The Lobster 



213 



except by the breaches which time had worn in the doors and 

 windows; and what made this more sad and deplorable, was the 

 knowledge that the persons who attended to these insects, howev- 

 er healthy they might have been, when they entered upon the em- 

 ployment, lost their heahh, their voices became hollow, their hues 

 pallid, and they had the appearance of valetudinarians, as if issu- 

 ing from the very tombs, or recovering from some dreadful ill- 

 ness." 



THE LOBSTER. 



f 



'With all the voracious appetites of 

 fishes, the lobster is condemned to lead 

 an insect life at the bottom of the wa- 

 ter; and though pressed by continual 

 hunger, they are often obliged to wait 

 till accident brings them their prey. 

 Though without any warmth in their 

 bodies, or even red blood circulating through their veins, they are 

 animals wonderfully voracious. Whatever they seize upon, that 

 has life, is sure to perish, though ever so well defended: they 

 even devour each other; and, to increase our surprise still more, 

 they may, in some measure, be said to eat themselves; as they 

 change their shell and their stomach every year, and their old 

 stomach is generally the first morsel that serves to glut the new. 



' The lobster is an animal of so extraordinary a form, that 

 those who first see it are apt to mistake the head for the tail; but 

 it is soon discovered that the animal moves with its claws fore- 

 most; and that the part which plays within itself by joints, like a 

 coat of armour, is the tail. The mouth, like thai of insects, opens 

 the long way of the body, not crossways, as with man, and the 

 higher race of animals. It is furnished with two teeth in the 

 mouth, for the comminution of its food; but as these are not suf- 

 ficient, it has three more in the stomach; one on each side, and 

 the other below. Between the two teeth there is a fleshy sub- 

 stance, in the shape of a tongue. The intestines consist of one 

 long bowel, which reaches from the mouth to the vent; but what 

 this animal differs in from all others, is, that the spinal marrow is 

 in the breast bone. It is furnished with two long feelers or 

 horns, that issue on each side of the head, that seem to correct 

 the dimness of the sight, and apprize the animal of its danger, or 

 of its prey. The tail, or that jointed instrument at the other end, 



