"Siphonaptera" is a name usedFor example: to refer to the following rhyme by Augustus De Morgan ('' Siphonaptera'' being the biological order to which fleas belong): The rhyme appears in De Morgan's ''A Budget of Paradoxes'' (1872) along with a discussion of the possibilities that all particles may be made of clustered smaller particles, "and so down, for ever", and that planets and stars may be particles of some larger universe, "and so up, for ever". The lines derive from part of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

's long satirical poem "On Poetry: A Rapsody" of 1733:

Lewis Fry Richardson Lewis Fry Richardson, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (11 October 1881 – 30 September 1953) was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and Pacifism, pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of weather ...

adapted the poem to

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

in 1922:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siphonaptera English poems Poems about animals Fiction about insects Fleas British humorous poems 1872 poems

See also

References