266 ON ANIMAL COTTON, OR THE INSECT FL Y-C A.RRJER. 



fails in accounting for the inequality of the northern and fouth- 

 ern, for he fuppofes the courfe of the water to tend equally 

 from both poles towards the ^Equator which would render the 

 depofitions equal on both fides, which is contrary to obferva- 

 tion. 



XIV. 



A Memoir on Animal Cotton, or the Infed Fly-Carrier. By M. 

 Baudry des Lozieres, Member of J ever al Academies t 

 and Founder of the Society of Sciences and Arts, at Cape Fran* 

 tois. (American Tranf. V.) 



Preface. 



Gentlemen, 



JDEFORE I enter upon the fubject of this memoir, I ought 

 to pay the tribute of praife which is due to due to your ufeful 

 labours. But the ftyle of eulogy is ill fuited to the plainnefs 

 of an American farmer, and while you are conftantly employed 

 in deftrving praife, you cannot fpare time to hear it. 



I am now going to communicate to you, with fome obser- 

 vations upon it, a fact of entomology which I have myfelf 

 witnefTed during my refidence at St. Domingo, and which, if 

 Propofed new I am not miftaken, deferves your greateit attention, becaufe 



ranc o e .^ m introduce a new branch of commerce with the Weft 

 ladia commerce. J 



India colonies, and render very ufeful an animal which has 



hitherto been known only by the mifchief which it occafions. 

 Every Inhabitant of the Weft Indies knows and dreads the 

 greedy worm which devours their indigo and caflada planta- 

 tions. But people have hitherto turned their attention more 

 to the means of deftroying it than of rendering it ufeful. It 

 is indeed very natural to endeavour to deftroy our enemy, 

 but to compel him to be of fervice to us is by far the greater 

 triumph. 



Its Birth, Growth, and Death. 



Froduftiwi, The caflada worm is produced like the filk worm, that is to 



growth, and fay^ f rom the eggs which the mother fcatters every where, 

 caflada worm, after fbe has undergone her metamorphofis into a whitifh but- 

 terfly, or of a light pearl colour, 



■ The 



