THE LOBSTER. 
203 
Though without any warmth in their bodies, or even red 
Wood circulating through their veins, they are animals won- 
derfully 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 ; 
hut it is soon discovered that the animal moves with its 
claws foremost ; and that the part which plays within itself 
by joints, like a coat of armour, is the tail. The mouth, 
uke that of insects, opens the long way of the body, not 
cross-ways, as with man, and the higher race of animals, 
tt is furnished with two teeth in the mouth, for the com- 
minution of its food ; but as these are not sufficient, it has 
Wree more in the stomach ; one on each side, and the other 
nelow. Between the two teeth there is a fleshy substance, 
jn tile 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 spi- 
nal marrow is in the breast bone. It is furnished with two 
long feelers or horns, that issue on each side of the head, 
'hat seem to correct the dimness of the sight, and apprize 
ll >e animal of its danger, or of its prey. The tail, or that 
Jointed instrument at the other end, is the grand instrument 
?, 'notion; and with this it can raise itself in the water. 
nder this we usually see lodged the spawn in great abund- 
' lnce ; every pea adhering: to the next by a very fine fila- 
ment, which is scarcely perceivable. Every lobster is an 
rnj 1 maphrodite, and is supposed to be self-impregnated. 
, he ovary, or place where the spawn is first produced, is 
nek wards, toward the tail, where a red substance is always 
°nnd, and which is nothing but a cluster of peas, that are 
y e ' too small for exclusion. From this receptacle there 
go two canals, that open on each side at the jointures of 
le shell, at the belly ; and through these passages the peas 
escend to be excluded, and placed under the tail, where 
>e animal preserves them from danger for some time, until 
anT corne 10 maturity •. when being furnished with limbs 
b motion, they drop off into the water, 
at f '* en y oun § lobsters leave the parent, they immedi- 
Sif L ^ OI ref bg e ' n l l ,e smallest clefts of rocks, and in 
c 1 like crevices at the bottom of the sea, where the en- 
