M U S S JB, N D A M U T I L L I D M. 



Considers the reason sufficient for the name given to 

 it. We are afraid of being charged with presumption 

 in venturing to differ from these learned divines 

 on a point of biblical natural history, but we cannot 

 avoid adopting the opinion that the plague of flies 

 was caused by the musquito. Mr. Kirby evidently 

 appears to have previously adopted the viesv of the 

 subject given by Bishop Patrick, who says of these 

 flies, that they were" flesh-flies or dog-flies, very bold, 

 troublesome, and venomous. Some think the Hebrew 

 word means a mixture of different insects, all manner 

 of flies;" and Bruce regards it as being probably 

 identical with the insect which he describes under 

 the name of the zimb. We read, on the denun- 

 ciation of this plague, that Moses was directed to 

 say to Pharaoh, " If thou wilt not let my people 

 go, behold I will send sivarms of flies upon thee 

 and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, 

 and into thy houses ; arid the houses of the Egyp- 

 tians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the 

 ground whereon they are ; and I will sever in that 

 day the Land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, 

 that no swarms of flies shall be there," &c. Now in 

 this passage we are first struck with the expression 

 "swarms of Jlies," and we are sure that everyone 

 who has seen " a swarm of gnats at even-tide" will 

 perceive the aptness of the expression, supposing the 

 Egyptian fly be a species of gnat, or, in other words, 

 (he musquito. We next read of their making their 

 way into the houses, which shall be full of flies. This 

 is also precisely the habit of the CulicidcE. The next 

 passage, that they should also swarm upon the ground, 

 is certainly not in favour of our interpretation, and 

 would apparently apply to some other species ; but it 

 is in the last passage quoted that we perceive the 

 fullest corroboratiou of our view of the subject. Bryant 

 says, " The Land of Goshen was a tongue-like piece 

 of land, where the Nile first divided at a place called 

 Cercasora ; Said, or Upper Egypt, lying above, and 

 Mesre, or Lower Egypt, was in a line downward ;" 

 and Bruce states, that " the Land of Goshen was a 

 land of pasture, not tilled or sown, because it ivas not 

 overflowed by ike Nile. But the land overflowed by 

 the Nile was the black earth of the Valley of Egypt, 

 and it was here tint God confined the flies, for He 

 says.it shall be a sign of this separation of the people 

 which He then made, that not one fly should be seen 

 in the sand or pastu re-ground of the Land of Goshen ; 

 and (his kind of soil has ever since been the refuge 

 of all cattle emigrating from the black earth to the 

 lower part of Atbara." These observations appear 

 to the writer almost conclusive upon the question : the 

 sandy pasture soil of the Land of Goshen would have 

 been the spot where the cock-roach would have 

 resorted to naturally, and it is the spot where the 

 musquito would not have been found. Far be it from 

 us to deny the miraculous power of the Almighty in 

 producing this surprising flight of flies, but we know, 

 in our own days, that in certain seasons certain species 

 of insects are multiplied to such an extent as to 

 become a positive evil. We know not, of course, for 

 what end such multiplication is permitted by the 

 Creator ; but in the one case, as well as in the other, 

 we must certainly acknowledge the working of an 

 all-wise Providence, which sees and understands what 

 man cannot comprehend. 



We are aware that Dr. Hale and Bryant have 

 given calculations, whereby it would appear that this 

 succession of plagues took place between the month 



209 



of January and the beginning of April, and conse- 

 quentlv that the plague of flies, &c., must have been 

 miraculous, occurring at a season when the Nile was at 

 its lowest, and when flies, &c , were not naturally abun- 

 dant ; but there is nothing fully to warrant the adoption 

 of a fixed period of time between the early plagues. 



We have said that the musquito is a species of 

 gnat (Cttlicida;), nearly allied to our common English 

 species, C.pipiens. In making this statement we have 

 followed the best authorities. Mr. Kirby says that the 

 musquito from Batavia, whose bite is exceedingly 

 venomous, occasioning 1 a most intolerable itching, 

 which lasts several days, is distinct from the common 

 gnat, and approaches C. annulata, but the wings are 

 black, and not spotted. Robineau des Voidy and M. 

 Percheron have described and figured the insect under 

 the name of Culcx musquito ; and Pohl and Kollar 

 have described the Brazilian musquito, as it is termed 

 by the Portuguese, under the name of Culex molestus. 



Of the attacks of these insects we can obtain, from 

 the accounts of various travellers, the most striking 

 idea; thus Jackson, in his Travels in Morocco, com- 

 plains that they would not suffer him to rest ; that his 

 face and hands appeared, from their bites, as if he was 

 infected with the small-pox in the worst stage. And 

 Captain Steadman, in his Travels in America, states 

 that he and his soldiers were actually compelled to 

 sleep with their heads thrust into holes made in the 

 earth with their bayonets, and their necks wrapped 

 round with their hammocks. But it is in the chro- 

 nicles of the olden time that we find the most extraor- 

 dinary account of their powers ; thus it is related 

 that a king of Persia was compelled to raise the siege 

 of Nisibis by a plague of gnats, which, attacking his 

 elephants and beasts of burden, caused the rout of his 

 army. And Mouffet has collected many accounts from 

 different authors, in which it is recorded that the 

 ! inhabitants of various cities have been compelled to 

 desert them owing to the multiplication of this plague, 

 which has become so notorious as to give its name to 

 bays, towns, and even territories of considerable 

 extent. Thus we have Musquito Bay, in St. Chris- 

 topher's ; Musquitos, a town in the island of Cuba ; 

 and the Musquito Country, in North America; as 

 stated by Kirby and Spence. 



The name musquito, therefore, appears to be applied 

 to any species of Culicidce tormenting to mankind in 

 foreign countries. It has also been applied to some 

 ' minute midges belonging to the genus Simulium, and 

 family TipuMce, but which are distinguished from 

 the preceding, in North America, as the writer is 

 informed by a competent entomologist, by the name 

 of the black-fly. See SIMULIUM. 



MUSS^ENDA (Linnaeus). A genus of evergreen 

 shrubs, natives of both Indies, belonging to Rubiacear. 

 Generic character : calyx irregularly five cleft ; 

 corolla funnel-shaped, limb spreading, and five-parted ; 

 anthers sitting, included in the tube of the corolla ; 

 style simple ; stigma bifid ; capsule two-celled, with 

 transverse dissepiments. These are pretty plants, 

 thrive in loam and moor-earth, and are propagated 

 by cuttings. 



MUSTARD is the Sinapis nigra of Tournefort, 

 a well-known economical British plant. 



MUTILLID^E (Latreille). A family of fossorial 

 aculeated Hymenoptera, in which the females are 

 generally destitute of wings, the males being winged ; 

 hence Latreille has placed this family m the sub- 

 section Hctcrogyna with the ants, but their economy 



