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The Flea (Their own body This amazing)

of their own body. This amazing motion is performed by means of the elasticity of their feet, the articulations of which are so many springs. Thus it eludes, with surprising agility, the pursuit of the person on whom it riots. Mercurial ointment, brimstone, a fumigation with the leaves of pennyroyal, or fresh-gathered leaves of that plant, sewed up in a bag, and laid in the bed, are remedies pointed out as destructive of fleas.

In the Athenian Oracle, a lady desires to know whether fleas have stings, or whether they only suck or bite, when they draw blood from the body? To which an ingenious author returns the following humorous answer: "Not to trouble you, madam, with the Hebrew or Arabic name of a flea, or to transcribe Bochart's learned dissertations on the little animal, we shall, for your satisfaction, give such a description thereof as we have yet been able to discover.- "Its skin is of a lovely deep red colour, most neatly polished, and armed with scales, which can resist any thing but fate, and your ladyship's unmerciful fingers: the neck of it is exactly like the tail of a lobster, and, by the assistance of those strong scales it is covered with, springs backwards and forwards much in the same manner, and with equal violence: it has two eyes on each side of its head, so pretty, that I would prefer them to any, madam, but yours; and which it makes use of to avoid its fate, and flee from its enemies, with as much nimbleness and success, as your sex manage those fatal weapons, lovely basilisks as you are, for the ruin of your adorers. Nature has provided it six substantial legs, of great strength, and incomparable agility, jointed like a cane, covered with large hairs, and armed each of them with two claws, which appear of a horny substance, more sharp than lancets, or the finest needle you have in your needle-book. It was a long while before we could discover its mouth, which, we confess, we have not yet so exactly perceived as we could wish, the little bashful creature always holding up its two fore-feet before it, which it uses instead of a fan or mask, when it has no mind to be known; and we were forced to be guilty of an act both uncivil and cruel, without which we could never have resolved your question. We were obliged to unmask this modest one, and cut off its two fore-legs to get to the face; which being performed, though it makes our tender hearts, as well as yours, almost bleed to think of it, we immediately discovered what your ladyship desired, and found Nature had given it a strong proboscis, or trunk, as a gnat or muschetto, though much thicker and stouter, with which we may very well suppose it penetrates your fair hand, feasts itself on the nectar of your blood, and then, like a little faithless fugitive of a lover, skips away, almost invisibly, nobody knows whither." We close our remarks on this well-known insect, with the following interesting particulars on the DURATION OF THE LIFE OF A FLEA; by Borrichius; from the Acts of Copenhagen.-" Pliny represents to us a Greek philosopher, whose chief occupation, for several years together, was to measure the space skipped over by fleas. Without giving in to such ridiculous researches, I can relate an anecdote, which chance discovered to me in regard to this insect. " Being sent for to attend a foreign lady, who was greatly afflicted with the gout, and having staid, by her desire, to dine with her, she bade me take notice of a flea on her hand. Surprised at such discourse, I looked at the hand, and saw indeed a plump and pampered flea sucking greedily, and kept fast to it by a little gold chain. The lady assured me, she had nursed and kept the little animal, at that time, full six years, with exceeding great care, having fed it twice every day with her blood; and when it had satisfied its appetite, she put it up in a little box, lined with silk. In a month's time, being recovered from her illness, she set out from Copenhagen with her flea; but having returned in about a year after, I took an opportunity of waiting upon her, and, among other things, asked after her little insect. She answered me with great concern, that it died through the neglect of her waitingwoman. What I found remarkable in this story was, that the lady, being attacked by chronical pains in her limbs, had recourse in France to very powerful medicines during six weeks; and all this time the flea had not ceased to feed upon Ler blood, imbued with the vapours, and yet was not the worse for it."

THE LOUSE.- This insect has six feet, two eyes, and a sort of sting in the mouth; the feelers are as long as the thorax; and the belly is depressed and sublobated. It is an oviparous animal. They are not peculiar to man alone, but infest other animals, as quadrupeds and birds, and even fishes and vegetables; but these are of peculiar species on each animal, according to the particular nature of each, some of which are different from those which infest the human body. Nay, even insects are infested with vermin, which feed on and torment them. Several kinds of beetles are subject to lice, but particularly that kind called by way of eminence the lousy beetle. The lice on this are very numerous, and will not be shook off. The earwig is often infested with lice, just at the setting on of its head: these are white and shining, like mites, but they are much smaller; they are round-backed, flat-bellied, and have long legs, particularly the foremost pair. Snails of all kinds, but especially the large naked sorts, are very subject to lice; which are continua ly seen running about them, and