Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-07-17
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abe Daily spn,
MONDAY, JULY II, 1854.
Interesting Facts la Natural Science.


The law of like is by far the most marvellous
in natural science, and especially in that de-
partment where from the minuteness of forms,
study has hitherto been very limited We
allude to Entomology. A little observation
in this department viii unfold to the student
a series Of wonders, unsurpassed by the gi-
gsntic exhibition Of phenomena presented in
Niagara and Vesuvius.
Not the least astounding among these facts,
is the extraordinary multiplicity of species
the innumerable diversity of forms connected
with animate nature. The large forms, such
as are daily presented to us, seem compare
lively limited, and we easily comprehend tho
reason; if they were very numerous, so must
be their means Of subsistence. But, as only
a certain amount OF subsistence can be cleaned
from square mile, under the most favorable
conditions, and thut amount is not large the
existence ofthe large forms comprises extreme
ly limited numbers But when we descend
to Entomology and Conehology, we are COM
fused with the alost innumerable diversity Of
species and variety. OF the beetle alone,
there has been aScertained no less than thru
teen branches Of this one family. When sur
yeying these apparently disgusting insects,
what an idea Of the creative power might VIC
gather from a knowledge of this The study
of every branch Of the insect creation pre-
6ents the same fruitful reflection.
Lyonnet, French naturalist, spent several
years in examining the structure of single
insect, aud left the work unfinished, thus
showing the exceeding delicateness of the
structure. In the body of an insect, about an
inch in length, NJ. Strauss has enumerated
three hundred and six plates, composing tho
structure of the outer envelope; four hundred
and ninety-four muscles for putting these in
motion; twenty-four pairs of nerves to ami
mate them, and forty-eight pairs of trachs, or
breathing organs, equally Gamifed and divid-
ed, to convey air and sustenance to this COM
plicated tissue.
We regard the common house fly as a con-
temptible insect - but how important an
object of study its structure may be, can be
learned from the fact that its eye is one of the
most singular and curiously constructed mir
rors that science has yet invented or study
discovered The number Of lenses iii its eve
is numbered at six or seven thousand-in the
eye of dragon fly, twelve thousand-the eve
of butterfly, seventeen thousand Thehouse
1ys wing has a power of six hundred strokes
in single second, which can propel it thirty
five feet, while the speed Of swift race horse
is but ninety feet per second-more than q
mile per minute. The beauty of the butterfly
is proverbial but how much more intense
should be our admiration when we learn that
it is thing Of "a 900 eyes, and that in sim
gle wing there have been found 100, 900 scales.
The wings of many insects are Of such ex-
IRENE tenuity that SO 900 Of them, placed over
each other, would not compose the thickness
of quarter OF an inch and, thin as they are,
each is double so that the actual lamin;e hero
would be 100000.
We often sec in pools of water small bits of
elongated straw and wood, seemingly having
the power of motion. With what interest has
science invested these when we find that
each elongated tube is the home of caddis-
worm which is ultimately to become a worm
or fy-sueh as the ephermon fly, whose PEE
culiar characteristics we have before noticed
These worms are exposed to the ravages Of
birds and fishes, and hence they glue together
small bits of wood and straw TO make house
for shelter and when the frail castle is too
buoyant, they add piece Of gravel to preserve
the balance, in order that the castle shall not
lie burdensome or too buoyant. We regard
the web of a common spider as the trifing
excresence of disgusting insect--but it is an
object of intense curiosity, when we reflect
that each thread is composed of 700 threads,
and that 900, 600 of these small threads
would not make a cord thicker than a single
hair from mans head II Q e is one spe-
cies of spider that lives in water, in house of
air, like diving bell; and another builds a
house in the ground with a door upon elastic
hinges, which keeps it constantly shut.
In Conehology lstady Of SHELF are many
facts of an interesting character. The variety
Of form, color, and construction are such as to
strike the observer with astonishment. These
forms vary from simple hollow tube to the
most complicated eonyolutions, enbodSing the
shapes of boxes, cups, cones, spires, turbans,
&c. Fhe Athenians used shell to write a
vote upon, hence the term Testament and At
testation, which are derived from testator, q
shell. The shell animals exude from their
bodies viscid nois ture with which the shell
is increased in dimensions or repaired when
broken. Linn;eus has divided shells into
thirty-six general; and the total number OF
species hitherto described, amount to 1900,
exclusive Of varieties, of which $50 are to DO
found in and about the British Isles. There
was a notion, one prevalent in England and
Scotland, that a species of barnacle shell con-
famed the germ of young goose. A writer
named Maur wrote a treatise expressly on this
biry, and says he g opened hundred of the
goose bearing shells in the Orkneys, and found
in all of them the rudiments of a bird COM
pletely formed" Gerard and Sir Robert MUIR
ray, both confirm these statements. Some of
the clamp-shell species have shells weighing
over 500 pounds. Some of the smaller shell.
fish will penetrate by boring into the hardest
rock, they being prepared with phosphores-
cent liquor which they discharge against tho
rock, thus decomposing it and enabling them,
by means of a broad, fieshy tongue, to build
a home in the hardest ledge. The pearl shell
fish are well known, thee rroneous value once
attached to the pearl can scarcely be believed.
Julius Caesar presented Servilla, the mother
of Brutus, with pearl, for which he paid
over 100000 !! The famed ear rings of Cloo-
Datra were estimated in value at S2n0 nm
900.
The study of these wonderful facts, and the
clevating emotions they produce in the mind
Of the student of nature, are wholesome anti.
dotes to the baleful influences of a continuous
selfish struggle, in an age Of sordid and mcr-
eenary strife. ea
FIELD. Beans A PRoPITABLE CRoP.-In our
own experienc we have found no crop more
profitable than the common white bean. 1t
requires little more care than corn; ON the
riCht kinn of soil II Ia 1,,sfo