Grose, in his Antiquities, thus expresses this superstition: "The clicking of a Death-watch is an omen of the death of some one in the house wherein it is heard." Watts says: "We learn to presage approaching death in a family by ravens and little worms, which we therefore call a Death-watch." Gay, in one of his Pastorals, thus alludes to it:
When Blonzelind expired, . . . The solemn Death-watch click'd the hour she died.
And Train,
An' when she heard the Dead-watch tick, She raving wild did say, "I am thy murderer, my child; I see thee, come away."
And Pope,
Misers are muck-worms, silkworms beaux, And Death watches physicians.
"It will take," says Mrs. Taylor, a writer in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, "a force unknown at the present time to physiological science to eradicate the feeling of terror and apprehension felt by almost every one on hearing this small insect." She herself, an entomologist, confesses to have been very much annoyed at times by coming in contact with this "strange nuisance;" but she was cured by an over-application. "I went to pay a visit," says she, "to a friend in the country. The first night I fancied I should have gone mad before morning. The walls of the bed-room were papered, and from them beat, as it were, a thousand watches — tick, tick, tick! Turn which way I would, cover my head under the bedclothes to suffocation, every pulse in my body had an answering tick, tick, tick! But at last the welcome morning dawned, and early I was down in the library; even here every book, on shelf above shelf, was riotous with tick, tick, tick! At the breakfast table, beneath the plates, cups, and dishes, beat the hateful sound. In the parlor, the withdrawing-room, the kitchen, nothing but tick, tick! The house was a huge clock, with thousands of pendulums ticking from morning till night. I was careful not to allow my great discomfort to annoy others. I argued what they could tolerate, surely I could; and in a few days habit had rendered the fearful, dreaded ticking a positive necessity."
The Death-watch commences its clicking, which is nothing more than the call or signal by which the male and female are led to each other, chiefly when spring is far advanced. The sound is thus produced: Raising itself upon its hind legs, with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with great force and agility upon the plane of position. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats in succession is from seven to nine or eleven; which circumstance, thinks Mr. Shaw, may perhaps still add, in some degree, to the ominous character which it bears. These strokes follow each other quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole day.
Baxter, in his World of Spirits, p. 203, most sensibly observes, that "there are many things that ignorance causeth multitudes to take for prodigies. I have had many discreet friends that have been affrighted with the noise called a Death-watch, whereas I have since, near three years ago, oft found by trial that it is a noise made upon paper by a little, nimble, running worm, just like a louse, but whiter and quicker; and it is most usually behind a paper pasted to a wall, especially to wainscot; and it is rarely, if ever, heard but in the heat of summer." Our author, however, relapses immediately into his honest credulity, adding: "But he who can deny it to be a prodigy, which is recorded by Melchior Adamus, of a great and good man, who had a clock-watch that had layen in a chest many years unused; and when he lay dying, at eleven o'clock, of itself, in that chest, it struck eleven in the hearing of many."
In the British Apollo, 1710, ii. No. 86, is the following query: "Why Death-watches, crickets, and weasels do come more common against death than at any other time? A. We look upon all such things as idle superstitions, for were anything in them, bakers, brewers, inhabitants of old houses, &c., were in a melancholy condition."
To an inquiry, ibid. vol. ii. No. 70, concerning a Death-watch, whether you suppose it to be a living creature, answer is given: "It is nothing but a little worm in the wood."
"How many people have I seen in the most terrible palpitations, for months together, expecting every hour the approach of some calamity, only by a little worm, which breeds in old wainscot, and, endeavoring to eat its way out, makes a noise like the movement of a watch!" Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 61.
Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect from which this sound of terror proceeded, some attributing it to a kind of wood-louse, others to a spider.
M. Peignot mentions an instance where, in a public library that was but little frequented, twenty-seven folio volumes were perforated in a straight line by one and the same larva of a small insect (Anobium striatum?) in such a manner that, on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole made by the insect, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once.
Bostrichidae — Typographer-beetles.
The Typographer-beetle, Bostrichus typographus, is so called on account of a fancied resemblance between the paths it erodes and letters. This insect bores into the fir, and feeds upon the soft inner bark; and in such vast numbers that 80,000 are sometimes found in a single tree. The ravages of this insect have long been known in Germany under the name of Wurm trokniss — decay caused by worms; and in the old liturgies of that country the animal itself is formally mentioned under its common appellation, The Turk. About the year 1665, this pest was particularly prevalent and caused incalculable mischief. In the beginning of the last century it again showed itself in the Hartz forests; it reappeared in 1757, redoubled its injuries in 1769, and arrived at its height in 1783, when the number of trees destroyed by it in the above-mentioned forests alone was calculated at a million and a half, and the whole number of insects at work at once one hundred and twenty thousand millions. The inhabitants were threatened with a total suspension of the working of their mines, for want of fuel. At this period these Bostrichi, when arrived at their perfect state, migrated in swarms like bees into Swabia and Franconia. At length a succession of cold and moist seasons, between the years 1784 and 1789, very sensibly diminished the numbers of this scourge. In 1790 it again appeared, however, and so late as 1796 there was great reason to fear for the few fir-trees that were left.
