PHYSIOLOGY. 275 



cera, and limbs, as in other parts of the animal 

 creation. The muscles of insects generally pos- 

 sess very great power, as may be seen by the 

 motion of the mandibles, and the propulsion of 

 the bee's sting. It is very strikingly evinced 

 also in the flea. LATREILLE gives an account of 

 one that dragged a silver cannon twenty-four 

 times its own weight, firing it off afterwards, 

 without exhibiting any symptom of fear. An 

 English workman also is said to have made an 

 ivory coach, with six horses, a coachman on the 

 seat with a dog between his legs, a postillion, four 

 persons in the coach, and four lacqueys behind, r 

 the whole of which was dragged by a single flea. 

 A further evidence of the muscular power of the 

 flea is the extent of its leaps, which equal a space 

 of 200 times the length of its own body. This 

 calculation, or a very similar one, was made by 

 SOCRATES, who was much ridiculed for it by 

 ARISTOPHANES. The poet, however, did not con- 

 fine his ridicule to this minuteness of calculation, 

 but attacked likewise the character and precepts 

 of that great philosopher ; for the whole of which 

 satire he has justly incurred the censure of pos- 

 terity. 



ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 



These organs, in the drone, correspond in func- 

 tion and denomination with those of the higher 



