• DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 117 



pared to a flight of snow when the flakes fall thickest, 

 or to the dust of the earth. The natives cannot take a 

 mouthful of food, or lie down to sleep in their cabins, 

 unless they be fumigated almost to suffocation. In the 

 air you eannot draw your breath without having your 

 mouth and nostrils filled with them ; and unguents of 

 tar, fish-grease, or cream ; or nets steeped in fetid 

 birch-oil, are scarcely sufficient to protect even the 

 case-hardened cuticle of the Laplander from their bite^. 

 In certain districts of France, the accurate Reaumur 

 informs us that he has seen people whose arms and le^s 

 have become quite monstrous from wounds inflicted by 

 gnats ; and in some cases in such a state as to render 

 it doubtful whether amputation would not be neces- 

 sary^. In the neighbourhood of the Crimea the Rus- 

 sian soldiers are obliged to sleep in sacks to defend 

 themselves from the mosquitos ; and even this is not a 

 sufficient security, for several of them die in conse- 

 quence of mortification produced by the bites of these 

 furious blood-suckers. This fact is related by Dr. 

 Clarke, and to its probability his own painful expe- 

 rience enabled him to speak. He informs us that the 

 bodies of himself and his companions, in spite of gloves, 

 clothes, and handkerchiefs, were rendered one entire 

 wound, and the consequent excessive irritation and 

 swelling excited a considerable degree of fever. In a 

 most sultry night, when not a breath of air was stirring, 

 exhausted by fatigue, pain, and heat, he sought shelter 

 in his carriage ; and, though almost suffocated, could 

 not venture to open a window for fear of the mosquitos. 



^ Acerbi's Travels, ii. 5. 34-5. 51. Linn. Flor. Lapp. 380-1. Lack. 

 Lapp. ii. 108. De Geer, vL. 303-4. " Reaum. iv. 573. 



