Dr. Livingstone states that in the valley of Quango, S. Africa, the natives dig large white larvæ out of the damp soil adjacent to their streams, and use them as a relish to their vegetable diet.[225] In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there was published at Florence, by Prof. Gergi, the history of a remarkable insect which he names _Curculio anti-odontalgicus_. This insect, as he assures us, not only in the name he has given it, but also in an account of the many cures effected by it, is endowed with the singular property of curing the toothache. He tells us, that if fourteen or fifteen of the larvæ be rubbed between the thumb and fore-finger, till the fluid is absorbed, and if a carious aching tooth be but touched with the thumb or finger thus prepared, the pain will be removed; a finger thus prepared, he says in conclusion, will, unless it be used for tooth-touching, retain its virtue for a year! This remarkable insect is only found on a nondescript plant, the _Carduus spinosis-simus_.[226] It is said, also by Prof. Gergi, that the Tuscan peasants have long been acquainted with several insects which furnish a charm for the toothache, as the _Curculio jæcac_, _C. Bacchus_, and _Carabus chrysocephalus_. * * * * * The curious facts contained in the following quotation, from Chambers’ Book of Days, were among the first that led me to attempt the present compilation. The scientific name of the insect here mentioned is, in the opinion of Prof. Gill and other scientists, a misprint for _Rhynchitus auratus_, and, following this decision, I have here placed it under the _Curculionidæ_.--“A lawsuit between the inhabitants of the Commune of St. Julien and a coleopterous insect, now known to naturalists as the _Eynchitus aureus_, lasted for more than forty-two years. At length the inhabitants proposed to compromise the matter by giving up, in perpetuity, to the insects, a fertile part of the district for their sole use and benefit. Of course the advocate of the animals demurred to the proposition, but the court, overruling the demurrer, appointed assessors to survey the land, and, it proving to be well wooded and watered, and every way suitable for the insects, ordered the conveyance to be engrossed in due form and executed. The unfortunate people then thought they had got rid of a trouble imposed upon them by their litigious fathers and grandfathers; but they were sadly mistaken. It was discovered that there had formerly been a mine or quarry of an ochreous earth, used as a pigment, in the land conveyed to the insects, and though the quarry had long since been worked out and exhausted, some one possessed an ancient right of way to it, which if exercised would be greatly to the annoyance of the new proprietors. Consequently the contract was vitiated, and the whole process commenced _de novo_. How or when it ended, the mutilation of the recording documents prevents us