22 THE INSECT WORLD. 



In order to measure the muscular strength of man, or of animals 

 as the horse, for instance many different dynamometric apparatuses 

 have been invented, composed of springs, or systems of unequal 

 levers. The Turks' heads which are seen at fairs, or in the Champs 

 Elyse'es, at Paris, and on which the person who wishes to try his 

 strength gives a strong blow with his fist, represent a dynamometer of 

 this kind. The one which Buffon had constructed by Regnier the 

 mechanician, and which is known by the name of Regnier' s Dynamo- 

 meter, is much more precise. It consists of an oval spring, of which 

 the two ends approach each other ; when they are pulled in opposite 

 directions, a needle, which works on a dial marked with figures, 

 indicates the force exercised on the spring. It has been proved, with 

 this instrument, that the muscular effort of a man pulling with both 

 hands is about 124 Ibs., and that of a woman only 74 Ibs. The 

 ordinary effort of strength of a man in lifting a weight is 292 Ibs. ; 

 and a horse, in pulling, shows a strength of 675 Ibs.; a man, under 

 the same circumstances, exhibiting a strength of 90 Ibs. 



Physiologists have not has yet given their attention to the strength 

 of invertebrate animals. It is, relatively speaking, immense. Many 

 people have observed how out of proportion a jump of a flea is to its 

 size. A flea is not more than an eighth of an inch in length, and it 

 jumps a yard ; in proportion, a lion ought to jump two-thirds of a mile. 

 Pliny shows, in his " Natural History," that the weights carried by 

 ants appear exceedingly great when they are compared with the size 

 of these indefatigable labourers. The strength of these insects is still 

 more striking, when one considers the edifices they are able to 

 construct, and the devastations they occasion. The Termes, or White 

 Ant,* constructs habitations many yards in height, which are so firmly 

 and solidly, built, that the buffaloes are able to mount them, and use 

 them as observatories ; they are made of particles of wood joined 

 together by a gummy substance, and are able to resist even the force 

 of a hurricane. 



There is another circumstance which is worth being noted. Man 

 is proud of his works ; but what are they, after all, in comparison with 

 those of the ant, taking the relative heights into consideration ? The 

 largest pyramid in Egypt is only 146 yards high, that is, about ninety 

 times the average height of man ; whereas, the nests of the Termites 

 are a thousand times the height of the insects which construct them. 

 Their habitations are thus twelve times higher than the largest 

 specimen of architecture raised by human hands. We are, therefore, 



* A neuropterous insect, not a true ant. ED. 



