130 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



southern Europe. — " I met (says Arthur Young in his 

 interesting" Travels through France) between Pradelles 

 and Thuytz, mulberries and flies at tlie same time ; by 

 the ievvsxjlies I mean those myriads of them wliich form 

 the most disagreeable circumstance of the southern cli- 

 mates. They are the first torments in Spain, Italy, and 

 the Olive district of France : it is not that they bite, 

 sting, or hurt, but they buzz, tease, and worry : your 

 mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, are full of them : they swarm 

 on every eatable, fruit, sugar, milk, every thing is at- 

 tacked by thera in such myriads, thfit if they are not in- 

 cessantly driven away by a person who has nothing else 

 to do, to eat a meal is impossible. They are ho>vever 

 caught on prepared paper and other contrivances w ith 

 so much ease and in such quantities, that were it not 

 from negligence, they could not abound in such incre- 

 dible quantities. If I farmed in these countries, I think 

 I should manure four or five acres every year w ith dead 

 flies. — I have been much surprised that the late learned 

 Mr. Harmer should think it odd to find, by writers who 

 treated of southern climates, that driving away flies was 

 an object of importance. Had he been Avith me in Spain 

 and in Languedoc in July and August, he would have 

 been very far fi'om thinking there was any thing odd in 



it^" 



Our friend Captain Green, of the sixth regiment of the 

 East India Company's native troops, relates to me, that 

 in India, ^v hen the mangoes are ripe, which is the hottest 

 part of the summer, a very minute black fly makes its 

 appearance, which, because it flies in swarms into the 

 eyes, is very troublesome, and causes much pain, is 



* Young's Travels in France, i. 298. 



