The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-15
POISONOUS INSECTS.

Mosquitoes are pesky things and this
is the season of year when they give
the greatest annoyance; but few per-
sons ever stop to think that their bite
may be poisonous and no one would
scarcely believe that the bite of a
mosquito resulted in death. Yet such
is the story vouched for by New
Jersey paper of a young girl whose
death is ascribed to this cause. AT
any rate it has set the doctors and
scientists TO thinking and long articles
are published in the eastern press,
notably the Springfield Republican,
giving facts about the mosquito from
an chronological point of view.
Dr. Dinmock. who won his degree
of Phi. d. at Leipsic, is a recognized
authority on the, insect creation,
mosquitoes especially. He has made
micrcscopical observations and des-
cribes deliberately the operations OF
the mosquito at work; but the principal
point the general reader. is interested
in (and probably the mosquito also) is
the fifth prong, which is tubular and
carries the poison from the poison duct
back in the mosquitoes head down into
the flesh.
Just why the mosquito bites people
is not yet known. 1t is not to furnish
him food, for it is an established fact
that a mosquito, after gorging himself
with human blood dies within~a few
hours; whereas mosquitoes that have
never tasted blood have been known &c
live very comfortably even through the
entire winter and into the next season.
The adult mosquito does not need food.
The fact that it is estimated that only
one out of 10000 ever tastes human
blood also proves that it is not neces-
sary. Therefore we must conclude
that there is something ADVANTAGEOUS
in his nature akin to the human, and
that his appetite for gore is parallel
to the drunkard's thirst for drink.
DR.. Dimmock has no doubt that the
mosquito carries disease germs. In
Havana DR.. Findlay has found that
yellow fever is carried by the
mosquitoes.
The attention of the writer was
called to the danger that turks in the
larvae of the butterfly-the caterpillar.
The caterpillar is numerous now and
drops from our shade trees on to ones
person and crawls over the exposed
portion before he is aware of the in
sects intention. A lady living on
Brigham street, sitting under a tree
one evening recently, felt crawling
sensation on her neck, and quickly
reaching the seat of annoyance brushed
off a common yellow caterpillar. The
same night she was rendered sleeDless
through prickly pains on the neck and
shoulders and in the morning these
had developed into poisonous blisters,
rendering the services of a physician
necessary. A similar incident hap
pened last summer. in the ,neighbor-
hood Of the first place mentioned, the
victim being young lady confined for
three weeks through the poison i'm
ficted by the caterpillar.
While the condition of these two
persons was undoubtedly produced by
the poison emitted from the insect, and
the physician had no hesitation in de-
claring it, yet so far the snicro-organ-
ism that caused it has not been .ascer-
tanned AS these accidents become
more prevalent, 1t would rebound to
the promotion of science and the bene-
fit of materia medica if investigation
was had, and this suggestion is thrown
out to the medical fraternity of our
city. If a culture Were taken of the
. III fe.+a
produced by the caterpillar poison, the
chances are it would be found swarm
ing with bacteria.