112 



ON THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE, &c. 



sand and sixty-one distinct muscles, which is about ten times the number 

 that belong to the whole human body ; and yet it ie probable that these do 

 not constitute any thing like the number that appertain to the same insect 

 in its perfect state. The diatom noctilucus^ or phosphorescent springer, is 

 a winged insect ; but it has also a set of elastic muscles, which enable it, 

 when laid on its back, to spring up nearly half a foot at a bound, in order 

 to recover its position. This insect is also ehtitled to notice in consequence 

 of its secreting a Hght, which is so much beyond that of our own glow- 

 worm, that a person may see to read the smallest print by it at midnight. 

 The cicada spumaria^ or spumous grasshopper, is in like manner endowed 

 with a double power of motion ; and when attempted to be caught will 

 either fly completely off, at its option, or bound away at the distance of 

 two or three yards at every leap. This insect is indigenous to our own 

 country, and is one of those which in their larve and pupe states discharge, 

 from the numerous pores about the tail, that frothy material upon plants 

 which is commonly known by the name of cuckow-spit. 



Crabs and spiders have a strong muscular power of throwing off an 

 entire limb whenever seized by it, in order to extricate themselves from 

 confinement ; and most of them throw off also, once a year, their skin or 

 crustaeeous covering, and secrete a new one. The muscular elasticity of 

 the young spider gives it, moreover, the power of wings ; whence it is often 

 seen, in the autumn, ascending to a considerable elevation, wafled about 

 by the breeze, and filling the atmosphere with its fine threads. The land- 

 crab (cancer ruricold) inhabits the woods and mountains of a country ; but 

 its muscular structure enables it to travel once a year to the sea-coast to 

 wash off its spawn in the waters. The spawn or eggs thus deposited sink 

 into the sands at the bottom of the sea, and are soon hatched ; after which 

 millions of little crabs are seen quitting their native element for a new and 

 untried one, and roving instinctively towards the wood-lands. 



The hinge of the common oyster is a single muscle ; and it is no more 

 than a single muscle in the chama gigas^ or great clamp-fish, an animal 

 of the oyster form, but the largest testaceous worm we are acquainted with. 

 It has been taken in the Indian ocean of a weight not less than 532 pounds ; 

 the fish, or inhabitant, being large enough to furnish 1 20 men with a meal ; 

 and strong enough to lop off a hand with ease, and to cut asunder the 

 cable of a large ship. 



Nor is the muscular power allotted to the worm tribes less wonderful 

 than that of insects, or its variety less striking or appropriate. The leech 

 and other sucker-worms are as well acquainted with the nature of a vacu- 

 um as Torricelli ; and move from place to place by alternately converting 

 the muscular disks of their head and tail into air-pumps. 



The sucker of the cyclopterus, a genus of fishes denominated suckers 

 from their wonderful adhesive property, is perhaps the most powerful, for 

 the size of the fish, of any we are acquainted with ; and is formed, at 

 will, by merely uniting the peculiar muscles of its vental fins into an oval 

 concavity. In this state, if pulled by the tail, it will raise a pailful of 

 water, rather than resign its hold. 



The teredo namlis^ or ship- worm, is seldom six inches in length, but 

 the muscles and armour with which its head is provided enables it to pene- 

 trate readily into the stoutest oak-planks of a vessel, committing dreadful 

 havoc among her timbers, and chiefly producing the necessity of her being 

 copper bottomed. This animal is a native of India ; it is gregarious, and 

 always commences its attack in innumerable multitudes ; every worm, in 



