24 THE INSECT WOELD. 



constructed by Regnier, the mechanician, and which is known 

 by the name of Regnier 's Dynamometer, is much more precise. 

 It consists of an oval spring, of which the two ends approach 

 each other : when they are pulled in opposite directions, a needle 

 which works on a dial marked with figures, indicates the force 

 exercised on the spring. It has been proved, with this instrument, 

 that the muscular effort of a man pulling with both hands is about 

 124 Ibs., and that of a woman only 74 Ibs. The ordinary effort 

 of strength of a man in lifting a weight is 292 Ibs, and a horse, in 

 pulling, shows a strength of 675 Ibs.; a man, under the same 

 circumstances, exhibiting a strength of 90 Ibs. 



Physiologists have not as yet given their attention to the 

 strength of invertebrate animals. It is, relatively speaking, 

 immense. Many people have observed how out of proportion 

 the jump of a flea is to its size. A flea is not more than an 

 eighth of an inch in length, and it jumps a yard; in propor- 

 tion, a lion ought to jump two- thirds of a mile. Pliny shows, 

 in his "Natural History," that the weights carried by ants appear 

 exceedingly great when they are compared with the size of these 

 indefatigable labourers. The strength of these insects is still more 

 striking, when one considers the edifices they are able to construct, 

 and the devastations they occasion. The Termes, or White Ant,* 

 constructs habitations many yards in height, which are so firmly 

 and solidly built, that the buffaloes are able to mount them, and 

 use them as observatories ; they are made of particles of wood joined 

 together by a gummy substance, and are able to resist even the 

 force of a hurricane. 



There is another circumstance which is worth being noted. 

 Man is proud of his works ; but what are they, after all, in com- 

 parison with those of the ant, taking the relative heights into 

 consideration ? The largest pyramid in Egypt is only 146 yards 

 high, that is, about ninety times the average height of man ; 

 whereas the nests of the Termites are a thousand times the height 

 of the insects which construct them. Their habitations are thus 

 twelve times higher than the largest specimen of architecture 

 raised by human hands. We are, therefore, far beneath these 

 little insects, as far as strength and the spirit of working go. 

 * A Neuropterous insect, not a true Ant. ED. 



