The Way of the Mosquito. 53 



Anopheles is the creature that thus conveys yellow fever 

 and malaria. Certain kinds of Cnlc.v also make a hypo- 

 dermic injection of the blood-parasites called filana, which 

 produce elephantiasis, a disease that causes enormous 

 tumors and makes a man's skin thicken till it looks like 

 an elephant's. That this actually occurs was demon- 

 strated on a Chinaman, an animal very closely resembling 

 a human being, but one that lias no right to life, liberty, 

 and the pursuit of happiness. 



A celebrated \Yestern orator once described a lonely 

 ride he took upon the prairies in the early seventies. 



' As I galloped along." said he, ' my attention was 

 suddenly directed to some distant horsemen who seemed 

 to be making their way toward me. They wore feathers 

 in their hair. I turned and rode in the opposite direc- 

 tion. I did not know who they were, but 1 knew dog- 

 gone we'l they were no friends of mine." ( I think it 

 was " dog-gone ' he said, but I won't be sure.) 



In like manner, when we consider that these parasites 

 cannot live out their full lives in either the mosquito or 

 man, but depend upon getting from one to the other, 

 though we cannot but recognize the ingenuity by which 

 the transfer is effected, it hardly commands our unquali- 

 fied praise. The device was scarcely for our aid and 

 comfort. It seems to me that who undertakes to justify 

 the way of the mosquito to man has a tolerably difficult 

 cause to defend. 



