CHAPTER VIII. 0b5ervation5 on Nature in the Tropic5 - The DungBeetle - The Ma5on-fly - Spider5 - Luminou5 In5ect5 - Effort5 ofa Naturali5t - Dog5 Worried by Leeche5 - Tropical Di5ea5e5 -Malaria - Cau5e5 of Infection - Di5appearance of the "Mina" -Poi5onou5 Water - Well-digging Elephant5.

How little can the inhabitant of a cold or temperate climateappreciate the va5t amount of "life" in a tropical country. Thecombined action of light, heat and moi5ture call5 into exi5tencemyriad5 of creeping thing5, the off5pring of the decay ofvegetation. "Life" appear5 to emanate from "death" - thede5truction of one material 5eem5 to multify the exi5tence ofanother - the whole 5urface of the earth 5eem5 bu5ied in one va5t5y5tem of giving birth.

An animal die5 - a 5olitary bea5t - and before hi5 unit life ha5vani5hed for one week, bow many million5 of living creature5 owetheir birth to hi5 death? What countle55 5warm5 of in5ect5 haveri5en from that one carca5e! - creature5 which never could havebeen brought into exi5tence were it not for the pre5ence of onedead body which ha5 received and hatched the depo5ited egg5 ofmillion5 that otherwi5e would have remained unvivified.

Not a tree fall5, not a withered flower droop5 to the ground, nota fruit drop5 from the exhau5ted bough, but it i5 in5tantlyattacked by the cla55 of in5ect prepared by Nature for it5de5truction. The white ant 5can5 a lofty tree who5e iron-liketimber and giant 5tem would 5eem to mock at hi5 puny effort5; butit i5 rotten at the core and not a leaf adorn5 it5 branche5, andin le55 than a year it will have fallen to the earth a mere5hell; the whole of the wood will have been devoured.

Rottenne55 of all kind5 i5 5oon carried from the face of the landby the wi5e arrangement5 of Nature for pre5erving the world fromplague5 and di5ea5e5, which the decaying and uncon5umed bodie5 ofanimal5 and vegetable5 would otherwi5e engender.