The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-02-25
FACTS ABOUT INSECTS.
SOMETHING OF THEIR CURIOUS
LIFE AND HABITS.
Witty Sidney Smith Could Have Sat in His
s Bones II He Had Boon Grass
hoppsr-Insects' Breath.
Ing Apparatus. ;4xua

Sidney Smith, sweltering, once ex-
claimed, 'Oh. that I could take off
my flesh and sit in my bones!'' A
writer in the Post Dis patch thinks it
was DR.. Riley who said Smith should
have been a grasshopper. Unlike the
vertebrates. most insects present
skin and bone" aspect and wear
their skeletons on the outside and
their muscles incased within. Their
brains are numerous. lying like a
chain Of nerve lakes from head to tail,
the cephalic ganglion being no larger
than some of the others, and with the
exception OF being the origin of the
nerves OF sight and directive power it
is of no more Importance. Even the
wilt does not reside here, and any of
the other senses may be originated by
any other of the ganglia. A katy-did,
whose ears are in his fore legs, with
their nerves springing from the Sec
ond ganglion, could hear with his
head off. and coockroach smell in
the same condition, because his nose
is near the end Of his tail. Bees and
flies are said to be the only insects
that have distinct tongues, but with
their nerves of taste springing from
the second brain they could still taste
their food with the top of their head
sliced away: You may have frequent
ly decapitated a horsefy and noticed
that he did not die as soon as a
chicken does. You had taken away
only about one-ffth of his nervous
centers.
There is no gray matter in any of
these brains (the substance we are
possessed of and said to be consumed
when we are. thinking strongly, but
some one has believed that in the
cephalic ganglia of the bees and ants
he has discovered certain convolutions,
similar to those in the human brain,
that imply a degree of reasoning
power.
Insects have no lungs. They breathe
by trachae, but they do not run down
the throat. but into the body anywhere
needed. and every distinct organ has
its own set of these little tubes that
aerate the blood within and around
them. If he should catch cold what
an amount of sore throats an insect
could have. But he cannot plead "a
cold" when asked to sing. but he can
truthfully say he has no voice. for
he has neither lungs nor larynx. He
is strictly instrumental, the various
noises made by him being all purely
mechanical. as the friction of rough
surfaces. the buckling of strained
disks or plates-as the bottom of a.
tin bucket-or the rapid buzz of wings
in the air.
A curious thing about the tracha
is that in the leaping and flying in
sects (only) many of them terminate
in air sacks capable. by muscular ef-
fort, of great distention during and
just before flight, adding very largely
to the buoyancy OF the creatures.
Perhaps you have noticed the pre-
paratory swelling of tumble bugs
and other awkward beetles just be-
fore contemplated flight. 1t may
just be possible, too. that intense oxid-
alton and therefore greater muscular
stimulation and heat, is thereby OBJ
tanned just previous to this extraor-
binary exertion.
Insects have no true heart. There
is cavity from which his blood is
squeezed very sluggishly out into all
the interstices of the boay-for there
are no true arterial vessels, but the
life fluid, which is nearly always
white, simply lies in the spaces be-
tween the various organs. There is
no need for rapid circulation when
the blood is aerated at all points.
Rapid breathing with great distribu-
ton is substituted. You may note
this in an angry wasp Rapid resplra-
ton means greater oxida5ion-fanning
the fire-and shat means greater
heat and power. Hence the great
comparative strength of insects.
When we are angry we say we are
''hot" Anger stimulates both the
respiratory centers and the circula-
tion and that augments heat. How
hot even in winter will the hive of
a colony of bees get when they are IT.
ritated!
Jamra cl's First Wife.
A story which is told of the late
Oh rloc To- oh h.