HIPPOLITO SALTIANI. 33 



been bought at a great price. Its flesb is hard aSd 

 unsavory. According to Oppian, its capture is un- 

 lawful ; the diseases for which it is a remedy are 

 mentioned." 



From among the molluscous animals we may 

 supply his description of the purpura (Buccimrm, 

 Lin., Purpura, Lamarck) that shell-fish from a 

 vesicular reservoir of which the ancients derived 

 their beautiful purple, " Tyrloque ardelat Miirice 

 lana ;" and which the discovery of cochineal has 

 now very much superseded. " This animal appears 

 to be of the turbinated family by its projecting 

 wedge-shaped snout, and by the tongue being pushed 

 forward, and extending club-shaped to the ex- 

 tremity. It has seven spines in the circle ; it pos- 

 sesses a natural covering ; its tongue is very hard, 

 and about an inch long. It is much in request as 

 a dye, this pecuhar substance being found near the 

 middle of the fauces in a white vesicle. Both Aris- 

 totle and Pliny mention the time and the method 

 by which it is procured. The intensity of the 

 colour is in proportion to its proximity to the sun. It 

 is brought forth in spring, from sHme and putrefying 

 matter ". It grows very rapidly, for it attains its full 

 size in a year. It possesses the senses of taste and 

 smeU ; it is capable of motion but in a slight degree. 

 Aristotle states how and upon what it feeds ; it con- 



* Tlie reader will here and elsewhere perceive that Aris- 

 totle, as well as some eminent modem naturalists, is an advo- 

 cate for equivocal generation. He will also remember that 

 many of the opinions here deUvered are not only obsolete, 

 but incorrect. 



