man and other creatures: and for others, to whom none of thefe methods are proper, but make themselves nefts by perforations in the earth, in wood, or combs they build, or fuch like ways; it is admirable to fee with what labour fomewhat was alive in his ftomach, and after that, vomited up three live toads; and fo recovered his former health.' Such another story Dr. Sorbait tells, and avoucheth it feen with his own eyes, of one that had a toad came out of an abfcefs, which came upon drinking foul water. Obf. 103. other parts Not only in the guts, and in the flesh, but in many of the body, worms have been difcovered. One was voided by urine, by Mr. Mat. Milford, fupposed to have come from the kidneys. Lowth ib. page 135. More fuch examples Mouffet tells of. Ibid. So the vermes cucurbitini are very common in the veffels in theep's livers. And Dr. Lifter tells of them, found in the kidney of a dog, and thinks that the fnakes and toads, &c. faid to be found in animal's bodies, may be nothing else. Lowth. ib. p. 120. Nay, more than all this : in Dr. Bern. Verzascha's sixth obfervation, there are divers inftances of worms bred in the brain of man. One, a patient of his, troubled with a violent head-ach, and an itching about the noftrils, and frequent fneezing; who, with the use of a fneezing-powder, voided a worm, with a great deal of fnot from his nofe. A like inftance he gives from Bartholine, of a worm voided from the nofe of O. W. which he gueffeth was the famous Olaus Wormius: another, from a countrywoman of Deitmarth; and others in Tulpius, F. Hildanus, Schenckins, &c. Thefe worms be thinks are undoubtedly bred in the brain: but what way they can come from thence, I cannot tell. Wherefore I rather think they are fuch worms as are mentioned before in note, and even that that was actually found in the brain of the Paris girl, when opened, Iguefs might be laid in the lamine of the noftrils, by fome of the ichneumon, bour and care they carry in, and feal up provi, vifions, that ferve both for the production of their young, and alfo for their food and nurture when produced. THE other piece of remarkable art and care about the production of their young, is their curiofity and neatnefs in repofiting their eggs, and in their nidification. As to the first of which, we may observe, that great curiofity and nice order is generally ob ichneumon. or ether infe&t kind, and might gnaw its way into the brain, through the os cribriforme. Of this he tells us from Bartholine, Tandem cum tabida obäslet, ftatim aperto cranio præfentes 'medici totam cerebelli fubflantiam, quæ ad dextram vergit, a reliquo corpore fejun&tam, nigraque tunica involutam deprehenderunt: • hæc tunica rupta, latentem vermem vivum, et piloíum, duobus punctis fplendidis loco oculorum prodidit, ejufdem fere molis cum reliqua cerebri portione, qui duarum horarum fpatio fupervixit.' B. Verzaf. obf. Medica, p. 16. Hildanus tells us such another story, viz. Filius Theod, auft der Roulen, Avunculi mei, diuturno vexabatur dolore capitisDeinde febricula et fternutatione exorta, ruptus eft abfceffus circa os cribrofum-et vermis prorepfit.' By his figure of it, the maggot was an inch long, and full of briftles. Fabri Hildan. Cent 1. obf. Galenus Wierus, phyfician to the Prince Jul. et Cleve, he faith, told him, that he had, at divers times, found worms in the gallbladder in perfons he had opened at Duffeldorp. Id. ib. obf. 60. See before, book iv. chap. 13. Some ferved by them in this matter. You fhall always fee their eggs laid carefully and commodiously, up. When upon the leaves of vegetables, or other materials on land, always glued thereon with care, with one certain end lowermoft, and with handfome juxta-pofitions". Or if in the waters, in neat and beautiful rows oftentimes, in that fpermatic, gelatine matter, in which they are repofited, and that matter carefully tied and faftened in the waters, to prevent its diffipation", or if made to float, fo carefully fpread and Some infets lay up their eggs in clusters, as in holes of flesh, and fuch places, where it is neceffary they should be crouded together; which, no queftion, prevents their being too much dried up in dry places, and promotes their hatching. But, "As for fuch as are not to be cluffered up, great order is ufed. I have feen upon the posts and fides of windows, little round eggs, refembling fmall