Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-12-17
CLEVELAND, MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER II, 1860.

THIRD LECTURE OF PHoF. CHADBoURSE.-
Prof. ChadbOurne delivered his third and
last lecture on the Animal Kingdom, before
the Library Association, at the Melodeon on
Saturday evening The house was filed
with a select and highly appreciative audi
ence. The lecturer commenced by remark
ing that during the winter one Of the ablest
and most eloquent of the scientific men Of
the country The alluded to Prof. o. NJ. Mitch
ell 4 would deliver course of four lectures
before the Library Association on Astrono-
my. Astronomy, he said, is one of the most
beautiful Of sciences, but it may be doubted
if the telescope presents more Of beauty and
interest than the microscope. He briefly
surveyed. the field Of Natural History, citing
many examples of beauty and interest to
the student even in the lowest orders of life.
He asked the reason why so little was known
Of Natural History, and assribed it to the
ignorance of fathers and mothers in this
field. The child loses his interest and curi-
osity when, upon asking parent 10 explain
the simplest form in nature, he is told, /" |
don't know" We must look to nature for
the material by which our language is
adorned. The poet, the painter and the
sculptor draw Their material from nature
It is said that " the proper study of man
kind is man !" but he believed that the
study for mankind is God. The assumption
tiat the study Of Nature renders a man
sceptical, amounts to denouneing God for
what he has done. he then passed on to e
consideration of the second division of the
ArticuIata. In relation to the insects, he
did not intend TO say much. He believed
they were generally regarded as of little inn
portance. This, however, was a mistake,
for many Of them were of very great value.
He mentioned the six sOorn and -eochineaL
bug, both of which are the source Of an i'm
mense traffic. Some insects are also useful
as avengers-cleansing the earth of refuse
matter. There is class of insects called
vernin, which we all despise, the naturalist
as much as any one else; but as a general
thing only dirty people are troubled much
by them, though, as in everything else in
this world, the good have to suffer more or
less from the misconduct of the bad, and
cleanly people are sometimes annoyed by
vermin. In relation to the origin of this
class of insects, he related an ant cdote in
credit with the ancients, which ran thus:
When Noah was in the Ark, it sprang aleak
serpent told Noah he would save the Ark
if Noah would agree to feed him on human
hesh. This was agreed upon, and the SER
pent rolled himself up and stuck his body
into the hole. When the Ark was safely
landed, the serpent demanded the fulfllment
of the contract. But Noah simply knocked
him on the head and killed him, and then
burned him. The ashes were blown into
the air, and were resolved into myraids of
insects, and ever since they have been feed
ing on human flesh. The lecturer was of
opinion that if man were to hold an exhibi-
tion of all his arts and inventions, and the
results of his industry, they would be
eclipsed by the ingenuity and skill of the
insect world. But while insects do much
good, they also do much harm. It had been
stated that they destroy $50, 200, 900 worth of
property in the United States every year
but recent investigation had developed the
fact that this amount is destroyed annually
in some of our States by them. This could
be in a great measured prevented, and we
should avail ourselves of the services of
those insects which destroy others for this
purpose He instanced the iekneumoR fig,
which kills eaterpillars, plant lice and other
insects; also the lady bird, so common
among apple trees, and looking SO innocent
and harmless, which he described as the
most cruel of murderers, cutting the throat
of the plant lice and insects that infest ap-
pie trees, without mercy, sometimes entirely
clearing tree of these pests in one day
Strange as it may seem, some insects keep
COWS, and milk and care for them as regu-
larly and sedulously as possible. The ants
have them and they have slaves also. The
red and brown ant may frequently be seen
together in the same mound, particularly in
England, but the brown ant does all the
work. Insects are musical but it must be
borne in mind that all their music is instru-
mental. It is produced by rapidly moving
their wings, legs and tails, so as to create
pulsations on the AR. He described the
earth loOrHs, and ridiculed the supposition
that they rain down, as he did similar i'm
preston with regard to frogs, turtles, and
certain fishes. In order to rain down, said
the lecturer, it is necessary for them to get
up. And how can they get up? Why, we
are told that they are carried up in water
spouts. Well, earth-worms do not go out
up by this means. He had never heard of
any being rained down in the afternoon, but
always at night. These worms abound in
certain fat soil, and at particular seasons
they come out at night in great numbers,
just before a rain, and the water fills up their
holes and prevents their return. With re-
gard to frogs and turtles, he said that when
it is very dry they shelter themselves under
stones, stumps, or wherever they can find
damp and moist places, and the rain COM
ing, they are induced to leave their rendez-
vous, and hence are seen in great numbers
in the morning after heavy rain. He then
spoke of the lesch and serpula, describing
many interesting characteristics, and con-
cluding with them that branch of his lee
ture devoted to insects.
Passing on to the Vertebrate, or animals
having the backbone, he took up the fishes
as the lowest order. He remarked that per-
haps all the classes appeared on the earth at
the same time, but the first order of verte-
brate animals on earth were fishes. He de-
scribed them at considerable length. He
then spoke of the reptiles, SO called because
they crawl on their bellies, and which he
said are nearly allied to the fishes. OF these
are the frogs, lizards, snakes and turtles