THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF INSECTS AS A CLASS. 555 



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 effects and moved to 

 North Carolina. Here, however, in the summer months red bugs, or 

 jiggers, bothered him to such an extent that he feared he would go 

 crazy, and in this desperate condition he applied to this office 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 country the buffalo 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 farther south he knew 

 that peaceful nights were to be gained in the summer time only under 

 the protection of mosquito bars. He had thought of the newly devel- 

 oping country of Alaska, but had recently seen an account in the 

 newspaper of the ferocity of the Alaskan mosquitoes, which had prac- 

 tically destroyed his last hope. 



Accustomed as most of us are to the mosquitoes of temperate Nortli 

 America, we hardly realize the impression which they made upon the 

 early English travelers. 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 publication, 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 makes use of the 

 following words : " General Washington told me that he never was so 

 much annoyed by mosquitoes in any part of America as in Skenesbor- 

 ough, for that they used to bite through the thickest boot." Now, 

 knowing that the boots of those days were very thick and that the 

 mosquitoes of that time must have been structurally identical with 

 those of to-day, there arises instantly a question of veracity between 

 Mr. Weld and General Washington; and as we know from Dr. Weems's 

 veracious history that General Washington was so constituted that he 

 could not tell a lie, it looks very much as though Mr. Weld, like many 

 another English traveler who has written a book on his return home, 

 has been inclined to overstate the truth. 



In these days of comparative personal cleanliness some of the most 

 disgusting of the insect annoyers of man have dropped out of sight. 

 The lice, which in former days were common in all classes of society, 

 from king to peasant, are now comparatively unknown. The itch dis- 

 ease, which carried off' many a famous character in history, is equally 

 rare. That it still persists, however, is shown by an occasional case 

 reported in medical journals. For example, Dr. Robert Hessler, of 

 Indianapolis, reported in 1892 a case in his own practice of typical 

 Norway itch in which the itch mites were present in the skin of the 



