The Geotrupes: the Public Health 



trupes, however, fly and buzz around their 

 cages. Their prophecy is correct and I am 

 wrong. The threat of rain is dispelled and 

 the sun next morning rises radiantly. 



They seem to be influenced above all by the 

 electric tension of the atmosphere. On hot 

 and sultry evenings, when a storm is brewing, 

 I see them moving about even more than 

 usual. The morrow is always marked by 

 violent claps of thunder. 



There you have the upshot of my observa- 

 tions, which were continued for three months. 

 Whatever the condition of the sky, whether 

 clear or clouded, the Geotrupes announce fair 

 weather or storm by their excited movements 

 at twilight. They are living barometers, 

 more worthy of belief perhaps, in such con- 

 tingencies, than the barometer of our scien- 

 tists. The exquisite sensitiveness of life is 

 mightier than the brute weight of a column 

 of mercury. 



I will end by mentioning a fact that well 

 deserves further investigation when circum- 

 stances permit. On the twelfth, thirteenth 

 and fourteenth of November 1894, the Geo- 

 trupes in my cages are in an extraordinarily 

 agitated condition. Never before and never 

 since I have seen such animation. They clam- 

 ber wildly up the wires; at every moment, 

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