The Geotrupes: the Public Health 



disappeared and the requirements of health 

 are satisfied. 



The same zeal for their task exists in the 

 second class of scavengers. The village 

 hardly knows those ammonia-scented refuges 

 to which the townsman repairs to relieve his 

 wretched needs. A little bit of a wall, a 

 hedge, a bush is all that the peasant asks as 

 a retreat at the moment when he w'ould fain 

 be alone. I need say no more to suggest 

 the encounters to which such free and easy 

 manners expose you ! Enticed by the patches 

 of hchen, the cushions of moss, the tufts of 

 houseleek and other pretty things that adorn 

 old stones, you go up to a sort of w^all that 

 supports a vineyard. Faugh! At the foot 

 of the daintily-decked shelter, what an un- 

 concealed abomination! You flee: lichens, 

 mosses and houseleek tempt you no more. 

 But come back on the morrow. The thing 

 has disappeared, the place is clean: the Dung- 

 beetles have been that way. 



To preserve the eyes from a frequent re- 

 currence of offensive sights is, to these stal- 

 wart workers, the least of their tasks: a 

 loftier mission is incumbent on them. 

 Science tells us that the most dreadful 

 scourges of mankind have their agents of 

 dissemination in tiny organisms, the mi- 



277 



