116 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



compared 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 cannot 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 a . In certain 

 districts of France, the accurate Reaumur informs us 

 that he has seen people whose arms and legs have become 

 quite monstrous from wounds inflicted by gnats ; and in 

 some cases in such a state as to render it doubtful whe- 

 ther amputation would not be necessary b . In the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Crimea the Russian soldiers are obliged 

 to sleep in sacks to defend themselves from the mos- 

 quitos ; and even this is not a sufficient security, for se- 

 veral of them die in consequence of mortification pro- 

 duced by the bites of these furious blood-suckers. This 

 fact is related by Dr. Clarke, and to its probability his 

 own painful experience enabled him to speak. He in- 

 forms us that the bodies of himself and his companions, 

 in spite of gloves, clothes, and handkerchiefs, were ren- 

 dered 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 suf- 

 focated, could not venture to open a window for fear of 

 the mosquitos. Swarms nevertheless found their way 



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

 Lack. Lapp. ii. 108. De Geer, vi. 303-4. b Reaum. iv. 573. 



