the so-called human flea ( Pulex irritans ) is today more of a nuisance than a menace , but was formerly the main carrier of plague . in spite of its popular name it associates more naturally with animals such as the fox and the badger , which live in large burrows . according to the British Museum booklet , man evidently did not suffer from Pulex irritans until he began to occupy a more or less permanent home which must have been - and actually still is - not altogether unlike a large hole . many architects of our acquaintance would dissent from this last view , but the fact remains that fleas can still be one of the main hazards of lying in bed . readers with chronic oblomovitis may like a note of the booklet &apos;s advice concerning the odd flea that may still be encountered in bed even in the best-regulated home - or hole . this may with some skill be caught with the fingers , after which the fingers with the flea tightly gripped between them should be dipped under water and the irritating insect is then easily killed . the last animal at all likely to disturb the pleasures of lying in bed is the bed-bug , Cimex lectularius , which some would regard as the most unpleasant household pest existing in western Europe at the present time . the original meaning of the word bug was bogy , hobgoblin , or terror by night , and it is found in this sense in the works of Shakespeare and many other renaissance writers . the British naturalist Thomas Moufet mentions it in his insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum ( 1634 ) , and one of the contributions to this early entomological compilation describes how in 1583 two ladies of noble birth at Mortlake were much distressed by the presence of the insects . John Southall , in his treatise of buggs , published in 1730 , says that the creatures had increased greatly during the previous sixty years , especially in the City of London . this is no place to go into the natural history of the bed-bug , but it should perhaps be mentioned that , like the louse , it has been given a picturesque collection of popular names . these include the mahogany flat ( from its colour ) , the Norfolk Howard , and even the B flat - the last , incidentally , being due to the flat shape of the bug , and not to any special musical ability it has been noticed to possess . another graphic name is the red army , strictly non-political in origin , but derived from the bug &apos;s tendency to turn deep purple or dark red when gorged with human blood . but it is not only external causes that may destroy the pleasure of lying in bed . anyone who has attempted to relax when in a state of nervous anxiety will be familiar with the condition commonly known as jittery legs . although fully extended in the horizontal position the body feels tense and unrelaxed . a conscious effort of will is needed to keep the legs still , and the keyed-up feeling which pervades the whole body may even give rise to severe physical pain . sometimes the condition is so acute that the legs twitch and jerk quite involuntarily . in such cases the patient may feel so uncomfortable that he will send for a doctor , but an aspirin or some other mild sedative usually suffices to relax the tension . another disagreeable accompaniment of lying in bed may be the condition known as pruritus , which expresses itself in a severe itching sensation as soon as the warmth of the body has heated the bedclothes . this is particularly prevalent among elderly people , but can be alleviated by the application of ointments on a medical prescription . hay fever and other allergies may also be associated with lying in bed , due either to feathers in the pillow or mattress or ( less commonly recognized as the cause ) an accumulation of woolly dust under the bed . the irritants associated with dust under beds may sometimes be so powerful that the bed &apos;s occupant may seem to be afflicted by a chronic cold . these and other effects of bedding on health were recognized as long ago as the eighteen-eighties where it was the custom to stuff pillows and mattresses with pine-shavings in the belief that these would alleviate lung and bronchial conditions . in spite of the unpleasant consequences sometimes associated with lying in bed , many people have not been deterred from going to bed quite voluntarily for very long periods . one of the present writers knows a healthy woman who retired to bed nearly ten years ago on the death of her husband , and has never stirred out of it since . there is also the case cited by Reynolds of the Frenchman , Raoul Duval , who went to bed in Abbeville in 1928 and remained there for eighteen years . the reason he gave was that he did not wish to see the world , nor talk nor think about it , an ambition that was , however , abruptly shattered in 1940 when the town was heavily dive-bombed . as Reynolds remarks , if Duval really did stay in bed throughout this ordeal it shows quite exceptional conscientiousness and determination . another case of a prolonged voluntary stay in bed began in 1875 when a Spanish doctor in Galicia , being tired of visiting reclining patients , eventually decided to follow their example . he retired to bed in his own house , where he remained for sixteen years , seeing only those patients who were well enough to come to him . as both of these picturesque tales originated in newspaper reports we would be ill-advised to take them too seriously , but we shall conclude this chapter with two further aspects of lying in bed for which there is sound historical evidence : the lit de justice and the lit de parade . throughout the centuries there have been cases of people retiring to their beds for certain special reasons , often as a result of some superstitious or ritualistic belief . the couvade is one example , and the lit de justice and lit de parade are others , although , of course , they are used for quite different reasons . the lit de justice is the older of the two , and may be defined as the custom of a