The Life of the Grasshopper 



the spurge to the surface. A sifting takes 

 place then, which allows almost pure water 

 to issue from the source that gives the where- 

 withal for making the froth. A subtle 

 exhaustion-process, whose mechanism is hid- 

 den from our curiosity, a piston-play of un- 

 rivalled delicacy, effects this marvellous work 

 of purification. 



Water is always water, whether it come 

 from the stagnant pool or the clear stream, 

 from a poisonous liquid or a healing infu- 

 sion; and it possesses the same properties, 

 when it is rid of its impurities by distillation. 

 In like manner, the sap, whether furnished 

 by the spurge or the bean, the clematis or 

 the sainfoin, the buttercup or the borage, 

 is of the same watery nature when the 

 Cicadella's syphon, by a reducing-process 

 which would be the envy of our stills, has 

 deprived it of its peculiar properties, which 

 vary so greatly in different plants. 



This would explain how the insect makes 

 its froth rise on the first plant that it comes 

 across. Everything suits it, because its appa- 

 ratus reduces any sap to the condition of 

 plain water. The inimitable well-sinker is 

 able to produce the limpid from the cloudy 

 and the harmless from the toxic. 



442 



