,
in the West and South, and also in Mexico. They live underneath stones
and logs, and run swiftly. Both sexes of _M. picipes_ in the adult
are fully winged, but the female of _M. abdominalis_ is usually found
in the short-winged condition. Prof. P. R. Uhler writes (in litt.):
"_Melanotestis abdominalis_ is not rare in this section (Baltimore),
but the winged female is a great rarity. At the present time I have not
a specimen of the winged female in my collection. I have seen specimens
from the South, in North Carolina and Florida, but I do not remember
one from Maryland. I am satisfied that _M. picipes_ is distinct from
_M. abdominalis_. I have not known the two species to unite sexually,
but I have seen them both united to their proper consorts. Both species
are sometimes found under the same flat stone or log, and they both
hibernate in our valleys beneath stones and rubbish in loamy soils."
Specimens in Washington collections show the following localities
for _M. abdominalis_: Baltimore, Md.; Washington, D. C.; Wilmington,
Del.; New Jersey; Long Island; Fort Bliss, Texas; Louisiana; and
Keokuk, Iowa;, and for _M. picipes_, Washington, D. C.; Roslyn, Va.;
Baltimore, Md.; Derby, Conn.; Long Island; a series labeled New Jersey;
Wilmington, Del.; Keokuk, Iowa; Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio;
Louisiana; Jackson, Miss.; Barton County, Mo.; Fort Bliss, Texas; San
Antonio, Texas; Crescent City, Fla.; Holland, S. C.
This insect has been mentioned several times in entomological
literature. The first reference to its bite probably was made by
Townend Glover in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture
for 1875 (page 130). In Maryland, he states, _M. picipes_ is found
under stones, moss, logs of wood, etc., and is capable of inflicting a
severe wound with its rostrum or piercer. In 1888 Dr. Lintner, in his
Fourth Report as State Entomologist of New York (page 110), quotes from
a correspondent in Natchez, Miss., concerning this insect: "I send a
specimen of a fly not known to us here. A few days ago it punctured the
finger of my wife, inflicting a painful sting. The swelling was rapid,
and for several days the wound was quite annoying." Until recent years
this insect has not been known to the writer as occurring in houses
with any degree of frequency. In May, 1895, however, I received a
specimen from an esteemed correspondent--Dr. J. M. Shaffer, of Keokuk,
Iowa--together with a letter written on May 7th, in which the statement
was made that four specimens flew into his window the night before. The
insect, therefore, is attracted to light or is becoming attracted to
light, is a night-flier, and enters houses through open windows. Among
the several cases coming under the writer's observation of bites by
this insect, one has been reported by the well-known entomologist Mr.
Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in which this species (_M. picipes_)
bit a man on the back of the hand, making a bad sore. In another case,
where the insect was brought for our determination and proved to be
this species, the bite was upon the cheek, and the swelling was said to
be great, but with little pain. In a third case, occurring at Holland,
S. C., the symptoms were more serious. The patient was bitten upon
the end of the middle finger, and stated that the first paroxysm of
pain was about like that resulting from a hornet or a bee sting, but
almost immediately it grew ten times more painful, with a feeling of
weakness followed by vomiting. The pain was felt to shoot up the arm to
the under jaw, and the sickness lasted for a number of days. A fourth
case, at Fort Bliss, Texas, is interesting as having occurred in bed.
The patient was bitten on the hand, with very painful results and bad
swelling.
The third of the Eastern species, _Coriscus subcoleoptratus_, is said
by Uhler to have a general distribution in the Northern States, and is
like the species immediately preceding a native insect. There is no
record of any bite by this species, and it is introduced here for the
reason that it attracted the writer's attention crawling upon the walls
of an earth closet in Greene County, New York, where on one occasion it
bit him between the fingers. The pain was sharp, like the prick of a
pin, but only a faint swelling followed, and no further inconvenience.
The insect is mentioned, however, for the reason that, occurring in
such situations, it is one of the forms which are liable to carry
pathogenic bacteria.
[Illustration: RASATUS BIGUTTATUS. Twice natural size. (Original.)]