king , dictator , high priest , or other person of great authority issuing edicts and judgements to a formal assembly of his subordinates from his bed . the bed is not necessarily , nor even normally , the one he usually sleeps in , but resembles rather a ceremonial couch , elaborate in design and ornamentation , standing in some important place of assembly . ( see plate 55 . ) it is sometimes stated that the lit de justice dates from medieval times , but the institution is in fact much older . thus in one of the fragments of the Greek historian Phylarchus , who flourished in the third century B.C we may read how Alexander the Great used to recline and transact business on a golden bed in the middle of a gigantic tent , with his troops and attendants to the number of two thousand or more drawn up in order around him . Roman emperors and high officials also gave audience in the same position , and there can be little doubt that a form of the lit de justice was used by political leaders and tribal chiefs in the Neolithic age and even before . Henry Havard in the third volume of his dictionnaire de l&apos;ameublement et de la d&amp;eacute;coration ( 1887-90 ) gives numerous examples of the lit de justice in later historical times . from the middle ages onwards , especially in France , the bed and not the throne was considered the proper place for the installation of royalty at public functions . thus in the fourteenth century when the French king appeared in parliament he would recline on a bed raised on a dais . the dais was approached by seven steps , carpeted in blue velvet embroidered with golden fleurs-de-lis . around the dais were his subordinates , each in a position appropriate to his rank . members of the royal house were seated , the chief nobles stood , the lesser nobles knelt ; there is no record of commoners having been in attendance on such august occasions , but if they were they must presumably have grovelled on the floor . at first the prerogative of the lit de justice was restricted to royal personages , but the idea was obviously so attractive , allowing as it did a combination of ease and authority , that it began to be more widely adopted . in this new context , the ceremonial bed , or lit de parade , became an accepted part of social life in western Europe from early renaissance times until the French revolution . those whose social status permitted them to receive visitors without the customary courtesy of standing up were not slow to exploit the possibilities of horizontality in their social contacts . it conferred a subtle but undeniable prestige , and paradoxically suggested a superiority of stature which would often have been far less apparent in the vertical position . nobles and others whose status is dependent on hereditary privilege rather than personal merit were among the first to adopt the new technique , and were swiftly followed by the smaller fry who saw in the lit de parade an easy and comfortable method of establishing their social superiority . women were early in the field , and it became the practice for any woman who felt she could get away with it to receive the consolation or congratulation of her friends in bed on occasions which ranged from the death of a husband to the marriage of a favourite niece . duchesses and courtesans could insist on the lit de parade as a right based on riches , social position , or physical attraction ; humbler personages enjoyed it only when the production of a child conferred on them an unaccustomed prestige . ceremonial lyings-in after childbirth were nevertheless attended by their own ritual . guests were expected to bring the mother gifts commensurate with her achievement , and dances and other entertainments were arranged for her benefit . the lit de parade also provided women with an excuse to indulge the extravagance so characteristic of their sex . it was an opportunity to wear the richest and most seductive garments and to deck the bedroom with expensive silk and satin hangings . thus a letter written in the early seventeenth century tells how the Countess of Salisbury was brought to bed of a daughter and lyes in very richly , for the hanging of her chamber &amp;hellip; is valued at fourteen thousand pounds . unchivalrously , the husbands who had to provide such innocent indulgences eventually began to count the cost . in fact , in some countries legislation was passed prohibiting any excessive ostentation on the lit de parade . in Milan , for example , women were not allowed to use counterpanes of embroidered silk , or stitched with gold or silver thread , nor to wear silk camisoles when receiving callers . Roger de F&amp;eacute;lice , in his French furniture under Louis 15 , has some interesting observations on a variation of the lit de parade practised by ladies of rank in the eighteenth century . he writes : long before the time of Madame R&amp;eacute;camier the indolent belles of the day were fond of receiving en d&amp;eacute;shabill&amp;eacute; , reclining on their turquoises or duchesses ; for languishing beauty with weary attitudes already existed , side by side with the more general type of sparkling and mutinous beauty : but what seems strange at a period of so much licence , these ladies , far from showing their bare feet , were expected to conceal them with a coverlet of embroidered silk as a concession to decency . the final exploitation of the lit de parade by the beautiful women of the past was for purposes of lying in state . there are many records of this custom , but one example must suffice . it concerns the death of the Duchess of Burgundy , wife of the Dauphin of France in 1712 and is taken by Havard from the Journal de Dangeau . on February 12th the body of Madame la Dauphine lay all day on her bed at Versailles . her face was uncovered and her hands lay above the bedclothes . that evening in the presence of her ladies in waiting ( une obligation de leur charge ) a post mortem was performed , but no cause was discovered for her death . 