pearl, which produced fmall hairy caterpillars, that were very neatly and orderly laid. And, to name no more, the white-butterfly lays its neat eggs on the cabbage leaves in good order, always gluing one certain end of the egg to the leaf. I call them heat eggs, becauf. if we view them in a microfcope, we fhall find them very curiously furrowed, and handfomly made and adorned. w By reafon it would be endlefs to fpecify the various generation of infects in the water, I fhall therefore, because it is little obferv. ed, take Pliny's inftance of the gnat, a mean and contemned ani mal, but a notable inftance of nature's work, as he faith. The first thing confiderable in the generation of this infe&, is, for the fize of the animal, its vaft fpawn, being fome of them above an inch long, and half a quarter diameter; made to float in the water, and tied to fome ftick, ftone, or other fixed thing in the waters, by a fmall and poifed, as to fwim about with all poffible artifice. And fmall ftem, or ftalk. In this gelatine, tranfparent Ipawn, the eggs are neatly laid; in fome fpawns in a fingle, in fome in a double fpiral line, running round from end to end, as in Fig. 9. and 10; and tranfverfly, as in Fig. 8. When the eggs are by the heat of the fun, and warmth of the feafon, hatched into small maggots, thefe maggots defcend to the bottom, and by means of fome of the gelatine matter of the pawn, which they take along with them, they stick to ftones, and other bodies at the bottom, and there make themfelves little cafes or cells, which they creep into and out of at pleafure, until they are arrived to a more mature nympha-ftate, and can fwim about here and there, to seek for what food they have occafion; at which time, they are a kind of red-worms, above half an inch long, as Fig. 11. Thus far this mean infect is a good inftance of the Divine Providence towards it. But if we farther confider, and compare the three ftates it undergoes after it is hatched, we fhall find yet greater fignals of the Creator's management, even in thefe meaneft of creatures: The three ftates I mean, are its nympha vermicular state, its aurelia, and mature ftate, all as different as to fhape and accoutrements, as if the infe&t was three different animals. In its vermicular-ftate, it is a red maggot, as I faid, and hath a mouth and other parts accommodated to food. In its aurelia-ftate, it hath no fuch parts, becaufe it then fubfifts without food; but in its mature, gnat-ftate, it hath a curious well made fpear, to wound and fuck the blood of other animals. In its vermicular ftate, it hath a worm like body, and fomething analogous to fins or feathers, ftanding erect near its tail, and running parallel with the body, by means of which refifting the waters, it is enabled to fwim about by curvations, or flapping its body fide-ways, this way and that, as in Fig. 12. But AND as to their other faculty, that of nidification, whether it be exerted by boring the earth or wood, or building themfelves cells, or fpinning and weaving themfelves cafes and webs, it is all a wonderful faculty of those poor little animals, whether we confider their parts wherewith they work, or their work itfelf. Thus thofe who perforate the earth, wood, or fuch like, they have their legs, feet, mouth, yea, and whole body, accommodated to that fervice; their mouth exactly formed to gnaw thofe handfome round holes, their fect, as well made to fcratch and bore, and their body handfomely turned and fitted to follow. But for fuch as build or fpin themfelves nefts, their art juftly bids defiance to the most ingenious artist among men, fo much as tolerably to copy the nice geomertical But in its aurelia-state, it hath a quite different body, with a clubhead, (in which the head, thorax, and wings of the gnat are inclofed) a flender alvus, and a neat finny tail, ftanding at right angles with the body, quite contrary to what it was before; by which means, instead of eafy flapping fideways, it swims by rapid, brik jirks, the quite contrary way; as is in fome measure reprefented in Fig. 13. But when it becomes a gnat, no finny-tail, no club-head, but all is made in the most accurate manner for flight and motion in the air, as before it was for the waters. * See book iv. chap. 13. Thus the moths and other parts of the ichneumon-wafps, in book iv. chap. 13. So the feet of the gryllotalpa. z See |