The Life of the Fly 



tear. Instinct has flashes of inspiration. 

 What the animal did not know how to do at 

 the start it learns without apprenticeship when 

 the time comes to practise this or that in- 

 dustry. The maggot ripe for burial perfo- 

 rates a membranous obstacle which the grub 

 intent upon its broth would not even have at- 

 tempted to attack with either its pepsin or its 

 grapnels. 



Why does the worm quit the carcass, that 

 capital shelter? Why does it go and take up 

 its abode in the ground? As the leading dis- 

 infector of dead things, it works at the most 

 important matter, the suppression of the infec- 

 tion; but it leaves a plentiful residuum, which 

 does not yield to the reagents of its analytical 

 chemistry. These remains have to disappear 

 in their turn. After the Fly, anatomists come 

 hastening, who take up the dry relic, nibble 

 skin, tendons and ligaments and scrape the 

 bones clean. 



The greatest expert in this work is the 

 Dermestes Beetle, an enthusiastic gnawer of 

 animal remains. Sooner or later, he will come 

 to the joint already exploited by the Fly. Now 

 what would happen if the pupae were there? 

 The answer is obvious. The Dermestes, who 

 loves hard food, would dig his teeth into the 



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