Vermin

“ The inconvenience of vermin he remedies without a comb, by plaistering up his hair with clay, which being dried on the head, and then washed with soap and water, makes him clean beyond conception; his teeth are constantly kept as white as ivory; for this purpose he uses nothing but a sprig of orange-tree, bitten at one end, until the fibres resemble a small brush; and no negro, male or female, is to be seen without this little instrument, which has besides the virtue of sweetening the breath. ”

“ She had extensive sores on her legs, and her stockings were adherent to those sores. The sores were the result of vermin.”
A man present at the inquest wrote: “I had the evil fortune to see the body of the unfortunate woman as it lay in the mortuary; and even now the memory of that gruesome sight makes me shudder. There she lay in the mortuary shell, so starved and emaciated that she was a mere bundle of skin and bones. Her hair, which was matted with filth, was simply a nest of vermin. Over her bony chest leaped and rolled hundreds, thousands, myriads of vermin!” ”

“ Vermin had become unusually numerous in the valley, partly because in the mild winter their food had been sufficient, and partly because the keeper, feeble with old age, could no longer shoot and trap them with the deadly certainty that had made him famous in his younger days. Bold in the care of their young, the vermin ravaged the countryside, preying everywhere on the weak and ailing little children of Nature. But fate was indulgent to Kweek ”

“ The advantage of a naked skin being the greater freedom it gives from ticks, lice and other vermin, the advantage is especially great for a domestic animal living in the huts of savages, where, because they are inhabited year after year, vermin are extraordinarily abundant. The naked dog, then, differs from tropical quadrupeds which are adapted from a dateless antiquity to such vermin as infest them, by having been thrown by human companionship amongst not only strange vermin, but vermin in extraordinarily dense aggregation. ”

“ Vermin. Now always noxious offensive animals of the smaller kind, but employed formerly with no such limitation.
But he shouke of the vermen into the fyre and felt no harme.—Acts xxviii. 5. Geneva Version.
This crocodile is a mischievous four-footed beast, a dangerous vermin used to both elements.—Holland, Ammianus, p. 212.
Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and vermin [καὶ τὰ θηρία] , and worms, and fowls of the air.—Acts x. 12. Geneva.
The Lord rectifies Peter, and frames him to go by a vision of all crawling vermin in a clean sheet.—Rogers, Naaman the Syrian, p. 42. ”

“ A curious circumstance has come under my observation regarding Herons. Birds in poor condition are very much infested with vermin; whether the vermin are the cause or effect of the poor condition, I do not know ”

“ To guard against the vermin, they anoint their arms, thighs, and legs with an ointment made of a thing called limons, which is a kind of fruit like small pease, and then they have no dread of cockodrills, or other venomous things. ”

“ These are the vermin that infest his crops and his cattle. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer has recourse to many superstitious devices, of which, though some are meant to destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at propitiating them and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of the earth and the herds. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the island of Oesel, stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which is exceedingly destructive to the grain. ”

“ Watch most narrowly, and ward off or destroy all {171} kinds of vermin, mice, snails, birds, till the time when the rising braird has disencumbered itself of the husk of the seed thrown up by the ascending stem, and nip out every weed as soon as discernible by the naked eye. ”

“ Dark, muddy, hirsute, with eyes on fire, the nostrils wide distended, the nails grown to the length of an inch, diseased in various parts of the body, which is actually being worm-eaten, with vermin in the hair of his head, vermin on his body, and generally stark-naked. ”

“ One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. ”

“ Their method of feeding corresponds with the nastiness of their persons, which often smell disagreeably from the quantity of grease about them, and their clothes never being washed. We have seen them eat the vermin, with which their heads are sufficiently stocked. ”

“ Adult life: male, three weeks; female, four weeks.
But we must not forget that these figures are based upon laboratory experiments, and that under the normal conditions the rate [9] may be accelerated. From Mr. Warburton’s experience it is perfectly obvious that, unless regularly fed, body-lice very quickly die. Of all the verminous clothing sent to the Quick Laboratory, very little contained live vermin. The newly hatched larvae perish in a day and a half unless they can obtain food. ”

