After a plea for the idea without which the fact is barren, M. Delbeuf
repeats certain statements with which readers of modern zoological
science are tolerably familiar, such as the following: A flea can jump
two hundred times its length; therefore a horse, were its strength
proportioned to its weight, could leap the Rocky Mountains, and a whale
could spring two hundred leagues in height. An Amazon ant walks about
eight feet per minute, but if the progress of a human Amazon were
proportioned to her larger size, she could stride over eight leagues in
an hour; and if proportioned to her greater weight, she would make the
circuit of the globe in about twelve minutes. This seems greatly to the
advantage of the insect. What weak creatures vertebrates must be, is the
impression conveyed.
But the work increases as the weight. In springing, walking, swimming,
or any other activity, the force employed has first to overcome the
weight of the body. A man can easily bound a height of two feet, and
he weighs as much as a hundred thousand grasshoppers, while a hundred
thousand grasshoppers could leap no higher than one--say a foot.
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