PINCERS. 



259 



Taking the minor exposition of the Pincers principle and 

 their use, we may mention the ordinary Pincers which are mostly 

 used for drawing nails. Then there are the smaller Pincers 

 called Pliers, all of which are constructed on the same principle, 

 and the chief of which are the Pound-nosed Pliers, the Long- 

 nosed Pliers, and the Gas Pliers. Sometimes a mixture of the 

 Hammer and the Pincers is ingeniously contrived, as in the 

 tool which is represented on the right hand of the illustration. 



Then we have the still smaller and feebler Pincers of civilised 

 life, such as the Sugar-tongs and the ordinary Coal-tongs of 



MUSSEL-SHELL. 

 EARWIG. LOBSTER-CLAW. 



SUGAR-TONGS. 



our firesides. Anatomists could have had no practical existence 

 without the Pincers, of which their beautifully constructed and 

 much- elaborated forceps are but variations. 



Take, again, the dentist, with his series of shining instru- 

 ments, which he so carefully keeps out of sight until he has 

 got his patient safely in that awful chair, and which glide, as 

 by a conjurer's trick, empty into an open mouth, and return 

 in a few seconds with a tooth between their polished jaws. 



I 



All these instruments have their parallels in Nature, and 

 in many instances the natural pincers might supply useful hints 

 to modern tool-makers. 



In the left-hand upper corner of the illustration is shown the 

 common fresh-water Mussel, which is so plentiful in almost all 

 our rivers and many of our ponds. Its scientific name is Unto 

 margaritiferus. The latter title, which signifies " pearl- 



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