THYSANOURA, PARASITA, SUCTORIA. l6j 



summer and antumn. Many birds are annoyed by them, 

 particularly pigeons, hens, and swallows. 



According to the testimony of Ovington, the Hindoos, 

 conformably with their belief in the metempsychosis, lavish 

 upon these animals, as well as on all species of vermin which 

 suck the human blood, the most extravagant cares. An 

 hospital has been established for them near Surat. Their 

 sustenance is purchased at the expence of some fool, who is 

 delivered during the night to the voracity of these animals. 



The fleas have afforded materials to the ingenuity of man, 

 and have been made to produce surprising effects of skill. 

 A flea of middling size has been seen to draw a silver cannon 

 supported on two little wheels, weighing eighty times as much 

 as itself, which was charged with powder and let off, with- 

 out the insect discovering the slightest symptom of alarm. 

 MoufFet relates, that another flea drew with facility a gold 

 chain of the length of a finger, with a padlock shutting with 

 a key, and which with the animal scarcely weighed a grain 

 An English artist, according to Hook, constructed an ivory 

 coach for six horses, holding four persons, having two lackeys 

 behind, and a coachman on the box, with a dog between his 

 legs, which was drawn by a single flea ! " What fineness 

 and delicacy of labour !" cries M, Latreille, •' but why not 

 devote it to objects of greater utility .f"' This observation, 

 though under some circumstances just, we cannot give an 

 unqualified assent to. If every work of man was to be mea- 

 sured by its direct utility, some of the noblest productions of 

 art and genius might be undervalued and despised. The 

 exercise of human ingenuity is in itself laudable, and though 

 it be employed on an object of no direct utility, it may, and 

 not unfrequently does, lead to the most useful discoveries 

 and inventions. The man employed in such a task as we 

 have described, was at all events improving himself in his 

 art, and increasing the delicacy of his tact, and the accuracy 



