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tlie center, formed by the maggot, and the perforation to the cir- 

 cumference made by the fly. 



Fig. 21, is the fly bred in this gall-nut, \vhofe body is not quite 

 fo large as reprefented in this figure, but the wings are of the 

 fame fize as they appear liere. 



After thcfe obfervations, in the month of January, I again went 

 in fearch of gall-nuts, upon the leaves of the young oaks, and 

 thofe which hung near the ground ; and I found a great number 

 of them, although the leaves were very much dried ; in many of 

 thefe galls I faw the perforation through ^\hich the fly had ifllied ; 

 in others of them I found living flics ; and in others, living mag- 

 gots. 



Some of thefe galls I placed in my clofet, and opened them at 

 different intervals of time, and I always found either the maggot 

 in them alive, or a hole, tiirough which the fly had ifliied : ten 

 of thefe I kept till the end of April, and upon opening them, I 

 found them all perforated with holes, and the flies which had 

 iflued fi-om them, lying dead. 



While I am on this fubjeft, I can not forbear to mention, tliat 

 in the autumn there were brought to me a parcel of roundifli 

 fubflances, which were gathered from thiftles, and therefore, 

 called thiftle-nuts. Many of our countrymen carry tliefe nuts 

 in their pockets, under a notion that while they wear them, they 

 fliall be free from the diforder called the piles, particularly if every 

 year, they throw a\\ay the old nuts and procure frefli ones (which, 

 it is faid, do not grow in our province). And fome fay, that there 

 is a maggot in thefe nuts, and that while it lives, the before men- 

 tioned virtue remains in the nut, but upon its dying the virtue is 

 loft. 



As foon as I faw thefe fuppofed nuts, I concluded that they 

 were produced, as I might fay, by accident ; and that their virtue 

 againft the piles was a mere imagination. And upon examining the 

 nuts, I found that there was not one of them which had not one, 



