Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1883 — The Mosquito at Close Quarters. [ARTICLE]

The Mosquito at Close Quarters.

Viewed through the microscope the mosquito presents a picture of mechanical ingenuity' as marvelous in execution as it is devilish in design. In the bill alone, which seems so fragile to the unaided sight, there is a combination of five distinct surgical instruments. These are, a lance, two meat saws, and a suction pump. The fifth instrument I have forgotten, but labor under the impression that it is a portable Corliss engine to run the rest of the factory with. I know that the hum of the mosquitoes in the cottonwood thickets along the Lower Mississippi reminded me constantly of the hum of a manufacturing village, and 'several times I walked back several miles looking for a town before I could convince myself that the buzzing I heard was made by mosquitoes/with their engines running to sharpen their saws. When the insects operate on a man the lance is first pushed into the flesh, then the two saws, placed back to back, begin to work up and down to enlarge the hole, then the pump is inserted, and the victim’s blood is syphoned up into the reservoir carried behind,' and finally, to complete the cruelty of the performance, the wretch drops a quantity ,of poison into the wound to keep it irritated—Forest and Stream.