Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1897 — FATAL TO MAN AND BEAST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FATAL TO MAN AND BEAST.

The Little Buffalo Gnat Already Has a String of Victims. From many places come reports of a plague of buffalo gnats. Near Jeffersonville, Ind., a farmer named Price, while

at work on his farm, was stung to death by a swarm that lit upon his face and hands. In western Oklahoma and parts of Texas adjoining several hundred head of horses, mules and I cattle have been killed. The gnats re-

semble small flies. They appear in the spring along the river regions find are carried into the country by north winds. Wherever they bite they cause burning itching. Soon a painful, hard swelling makes its appearance. It may remain for a week or longer. Many such bites close together produce severe inflammatory fever, and in more susceptible victims cramps. Animals, when attacked by large numbers, grow frantic and seek to evade their tormentors by rolling in the dust, rushing about and whirling round and round. At times they are literally covered with the animated pests. The ears and nostrils are the chief points of attack. The former are tilled clear to the tympanum with layer upon layer. An inflammatory fever, with a high pulse, soon sets in. The afflicted cattle soon die of cramps and convulsions. In the dead animals the skin of the entire body will be found covered with numerous minute ulcers.

THE BUFFALO GNAT.