194 



LIFE, IX ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS, 



minute animals. Scarlet is their favourite livery, and it 

 often has the appearance of satin or velvet. The Water- 

 mites (Hydrctchna) are merry little creatures that scuttle 

 along through the water of our pools, looking like tiny 

 globules of red sealing-wax. The Cheese-mite (Siro do- 

 mesticus) is so common, that possibly, gentle reader, you 

 may have emulated the feats of Samson, slaying thousands 

 at a time, and that with a jaw-bone. If you are fond of 

 dogs or of cattle, you have also, doubtless, made the ac- 

 quaintance of a vile creature called a Tick (Ixodes), which 

 attaches itself to the poor brutes in some spot inaccessible 

 to their efforts — such as behind the ears, or at the root 

 of the tail — and then, plunging a beak of sharp horny 

 lancets into the flesh, sucks the blood, till its own body is 

 gorged and swollen from the size of a hemp-seed to that 

 of a horse-bean, when it drops off to make room for another 

 bloodthirsty sucker. And, finally, some of these crea- 

 tures (Sarcoptes) of minute dimensions, burrowing beneath 

 the skin, become the cause of certain highly infectious 

 cutaneous diseases, which are unhappily too common where 

 cleanliness is neglected* 



