( 2C3 ) 



would continue but for a very few days to be fit food for the mag 

 gots, therefore the All-wife Creator has implanted in thofe mag- 

 gots the property of acquiring their full growth in a very few days, 

 when, on the contrary, other maggots which can have a continual 

 fupply of food, are months before they undergo any alteration. 



I have, at times, carried feveral of thefe maggots about me in a 

 glafs, giving them every day a fupply of flefli, and fhewed them to 

 feveral curious perfons, that they might with me obferve their won- 

 derfully rapid growth ; I have, indeed, brought them to their full 

 fize in the fpace of four days, fo that I conceive in the heighth of 

 fummer the eggs laid by Flies may, in lefs than a month's time, be- 

 come complete Flies, fo as again to lay eggs. Lattly, it is worthy 

 of obfervation that thefe maggots do not void much excrement, fo 

 that the greatell part of the fubllances they confume for food enters 

 into the compolition of their own bodies. 



AT the time I firft turned my thoughts on the nature of our com- 

 mon ftinging Nettles, I imagined that the great pain and fwelling 

 they occalion arofe from the Iharp points of the tHngs or prickles, 

 which are thick fct on their leaves and lialks, being broken off and 

 left within the Ikin : but happening one day, while gathering afpa- 

 ragus in my garden, to be Itung between my fingers by a very fmall 

 Nettle, it produced fo uncommon a pain and fwelling, that 1 exa- 

 mined more narrowly the formation of Nettles by the microfcope, 

 and I found that the filings or prickles are not only hollow, and con- 

 tain within them a very tranfparent juice, but that, at the time 

 when they are in their moll vigorous growth, this juice ilfues from 

 the flings, and may be feeu to fettle on the points in the fliape of a 

 very fmall drop or globule. 



Upon feeing this, 1 formed a different opinion on the fubjed:, and 

 I conceived that, though we may be pricked by the Nettle no 

 deeper than the external cuticle or fivin, and though the point of the 

 filing may not be left behind, yet w'e fliali experience both pain and 



