ENTOMOLOGY A SOURCE OF INSTKUCXION. 3Q3 



are supposed to be parasitical, although they also occur 

 upon marine plants and under stones on the sea shore. 

 They contain the genera Pycnogonon, Nymphon, &c. 



(^35Q.) Our last division of the Aptera contains the 

 Suctoria ; the most typical of which is the genus Pulex, 

 which undergoes a metamorphosis resembUng that of 

 the Diptera. Wq need not enlarge upon the flea, as the 

 space we could devote to it would not be ample enough 

 to do it justice, and it is sufficiently well known ; we 

 may remark, however, that it contains, besides the com- 

 mon flea, others that are peculiar to certain animals, as 

 well as the renowned Chigo of the West Indies, so injuri- 

 ous to the feet of the negroes. With these insects we 

 conclude our survey of annulose animals. 



(357.) The synopsis we have thus rapidly passed 

 through, must be considered only as suggestions^ and 

 stimulants to further inquiry ; and should it prove so, 

 we shall have gained our object, as it is but requisite to 

 procure attention to the subject, to invest it with a para- 

 mount interest. The accidental discovery of some frag- 

 ment of man's works, which had been buried for a few cen- 

 turies, and then brought unexpectedly to light, produces 

 a tumult of comment; the learned world, in the frenzy of 

 its excitement, deduces from it, howsoever grotesque and 

 rude, irrefragable proofs of the antiquity of man's civilis- 

 ation, and of the supremacy of his intellect; and Egyptian 

 monsters and Persepolitan figments are unfortunately too 

 frequently esteemed more worthy of investigation than the 

 perfect works of God's hands, — old as the creation of the 

 world, yet descending to us in all their pristine complete- 

 ness, which is not merely external, but also internal, — com- 

 posed, too, of the minutest parts, the ultimate structure of 

 which eludes the microscope's research ; — and both ex- 

 ternal and internal corresponding in so intimate a conca- 

 tenation of cause and effect, and these so harmoniously 

 blended, and so finely united, that even the profoundest 

 speculations of man's boasted intelligence cannot deter- 

 mine which is cause and %vhich effect, — being, as they 

 seem, simultaneous : and into all there is infseud the 

 mysterious spirit of life, making them free and active 



