Plat XI
/ Of S P IDERS , ®c. 6 9
Obfervations on the F l e a, and L ouse;
By the late ingenious Dr. H o o k e , F. R. S.
H E ftrength and beauty o f the firft o f thefe, creatures, the
flea, had it no other relation at all to man, would deferve a
defoription.
F o r its ftrength, the microfcope is able to make no greater difco--
veries o f it than the naked eye, but only the curious connivance o f
its legs and joints, for the exerting that ftrength, is very plainly manifolded,
fuch as no other creature, I have yet obferv’d, has any thing'
like it ; for the joints o f it are fo adapted, that he can, as ’twere, fold
them fhort one within another, and fuddenly ftretch, or fpring thenr
out to their whole length, that is, o f the fore-legs, the part A of Plate*'
XLI. lies within B, and B within C parallel to, or fide by fide-each'
other; but the parts o f the two next, lie quite contrary, that is, D
without E, and E without F, but parallel alfo ; but the parts o f the
hinder legs G, H and I, bend one within another, like: the parts o f a
double jointed rule, or like the foot, leg, and thigh o f a man ; thefe fix
legs he ditches up all together, and when he leaps, fprmgs them alt
out, and thereby exerts his whole ftrength at once.
B u t , as for the beauty o f it, the microfcope manifefts it to be-alf.
over adorn’d with a curioufly polifh’d fuit of fable armour, neatly jointed,
and belet with multitudes o f lharp pins, ftiap’d almoft like porcupine’s
quills, or bright conical fteel-bodkins, the head is on either
fide beautify’d with a quick and round black eye K, behind each o f
which alfo appear? a fmall cavity, L , in which he feems to move to
and