Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1846-12-24

spaces between them. MaIhema,cians labor
ed for long time 10 find what figure could be
used so as 10 lose no space and at last found
that it was the sx.sded figure, and also that
three planes ending in a point formed the strong
est roof or floor The honey bee discovered
the same things good while ago. Honey
comb is made up of six-sided figures, and the
roof is built with three plane surfaces coming
TO point.
If a flexible vessel be emp,ed of air, lis sides
will be almost crushed together by the pressure
with fluid be empted of its air, the fluid will
rise 10 The top. The bee understands This and
when he comes to The cup of the tall honey
suckle, and finds that he canno, reach the
sweet matter at lis bottom, he ,hrusts in his
body, shuts up the flower, and then exhausts the
air, and so possesses himself of the dust and
honey of the flower. The feet of flies and liz
ards are constructed on similar principle, and
they thus walk with ease on g lass or a ceiling.
i
beneath them, and SO they have the pressure Of
the atmosphere, of fifteen pounds TO the square
inch, to enable them 10 hold on The Cal has
the same power TO less extent
Plants require the sunlight, and some flowers
turn themselves towards the sun as il travels
round from east to west. The sun flower does
this, and so does field OF clover. These facts,
though we have not yet got at the reason o.!
them, are still extremely interesting.
The gastric juice is worthy of remark. It's
a lasteess, colorless, nodorous, limpid fluid
like water, and is adapted in different animals
TO different purposes. In the hyena, and other
carniverous animals, it will not dissolve live
flesh, but will dissolve dead flesh. These
creatures then live upon other animals, and
even bones are soluable in their gastric juice,
while it will not dissolve vegetables at ALL
On the other hand, some animals hve entirely
on vegetables, and their gastric juice will no,
dissolve animal food.
We cannot alter The nature Of an animal by
changing its food. Ii will still belong 10 the
family. In This particular bees are better in
s,rucred. When they lose their queen bee
which is an entirely different animal from the
working beef You present another to them
within twen'y-four hours they will not accept
Of her nor obey her They prefer taking an
ordinary grub, before it becomes 1er, and
feeding it with particular kind of food, and
treating it in a particular way; and when ii
leaves the grub state it becomes queen bee,
and they always suffer themselves 10 be gov
erned by her.
The habils of ants are extremely curious
We all have heard of ant houses, sometimes
twenty feet in diameter, filled with halls and
rooms of grea, size and strength. These and
beaver dams are constructed upon strictly me-
chanical principles.
In some insects species of the males have
wings while the females have none. This is
the case with the glow worm, and the female
has the property of emitling phosphorescenl
light, and were it not for This the gentleman
glow worm would never find The way 10 his la
dy's chamber The ostrich like the oherubim,
is not provided with The means of sitting down.
She cannot, therefore, hatch her eggs, but bu-
ries them in the hot sand, and leaves nature to
hatch them for her. Some birds build no nests
like the cucoo. which deposits her eggs in the
nests of other brds-but she knows enough al.
ways TO select the nests Of birds that have bills
her young will have the same kind of food as
she herself would procure.
Knickerbocksr Magazine
SouABrowN DEBATEs.-Is pumpkin pize