Dr. LATHAM’s shag on the: Spinning Limax. 87 
Limax appeared to be fenfible of its abilities, for it extehded itfélf 
from the bottom of the frame, with its head downwards, till the 
~ tail became fufpended ; and it was by means of an undulating mo- 
tion of the belly, fimilar to that in the a@ of crawling, ' that the 
flow of the vifcous fecretion was produced towards the tail »‘but ‘in 
doing this the belly was extremely contracted, being furnifhed with 
numerous tran{verfe rage; at the fame time the body and tentacula 
were fully extended, indicating no alarm whatever : the head was 
oeccafionally moved fiom fide to fide, which gave feveral turns to 
the right or left as the centre of Sfavity lay; but as it as frequently 
turned one way as the other, the thread was not in the leaft twifted. 
‘The thread, on firft leaving the tail, conformed to the fhape of that 
part, being flat, and’ five times’as ‘broad as at one eighth of an‘tinch 
diftant therefrom; but afterwards feemed of an equal fize, and: con- 
fiderably fmaller ‘than’ ‘the fineft human hair. When a portion of 
this thread was placed wnder‘a' microfcope, ‘it appeared contraéted, 
by its furface being wrinkled; it was pellucid, ‘andfeemed €laftic. ” 
Colonel Montagu ‘adds,’ that’ he has met withonumbers of them, 
fome of which could not by any means be induced’to fpin, as if fen- 
fible of their inability fo to-do, ‘readily turning back'when approach- 
ing the 'projeGting edge; whilft others at-once let themfelves down 
without hefitation; fo 'that it might be known by their motion, 
when near the brink of the precipice, whether they were endued. 
with the faculty or not. 
The above were the principal of the obfervations communicated 
to me, the laft of which were made the beginning of October. . My 
friend, as well as Mr. Hoy, feems to think that the fubject in quef- 
_ tion is no other than the Limax agre/tis of Linneus, to which I moft 
readily affent; and that it is moft probably the variety mentioned 
by Miiller in his Af. Verm. Hy p. gs Bs vite Limax albidus clypeo fla- 
et ; and perhaps alfo the var. «. in Gmelin’s edition of the Sy/, 
Nature 
