95 
that it had been partly adopted by the French and Russian governments, 
but that it was under the consideration of the English War - office 
authorities. 
A slight conversation ensued, and a few questions were put to, and 
answered by, Mr. Praeger. Major Austin, F.G.S., tried this new powder 
in an eprouvette, but instead of going off with an explosion, the force of 
which was measured, with ordinary powder, by a very ingenious contriv- 
ance, the new powder simply burnt out of the touch-hole. Mr. Praeger 
observed that this was a most satisfactory proof of the inexplosiveness of 
the powder in contact with air. 
Mr. David Davies, M.R.C.S., then read the following paper "On 
the occasional presence of the foreign musquito in England." 
Several of the smaller animals, as well as insects and plants, have been unin- 
tentionally introduced into this island by the way of commercial intercourse, 
some of which have made their residence amongst us permanent, and others have 
remained only for a short time, their continued existence here being incompatible 
with our climate; among the latter I consider the subject of this paper, a species 
of Mosquito introduced here from Brazil. 
My attention was called to this subject, about the middle of last September, by 
the large number of persons who suffered from irritable eruptions of the skin on 
all the exposed parts of the body, in a limited district of this city, extending from 
the lower part of Clare-street to Thunderbolt-street, at the end of the Broad 
Quay. For some days I was puzzled to account for this phenomenon, which 
assumed many of the characteristics of an epidemic disease, and was finally 
enlightened on the subject by a youth, who having suffered much from the pre- 
vailing eruptions, caught a Musquito in the act of feeding upon his nose. Upon 
inquiry I found a similar insect was very plentiful in all the houses on the Quay, 
and that several of the inhabitants attributed the fact to the arrival of the ship 
tc Blaney Brothers," from Bahia, in Brazil, on the 10th day of September. These 
insects were found in considerable numbers in this neighbourhood until the second 
week in October, when they disappeared, probably destroyed by the cold. Their 
attacks on the human skin were made chiefly in the night, and mostly inflicted on 
the head and face ; persons with bald heads suffered extremely. Each bite was 
followed by itching and a slight inflammation, wnich subsided in about 24 hours. 
In one female the irritation from the bites amounted to a considerable degree of 
erysipelas of the face. 
Being unacquainted scientifically with the order Diptera, and being unable to 
meet with any other who could assist me in classifying this little insect, I applied 
to several captains of ships who are in the habit of trading to foreign parts, and 
they all assured me that the insect in question was a true Mosquito, and they 
could easdy distinguish it from the common Gnat (Culex pipiens) which was 
prevalent at the same time. 
Like the common gnat, it belongs to the order Diptera, family CulicidEe* and 
is very nearly allied to, if not identical with, the species illustrated in Curtis' British 
Entomology, under the name Culex guttatus. It may be easily distinguished 
