called Oistros by the Ancients. 405 
losophers might have been presented with, as their testimonies 
are various, and militate against each other; but none are de- 
scriptive of the true fly, which we now fully know. Surely such 
a conclusion is more natural and just, than to suppose these 
conflicting descriptions true, and that the poets and common 
observers were false witnesses. 
I now proceed to give what Virgil says Fé bécting the name 
of it among the ancients, and the tumult it occasions ; and of 
which no sweat-sucking Tubanus, Conops, or modern Asilus, 
can in any way be the cause. 
** Est lucos Silari circa, ilicibusque virentem 
Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen Asilo 
Romanum est, CEstron Graii vertére vocantes : 
Asper, acerba sonans: quo tota exterrita sylvis 
Diffugiunt armenta, furit mugitibus ZEther 
Concussus, sylvæque, et sicci ripa Tanagri." 
GEORG. lib. iii. v. 146. 
From this admirable description, it is clearly manifest that 
Asilus was the Roman name for the fly which agitates the 
cattle; and it is equally clear that Œstros was the Greek name 
for it. | 
Not much weight is due to the observation, that Homer's in- 
sect was not the modern (Œstrus, because he mentions the spring 
as the season of its appearance, since he also adds, in the same 
line, ore T fpara pung% xtrovras, ** when the days are long ;” nor 
that Shakespeare did not use the word Brize for the same insect, 
merely because he has assigned its appearance to the month of 
June, when it more often appears now in July. Indeed the al- 
teration of style will account for this difference. But the same 
poet uses the word in another place, where the allusion is too 
distinct to be mistaken : 
« The herd hath more annoyance by the Brize, 
Than by the Tiger." Troilus and Cressida. 
And 
