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the Nutivegs, becaufe there is rarely any fubflance that can be ufed 

 for food, v.herethey are not to be found. 



I determined tlierefore, to examine whether mites fed upon the 

 Nutmeg, and therefore I pLiced about a quarter of a nut, among 

 a parcel of mites, when I perceived that they fled from it. 



Moreover, I took a glafs tube, fomewhat larger than a fwan's quill, 

 one end of wliich I flopped with a ccrk, and, after putting into the 

 glals fome hundreds of niites, I cut a fmall piece of Nutmeg of a fiza 

 that I could put it into the tube ; and I perceived that the mites next 

 tlie Nutrneg foon died. I then put another piece at the other ex- 

 ticmity of the tube where there were many live mites, which 

 alfo in a very (hort time died. 



To fatisfy myfelf ftill farther, I took a glafs tube, tliirteen inches 

 long, and half an inch diameter ; one end of this I clofed by melting- 

 it, and put as many mites into it as I computed in bulk altogether to 

 be equal to half a cubic inch, and, according to the exa6tefl; compur 

 tation I could make, they were in number 150,000. 



After thefe mites had been about a quarter of an hour in the tube, 

 they I'pread themfelves from the niafs in which tliey v/ere, when firft 

 put in, and difperfed all over the glafs; I then fplit a very found 

 and good Nutmeg into four parts, one of which parts I placed in the 

 open end of the glafs, fo that I might obferve by the microfcope, 

 what effeft it would have on the mites when they approached it. 



Mofl of them I faw creeping towards the open end of the tube, 

 and when they came to within about a ftraw's breadth of that part 

 where the piece of nut touched the glafs by two of its points, many 

 of them returned back, though they miglit have paffed by tlie nut 

 without approaching nearer than the eighth part of an inch to the 

 main fubftance of it. 



The retreat (fo to exprefs myfelf) of thefe multitudes of mites, 

 afforded me a very pleafant fpe6facle, for here it appeared, that the 

 exhalation or vapour proceeding from the piece of Nutmeg, was fo 



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