CHAPTER IX 



MOSQUITO REDUCTION 



THE mosquito at last had drunk her fill. She had 

 been born three days before in a neighbouring cess- 

 pool. The water there was warm, and her larval 

 life, from egg to perfect insect, had only occupied 

 about fifteen days. On emerging from the water she 

 had flown about in the foul air of the cesspool for 

 twenty-four hours, and had fed on the floating ex- 

 crement. Then she had consorted with a male of her 

 species one that had probably arisen from the same 

 egg-raft as herself ; he was in fact her brother. Her 

 spermathecae were, in consequence, full of sperma- 

 tozoa, and this had made her crave for a more 

 strengthening diet than anything the cesspool could 

 give her. For hours she had striven to find an exit 

 from that environment without success. But at 

 length she had found her way with a swarm of others 

 through some chink into the adjoining cellar, and 

 had flown up the stone stairs to the kitchen on the 

 ground floor. It was the evening when she emerged 

 into the society of human beings, and the air was still 

 and the heat overpowering. The long flight had been 

 accomplished by easy stages, for she was famished for 

 blood, and had been obliged to rest in dark corners. 



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