INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 195 
abdomen, the skin of which is soft and unfit to act as a 
lever to them, are attached to a cartilage, and thus their 
action is better sustained 3 . 
Having thus laid before you all of importance that I 
can collect with regard to the apparatus of muscles dis- 
coverable in insects, I shall next say something upon a 
few other points connected with that subject. When I 
enlarged upon their motions^ I related a few instances of 
the extraordinary power of that apparatus b in leaping 
ones; but this power is not confined to that circum- 
stance. The Jlea, not more remarkable for its com- 
pressed form, enabling it to glide between the hairs of 
animals, and its elastic coat of mail, by which it can re- 
sist the ordinary pressure of the fingers, than for its mus- 
cular strength, has attracted notice on this account from 
ancient times. Mouffet relates that an ingenious En- 
glish mechanic, named Mark, made a golden chain of 
the length of a finger, with a lock and key, which was 
dragged by a flea ; — he had heard of another that was 
harnessed to a golden chariot, which it drew with the 
greatest ease c . Another English workman made an 
ivory coach with six horses, a coachman on the seat with 
a dog between his legs, a postillion, four persons in the 
coach, and four lacqueys behind — which also was drag- 
ged by a single flea. At such a spectacle one would 
hardly know which most to admire, the strength and agi- 
lity of the insect, or die patience of the workman. La- 
treille mentions a flea of a moderate size draffgfmjr a sil- 
ver cannon on wheels, that was twenty-four times its own 
weight, which being charged with powder, was fired 
■ Arachnid. 45. t. in./. 31. m, n, q, r, t. u Vor.. If. p. 309—. 
e Mouflfet Tkeatr. 275. 
o 2 
