quently the value of the European importation of that article in a year. Could it be fuppofed, that the gathering of animals fo finall, would become fo confiderable an article of commerce? PAGE 197, l. 12. An infect which yields a very fine carmine. It is this infect, and not the cochineal, as M. Leffer feems to think, that the French call graine d'Ecarlatte. It is likewife named Kermes of Poland. It is faid, that the cochineal affords a carmine, at least as beautiful as that of this Kermes. The little veficles, attached to the root of the Polygonum minus cocciferum, are neither excrefcences nor coques, they are real animals, of the kind which Reaumur calls pro-gallinfects. They are of two fizes; the one as large as a pepper-corn; the other of the fize of a millet-feed; the first are the females, which undergo no transformations; the others are the males, and change into winged infects; but not into ichneumons. Their hiftory at length, may be feen in Breynius, and in Reaumur, Vol. IV, PAGE 197, 1. 27. This animal is found in small veficles. This animal, which is called Kenes, 1s of Reaumur's Genus of gall-infects: they are not found in veficles; but thefe veficles are the animal itfelf, which has affumed that form. It would appear, that prior to the obfervations of Meff. Garidel and Emeric, it had generally been confidered as a true gall. M. Geoffroy, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1714, confiders it as fuch, but M. de Reaumur does not hefitate, from the obfervations juft mentioned, to pronounce it a gall infect. In his further remarks, M. Geoffroy fays, that this Kermes is but little ufed in dying, and that, were it not for its medical properties, it would perhaps be altogether negl&ted, as are many other animal fubftances formerly ufed in dying purple, fuch as the purple of the antients, which Reaumur has obferved and defcribed, the infects at the root of the Pimpernell,thofe of the Lentifcus,the Parietaria,the Plantane, and of the Knawel, which are found in great quantitics in Poland, and which fome call Polish cochineal. He fays, that the abundance and the beauty of the true cochineal, has rendered ufelefs, all thofe other matters ufed in dying red. PAGE PAGE 198, 1. 21. Wax, ufed in dying red. Sealing wax is ftill made of it, and from this, probably comes the name of lac, which the Dutch give to this wax. PAGE 199, 1. 28. The features, fo friking. It is not furprifing, that fimilar portraits of wax fhould be like, for the features are moulded on the very face of the perfon they represent. PAGE 200, 1. 3. *When gnats bite keenly. The caufe of this phenomenon feems to be, that the heat, which generally precedes rain, makes them dry, and then, impelled by thirst, they feek to gorge themselves with the blood of men or beafts. PAGE 200, 1. 3. *When butterflies do not rife high. When it is about to rain, the air is then heavily loaded with vapours; which obliges butterflies, whofe wings are very delicate, to fly lower than ordinary. PAGE 200, 1. 4. When worms come out from their holes. There is seen, pretty frequently, on the tail of the larger flugs, when they creep, either a particle of earth, or a bit of a blde of grafs, and it is generally faid, that the firft indicates rain, and the latter is a fign of fair weather. This is a prognostic which I have not myself examined, and therefore, do not answer for the truth of it. PAGE 200, title of the chapter. Theology. The purpose of the author, in the whole of his book, is to draw from the knowledge of infects, practical rules, useful in a theological view. The end of this chapter, to judge of it by the title, would feem to be the fame: it differs, however, in this, that M. Leffer here proposes to fhew, in what infects have contributed to the rites of ceremonial worship, and how they may become an instrument of chastisement, in the hand of God. Here it is God, who makes ufe of infects to raise us to himself; there we, from the confideration of them, endeavour to employ them for the fame purpose. PAGE PAGE 202, title of the chapter. In jurifprudence. This chapter is fomewhat different from what its title bears; it treats much less of the customs and usefulness of infects in jurifprudence, than of the customs and usefulness of jurifprudence in relation to infects: and, as the author appears, in this refpect, to depart from the general tendency of his work, I fhall difpenfe with making those observations on it, which my profeffion would enable me to do. But I cannot forbear remarking by the way, that, if the Pithyocamp, mentioned by the author, are really true caterpillars of the Pine, as the Greek word fignifies, there would then be a fpecies of poisonous caterpillars, which is not hitherto known, thofe which the common people believe to be venomous, not being really fo, as I have already mentioned. PAGE 204, 1. 