3I0SQUIT0ES IN GENERAL 47 



the coagulation of all proteids and so j^romote the pro- 

 cess of suction. 



The amount of irritation caused by the x^oison of mos- 

 quitoes varies greatly with different individuals. Some 

 people suffer severely from their bites, Avhile others are not 

 at all affected. This is a matter of common observation. 

 I have seen a man hunting snipe in a marsh with his face 

 protected, but with his neck left exposed. His neck had 

 been rejieatedly bitten and w^as so x^oisoned as to utterly 

 destroy its symmetry. At the end of the day he no longer 

 X^ossessed a neck, but from his shoulders to his head was 

 simply a gradual slox^e ! 



There can be little doubt that x^eoxde become inoculated 

 against this x^oison. Persons living in mosquito-ridden 

 localities as a rule suffer less than those who come there 

 from more favored regions, and it seems likely that after 

 a severe case of mosquito-X3oisoning the inoculating effect 

 may last for a long while. An instance of this has been 

 sent me by the Kev. Edward Everett Hale, who wrote, 

 under date of August 29, 1900: 



" I think I am an instance of inoculation by mosquitoes' 

 virus. More than fifty years ago I went into the Maine 

 woods going to Katahdin. The first afternoon we were 

 out hardly an hour, Ijut at night, when we went into 

 camx^, I counted sixty well defined mosquito bites on my 

 right hand alone. Now from that time to tliis I have 

 hardly been troubled by mosquitoes. I dislike their song 

 at night, and if I saw one on my hand I should kill it, but 

 after the moment of the sting I never rcincniber that I 

 have been bitten." 



