338 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



animals and on man, although man seems more resistant 

 than the former. There are several cases of deaths pro- 

 duced by the bites of black-flies that seem fairly well 

 authenticated. The bite of a black-fly has been likened 

 by Webster to the rude puncture of a blunt, hot awl, leaving 

 a dull aching pain behind. 



C. V. Riley, writing of the buffalo-gnat in 1886, says : " Yet 

 sufficient facts are on record to show that if the gnats 

 attack a person suddenly in large swarms and find him 

 unprepared or far away from any shelter, they may cause 

 death. ... In 1884 several persons were killed by 

 buffalo-gnats. H. A. Winter, from near Helena, Arkansas, 

 while on a hunting trip, was attacked by them one and a 

 half miles from home while passing some low ground. 

 Running towards a house, he was seen to fall dead. All 

 exposed parts of his body had turned black. Another 

 man was killed near Wynne Station, Arkansas, on the 

 Iron Mountain Railroad." 



Webster says that during the scourge of black-flies 

 in the South from 1881 to 1884 several people were killed 

 in Louisiana and Arkansas by the bites of these gnats, as 

 he was able to prove by the testimony of physicians who 

 attended the victims. 



A. E. Buck gives a more detailed case of death by 

 buffalo-gnats in a letter written to Webster. It seems that 

 a Mr. Stokes, nephew of Buck, went fishing in company with 

 a party and they all crossed over to an island w r here the 

 gnats were very numerous. The members of the party, 

 with the exception of Stokes, finally left the island, taking 

 the boat with them. Stokes could not swim and was 

 consequently left to the mercy of the flies. It rained and 

 the fire that he had went out, so that he was deprived of the 