“ Such insects as be of a dry nature as Cantharides and such like, are to be used in the form of a salt. The aqueous Vermine, as Earth-worms, Spiders, and such like; they exhibit their medicinality in the form of a Liquor: The Balsamick Vermine, as the May-worms, and others of that kind, do (beside the medicament they afford) yield also a fat and Balsamick Oyl; and indeed (both for external and internal medicinal use,) much more effectual than the Liquor it self. ”

“ If you put Herbs, or the Flesh of living Creatures chopt or bruised in a glass, and shut it close, and keep the glass for a while in hot Horse dung, or else in warm water, there will Vermine [or Maggots] be indeed generated, but yet void of life, which (the glass being opened) will begin to stir of themselves; and so having gotten life, creep out, and become greater, and will get other forms or shapes. Place likewise in a warm place, some little Barrel half full of Wine and let the bung-hole be open, that it may putrefie and begin to wax sowre ”

“ I One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. ”

“ Verjuice, ver′jōōs, n. the expressed juice of green or unripe fruit: sourness of temper.—v.t. to make sour or acid. [Fr. verjus—vert, green (cf. Verdant) , and Fr. jus, juice.]
Vermeil, Vermil, ver′mil, n. (Spens.) same as Vermilion: silver-gilt.—adj. Ver′meil-tinc′tured (Milt.) , tinged bright-red.
Vermes, ver′mēz, n.pl. worms: the name given by Linnæus to one of the classes in his zoological system, in which he included all the invertebrate animals, other than Insecta, whether of worm-like form or not.—ns. Vermeol′ogist, one skilled in vermeology ”

“ It was believed to be the herba sacra of the ancients, until it was understood that the generic title Verbena was a word which was applied to branches of any description which were used in religious rites. It certainly seems, however, to have been applied to some especial plant in the time of Pliny, for he writes that no plant was more honored among the Romans than the sacred Verbena. In more modern times as well the vervain has been regarded as an “herb of grace,” and has been gathered with various ceremonies and with the invocation of a blessing, which began as follows ”

“ Vermont lifted his face up to the cold wet wind. His lips parted to the heavens’ moisture, and he felt refreshed. Since there could be pleasure in the fall of raindrops upon heated lips, why not even then admit that life may be worth living? Why not see the bright background to present pain as well as the dark contrast of evil behind joy? We have said the Doctor was a proud and wilful man, and he would accept no sensation as [Pg 114] admonishment of error,—but this gave him some pause. ”

“ VERBENA. The Verbena, or Common Vervain, is a very familiar herb on waste ground throughout England, limited to no soil, and growing at the entrance into towns and villages, always within a quarter of a mile of a house, and hence called formerly the Simpler's joy. Of old, much credit for curative virtues attached itself to this plant, though it is without odour, and has no taste other than that of slight astringency. But a reputation clings to the vervain because it used to be held sacred, as "Holy Herb," and was employed in sacrificial rites, being worn also around the neck as an amulet. ”

“ But still more confusion meets us: the word vermilion which is now used for a red colour of mineral origin, is derived from vermis, a worm, and should therefore also be applied to cochineal. The word pink, one of the most familiar of plant-names, has a curious origin, being simply the German p. 112Pfingst, a corruption of Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day after Easter.
The tendency to make some kind of sense, or at least something familiar, from the unfamiliar, comes out in name service-tree (Pyrus torminalis) . ”

“ Vermilion is a permanent pigment, and may be used with water or oil, but cannot be used in enamel, as it volatilizes at a red heat. It possesses great body, weight, and opacity. Numerous pigments consisting of aniline colors thrown on a lead body, such as the oxide or carbonate, have largely taken the place of the true vermilion as a pigment, especially as they have a permanent red color, stand exposure fairly well, and change to a lighter color with age instead of a darker, as is the case with vermilion. ”

