NATURAL THEOLOGY. 367 



food, it is evident how much fewer could be sup- 

 plied and accommodated than what at present 

 live conveniently together, and find a plentiful 

 subsistence. What one nature rejects, another 

 delights in. Food which is nauseous to one tribe 

 of animals becomes, by that very property which 

 makes it nauseous, an alluring dainty to another 

 tribe. Carrion is a treat to dogs, ravens, vultures, 

 fish.'"^ The exhalations of corrupted substances 

 attract flies by crowds. Maggots revel in putre- 

 faction.'''^ 



103 Very many insects subsist entirely upon carrion, both in the 

 larva and imago state, and in hot weather must be highly service- 

 able in removing such noxious substances. In this point of view 

 the maggots of flies are exceedingly useful; a carcass becoming 

 speedily threaded in every direction by them, is soon either de- 

 voured or wasted. 



1°'* The most remarkable circumstance relative to instinct, as 

 well as to the habits of insects, the architecture of the bee, has 

 been observed upon in a former note. The manufacture of the 

 wasp perhaps comes next, and is to the chemistry what the for- 

 mer is to the mathematics of instinct. It furnishes, too, one of the 

 most striking instances of the discoveries of man having been an- 

 ticipated by the lower animals ; and is another remarkable proof 

 how many more might have been made by closely attending to 

 their habits, — perhaps a more remarkable proof than those re- 

 ferred to in the text of this chapter, and hinted at in chapter viii., 

 "where the author is treating of the vertebrae and ribs. It is cer- 

 tain that some of the most material improvements in paper-making 

 recently introduced, as the use of other substances besides rags, 

 xmd the obtaining toughness by means of long fibres, had been 

 known to the wasp from its first creation. Its whole process in 

 making what is called wasp-paper is precisely that of the best pa- 

 per-makers. This will be illustrated in the Appendix. It is only 

 mentioned here as another among the striking instances of the 



