Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 79 



writers regarding them, their habits, their structure (with illustra- 

 tions) , whether they light after death, their uses as medicine and 

 the superstitions and poetry regarding them. 



Concerning European glowworms Muffet, after giving the name 

 in various languages, wrote: 



In English, Gloio-worm, Shine-worm, i. e. a glissening or shining worm. 

 For here, as also in Gasconia, the male or flying Glow-worm shines not, 

 but the females which are meer worms. On the other side in Italy, and in 

 the County of Heidelberg, the females shine not at all, and the males do. 

 I leave the reason to be discussed by Philosophers. 



His drawing is reproduced in figure 4. 



Then follows a detailed description of both male and female in 

 which Mouffet disagreed with Pliny that the light always appeared 

 during flight. He also emphasized the fact that dead glowworms do 

 not light. 



Those parts [of the abdomen] that are white do glitter in the dark with 

 a wonderful splendor, representing terrestrial stars: insomuch that they 

 may seem to contend with candle or moon light. This is worthy obser- 

 vation, that that so bright lustre expires with the life; where then is 

 that perpetual light which some foolish naturalists so foolishly and im- 

 pudently prate of? . . . They feed upon herbs, they continue long in 

 copulation, as Julius Scaliger ^^ (a great Philosopher of our times, not 

 behinde any of the Ancients) hath diligently observed. 



Muffet also took exception to Cardanus' statement that the Cicin- 

 deles come from the Crabrones (wasps) and held that " Baptista 

 Porta '^'^ and Hesychius *^ were grossly mistaken who ascribe their 

 origin to the dew or tow." J. Scaliger had seen a female lay eggs 

 " which within the space of twenty hours went away alive." 



However, it is in relation to medical use that Muffet related much 

 of interest. He wrote: 



Neither do they only please the eye, and instruct the minde, but they 

 are good for the body in divers diseases, for the female Cicindele being 

 put into the matrix of the mule, causeth the woman that bears childe 

 with much danger, to be barren; saith Kiranides.^^ Ciciyideles being 



^^ Julius Caesar Scaliger (1485-1558), the physician, scholar and poet, who wrote 

 De causis linguae Latinae (1540) and Exotericarum exercitationum, etc. (Paris, 1557) , 

 in which the mating of fireflies is described in exercise 191, sec. 2. 



*^ Giambattista della Porta (ca. 1541-1615), the natural philosopher of Naples. 



*^ Author of a Greek lexicon of uncertain date, but written since the Christian era 

 began, first printed in 1514. Aristotle had written in Historia animalium (V, 551A) : 

 " Other insects are not derived from living parentage, but are generated spontaneously, 

 some out of dew falling on leaves. . . ." 



*^ A work of doubtful date and authorship on the medicinal virtues of plants and 

 animals, supposed to be a Greek translation of an Arab manuscript. 



