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HOW INSECTS BREATHE. 

 By John Lubbock, F.G.S. 



Few people could describe with accuracy the internal anatomy 

 of insects. We all know that they eat, run, and see, and that 

 many of them fly ; but how they perform these actions few 

 even among Entomologists care to know. And vet this in- 

 difference cannot be ascribed to the nature of the subject 

 itself; for though the inner organs cannot for an instant vie 

 in brilliancy of colour with those that are more exposed to 

 the light, they will be found noways inferior in beauty of 

 form, in delicacy of structure, or in the lessons which they 

 teach us of the power and goodness of the Creator. The 

 absence of all disagreeable smells and of red blood, as well 

 as the few instruments that are necessary (for a small micro- 

 scope, a trough of water for the object, a pair of fine scissors 

 and some needles stuck in handles are quite sufficient), make 

 insects very favourable subjects for those who wish to examine 

 that most wonderful of all machines— an animal. We must 

 indeed expect that collecting, and the pleasant walks in the 

 country which it involves, when not an hour passes without 

 some tangible result, will always be more popular than the se- 

 dentary studies of the anatomist; but the great disproportion 

 which appears to exist at present between these two classes 

 of Entomologists, cannot be in this way entirely accounted 



