EPHEMERA. ISl 
on each side of the body are ranged a 
number of little membranes, through 
which it is supposed the animal breathes, 
as they have always a tremulous motion, 
and slightly resemble the gills of a 
fish. 
Lucy. I suppose they breathe through 
their sides^ as caterpillars do through 
the stigmatse? 
Mother, Yes, my love, that is just 
the case. At the tail there are two or 
three long filaments, which appear like 
feathered antennae ; and it has been ascer- 
tained, that every one of these little fea- 
thers contains two tubes, which it is 
imagined are also used in breathing. 
Lucy, But, mamma, if they breathe 
through these little tubes, why does not 
the water go into them along with the 
air? 
Mother, The tubes are so exceedingly 
minute, that probably water cannot be 
divided into particles sufficiently small, 
to be capable of entering ; but as air can 
be contained in the smallest imaginable 
