The most intrusive, the most vexatious insect of the torrid zone, is the pique or chigre, which in other parts is known by the name of nigua. Uncleanly in the extreme, it searches the corrales, or pens, where pigs are enclosed, and multiplies infinitely in dirty situations. The heaps of rubbish, or sweepings and refuse from streets and houses, &c. are, as it were, in a state of effervescence with piques, which also follow the footsteps of man, pursuing relentlessly those with overgrown nails, and others who neglect cleanliness. Less than the flea, but of the same colour, it contrives to introduce itself inside shoes and stockings, and to lodge in the tenderest part of the foot,—in the sole, or under the nails: there it fixes itself, causing as much pain as would be occasioned by the point of a needle, and it secures its position so well as to render it very difficult of being detached. In attempting to remove it, the soft parts are often ill-treated by the instrument, which is either a needle or pin, commonly used for its extraction; and when, during the operation, the part acted upon becomes tinged with blood, the end of the matter is, that the pique, instead of being removed entire, is lacerated, and, the one-half only being taken away, the other is still left inserted under the skin, and there occasions more pain than at first. For this reason, those persons who are accustomed to piques keep very quiet when they observe that one of them has fixed itself under the epidermis or outer skin, and leave it undisturbed for a day or two: here it forms its nest; and is gradually metamorphosed into a white globe, of the appearance of a moderately-sized pearl. It holds on fast to the skin, by its mouth, at the point where it first adhered. Having attained maturity, it is in fact nothing else than a group of innumerable little eggs united by a white glutinous matter, and covered by a common envelope which encloses the whole. While growing, the pique scarcely causes inconvenience; but instantly it has acquired its due size, if not extracted, it gives rise to very stinging pain. Two or three days after its introduction it will have attained a sufficient growth for being removed. In the performance of this operation the negroes are most expert, on account of the constant practice they have in operating on themselves. With the point of a pin they carefully separate the epidermis under which the nigua is fixed, leaving it still attached by its reddish mouth; and then they thread or transfix it, and extract it in its globular form. Great care should be taken not to burst the bag or envelope of the insect at the time of extracting it, for otherwise several ova, equivalent to so many parasitic insects, are left to infest the foot; and besides, should part of the bag be left behind, pain and inflammation will supervene, followed by suppuration to cast off the foreign body. The hollow left after the pique is abstracted, is to be filled with snuff or the ashes of a cigar; as it stops any oozing of blood from the little wound, and assists in promoting the separation, or absorption, of any fragments of the envelope of the insect that may have remained behind; and by this means the pain is avoided which otherwise might arise if these parts were left to themselves, and allowed to slough off.
Without having recourse to the process of extraction, the piques may be destroyed by rubbing the spot where they nestle with mercurial ointment, or with a mixture of soap and oil: in either way they are killed, and consequently fall off in form of crust. Tepid oil applied to the parts injured during the extraction of the pique or nigua affords relief; and it is requisite that the person who has been operated upon take great care not to put his feet in cold water until the incision made in the skin be entirely healed; for otherwise there would be risk of inducing that fearful disease—locked jaw.
EXTINCT ANIMALS.
Notwithstanding the vast distance from one another at which different nations of the earth have been planted, it may yet be traced in their traditions that one great and glorious object had been seen in common by their forefathers, the image of which had been so impressed on their minds, that, when placed in analogous circumstances, it often recurred to their thoughts, and was always referred to, though under different appellations. Thus, in midst of the solemn and sublime apparatus of thunder and lightning, Jehovah descends to the summit of Sinai to give law to the Hebrews. This august and majestic image of the greatness of Divine power is soon after applied to Jupiter darting thunderbolts from the peak of Ida against the armies of Greece; and the Great Man[59] appears in like manner on the mountains of Ohio to exterminate with his darts a fierce animal, which desolated the fertile plains. So also, in former times, the Heavenly Angel came down to the summit of Santa Helena in Southern America, to crush and overwhelm a fierce and polluted race of giants, who, having entered these harbours from some unknown clime, devastated the land.[60]
The Indians of the one and the other hemisphere corroborate the truth of their traditions by being able to present the great molar teeth, or grinders, which are found under the surface of the earth in the places alluded to. In Peru, these teeth, with other bones of enormous magnitude, are found in the province of Chichas, near the tropic of Capricorn; and in Chile there are not wanting vestiges of the same sort of organic remains.
I have had in my possession four of these molar teeth, of which I yet preserve one in the library of the Medical College of San Fernando. When compared among themselves, I have judged, from their configuration, that they did not belong to the same fossil elephant; but, rather, that three pertained to the mammoth, and that one had belonged to the mastodonton of Cuvier: from which it is to be inferred that those very bulky animals, which in remote ages lived in Siberia and North America, had penetrated into Southern America, where they have left the natives, in the relics of their destruction, or fossil remains, a memorial of the existence and punishment of antediluvian giants.
The bony fragments which are considered to be parts of this gigantic race, may they not rather consist of earthy petrifactions in water impregnated with lime? Between the villages of Chorrillos and Miraflores, in the locality named Calera, water impregnated with lime is observed to percolate at the foot of the barranco, or broken bluff-land; and it deposits on the stones, over which it drips or passes, certain crusts or laminæ, which have the same appearance with the bony laminæ of the human skull.[61]