Cantharidae — Blister-flies.
Many species of this family of insect possess strong vesicating powers, and are employed externally in medicine to produce blisters, and internally as a powerful stimulant. Taken internally, Pliny considered them a poison, and mentions the following instance of their causing death: Cossinus, a Roman of the Equestrian order, well known for his intimate friendship with the Emperor Nero, being attacked with lichen, that prince sent to Egypt for a physician to cure him; who recommended a potion prepared from Cantharides, and the patient was killed in consequence. But there is no doubt, however, Pliny adds, that applied externally they are useful, in combination with juice of Taminian grapes, and the suet of a sheep or she-goat. They are extremely efficacious, too, continues Pliny, for the cure of leprosy and lichens; and act as an emmenagogue and diuretic, for which last reason Hippocrates used to prescribe them for dropsy.
The vesicatory principle of the Blister-fly is called Cantharidine, and has been ascertained by experiment to reside more particularly in the wings than in other parts of the body. Our officinal insect is the Cantharis vesicatoria; and since the principal supply is from Spain, we call them commonly Spanish-flies. In Italy, the Mylabris cichorii, a native of the south of Europe, is used; and the M. pustulata, a native of China, is used by the Chinese, who also export it to Brazil, where it is the only species employed. In India also a species of Meloe is used, possessing all the properties of the Spanish-fly.
At one time in Germany, the genus Meloe — Oil-beetles (so called from their emitting from the joints of the legs an oily yellowish liquor, when alarmed) — were extolled as a specific against hydrophobia; and the oil which is expressed from them is used in Sweden, with great success, in the cure of rheumatism, by anointing the affected part. Dr. James thus enumerates the medicinal virtues of these insects: "The Oil-beetle (Scarabaeus unctuosus of Schroder) is much of the nature of Cantharides, forces urine and blood, and is of extraordinary efficacy against the bite of a mad dog. Taken in powder, it cures the vari, or wandering gout, as we are assured by Wierus. The liquor is, by some, esteemed of efficacy in wounds; it is an ingredient also in plaisters for the pestilential bubo and carbuncle, and in antidotes; an oil is prepared by infusion of the living animals in common oil, which some use instead of oil of Scorpions." In some parts of Spain, they are mingled with the Cantharides, for the same purposes as these latter insects. Farriers also employed, in some cases, oil in which these insects had been macerated.
Pliny tells us that Cato of Utica was one time reproached for selling poison, because when disposing of a royal property by auction, he sold a quantity of Cantharides, at the price of sixty thousand sesterces.
The natives of Guiana and Jamaica make ear-rings and other ornaments of the elytra, or wing-coverings, of the Cantharis maxima; the brilliant metallic colors of which beetles, says Sloane, sparkle with an extraordinary lustre, when worn by the Indians dancing in the sun.
Zoroaster says, that "Cantharides" will not hurt the vines, if you macerate some in oil, and apply it to the whetstone on which you are going to set your pruning-knives.
Cantharides are comparatively rare in Germany; yet we are told in the German Ephemerides, says Brookes, that in June, 1661, there were found about the town of Hildesheim, such a great number of them, that they covered all the willow-trees. Likewise that in May, 1685, when the sky was serene and the weather mild, a great number of Cantharides were seen to settle upon a privet-tree, and devour all the leaves; but they did not meddle with the flowers. We are also told that the country people expect the return of these insects every seven years. It is very certain, adds Brookes, that such a number of these insects have been together in the air, that they appeared like swarms of bees; and that they have so disagreeable smell, that it may be perceived a great way off, especially about sunset, though they are not seen at that time. This bad smell is a guide for those who make it their business to catch them.
Tenebrionidae — Meal-worms.
The larvae of the Tenebrio molitor, commonly called Meal-worms, which are found in carious wood, are bred by bird-fanciers, to feed nightingales, and constitute the only bait by which these shy birds can be taken: a fact the more curious when it is considered that the nightingale, in a state of nature, can seldom or never see these larvae. They are also used to feed cameleons which are exhibited.
Blapsidae — Church-yard beetle, etc.
We learn from Linnaeus that in Sweden the appearance of the Church-yard beetle, Blaps mortisaga, produces the most violent alarm and trepidation among the people, who, on account of its black hue and strange aspect, regard it as the messenger of pestilence and death. Hence is this insect called mortisaga — the prophesier of death.