SUCKING INSECTS. 193 



says, " I have seen in marshy districts on the sea 

 coast, individuals whose arms and legs were ren- 

 dered shocking with the reiterated bites of gnats, 

 and some of them so bad, that it was doubtful whe- 

 ther they could be cured without amputating- the 

 limb*." He adds, that if we will exert a little patient 

 attention, we shall be compelled to admire the very 

 instrument with which the insect wounds us. The 

 elder Pliny becomes more than usually eloquent 

 upon the structure of this insect. " In these so little 

 bodies," he says, " nay, points or specks, rather 

 than bodies indeed, how can one comprehend the 

 reason, the power, and the inexplicable perfection 

 that Nature hath therein shewed? How hath she 

 bestowed all the five senses in a gnat ? and yet some 

 there be lesse creatures than they. But where, I 

 say, hath she made the seat of the eyes to see before 

 it? Where hath she set and disposed the taste? 

 Where hath she placed and inserted the organ of 

 smelling ? and above all, where hath she disposed 

 that dreadful and terrible noise that it maketh that 

 wonderful great sound, as I may call it, in proportion 

 to so little a body ? Can there be devised a thing 

 more finely and cunningly wrought than the wings 

 set to her body? Mark, what long shanked legs 

 above ordinary, she hath given unto them. See, 

 how she hath set that hungry hollow concavitie in- 

 stead of a belly : and hath made the same so greedie 

 and thirstie after blood, and man's especially. Come 

 to the weapon that it hath to pricke, pierce, and enter 

 through the skinne ; how artificially hath she pointed 

 and sharpened it ! and being so little as it is, for the 

 fineness thereof can hardly be seen, yet as if it were 

 of bignesse and capacity answerable, framed it, she 

 hath, most cunningly for a two-fold use, to wit, most 

 sharpe pointed to pricke and enter, and withall, hoi- 

 * Mem. iv. 573. 



