On the right hand is depicted the once honoured Shaving-brush, the terror of all stiff-bearded men on frosty mornings, and yet clung to with a strange inconsistency. Many years ago a military member of the House of Commons was sensible enough to wear his beard, and was, in consequence, the butt for interminable jokes. At the present time, if the House were counted, a great majority of the younger, and not a few of the older, members will be found to wear either the beard or moustache, or both. [Illustration: FOOT OF FLY.] [Illustration: BRUSH OF GLOW-WORM LARVA.] [Illustration: HAIR-BRUSHES.] [Illustration: SHAVING-BRUSH.] Perhaps some of my readers may object that many nations in a state of very partial civilisation are accustomed to shaving. So they are, but they do not use the shaving-brush. Most of them content themselves with pulling out the hairs by the roots, while others merely saturate the hair with hot water, and so need no brush. Next to the shaving-brush is drawn a pair of ordinary Hair-brushes, such as have been mentioned. * * * * * PASSING to the left, we find an object which bears a curious resemblance to the shaving-brush. This is an apparatus belonging to the larva or grub of the Glow-worm. This creature feeds upon snails, and, in consequence, gets itself covered with the tenacious slime. In order to enable it to rid itself of this inconvenience, the larva is furnished near the end of its tail with the curious apparatus which is here shown. It consists of some seven or eight soft white radii, arranged so as to produce a brush-like outline, and being capable of extension or withdrawal at will. It had long been known that this “houppe nerveuse,” as it is called, was employed as an assistant in locomotion; but until comparatively late years--I believe about 1826--no one seemed to be aware that it was used as a brush. Its functions as a brush may be compared with the somewhat similar offices fulfilled by the pincers of the Earwig, as mentioned on page 259. Next to the brush of the glow-worm larva is shown one of the fore-feet of the ordinary house-fly, much magnified. Passing, as irrelevant to the present subject, the use of the feet as organs of locomotion, we may take them as being used for the purpose of cleansing the body of the insect. I suppose that none of my readers has been sufficiently inobservant not to have noticed the way in which a fly cleanses itself, behaving almost exactly like a cat under similar circumstances. The fore-feet are repeatedly passed over the head, which is bowed down to meet them, while a similar office is performed for the rest of the body by the hind-legs. The feet are then rubbed against each other, so as to free them from all accumulations, just as the housemaid cleanses the hair-brush with the comb before washing it. So mechanical is this process, that a fly has been known to go through it even after it had been deprived of its head.