MYTHS DISPROVED 65 



most incredulous man in the world with regard to nat- 

 ural phenomena, I desired to ascertain with my own 

 eyes what the tun-fish might be capable of producing; 

 but I had the usual result, and found only worms, which 

 changed into flies, according to their species. I remem- 

 ber also that, wishing to see what effect oil had on the 

 worms, as it is so pernicious to insects, I selected some 

 of the largest worms born in the tun-fish and dipped 

 some into vinegar, some into lemon- juice, and others 

 into oil, sugar, salt and saltpetre. I found that all lived 

 and followed their usual transformations excepting the 

 worms covered with oil; the flies of these died on escap- 

 ing from the shell, and some of them before leaving it. 

 Hence I argued that the assertions of Galen, Lucian, A. 

 Aphrodisius, U. Aldrovandi, and Sperling were cor- 

 rect : i. e., flies die on coming in contact with oil. Indeed, 

 it was wonderful to see how quickly a fly died when I 

 dropped oil on it. Aldrovandi and Sperling also add 

 that flies killed in this manner return to life if left in 

 the sun or sprinkled with hot ashes. Not caring to ac- 

 cept a mere assertion, I had the curiosity to verify it 

 with my own eyes, but I never had the good luck to 

 see a single fly return to life, though I repeated the ex- 

 periment several times. Then, again, I had read ^lianus, 

 Pliny, and some moderns, who state that these same crea- 

 tures, after having been drowned in water, revive on ex- 

 posure to the mild heat of ashes. In order to prove this, 

 I placed eight ordinary flies in a glass jar, well filled 

 with iced water; after half an hour I found that one 

 had gone to the bottom, and one of those floating 

 seemed to be still alive; the other seven were apparently 

 dead. I took all out of the water and placed them in 

 the sun; scarce half a minute passed when two began 



