200 From Matter to Man. 



or dynamo room which contains those powerful 

 muscles that move the legs and wings. 



The great object in a body adapted for quick 

 locomotion is strength combined with lightness. This 

 is attained in the insect by the blood bathing the 

 internal organs and muscles directly, without the aid 

 of vessels ; the blood aerating in a wholesale manner, 

 not by gills or lungs, but by air-holes (spiracles) down 

 their sides, which communicate with air reservoirs 

 inside. These again divide and sub-divide into 

 countless tubes with thousands of ramifications. A 

 dragon-fly thus outstrips the swallow ; while few 

 animals can out-jump a flea, comparatively to its 

 size. These extraordinary motor phenomena are 

 seldom dwelt on, and fail to excite the wonder they 

 deserve through their familiarity. 



It must not, however, be imagined that the 

 mechanism of all insects is perfect. Indeed, of all 

 animals, insects present the most extraordinary and 

 fantastic of organic combinations, ranging from the 

 most dextrous, wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, dazzling, 

 amusing, artistic, and intelligent of living things, to 

 the most clumsy, formidable, eccentric, repulsive, 

 exasperating, disgusting, and. shocking. Thus, even 

 in the matter of weapons and tools they furnish an 

 appalling arsenal of armour, pincers, augers, pikes, 

 hooks, horns, rasps, rollers, saws, stings, screws, 

 sickles, lancets, mandibles, dentilated teeth, and 

 cupping-glasses ; while, as a whole, the insect world 

 constitutes a complete "pharmacy, chemistry, and 



