An effectual mode of destroying these offensive insects is to brush over the beds, walls, or floors infested with them, with oil of turpentine, which is equally destructive to the insect and to its eggs. One of the best remedies and preventives for bed-bugs is to procure from a druggist an ounce of quicksilver, and beat it in a mortar to a strong froth, with the whites of two eggs: or if you wish it very powerful, and thick like an ointment, use the white of one egg only. If liquid, spread it with the feather of a quill: or, what is still better, with a large old camel's hair brush, all over the cracks and pins of the bedstead, not forgetting the under side of all the joints, and see that it penetrates thoroughly. If you have made an ointment of it, rub it off with your finger. This is considered a still better remedy than the common mercurial ointment, but cannot always be as promptly obtained.

In a new house, where the habits of the family are neat, and a general attention is paid to cleanliness throughout, there will be little danger of bed-bugs; but on removing to an old house which has had various occupants, these disgusting and intolerable insects frequently make their appearance with the commencement of the warm weather, and sometimes before, from having been unpardonable allowed to get possession even of the crevices of the wood-work on the walls; and if the chambers are papered, they often contrive to effect a lodgment between the edges of the paper and the plastering. If bugs are found in the crevices of an old house, their haunts should be well washed with a strong decoction of tobacco, boiled in water, or with a decoction of red peppers. If these washes (which by frequent repetition generally succeed) should fail to destroy them, the crevices, as a last resource, should be rubbed with quicksilver beaten up with the white of an egg; and afterward filled up with putty or wadding, or with quick-lime mixed with water.

Another mode of destroying the vermin is, a saturated solution of alum applied hot, with a brush, to every joint and crevice that can possibly harbor them. Spirits of naphtha, also, applied in the same way, but cold, has been found effectual.

A most effectual remedy against bugs is to have all the bedsteads in the house taken down, and after washing the joints with cold water and brown soap, to have the whole bedstead completely varnished, even on the inside of the joint.

In very bad cases, where the whole room, walls, floors, and ceilings, are infested, the only effectual remedy is fumigation. Remove every thing from the room that you are satisfied is perfectly free from the vermin, then close every opening, and even every chink and crevice in the room that might admit air; pasting paper over the joints of the doors, etc. Then cut up four ounces of brimstone into an iron pan, light some slips of linen dipped in brimstone, and place them in the pan, leaving the room without delay, closing the door and covering even the key-hole. In twenty-four hours no living creature will exist in the apartment.