Footnote 4342: [(return)]

The precise species of insect by means of which the Almighty signalised the plague of flies, remains uncertain, as the Hebrew term arob or oror which has been rendered in one place. "Divers sorts of flies," Ps. cv. 31; and in another, "swarms of flies," Exod. viii. 21, &c., means merely "an assemblage." a "mixture" or a "swarm," and the expletive. "of flies" is an interpolation of the translators. This, however, serves to show that the fly implied was one easily recognisable by its habit of swarming; and the further fact that it bites, or rather stings, is elicited from the expression of the Psalmist, Ps. lxxviii. 45, that the insects by which the Egyptians were tormented "devoured them," so that here are two peculiarities inapplicable to the domestic fly, but strongly characteristic of gnats and mosquitoes.

Bruce thought that the fly of the fourth plague was the "zimb" of Abyssinia which he so graphically describes: and WESTWOOD, in an ingenious passage in his Entomologist's Text-book. p. 17, combats the strange idea of one of the bishops, that it was a cockroach! and argues in favour of the mosquito. This view he sustains by a reference to the habits of the creature, the swarms in which it invades a locality, and the audacity with which it enters the houses; and he accounts for the exemption of "the land of Goshen in which the Isrælites dwelt," by the fact of its being sandy pasture above the level of the river; whilst the mosquitoes were produced freely in the rest of Egypt, the soil of which was submerged by the rising of the Nile.

In all the passages in the Old Testament in which flies are alluded to, otherwise than in connection with the Egyptian infliction, the word used in the Hebrew is zevor, which the Septuagint renders by the ordinary generic term for flies in general, [Greek: muia], "musca" (Eccles. x. 1, Isaiah vii. 10); but in every instance in which mention is made of the miracle of Moses, the Septuagint says that the fly produced was the [Greek: kunomyia], the "dog-fly." What insect was meant by this name it is not now easy to determine, but ÆLIAN intimates that the dogfly both inflicts a wound and emits a booming sound, in both of which particulars it accords with the mosquito (lib. iv, 51); and PHILO-JUDÆUS, in his Vita Mosis, lib. i. ch. xxiii., descanting on the plague of flies, and using the term of the Septuagint, [Greek: kunomyia], describes it as combining the characteristic of "the most impudent of all animals, the fly and the dog, exhibiting the courage and the cunning of both, and fastening on its victim with the noise and rapidity of an arrow"—[Greek: meta roizou kathaper belos]. This seems to identify the dog-fly of the Septuagint with the description of the Psalmist, Ps. lxxviii. 45, and to vindicate the conjecture that the tormenting mosquito, and not the house-fly, was commissioned by the Lord to humble the obstinacy of the Egyptian tyrant.

Footnote 4351: [(return)]

HERODOTUS, Euterpe. xcv.

Footnote 4352: [(return)]

KIRBY and SPENCE'S Entomology, letter iv.

Footnote 4361: [(return)]

The following notice of the "coffee-bug," and of the singularly destructive effects produced by it on the plants, has been prepared chiefly from a memoir presented to the Ceylon Government by the late Dr. Gardner, in which he traces the history of the insect from its first appearance in the coffee districts, until it had established itself more or less permanently in all the estates in full cultivation throughout the island.

Footnote 4362: [(return)]

See the annexed drawing, Fig. 1.

Footnote 4363: [(return)]

Figs. 2, and 3 and 5 in the engraving, where these and all the other figures are considerably enlarged.

Footnote 4371: [(return)]

Fig. 4. Mr. WESTWOOD, who observed the operation in one species, states that they escape backwards, the wings being extended flatly over the head.

Footnote 4381: [(return)]

Figs. 6 and 7. There are many other species of the Coccus tribe in Ceylon, some (Pseudococcus?) never appearing as a scale, the female wrapping herself up in a white cottony exudation; many species nearly allied to the true Coccus infest common plants about gardens, such as the Nerium Oleander, Plumeria Acuminata, and others with milky juices; another subgenus (Ceroplastes?), the female of which produces a protecting waxy material, infests the Gendurassa Vulgaris, the Furrcæa Gigantea, the Jak Tree, Mango, and other common trees.

Footnote 4382: [(return)]

REAUMUR has described the singular manner in which this occurs. Mem. tom. iv.

Footnote 4391: [(return)]

Fig. 8.