90 JO URNAL, BOMB A 7 NA TUBAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX, 



communication by H. Stewart of North Carolina, dated Nov. 3, 1891, given in 

 Insect Life, vol. 4, p. 277, as illustrative of this point : 



" I was interested in reading a recent number of Insect Life to the effect that 

 the poison of the mosquito was provocative of insanity. When I was engaged 

 in exploring in the vicinity of the north shore of Lake Superior about twenty- 

 five years ago, I had more than one proof of this fact. One of my men was 

 badly bitten, and seemed to suffer more than any others of the company. He 

 became violently insane and ran off in the woods, and in spite of efforts he 

 eluded pursuit and was never found again. Another man on a different occa- 

 sion was affected in a similar manner, and was captured with difficulty after a 

 long chase, in which he exhibited the utmost terror, but after a few days' close 

 confinement in the camp he regained his reason. Afterwards he was so seriously 

 affected by the poison that he had to be sent home. I have noticed that the 

 poison affected persons differently, causing severe swelling in some, fever in 

 others, pains in the limbs in others, while some were but slightly annoyed. I 

 was myself very little troubled by these pests." Along with that we may place 

 the report given by a German professor, of a Mexican doctor who was attending 

 a lady suffering from inflammation of the brain. She had been unconscious 

 for twelve hours, and gave signs of approaching dissolution. The doctor 

 removed the mosquito net and opened the windows, giving the mosquitoes free 

 access to his patient for two hours, when consciousness returned and the lady 

 given up for lost started on the way to recovery ; which is quite a likely thing, 

 as blood-letting would be an excellent method for relieving the congested 

 parts. 



We frequently read in the newspapers of people suffering from alarming 

 sores, the result of " a mosquito bite," some of them ending fatally. Thought- 

 less persons, or those ignorant of the nature of mosquito bites, will persist in 

 rubbing the bitten parts, which only tends to increase the irritation and calls 

 for more rubbing. This, continued, may break the skin, blood-poisoning may 

 then ensue, and, if combined with an unhealthy condition of the system, death 

 may quite likely be the result. I have seen children whose bodies were covered 

 with sores caused by their scratching the mosquito bites. 



To those who have not lived in a mosquito-infested district and have formed 

 their opinions by reading such reports it might seem that life in such 

 a place would be constant misery, and would expect to find the inhabitants 

 covered with sores and bandages ; but such is not the case. There is un- 

 questionably a kind of inoculation that takes place in those much exposed to 

 the attack, which gives them immunity from any inconvenience after the bite 

 is given. The writer of the article " Mosquito," in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, 

 says : " Even in Britain the annoyance caused by the gnats — Culex pipiens 

 — is very great, and in marshy districts often unendurable, especially to new 

 comers, for it seems probable that the insects really attack a visitor more 

 furiously than they do the natives of the district, but, on the other hand, the 



