19 



CHAPTEK II. 



On Collecting, Preserving and Appliances for Observation. 



In his delightful " On the Prowl," our genial Anglo- 

 Indian naturalist "E. H. A. " remarks : " The gun and net 

 I would gladly leave behind, but they cannot altogether be 

 dispensed with. Without a collection a man's knowledge 

 of natural history becomes nebulous, and his pursuit of it 

 dilettante. I am sorry it is so, for in spirit I am a Buddhist. 

 But alas ! every Buddhist is not a Buddha ! " I am glad to 

 say that "E. H, A." has lately decided to go on the "prowl" 

 after Mosquitoes, for there is no one more likely to profit- 

 ably pry out the secrets of their lives, and then, in quaintly 

 humorous fashion, to hold them up to mingled execration 

 and ridicule. 



The training of medical men specially fits them for such 

 work, and although its usefulness may not be at once 

 apparent, sooner or later it becomes of value ; and the 

 insignificant worm or insect whose habits of life v^e have 

 traced, turns out perhaps to be the free stage of a parasite, 

 dangerous to animals or man; or a "pest" destroying 

 crops of incalculable value. It is well nigh on a century 

 ago since Fabricus, Wiedeman, Desvoidy and Meigen laid 

 the foundation of our knowledge of the Mosquitoes, but 

 to-day we reap the fruits of their patient labours, and if the 

 last-named naturalist were alive to-day he could hardly fail to 

 congratulate himself on the rare intuition which led him to 

 denominate his new genus Anopheles by the Greek equiva- 

 lent for noxious, for we now know that the insects of this 

 genus are far more efficient checks on over population than 

 all the armies of the world, armed though they be with all 

 the products of modern science and ingenuity. Fragile 