12. Man could hardly imitate. We have, however, found means to accomplish this; and we now make by art, keletons of leaves, much more perfect than those made by infects. PAGE 206, 1. laft. Applications of living worms. Thefe applications are likewife a specific remedy in wounds, in order to remove, dangerous inflammation. A creditable perfon affured me, that by this means he preferved the finger of a certain patient. The inflammation had proceeded to fuch a length, that it was refolved, if no favourable alteration happened in fourand-twenty hours, to amputate the finger. The perfon, from whom I have the fact, came in the mean time, and advised the application of living worms, to which the patient having confented, the difeafed part was furrounded with them, and in the morning, the inflammation had totally disappeared, and was foon followed by a fuccefsful cure. Among thofe infects without feet, which are useful in medicine, we may likewife place the fnail and the flugThe latter is fuppofed to be a fucccfsful remedy in Hernia, and in Confumptions. It is known, that the fnail is excellent in the gravel, and that it makes one of the principal ingredients, in that admirable medicine, invented by Mifs Stephens, for diffolving the ftone, which procured her five thoufand 3 H thousand pounds from the British Parliament, on making it public. PAGE 207, l. 11. Inclofed in a nut-shell. If medicines, applied in this way, ever effect a cure, it must furely be, rather by acting on the imagination than on the body. The fame may be faid of that cure for the cramp, which is, to carry in one's pocket, certain galls which grow on thistles. At any rate, if this laft were a good one, we would be indebted for it to infects, as thofe galls are produced by the puncture of a fly, which, laying its eggs in the ftalk of that plant, occafions the growth of a gall, which ferves as a lodging-place, and at the fame time, as food for the larvæ to be excluded from the eggs. PAGE 208, 1. 4. The powder of burnt caterpillars. If the powder of every different fort of caterpillar produces this effect, it is probable, that it is not by any particular styptic virtue found in the whole tribe of caterpillars, but merely, becaufe every powder, which is not foluble in fluids, and which does not provoke fneezing, is effectual in ftopping an hæmorrhage at the nofe, cauted by the rupture of fome fmall veffel; for by abforbing the thinner part of the blood, the more grofs part muft inftantly become fixed, and, together with the powder, ftop up the orifice of the vein from which it iffued What prevents me from attributing this effect to any other quality to be found in pulverifed caterpillars, is, that these animals, being often of a very different, and even quire contrary nature to one another, as appears from the oppofite qualities of the food they live on, it is not very probable, that they can all have the fame aftringent proper ties. PAGE 209, 1. 32. The cochineal infects. M. Leffer here ranks the cochineal among the beetles; this is an error, into which others have fallen before him. The male of the cochineal is a fly, the female has no wings. See its deicription above, in the Note on the words, 1 be cochineal is a finall worm, p. 421. PAGE PAGE 210, 1. 18. Cantharides are rarely taken internally. They become fatal when taken in a large dofe. I knew a perfon, who, having taken, by miftake, a portion of cantharides, which had been ordered for him as a plaifter, was poifoned; every thing in the power of medicine was done, and his life was faved; but he lost his reafon. PAGE 211, 1. 25. Ufed in perfumery. Among infects, where only a part are furnished with wings, ufed in medicine, we may likewife place the Kermes, from which is drawn that fo much efteemed confection, called, the Akermes. The fame infect likewife enters into the compofition of the confection called Hyacinth. It fortifies the foetus, and is one of the best cordials, according to the teltimony of the Royal Society of Sciences at Montpelier. PAGE 212, 1. 18. Devours the entrails of certain infects. The number of infects which are preyed upon by other infects, is not confined to the few fpecies mentioned in this place by the author. The greater part of the weakeft, at leaft in certain periods of their life, are devoured by the ftronger. To fee the war they carry on, a perfon would fay, that they were born merely for the purpofès of deftruction. The carnage is chiefly dreadful among the aquatic tribe. There is hardly one of thefe, that does not prey on fome infects fmaller than itself; thefe feed on others, which in their turn, eat thofe that are fmaller ftill. We find fone, which do not fpare their own fpecies, and which even feem to prefer them. What a confufion in Nature! But, it is a confufion, neceffary to maintain an order the moft effential; that of keeping infects in equilibrium, and preventing thofe which multiply most, from laying the world in ruins, by their fuperabundance. PAGE 212, 1. 27. The favourite food of the tench. If the fpecies of fishes, which eat infects, or the fpecies of infects that ferve for food to fithes, were confined to the final: nuober mentioned here by the author, it would be a very trifling matter. All forts of river-fith, hitherto known, eat infects; and perhaps, 3 H 2 |