Feb. 20, ISSo.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



143 



abodes of Griffs^-, is too dreadful to contemplate, and 

 iiiipossiWe to describe : you Lave to contend with ter- 

 mites in your drink, teroiites in your soup, termites 

 in the food you are conveying to your mouth, ter- 

 mites in your nostrils and ears, termites in your 

 ■whiskers and hair — termites everywhere. So you are 

 obliged to have all lights hastily removed from the table, 

 and patiently await ilie disappearance of the swarm. A 

 most fatal trap can be rapidly constructed ; bring in a 

 shallow tub with three to four inches of water, and put 

 therein a protected light. In a very short time, a muts 

 of drowned insects, equal to the depth of water will fill 

 the t\ib, and upon them, just out of the water, anxious 

 hundreds will be chasing one another over the bodies of 

 their kindred. 



I have shown the enemies to which an out-door flight is 

 exposed ; within doors greedy foes also await them in the 

 guise of black auts, cockroaches, spider.^, musk-racs, and 

 lizards, aiid it is amusing to watch one of the bitter with 

 the back of the wall shade as its hiding-place ; it cannot 

 catch the termites buzzing about the lamp fast enough, and 

 is already fully distended with those it has swallowed, £o 

 much so that it is obliged to halt with the wings of the last 

 victim sticking out of its mouth like horns. 



To return to the disappearance. Hot'.' it is brought 

 about I ca-jnot positively say, for I have never been quite 

 able to unravel it ; but the following is my presumption : — 

 Bo'.h males and females retreat under ground, the former 

 only to die, the latter to initiate a new colony. Her first 

 eggs hatch workers, the first duties of which are to build in 

 the enlarging queen, and then attend to the further ramid- 

 cations of the colony. I have kept the wingless insects 

 under glasa, and found that, after a time, the chasing 

 ceased, and the female remained stationary, elevating her 

 abdomen in the air, and quivering it in a curious manner, 

 the male taking no notice of her. In all these experiments, 

 hsving no earth to return to, both insec's died in a few 

 hours, the male aWajs first. 



Tlie wing-dropping is very remarkable ; it is not a casting- 

 ofl" of the whole structure, but a snapping off below the 

 articulation, and this di-scard takes place exactly at the 

 proper moment — ;.«., when the period of flight is over; 

 seize a perfect insect when emerging from its hole, and you 

 may hold it firmly by the wing^ ; take it prisoner twenty 

 minutes later, and you will find that it deftly rai.-e.s its 

 abdomen, as an earwig does in folding up its wings after 

 flight, and in that act instantaneously snaps off its wings, 

 leaving them in your fingers. 



And this means that the wonderful machinery of muscle?, 

 blood-vessels, and nerves accessory to flight, is only required 

 for a performance of twenty minutes, is then quite lost in 

 the expiring male, and virtually so in the expanding queen - 

 mother. 





Exact representaiion from life of a Qneen Termite. Colour, 

 above, light brown, with deep brown marks ; below, pale brown. 

 Length, 2'3in. ; breadth, (Join. ; weight, 8 80 apoth. 



The India-Bnbber, Gutta-Percha, and Telegraph Works Company 

 will pay a dividend of 10 per cent., making 15 per cent, in all for 

 last year. 



* Esact size of worker. 



PLEASANT HOURS WITH THE 



MICROSCOPE. 



By Henry J. Slack, F.G.S., F.ll.M.S. 



IN Vol. III. of Kxowi.EDOE, p. :^22, will bo found one 

 of these papers devoted to th^:; minute organisms which 

 produce vaiious so-called zymotic disra.ses ; that is disorders 

 consequent upon their action as fern)ents. TliC annexed' 



03000CCOCO0CO Ooxo^ 



s 



figures, repeated from that paper, will suffice to show those 

 new EuV)scribers who may not be able to refer to it, what 

 appearances some of these micro-fermen's present. Figs. 

 1 and 2 show the form of JSacUlus luberculosits (consump- 

 tion germ) magnified respectively 500 and 1,000 times 

 linear. Tne spirals belong to another grouj) (.Spirillum), 

 and move with a q'lick and elegant corkscrew motion. 

 Figs. 5 and fi show kinds common in decompOringir.fusions. 

 Either animal or ve:,'etable matttr may be canitd to the 

 putrid stage by some of the micro-organisms ; w hile others act 

 like yeast, and instead of breaking up the matter altogether, 

 resolve it into simpler forms. The fermentation of sugar 

 is an example of this. The carboiiic dyoxide (.;arbonic acid) 

 which is given off consists of one atom of carbon and two 

 of oxygen. The alcohol that is formed is a much more 

 complex body. It is representtd by the symbol C'.jH,;0, 

 the figures showing the number of atoms of the several 

 elements — two of carbon, six of hydrogen, and one of 

 oxygen. Ferments diff-ring from yeat can efbct still 

 further changes in alcoholic liquors, turning wire and bee" 

 sour, or giving it the unpleasant taste and smell c^f rancid 

 butter. All microscopists should watch the development 

 of the yeast-plant during alcoholic fermentation, and 

 familiarise themselves witli the appearance of the micro 

 ferments of the bacteria and spirillum character sure to 

 appear in hay infusions. 



All the functions of life are carried on by changes in 

 highly complex bodies, of which the protoplasm of the 

 infusoria niay be taken as the type. Th^ whole group of 

 albuminoid bodies is built up of a jilu'-ality of atoms of 

 carbon, hydrogin, oxygen, nitrogeii, suljihur, itc, in various 

 proportions, and the micro ferments that develop in the 

 human body act in different ways, according to their kind ; 

 some producing changes required for nutrition and health, 

 and others destroying structure that is wanted (like the 

 bacillus of tubercle in the lung), or giving rise to some 

 poisonous product that infects the blooJ. All highly com-, 

 plex instances may be roughly likened to the structul'es 

 children build up with imitation bricks, and it is obvious 

 that with a great number of these biicks all sorts of 

 tatt'-rns can be oVjtained. Animals and plants require 

 their atoms to be built up in certain patterns, and in none 

 others, and as the building-up must be definite and regular, 

 60 must the unbuildiig be for health to be maintained. 

 The right ferments act according to what may be called the 



