( 1% ) 



thence conclude, that, if fuch leaves are not taken out of gardens, 

 thefe Snails will be bred from them. Whereas, we ought rather, on 

 confidering the matter, to fay, that if the leaves which fall in autumn 

 are left in gardens, the eggs depofited by thefe Infe6ls in the ground, 

 the furface of which is covered with fuch leaves, will be the better 

 defended from the winter's cold, and confequently more of thofe ani-' 

 mals will be produced in the following fummer. 



A certain Author, of the name of Kircher, having publiflied to the 

 world, that he had, by I>is microfcope, difcovered on the leaves of Sage 

 fomething like a fpider's web, woven by fome fmall infe6l, and hav- 

 ing thereupon founded an aflertion, that thofe who fliould eat of Sage 

 leaves, without wafhing them, would be poifoned, I was requefted by 

 fome learned friends, to examine into the truth of this aflertion. 



I had many years before this time, frequently infpefted the leaves 

 of Sage, and always found that they were, in many places, covered 

 with fmall globules, but I never perceived on them any animalcules, 

 nor their eggs, even by the affi fiance of the microfcope. 



Upon this occafion, I procured fome Sage, not only tlie green fort, 

 but that, which, becaufe its leaves are yellow at the edges, is called 

 variegated Sage. This I examined by the microfcope, and per- 

 ceived the leaves to be covered with many capillary or hairy parts, too 

 » fmall to be difcerned by the naked eye ; and fo clofely fet together, 

 that there was not a place in the leaves, of the breadth of an hair 

 without them, and, I cannot give them a better name, than capilla- 

 ments, or fmall hairs, becaufe, like the hairs of animals, they all ter- 

 minate in a fliarp point. And I fuppofe, that Kircher had ima- 

 gined thefe capillaments to be the webs of fpiders. 



At the extremities of many of thefe capillaments, I perceived cer- 

 tain globules, which, through the microfcope, appeared no larger 