“ The unrivalled brilliancy of the colour of this beautiful species of Verbena, renders it a most ornamental plant for the front of the flower borders, and when grown in large patches it is almost impossible to give an idea of the dazzling splendour of its appearance; it is a plant of the easiest cultivation, and if allowed to grow according to its natural habit, which is prostrate, it will propagate itself by the radicles which are produced at the different joints, and by this means will attach itself to the ground ”

“ He appears to have some trouble on his mind,’ said Mademoiselle, leaning her elbows on the table and her chin upon her folded hands.
‘He has fallen in love with you—that’s his trouble, Henriette. I assure you, up in Paris, he is the reverse of sad or worried. He is the life of Lander’s.’
Dr. Vermont achieved his purpose: he made her blush from neck to forehead.
‘You forget, François, that you are talking to a middle-aged woman of a very young man,’ she said, in surprise.
‘Not so middle-aged as that,’ laughed Dr. Vermont, unjoyously. ”

“ It glowed like a lamp, and shed a faint illumination upon the dusk. The faded monotone of her voice murmured prayerfully above the weighted splash upon the stones, and awoke the essential impulse of existence. While such women lived and prayed for men, could the deeps of life be said to have closed? ’Tis an old-fashioned notion, but, like most old-fashioned things, ’tis the simplest and the best. It softened the hard retrospection of Dr. Vermont’s glance, and lent a wavering tenderness to his peculiar smile. ”

“ They differ very little in form; the shape of the caudal fin, the number of its component rays, and the position of the pectorals and ventrals with respect to each other,—constituting the distinctions which have been relied on as specific. In colour their resemblance is equally exact; a delicate tint of pink, in some specimens, even of the same species, deepening to a light vermilion, in others fading to a carnation or flesh-colour, is the universal hue, adorned in life with pearly, or silvery, or metallic reflections; the fins are party-coloured in bands. ”

“ London, 1804, p. 1319) are thought to bear some likeness to the hemorrhoids, and to heal them on the principle that the remedy should resemble the disease. 202. See above, vol. i. pp. 162, 163, 165. In England vervain (Verbena officinalis) grows not uncommonly by road sides, in dry sunny pastures, and in waste places about villages. It flowers in July. The flowers are small and sessile, the corolla of a very pale lilac hue, its tube enclosing the four short curved stamens. The root of the plant, worn by a string round the neck, is an old superstitious medicine for scrofulous disorders. ”

“ Whenever he entered the dining-room my first act was to open Verdant's cage, when he would always fly to the bullfinch's cage and greet him with a chirp, then look to see if his friend had any provender that he could get at-a piece of lettuce between the bars, or a spray of millet to which he could help himself; no matter that Bully remonstrated with open beak, Verdant calmly feasted on stolen goods con gusto, and then scouted around for any dainties on the carpet, where he sometimes found a stray sunflower seed, always his greatest delight. ”

“ Vernoon, Vernoon, I know you and your thoughts. You think me a beautiful beast who loves like a beast, who loves you because you are white and different from our men. Well, what there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave, for they are devils and I am their servant. ”

“ I cherish the hope that it is some one with a bosom not insusceptible to the thrill of romance, some one with a heart that still can beat to the swift measure of fear.
Anatole I have since seen in Paris. He is working steadily at some profession, and sharp [Pg 128] illness has made a saner and stronger man of him. Upheaval, after a while, when the elements quiet down again, generally brings reform. The Café Lander knows him no more, I have ascertained, and while he shrinks from mention of Dr. Vermont’s name, he is ever glad and grateful to talk of Henriette Lenormant. ”

“ But it happens that, thanks to these deuced articles and those blessed Memoirs, people laugh in my face when I say that Véron has intellect. It is in vain for me to be vexed and angry, and shout out and appeal to people who have supped with him, good judges in the matter of wit, to believe me; everybody replies, even those who have not supped with him: That is all very well! You say this because you owe M. Véron twelve thousand lines! As if because one owes a man twelve thousand lines it were a sufficient excuse for saying that he has intellect! ”