59 



motion of any large animal in comparison of this ? 

 Or what is the swiftness of a greyhound or a race- 

 horse, to that of such an animalcule. 



The body of a flee appears, by a microscope, to be 

 all over curiously adorned with a suit of polished 

 ^able armour, neatly jointed, anil beset with multi- 

 tudes of sharp pins, it has six legs, the joints of 

 which are so adapted, that it can fold them up one 

 within another ; and when it leaps, they all spring 

 out at once, whereby its whole strength is exerted, 

 ^and the body raised above two hundred times its own 

 diameter. 



10. A Louse also affords to our observation a 

 very delicate structure of par's. It is divided into 

 the head, the breast, and the tail. In the head ap- 

 pear two fine black eyes, With a horn that has five 

 joints and is surrounded with hairs, standing before 

 each eye. From the nose projects in a sheath the 

 piercer or sucker, which it thrusts into the skin. 

 This is ju-'gud to be seven hundred times finer than a 

 hair. It has no other mouth than this. 



The skin of the breast is transparent, 1 and from the 

 under part of it proceeds six legs, each having five 

 joints; each leg is terminated by two claws, which it 

 uses as we would -a thumb and middle finger. 



If one of them, .when hungry, be placed on the 

 back oi the hand, it will thrust its SIK ker^irtto the 

 skin, and the blood it sucks may be n-e i passing in a 

 fine stream to the fore part of the h. a;l. Falling into 

 a roundish cavity there, it passes o,. to a-.oJiu.r re- 

 ceptacle in the middle of the head. Theno'j it runs 

 to -the breast, and then to a gut which readies to the 

 hinder part ot tne body, where in a curvo it turns 

 again a little -upward. It then stands still, and seems 

 to undergo a separation; -some ot it becoming clear 

 and wairy, while other black partieK-s pass dowu to 

 the anus. 



Lice are not hermaphrodites ; and the males have 

 tings 5 which the fern. 1 s have not. A female lays ia 



