lo(j 



complained of the pest. My observations were too limited to say more than 

 these general things. 



" My father-in-law, before his death, told me that in former years the 

 gnats had been very troublesome in Edwards county, and that whenever 

 he had been called upon to treat cattle or horses they always "recovered. 

 He condemned, roundly, the notion that the bites of the gnats were neces- 

 sarily fatal, saying that cures could easily be made by such treatment as 

 would cause copious urination. He used nitrates and kindred remedies. 

 He was a practicing physician and thoroughly acquainted with his profes- 

 sion. . John Marten." 



Owing to the obscurity regarding the locality from which Prof. Cox ob- 

 tained his specimens, it was not until the year ISsn that we had any exact 

 information as to the occurrence of the buffalo gnat in Indiana ; our atten- 

 tion being called to the fact by Prof. S. B. Boyd, of Washington, Davies 

 county, who informed us that these insects occurred along White River in 

 considerable numbers. With a view of gaining further information respect- 

 ing this matter, we addressed a letter to Hon. Samuel Hargrove, of Union, 

 Pike county, from whom we received a reply, not only corroborating Prof. 

 Boyd, but stating the fact of their occurrence along the Patoka River, also. 



On the 10th of November, 188G, we started on a trip to Pike county and 

 vicinity, by way of Seymour, Jackson county, where we were informed by 

 Mr. J. A. Peters, an extensive farmer of the bottom lands, that no gnats oc- 

 curred in that vicinity, but about Bloomfield and Worthington, in Greene 

 county, they often annoyed stock greatly. From Seymour we went to 

 Washington, Davies county, where we again met Mr. Boyd, and learned 

 from him that these gnats infested the bottom lands along the entire west- 

 ern, and also a portion of the southern, borders of that county. 



In White county we examined a portion of the Patoka River, a small 

 stream wdiose winding course is nearly due west, emptying its waters into 

 the Wabash River a short distance below the mouth of the White. The 

 bottoms are wide, and the bed is of clay, the current in low water, as it was 

 at that time, is rather sluggish, but in high water it is quite swift and cov- 

 ers the bottoms, which are often cultivated, but fully as often timbered and 

 grown up with brush. The stream also has more or less drift-wood, stumps, 

 and other debris in it, but we found no place where this caused any per- 

 ceivable increase of the current. We examined such of this drift-wood as 

 we could disengage, but could find no trace of the buffalo gnat in any stage 

 of development. 



