10 Rev. Thomas S. Savage on the 



the animal kingdom, has pursued a system of compensation beau- 

 tifully illustrative of His goodness, and the minuteness of His Pro- 

 vidential care over even the meanest of His creatures. As He has 

 endowed this insect with a high degree of life, so He has given to 

 it a corresponding degree of tenacity, thus enabling it to exist 

 under the many unfavourable circumstances incident to its habits. 

 Feeling assured that such was the fact, I commenced a series of 

 experiments in proof of the point. An individual of the largest 

 class was submerged to the bottom of a glass of water, where it 

 struggled for about three-fourths of an hour, then apparently 

 expired. It revived in about ten minutes after it was taken out, 

 exhibiting about as much vitality and ferocity as before. It was 

 re-submerged at 1 p.m., and taken out after G p.m., with like re- 

 sults. It was submerged the third time, and then permitted to 

 remain for twelve hours or more. It revived on being taken out, 

 so far as to move about on its side, and continued to exhibit signs 

 of life for twelve hours more, when it expired. Others that were 

 permitted to rise to the surface, and remain, survived some time 

 longer. 



Another fact, illustrating their tenacity of life, may here be 

 stated. The head of one of the largest class, when dissevered 

 from the body, grasped the finger of an attendant so furiously as 

 to cause an immediate flow of blood. It was kept in a glass 

 tumbler from 3 p.m. till the next morning at 8 o'clock, when the 

 fino-er was again applied, and apparently as severe a wound as 

 before inflicted. Another individual of the same class was deca- 

 pitated at 7 A.M., and at half-past 9 the next morning, — 26| hours 

 from the time of decapitation, — a piece of newspaper was held 

 between the jaws, which it grasped and retained with considerable 

 force. I then applied the small finger of my right hand, which it 

 bit severely; indeed so powerful was the grasp that the point of 

 the mandibles met beneath the cuticle. It then partly withdrew 

 one mandible, and pointing it more perpendicularly, penetrated 

 deeper, then the other, and thus at every alternate stroke giving 

 to the mandible a direction more vertical, wounding and cutting 

 wider and deeper precisely in the manner of the insect in posses- 

 sion of all its parts and powers. The sensation at each thrust was 

 like that of a pin, and equally painful ; and when the mandibles 

 were withdrawn the blood flowed as freely. This head continued 

 to give signs of life for more than 36 hours after decapitation. 

 The body to which it belonged lived still longer, — more than 48 

 hours ! 



I know of no insect more ferocious and determined upon vie- 



