86 Dr, LarHam’s Obfervations ow the Spinning Limax, 
from an height fecurely to the gr ‘ound, by means of a thread of its 
own.conftruétion,. feems.manifeft ; for,.on.my, friend’s putting one 
of them on the projecting frame of a window, it immediately 
crawled forwards till it came to the projecting angle, from whence, 
withont attempting to fix itfelf by its fore parts to any thing, it be- 
came vifibly fufpended by a thread from its tail. When it had de- 
{cended about two feet, the Colonel took ‘it up by the thread, and 
catried it to a diftant room; but, in trying to fix it afrefh, in order 
more accurately to obferve its progrefs, the thread broke. He then 
put it on a frame about four feet from the ground ; ina few minutes 
it was again fufpended, and, obferving by his watch, defcended at 
the rate oF three inches and an half in‘a' minute: Theimotion was 
not perfectly fmooth and regular, but'at times flight jerks were ob- 
ferved. - When the flug was near the groutid, an attempt was madey. 
by taking hold of the thread near to the body, to) fix it afrefh, but 
the thread again broke, as it did likewife on being tried: three other 
times with the fame view, ‘each time the! flug having nearly reached 
the floor. At laft’ He fixed’the end to a ftick, ‘by which he wasien- 
abled, by turning the {tick round; to wind up the thread fafter than 
it was produced. ‘The thread-however foon broke, and after thefe. 
trials, although the flug made feveral attempts to {pin, it as often 
fell to the ground; on which it was’ put into wet mofs, and:the next 
day feemed fo far to have recovered the property: of fpinning, as 
again to go through the former experiments. 
By the above repeated effays, the Colonel, by means of glaffes, 
was erabled to make the fulleft obfervations, and found for cer- 
tain that the fecretion, of which the thread was formed, was wholly’ 
from the under parts, and not from the back or fides, both of which 
appeared nearly dry; nor did it proceed from any orifice in the tail; 
for in fome experiments it was fufpended by the tip of the tail, at 
other times from full an eighth of an inch on one fide of it. This 
5 Limax 
