176 ANIMAL CLEANLINESS. 



purged away, before we can become inhabitants of 

 that city of light and bliss, into which shall enter 

 " nothing that defileth !" 



If this is a correct aspect of the subject, it was 

 natural that the inferior creatures who fell federally 

 in their lord and head, should share in the conse- 

 quences of his sad lapse. Hence we find not only 

 that the procuring of food occupies a large portion of 

 the time and energy of the brute animals, but also 

 that of what remains much is devoted to operations 

 of cleanliness, personal and local. In all probability 

 both of these occupations are to them actually plea- 

 sant, instead of burdensome ; their part of the punish- 

 ment (as I have elsewhere remarked) is, in many 

 respects, indignity rather than suffering, though they 

 have enough of the latter too. Every one has seen 

 how much of her leisure is occupied by a cat in clean- 

 sing herself and her offspring, and the zest with which 

 she goes through her task indicates that it is not 

 unpleasing. Other animals perform analogous opera- 

 tions, varied, however, so much in the details of their 

 purposes, modes and implements, that I am persuaded 

 an interesting treatise might be written exclusively on 

 animal cleanliness. 



I am not going to write such a treatise, but merely 

 to describe an example that I have noticed among the 

 tenants of my Aquarium. I have before said that the 

 second pair of feet are used by the Prawn [Palmmon) 

 as his principal organs of prehension ; and this might 

 have been inferred from their superior length and 

 stoutness, particularly the size of the pincers or didac- 

 tyle hands. On cursory observation you are puzzled 



