THE COCKROACH. 



THE cockroach, the black-beetle of the London kitchen, 

 is a creature that excites an amount of repulsion 

 that cannot be accounted for or explained. There is nothing 

 threatening in its appearance, as in that of some of the larvae, 

 notably the one popularly known as the "devil's coach- 

 horse." It is unprovided with offensive weapons at either 

 extremity : it can neither sting nor bite. It has not the habit 

 of startling nervous persons by leaping suddenly upon them, 

 as do the cricket and grasshopper. There is nothing about 

 its figure that should be displeasing to the eye. It is, as 

 far as man is concerned, absolutely harmless, and yet it 

 certainly excites in the majority of persons a feeling of 

 aversion approaching abhorrence, such as no other insect 

 gives rise to. The cold light of reason fails to discover any 

 ground for such a feeling, and it has been gravely adduced 

 by some as a proof of the truth of the belief in the trans- 

 migration of souls ; and that only upon the assumption that 

 the souls of evil men are condemned to pass a portion of 

 their future existence in the form of cockroaches, can the 

 general antipathy to these creatures be accounted for. 



There are many unsolved problems connected with the 

 cockroach. Where does he come from, and especially 



IV. L.-VII. 113 g 



