236 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 216. 



their hides for commercial use ; the bot fly 

 of the sheep, -which inhabits the nasal and 

 orbital sinuses of the sheep and produces 

 insanity and death — will instantly be re- 

 called by those who are familiar with stock 

 raising, while hundreds of other species, 

 some in no less degree, as the horn fly, the 

 numerous gad flies, including the Tsetse fly 

 of Africa, the screw worm fly of our South- 

 western country, unite to make the lives of 

 domestic animals a burden to themselves 

 and a trial and a loss to their owners. 



An intei'esting attempt was made some 

 years ago by a prominent Western agri- 

 cultural newspaper, The Farmers^ Review, to 

 estimate approximately the pecuniary loss 

 from the attacks of a single one of these 

 insects — the ox bot fly, or ox warble — on 

 the cattle received at the Union Stock 

 Yards, of Chicago. It was estimated that 

 ■50 per cent, of the cattle received each year 

 are afi"ected. The number of cattle received 

 at the yards during six months of the year 

 1889 was 1,335,026 ; the average value of 

 the hide was $3.90 ; the usual deduction for 

 hides damaged by the ox warble was one- 

 third. Estimating at less than one-third, say 

 $1.00, the actual loss during six months on 

 hides alone was §667,513. When to this 

 was added the loss for depreciation in value 

 and lessened quantity of beef, the loss for 

 each infested animal was put at S5.00, a 

 very low estimate, indicating the total loss 

 from the animals in the Union Stock Yards, 

 of Chicago, for a period of six months of 

 $3,336,565. 



AS ANNOYING MAN. 



There are very few regions of the habit- 

 able globe where man is not personally 

 subject to more or less annoyance by in- 

 sects. In this part of the world we natu- 

 rally think at once of mosquitoes, house flies, 

 fleas, and of a certain other species which 

 it will not be necessary to name. 



A susceptible individual some years ago 



wrote to the Department of Agriculture 

 and said that he had come over from the 

 old country and settled in New Jersey, but 

 that the mosquitoes bothered him so greatly 

 that on the advice of friends he moved to 

 northern New York. Here he found that 

 during a certain portion of the year black 

 flies made life unendurable; thereupon he 

 packed his household efi'ects and moved to 

 North Carolina. Here, however, in the 

 summer months red bugs, or jiggers, both- 

 ered him to such an extent that he feared 

 he would go crazy, and in this desperate 

 condition he applied to this oifice to learn 

 whether there existed in the United States 

 a locality where a sensitive individual could 

 find peace from attacks of insects. He said 

 that he had been told that in the Western 

 countrjf the bufi'alo gnat was greatly to be 

 feared, while certain other biting flies would 

 be sure to keep him in a constant state of 

 dermal irritation ; that further south he 

 knew that peaceful nights were to be gained 

 in the summer time only under the protec- 

 tion of mosquito bars. He had thought of 

 the newly developing country of Alaska, but 

 had recently seen an account in the news- 

 paper of the ferocity of the Alaskan mos- 

 quitoes, which had practically destroyed his 

 last hope. 



Accustomed as most of us are to the mos- 

 quitoes of temperate Nortsh America, we 

 hardly realize the impression which they 

 made upon the early English travellers. A 

 story told by Kirby and Spence, to the 

 effect that Mr. Weld in his travels relates 

 from General Washington that in one place 

 the mosquitoes were so powerful as to pierce 

 through his boots, has always excited my 

 interest and curiosity, and I recently took 

 the trouble to consult the original publica- 

 tion, which is ' Isaac Weld's Travels through 

 North America, 1795-1797,' London, 1799. 

 In speaking of Skenesborough, in northern 

 New York, Mr. Weld dilates upon the 

 number and ferocity of the mosquitoes, and 



