THE MOSQUITO, 199 



of the mosquito is universal and complete. It would 

 have been enough had the mosquito been endowed with 

 activity, craft, and voracity. The trial would have been 

 in that case ample, but exceptional men might have 

 passed through it unscathed. It was the addition of the 

 trumpet that settled the matter. No such exasperating 

 sound is to be heard on earth. Good resolutions crumble 

 to nought before it. The most patient and the most stoical 

 of mortals are as much moved by it as their weaker 

 brethren, and the native of the Arctic Circle and he of the 

 Equator alike in their respective languages utter words of 

 despair and profanity. We may hope, however, that science 

 has not yet spoken its last word, and that some future 

 Pasteur or Koch may discover a bacillus capable of creating 

 a contagious and fatal disease among mosquitoes, and that 

 by this means man may be relieved of a burden almost too 

 heavy for him. 



