2 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, 



but similar notions have been entertained by writers 

 of no mean reputation, respecting even the larger 

 animals. The celebrated Kircher, for example, one 

 of the most learned men of the seventeenth century, 

 goes so far as to give the following singular recipe 

 for the manufacture of snakes : — 



" Take some snakes," says he, '* of whatever kind 

 3»ou want, roast them, and cut them in small pieces, 

 and sow those pieces in an oleaginous soil ; then, 

 from day to day, sprinkle them lightly with water 

 from a watering-pot, taking care tliat the piece of 

 ground be exposed to the spring sun, and in eight 

 days you will see the earth strewn with little worms, 

 which, being nourished with milk diluted with 

 water, will gradually increase in size till they take 

 the form of perfect serpents. This," he subjoins 

 with great simplicity, " I learned from having found 

 in the country the carcase of a serpent covered with 

 worms, some small, others larger, and others again 

 that had evidently taken the form of serpents. It 

 was still more marvellous to remark, that among 

 these little snakes, and mixed as it were with them, 

 were certain flies, which I should take to be engen- 

 dered from that substance which constituted the 

 aliment of the snakes*." 



Kircher's more shrewd and less fanciful cor- 

 respondent, Redi, determined to prove this singular 

 recipe before he trusted to the authority of his friend. 

 " Moved,'' he says, " by the authentic testimony of 

 this most learned writer, I have frequently tried the 

 experiment, but I could never witness the genera- 

 tion of those blessed snakelets made to handf." 

 But though Redi could not, in this way, produce a 

 brood of snakes, his experiments furnished an 

 abundant progeny of maggots, — the same, unques- 



* Athan. Kircher, Mund. Subterran. lib. xii. 

 f Redi, Generat. Xnsectorum, ed>t. Axnstel, 1686. 



