146 



THE HAIR AND FUR OF ANIMALS. 



their whole length. Some of the caterpillars (calli- 

 morpha caja) have spines proceeding from the hair 

 that invests their bodies, (Fig. D*.) All these, 

 and the other various contrivances so manifest in 

 the coverings of animals, are probably designed to 

 convey off' the perspirable fluids conducive to health 

 in an appropriate manner ; to discharge the super- 

 abundant heat, and keep the body temperate, in 

 some cases; in others, again, to retard perspira- 

 tion, and thus augment the warmth, by every 

 possible gradation, or to increase the sensibility and 

 perceptions of the animal. Many instances of these 

 effects and modifications might be advanced, de- 

 serving a more extensive consideration. 



The smell of the flesh of the mole is remarkably 

 rank and offensive, as, from the nature of its food, 

 might be expected ; and it taints the- fingers which 

 have touched it with its peculiar odour, so that 

 one washing does not remove it. It is reported of 

 a late very eccentric nobleman, but with what 

 truth I do not know, who essayed himself the 

 flavour of every living thing, even to the eating of 

 the large dew- worm, that the mole alone remained 

 untasted by him, his stomach recoiling with disgust 



* The organ which inflicts the pain, or sting, when we incauti- 

 ously handle the nettle, is well known to be connected with a little 

 vessel containing an acrid fluid, which, being compressed, rushes 

 up the tube of the organ, and is thus conveyed into the wound ; 

 and it is rather singular, that the larvae of the peacock butterfly, 

 which feeds upon the large hedge nettle, has the spines which 

 arise from its body branched, and each collateral hair arises from a 

 . little bulb, similar to that of the plant on which it is chiefly found. 



