THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

A Curious Beetle.

HE common Beetle, which we see
running about the house, in the
country, is a very interesting in-
sect. A great many little boys

and girls are afraid of it, but there is no
reason why they should be afraid. The
beetle will not hurt anybody. It is sin-
gular how long these insects will live,
when they have no kind of nourishment
but air.

A man by the name of Baber, who
lived in England, and who belonged to
the Royal Society, found a beetle once,
which he could not starve to death, and
could not drown in spirits of wine.
When he caught this beetle, he put it
into a bottle of strong alcohol, that be-
ing the way he usually killed other in-
sects like the beetle. He wanted to
preserve the insect, and that is the

‘ason he tried to kill it. After the

had been in the spirits awhile,

‘ber took it out. It appeared to
d; and he put it ina pill-box, and

laid the box away in a drawer. About
two months after that, he went to the
drawer for something, and he thought
he would look into the box where the
beetle was, when he found it was alive
and well. Again he threw the beetle
into spirits of wine, and let it lie much

ning about under the tumbler.

longer than he did before. When he
took it out, it seemed dead, and he put
it away again, as before. But a month
afterward, he found it as lively as ever.
Well, he did not want to give it up so;
and he threw the beetle into the liquor
again, This time he let it lie there an
hour. He took it out, and put a tum-
bler over it. In six hours, it was run-
Then
he let it remain all night in spirits, and
again placed it under the tumbler. But
he soon showed that he was no nearer
dead than ever.

Mr. Baber kept this beetle two years
and a half after that. He did not know
what it lived on; for he could not see
that he ever ate anything. He thought
it lived on air, and I rather think so too.
Plants, you know, live principally on
what they get from the air; and I do
not see why some insects may not get
nourishment from the same _ source.
The animal, vegetable, and mineral king-
doms are not separated from each other
by very wide boundaries; and some-
times they differ from each other near
these boundaries so little, that it is ex-
ceedingly difficult to tell where one
kingdom ends, and where the other, |
kingdom begins, a