The Author s Difcoveries and Ohfervations refpeB'ing Wood con" 



fumed hy Maggots. 



V^ASTING my eye in the winter feafon on fome pieces of oak, 

 (called in this country, Tel-hout), which I had kept in my houfe 

 about fix years, for fire-wood, I faw that it was almoft wholly co- 

 vered with a kind of white powder of the fame colour with the 

 wood. Conceiving that this dull: was caufed by fome maggots con- 

 cealed within the wood, I took out of the heap a piece of wood very 

 much covered with this powder ; it had been cleft lengthwife, was 

 about an inch thick, and eighteen inches long, and of five years 

 growth ; but I could not fee on the furface of it any of thofe mag- 

 got holes which we fee in many woods, although I had wiped off 

 all the powder it was covered with. I then cut it in half, and hav- 

 ing fplit the pieces, I took out of one half of it feventeen white liv- 

 ing maggots, all of the fame fize ; their bodies were Ihort, and 

 when taken out of the wood, they rolled themfelves up in a kind of 

 circle : their fore part was twice as thick as their hind part : more- 

 over, when taken out of the wood, they were not able to creep 

 along ; their feet were very fliort and covered with many hairs, and 

 on each foot a ftraight claw. Thefe maggots had clofely compref- 

 fed the particles of wood which they had gnawed off, and alfo the 

 excrements left behind them in the winding channels they had made 

 in the wood, which I wondered they could do, becaufe their bo- 

 dies were very foft, except the organs they had in the fore part of 

 their heads, and thefe were not white, but of a yellovvilh colour. 

 Although I had no doubt that thefe maggots in the fummer time 

 would be changed into flying animals, I neverthelefs put fourteen, 

 of them into a little box with a cover, which fcrewed on, and 

 thefe I carried about me, to difcover how long they would live. 



