[5]--_Ibid_.
[5] For a notice of the application of this cement to useful
purposes, see No. 396, page 283.--ED. MIRROR.
It furnishes a subject of serious consideration, as well as an argument
for a special providence, to know, that the accurate Reaumur, and other
naturalists, have observed, that when any kind of insect has increased
inordinately, their natural enemies have increased in the same
proportion, and thus preserved the balance.--_Ibid_.
_Gnats_.
There are few insects with whose form we are better acquainted than
that of the gnat. It is to be found in all latitudes and climates; as
prolific in the Polar as in the Equatorial regions. In 1736 they were so
numerous, and were seen to rise in such clouds from Salisbury cathedral,
that they looked like columns of smoke, and frightened the people, who
thought the building was on fire. In 1766, they appeared at Oxford, in
the form of a thick black cloud; six columns were observed to ascend the
height of fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was attended with alarming
inflammation. To some appearances of this kind our great poet, Spenser,
alludes, in the following beautiful simile:--
As when a swarm of gnats at eventide,
Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise,
Their murmurring small trumpets sownden wide,
Whiles in the air their clust'ring army flies.
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