GNAT. MUSGtUITO. 419 



the greatest sufferer from these vexatious animals ; which, during 

 the heats of the short summer, fill the air with such swarming 

 myriads, that the poor inhabitants can hardly venture to walk out 

 of their cabins, without having first smear* d their hands and faces 

 with a composition of tar aud cream, which is found by experi- 

 ence to prevent their attacks. Yet even this seemingly unfavour- 

 able circumstance may be considered, in another point of view, as 

 constituting one of the advantages of the country, being, in the 

 expressive words of Linnaeus, " Lapponum calamitas feliczSm 

 sima;" since the legions of larves which fill the lakes of Lapland 

 form a delicious and tempting repast to innumerable multitudes of 

 aquatic birds ; and thus contribute to the support of the very na- 

 tion which they so strangely infest. 



It may be added, that the formidable insect called the musquito, 

 so much dreaded by the inhabitants of the West- Indies, and 

 America, where its bite seems to operate with peculiar malignity, 

 is supposed to be no other than a variety of the common European 

 gnat, which derives additional vigour from the warmer and moister 

 atmosphere of the regions of the western hemisphere. 



The true structure of the proboscis or piercer of the gnat, 

 which, in its immediate operation, produces no very acute pain, 

 but which is so often succeeded by such troublesome consequences, 

 is not very easily determined. It seems however to consist of an 

 external scaly sheath or tube, longitudinally divided by a conti- 

 nued slit, and so flexible as to be conveniently doubled or bent, in 

 a greater or less degree, while the secondary or included tube is in 

 the act of absorption. This secondary or include d tube appears to 

 consist of fine parallel linear parts, forming, by their junction or 

 juxtaposition, a firm, yet exquisitely fine, sucker, which is forced 

 into the skin of the animal attacked by the insect. The swelling 

 which takes place after the bite, must be supposed to be owing to 

 some acrimonious fluid injected into the punctured part, and which 

 may cause the blood to flow with greater facility into the proboscis, 

 during the time that organ is employed. 



[Swinton. Phil. Trans, Shaw* 



2e2 



