DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 119 



that by their power to do mischief, hke other conquerors 

 who have been the torment of the human race, they should 

 have attained to fame, and have given their name to bays, 

 towns, and even to considerable territories^. 



And now, which seems to you the greater terror, that 

 the forest should resound with the roar of the lion or 

 the tiger, or with the hum of the gnat ? Which evil is 

 most to be deprecated, the neighbourhood of these fero- 

 cious animals, terrible as they are for their cruelty and 

 strength, or to live amidst the polar or tropical myriads 

 of mosquitos, and be subject to the torture of their in- 

 cessant attacks ? When you consider that from the one, 

 prudence and courage may secure or defend us without 

 any material sacrifice of our daily comforts ; while to be 

 at rest from the other, we must either render ourselves 

 disgusting by filthy unguents, or be suffocated by fumiga- 

 tions, or be content to be bound, head, hand and foot, 

 shut out from the respiration of the common air, and 

 even thus scarcely escape from their annoyance ; you will 

 feel convinced that the former is the more tolerable evil 

 of the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from 

 which the lions were driven away by the more powerful 

 gnats, were no great gainers by the exchange^. With 

 what grateful hearts ought the privileged inhabitants of 

 these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the good- 

 ness of that kind Providence which has distinguished us 

 from the less favoured nations of the globe, by what may 

 be deemed an immunity from this tormenting pest ! for 

 the inroads which tliey make on our comfort, when con- 



=* Viz. Mosqidto Bay in St. Christopher's ; Mosquitos, ii town in 

 the Island of Cuba ; and the Mosquito country in North America. 

 '' Mouffet, 85, 



