Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1847-02-19

stroy them. In addition to this they have a I'm
Or coating, which can be suddenly thrown down
over the eye to protect it because ut the velo-
city with which they fly, and with the delicate
texture OF their eye, the least speck of dust would
act upon 1t as penknife thrust into the human
eye. This film is to protect the eve, and the
same thing exists TO some extent in the eve Of
the horse. The horse has a large eve. very LA.
bic TO take dust The co ltng in the horses eve il
called the haw, or third eycld, and if YOU will
watch closely, you may see it descend and re.
turn with electric velocity. 1t clears away tho
du =, and protects the eye from injury. II the
eye should catch cold, the haw hardens and pro.
lects, and ignorant persons cut it off and thus
destrov this safeguard.
You all know. if you take pound Of iron. and
make of il a rod a foot long, what weight il will
support. But if it be hollow rod, it will sup
port weight many times greater than before
Nature seems to have taken advantage of this
also. lGIg before mathematic.ans had discovered
i, and g.! Tic bone, Of animals are hollow. The
bones Of birds are large, because they must be
srron"to move iAa! large wings with sufficient
velocity but tiey must also be light, in order to
float easily upon the air. Birds also illustrate
another fact in natural philosophy. If YOU take
BAG. make It a,r-tcht, and put it under water,
it vii! support a large weight, say an hundred
pounds. But twist it, or diminish the air in it,
and it will support 10 such weight. Now,
bird has such an air bag. When he wishes to
descend he congresses it at will, and falls rapid
ly; when he would rise, he increases it. and
floats with case. lie also has the power of for
cling air into the hollow parts OF the BODY and
thus 70 assist his fight. The same thing may
be observed in fshes. They also have an air
bag to enable them to rise or sink in the water
till they find their temperature. lftEey wish to
rise. they increase it; if they wish to sink. they
compress II. and down they 90 Sometimes the
ash, III sinking. makes too strong an effort TO
compass it then down he goes to the bottom,
and there remains Tor the r-t of his life. Floun-
iors and some other fish have no air-bag and
20 they are never found floating on the surface,
out must always be caught AT the bottom.
In this way ale the principles of science APP
| lliol to almost every thing. You wish to know
low 10 pack the greatest amount OF bulk in the
smallest space. The forms OF cylinders leave
large spaces LetWecl then. MathCmatcians
llbored hard fora long ,iLlo to find what figure
could be used 50 Us 10 lose no space ;and at last
found, that it WAS he six-.ided figure and also
that thgce-p. blame ending in 4 point, formed the
strongest rGofor door, The honey-hee discovered
c same t ing- good wi ieago. Honey comb is
made up of si.-sidrd figures. and the root is built
with ,hree-pIare surfaces coming to point.
If flexible vessel be cmptcd cf air, its sides
will be almost crushed together by the pressure
OF the surrounding atmosphere. And if tube
partly filled with fluid he enptied Of air, the fluid
will rise to the tof. t'he bee understands this,
and when lie comes 10 the cup of tie tall honey
suckle, and finds that he cannot reach the sweet
matter at its bottom, he tllrus,s in his body,
shuts up the iowe;. and then eXhausts the air,
and so possesses himself Of tae dust and honey
of the flower. The feet Of flies and lizards are
constructed on similar principle ana ei,,-if thu
walk with ease ca glass o. ceiling. Their feet
are made as 10 create vacuuh beneath
thcm and so they have the pressure Of the atmos-
pherc fifteen pounds 10 the square inch, to ena-
BILE them to hold on, The cat has the same
power 10 u less extent.
Plants require The sunlight, and some flowers
turn themselves towards the sun "a, il travels
round from east to west. The slniloyser does
this, and so does field OF clover. The facts,
though We have not yet got at the reason of
them, are still extremely interesting.
The Virginia crceper throws cut tendrs in
the form Of foot with five toes each toe has a
large number Of hairs or spineS, which entering
the small opening Of brick or lime, swell and
hold on ; but when dccaying, they shrink, and
the plant falls OH The Vanilla plant OF the
West Indies exhibits a similar construction, eX-
cept that it winds itself around other objects.
The gastric juice is worthy Of remark. II is
tasteless, coorless, inodofous, limpid fluid like
water, and is adapted, in different animals, to
different purposes. In the hyena and other car
niyerous animals, it will dissolve dead flesh
These creatures then live upon other animals,
and even bones are soluble in their gastric Juice,
while it will not dissolve vegetables at all On
the other hand some animals live entirely on ve-
getables and their gastric juice will not dissolve
animal food.
Man cannot alter the nature of an animal BY
changing its food 1t will still belong TO the IA
mly. In this particular, bees are better instruc-
ted When they lose their queen bee-which is
an entirely different animal from the working
bee-if You present another to them within twenty
four hours, they will not accept OF her nor obey
her. They prefer taking an ordinary grub, before
it becomes flyer, and feeding it with partic ular
lar food, and treating it in particular vay-nsd