COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF INSECTS. 273 
M. Felix Plateau, of Brussels, has published some observations on this 
point, which we think of sufficient interest to be reproduced here. 
In order to measure the muscular strength of man, or of animals, —as the 
horse, for instance, — many different dynamometric apparatus have been in- 
vented, composed of springs, or systems of unequal levers. The Turks’ 
heads which are seen at fairs, and on which the person who wishes to try 
his strength gives a strong blow with the fist, represent a dynamometer of 
this kind. The one which Buffon had constructed by Régnier’s Dynamom- 
eter is much more precise. It consists of an oval spring, of which the two 
ends approach each other; when they are pulled in opposite directions, a 
needle, which works on a dial marked with figures, indicates the force exer- 
cised on the spring. It has been proved, with this instrument, that the 
muscular effort of a man, pulling with both hands, is about one hundred 
and twenty-four pounds, and that of a woman only seventy-four pounds. 
The ordinary effort of strength of a man in lifting a weight is two hundred 
and ninety-two pounds; and a horse, in pulling, shows a strength of six 
hundred and seventy-five pounds; a man, under the same circumstances, 
exhibiting a strength of ninety pounds. 
Physiologists have not as yet given their attention to the strength of in- 
vertebrate animals. It is, relatively speaking, immense. Many people 
have observed how out of proportion the jump of a flea is to its size. A 
flea is not more than an eighth of an inch in leneth, and it jumps a yard ; 
in proportion, a lion ought to jump two thirds of a mile. Pliny shows, in 
his “ Natural History,” that the weights carried by ants appear exceedingly 
great when they are compared with the size of these indefatigable laborers. 
The strength of these insects is still more striking when one considers the 
edifices they are able to construct, and the devastations they occasion. The 
Termes, or White Ant, constructs habitations many yards in height, which 
are so firmly and solidly built, that the buffaloes are able to mount them, 
and use them as observatories; they are made of particles of wood joined 
together by a gummy substance, and are able to resist even the force of a 
hurricane. 
There is another circumstance which is worth being noted. Man is proud 
of his works; but what are they, after all, in comparison with the ant, tak- 
ing the relative heights into consideration? The largest pyramid in Egypt 
is only one hundred and forty-six yards high, that is, about ninety times the 
average height of man, whereas the nests of the Termites are a thousand 
times the height of the insects which construct them. Their habitations are 
twelve times higher than the largest specimen of architecture raised by 
human hands. We are, therefore, far beneath these little insects — as far 
as strength and the spirit of working go. 
