The Sacred Beetle: the Ball 



itself into a thread that stretches and 

 stretches indefinitely as long as the meal 

 lasts. In that amazing laboratory, which 

 perhaps never puts up its shutters, unless 

 it be when victuals are lacking, the material 

 merely passes through, is at once treated by 

 the stomach's reagents and at once ex- 

 pended. One may well believe that an ap- 

 paratus which sanifies filth so quickly has 

 some part to play in the public health. We 

 shall have occasion to return to this important 

 subject. 



79 



