. COMBS. 34b 



It had long been known that this " houppe nerveuse," as it is 

 called, was employed as an assistant in locomotion ; but until 

 comparatively late years I believe about 1826 no one 

 seemed to be aware that it was used as a brush. Its func- 

 tions as a brush may be compared with the somewhat similar 

 offices fulfilled by the pincers of the Earwig, as mentioned 

 on page 259. 



Next to the brush of the glow-worm larva is shown one of the 

 fore-feet of the ordinary house-fly, much magnified. Passing, 

 as irrelevant to the present subject, the use of the feet as organs 

 of locomotion, we may take them as being used for the purpose 

 of cleansing the body of the insect. 



I suppose that none of my readers has been sufficiently 

 inobservant not to have noticed the way in which a fly cleanses 

 itself, behaving almost exactly like a cat under similar circum- 

 stances. The fore-feet are repeatedly passed over the head, 

 which is bowed down to meet them, while a similar office is 

 performed for the rest of the body by the hind-legs. The feet 

 are then rubbed against each other, so as to free them from all 

 accumulations, just as the housemaid cleanses the hair-brush 

 with the comb before washing it. So mechanical is this 

 process, that a fly has been known to go through it even after it 

 had been deprived of its head. 



The reader will see, on reference to the illustration, that the 

 two sharp and curved claws are capable of answering the pur- 

 pose of combs, and, indeed, are so employed. 



COMBS. 



WE will now proceed to the COMB, and see how Art has 

 been anticipated by Nature. 



As long as human beings possess hair upon their heads, 

 whether it be the short, frizzed, woolly pile of the negro, the 

 thick, coarse crop of the Fijian, the coarse, straight hair of the 

 Mongolian, or the long and fine hair of the Georgian races, 

 they must, as soon as they attempt any kind of civilisation, 

 form some instruments by which the hair can be dressed. The 

 simplest machine for this purpose is the Comb, and I possess 

 many varieties of this article, suitable to the different races for 

 whom it was made. 



