24 THE INSECT WORLD. 
constructed by Régnier, the mechanician, and which is known 
by the name of Régnier’s Dynamometer, 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 
exercised on the spring. It has been proved, with this instrument, 
that the muscular effort of a man pulling with both hands is about 
124 lbs., and that of a woman only 74 lbs. The ordinary effort 
of strength of a man in lifting a weight is 292 lbs. ; and a horse, in 
pulling, shows a strength of 675lbs.; a man, under the same 
circumstances, exhibiting a strength of 90 lbs. 
Physiologists have not as yet given their attention to the 
strength of invertebrate 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 length, and it jumps a yard; in propor- 
tion, 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 labourers. 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 com- 
parison with those of the ant, taking the relative heights into 
consideration ? The largest pyramid in Egypt is only 146 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 thus 
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. 
* A Neuropterous insect, not a true Ant.—Ep. 
