334 INSECTS. 



the sake of their general utility, we are willing to con- 

 done the offences of even those who, under a mistaken 

 view of duty, visit our larders to assist us in the removal 

 of heef and mutton. What, however, is to be said in 

 defence of those hordes whose aggressions touch our 

 persons of the blood-sucking little demons which, a 

 small misery in an English summer, make whole 

 tracts of country uninhabitable in tropical regions ? 

 What of the swarms of Gnats, of Midges, of Mosqui- 

 toes, of Sandflies, which might almost have prompted the 

 thought of our forefathers that the fallen spirits,shut out 

 from the upper heaven because of its delights, from the 

 lower earth because they could not there torment the race 

 of men, are confined midway in the darkened air, where, as 

 Flies, they surround us numberless, filling the air so 

 that it is full of devils and evil spirits, " as the sonne 

 .bemes ben full of small motes, which is small dust or 

 poudre." Is there any defence for these creatures ? 



Of the bloodsuckers in the race of Gnats, Midges, 

 Mosquitoes, &c., nearly all the larvee are aquatic, and 

 consumers of decaying matter Scavengers. If this be 

 so, is not the purpose of the production of the 

 myriads of such creatures in the unhealthy swamps 

 of unreclaimed tropical lands sufficiently evident ; and 

 would it be straining one's view of final causes to trace 

 the continuance of their beneficial influence on man, 

 when, changed from a Scavenger Maggot to a blood- 

 thirsty little Midge, our tormentor drives us from the 

 regions as yet unsuited for our habitation ? 



That Flies are officious, busy, curious, there is no 

 denying. A well-known Artist of the present day tells 

 an amusing story of the interference of a little House- 

 fly, in which we might almost imagine the spirit of fun 



