[52] To some persons the gnat (culex pipiens) is so truly formidable, that, during the Summer season, they constantly dread the approach of evening, that being the time when these blood-thirsty marauders sally forth in great numbers, pursue them wherever they go, and exempt no part of the face, hands, or even the legs from their depredations; the consequences of which are, violent, though happily only local and temporary inflammation, attended with insupportable itching, succeeded by tumors very similar to those occasioned by a scald; when these have discharged the pellucid fluid they contain, the symptoms subside. Instances have been known in the vicinity of London, where for several days the eyes of the sufferers have been closed, the nose and lips violently swelled, the fingers of both hands so affected as to prevent their motion, and the legs equally affected. It is remarkable, that in general those who thus suffer are not conscious of the moment when they receive the injury, but are soon made sensible of it by the effect it produces. The approach of the enemy is, however, always known by the singing or humming noise they make; the peculiar note of which, though rendered very familiar by daily repetition, is never esteemed sufficiently musical to render it pleasant or agreeable to the destined victims. Amongst the variety of remedies which have been recommended for the cure of this temporary evil, Barbut mentions the immediate application of volatile alkali, or scratching the part newly stung, and washing it with cold water; he likewise asserts, that rubbing the part at night with fuller’s earth and water abates the inflammation. As preventives are certainly more acceptable than curatives, I wish I were enabled to recommend such in the present case: in one instance, the application of vinegar every evening before sun-set produced a happy effect; possibly washing the parts exposed with extract of saturn properly diluted might prove effectual. In the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1767, is an account of uncommonly numerous swarms of gnats which made their appearance at Oxford, during the months of July, August, and September of the preceding year. So many myriads sometimes occupied the same part of the atmosphere in contiguous bodies, that they resembled a very black cloud, greatly darkened the air, and almost totally interrupted the solar rays. The repeated bites of these malignant insects were so severe, that the legs, arms, heads, and other parts of many persons were swelled to an enormous size. The colour of the parts was red and fiery, perfectly similar to that of some of the most alarming inflammations. Some of these gnats had their bodies greatly distended by the uncommon quantities of blood which they had imbibed.