264 NATURAL HISTORY. 



are deposited in the flesh, and the member is quickly rilled with multitudes 

 of young jiggers, and then serious consequences which may even demand 

 amputation ensue. 



Mr. W. H. Dall has described the actions of the so-called educated fleas 

 which periodically are exhibited in all of our leading cities. These minute 

 animals in their natural state are, as is well known, excessively inclined to 

 jump ; but in these exhibitions this tendency has been checked, and the 

 insects draw miniature coaches, trains of cars, and the like, as steadily and 

 demurely as any old family horse. The bottoms of the exhibition cases 

 are lined with blotting-paper, which gives a good foothold for the hooks 

 on the feet of the flea ; and when the exhibition of any particular flea was 

 over, he, together with his load was turned wrong side up, so that there 

 would be no exhaustion from unnecessary labor. 



" The most amusing, and at first incomprehensible, of the various per- 

 formances, is that of the dancing fleas. The orchestra are placed above a 

 little music-box, whose vibrations cause them to gesticulate violently for 

 a few moments, fastened as they are to their posts. Below them are 

 several pairs of fleas (fastened by a little bar to each other in pairs, those 

 of each couple just so far apart that they cannot touch each other) appar- 

 ently waltzing ; an inspection shows that the two composing each pair are 

 pointed in opposite ways ; each tries to run away, the ' parallelogram of 

 forces ' is produced; the forward intention, converted to a rotary motion, 

 ludicrously imitating the habits of certain higher vertebrates." 



Mr. Dall concludes that the insects are not ' educated,' and that as in 

 the case of the dancing, every feature of the exhibition can be explained 

 by the desire and earnest efforts of the insects to escape, but there yet 

 remains to be explained the reason wiry the fleas exhibited no longer jump, 

 but adopt another style of locomotion. It may be, as Mr. Dall suggests, 

 that the legs have been tampered with, or that the load placed upon their 

 back is the inducing cause. The proprietor of the exhibition said in 

 substance that it was effected as follows : " The wild flea is put into a 

 small pill-box with a glass top and bottom, revolving on an axis like a 

 lottery wheel and forming a miniature tread-mill. After a few days' 

 confinement herein the flea, which in a state of nature is, as we know, 

 excessively inclined to jump, becomes broken of the habit. It is said that 

 the constant raps which it receives when attempting to jump, and thereby 

 hitting the sides of its prison, incline it to walk." 



