OF INSECTS. 
261 
to wliicli naturalists have given the name of Zoophytes. 
These do not go through the ordinary forms of generation, 
but may be propagated by dissection, 'ihey seem a set of 
creatures placed between animals and vegetables, and ri"'ke 
the shade that connects animated and insensible nature. 
Of Insects without Wings. 
If we consider this class as distinct from others, we shall 
find them in general longer lived than the rest, and often 
continuing their term beyond one season, which is the 
ordinary period of an insect’s existence. They seem also 
less subject to the influence of the weather ; and often 
endure the rigours of winter without being numbed into 
torpidity. Tire whole race of moths, butterflies, bees, and 
flies, are rendered lifeless by the return of cold weather; 
but we need not be told, that the louse, the flea, and many 
of these wingless creatures that seem formed to tease man- 
kind, continue their painful depredations the whole year 
round. _ . 
They come to perfection in the egg, and it sometimes 
happens, that when the animal is interrupted in performing 
the offices of exclusion, the young ones burst the shell 
within the parent’s body, and are thus brought forth alive 
This not unfrequently happens with the wood-louse, and 
others of the kind, which are sometimes seen producing 
eggs, and sometimes young ones perfectly formed. 
Though these creatures are perfect from the beginning, 
yet. they are often, during their existence, seen to change 
their skin : this is a faculty which they possess in common 
with many of the higher ranks of animals, and which an- 
swers the same purposes. However tender their skins may 
seem to our feel, yet, if compared to the animal’s strength 
and size, they will be found to resemble a coat of mail, or, 
to talk more closely, the shell of a lobster, by this skin 
these animals are defended from accidental injuiies, and 
particularly from the attacks of each other; within this they 
continue to grow, till their bodies become so large as to be 
imprisoned in their own covering, and then the shell bursts, 
but is quickly replaced by a new one. 
Lastly, these animals are endued with a degree of strength 
for their size, that at first might exceed credibility.— -Had 
man an equal degree of strength, bulk for bulk, with a louse 
or flea, the history of Sampson would be no longer mira- 
culous. — A flea will draw a chain an hundred times heaviei 
than itself ; and to compensate for this force, will eat ten 
times its own size of provision in a single day. 
