DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



89 



common gnat (Culex pipiens L.), if, as has been generally 

 affirmed, it be synonymous with the mosquito (though, in all 

 probability, several species are confounded under both names) ; 

 and to this, the most insatiable of blood-suckers, I shall prin- 

 cipally direct your attention.^ 



In this country they are justly regarded as no trifling evil ; 

 for they follow us to all our haunts, intrude into our most 

 secret retirements, assail us in the city and in the country, in 

 our houses and in our fields, in the sun and in the shade : nay 

 they pursue us to our pillows, and either keep us awake by 

 the ceaseless hum of their rapid wings (which, according to 

 the Baron C. de Latour, are vibrated 3000 times per minute^), 

 and their incessant endeavours to fix themselves upon our 

 face, or some uncovered part of our body ; or, if in spite of 

 them we fall asleep, awaken us by the acute pain which attends 

 the insertion of their oral stings ; attacking with most 

 avidity the softer sex, and trying their temper by disfiguring 

 their beauty. But although with us they are usually rather 

 teasing than injurious, yet upon some occasions they have 

 approached nearer to the character of a plague, and emulated 

 with success the mosquitos of other climates. Thus, we are 

 told that in the year 1736 they were so numerous, that vast 

 columns of them were seen to rise in the air from Salisbury 

 cathedral, which at a distance resembled columns of smoke, 

 and occasioned many people to think that the cathedral was 

 on fire. A similar occurrence, in like manner giving rise to 

 an alarm of the church being on fire, took place in July 1812 

 at Sagan in Silesia.^ In the following year at Norwich, in 

 May, at about six o'clock in the evening, the inhabitants of 

 that city were alarmed by the appearance of smoke issuing 

 from the upper window of the spire of the cathedral, for 

 which at the time no satisfactory account could be given, 

 but which was most probably produced by the same cause. 

 And in the year 1766, in the month of August, they appeared 

 in such incredible numbers at Oxford as to resemble a black 



1 Humboldt has described several South [American species. Personal Nar- 

 rative, V. 97. note.* Engl. Tr. 



2 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 509. 



3 Germar's Magazin de Entomologie, i. 137. 



