94 



DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



And now, which seems to you the greatest terror, that the 

 forest should resound with the roar of the lion or the tiger, or 

 with the hum of the gnat? Which evil is most to be 

 deprecated, the neighbourhood of these ferocious animals, 

 terrible as they are for their cruelty and strength, or to 

 live amidst the polar or tropical myriads of mosquitos, and 

 be subject to the torture of their incessant attacks ? When 

 you consider that from the one, prudence and courage may 

 secure or defend us without any material sacrifice of our 

 daily comforts ; while to be at rest from the other, we 

 must either render ourselves disgusting by filthy unguents, 

 or be sufibcated by fumigations, or be content to be bound, 

 head, hand, and foot, shut out from the respiration of the 

 common air, and even thus scarcely escape from their 

 annoyance ; you will feel convinced that the former is the 

 more tolerable evil of the two, and be inclined to think 

 that those cities, from which the lions were driven away 

 by the more powerful gnats, were no great gainers by the 

 exchange.^ With what grateful hearts ought the privileged 

 inhabitants of these happy islands to acknowledge and 

 glorify the goodness of that kind Providence which has 

 distinguished us from the less favoured nations of the 

 globe, by what may be deemed an immunity from this tor- 

 menting pest ! for the inroads which they make on our comfort, 

 when contrasted with what so many other people of every 

 climate suffer from them, are mere nothing. When we 

 behold on one side of us the ravages of the wide-wasting 

 sword, on another those of infectious disease or pestilence. 



all proceeded from an open ornamental stone cistern in the garden, constantly 

 left half full of water ; and I am persuaded that to a similar cause may be chiefly 

 attributed the gnats so often found in continental towns not situated near to 

 canals or stagnant pools. The remedy is equally obvious and easy. Either 

 open water-tubs and cisterns should be proscribed, or a few small fish kept in 

 them to destroy the larvae of the gnats as fast as they breed. Trees being gene- 

 rally found to harbour gnats, are, on this account, banished from the neighbour- 

 hood of dwelling houses in America and other hot countries, to the great loss 

 of the occupants in other respects ; but I have been informed by a friend, that 

 at Trieste it has been observed that horse-chestnut trees planted near a house, so 

 far from encouraging gnats, drive them away, none ever appearing in houses sur- 

 rounded with these trees, though abundant where other kinds prevail, a fact, 

 which if confirmed in other countries, would be well worth acting upon. 

 1 Mouffet, 85. 



