132 Crosse’s Experiments with the Voltaic Battery. 
mostly imbedded more or less in the silica, with eight or ten fila- 
ments projecting from each beyond the silica. It was perfectly 
impossible to mistake them, after having made one’s self master of 
their different appearances ; and an occasional motion in the fila- 
ments of those that had been the longest formed was very percept- 
ible, and observed by many of my visitors, without my having 
previously noticed the fact to them. Most of these productions 
took place from half to three quarters of an inch under the surface 
of the fluid, which, as it evaporated very slowly, I kept to the 
_ same level by adding fresh portions. As some of these insects 
- were formed on the inverted part of the syphon-shaped wire, I 
cannot imagine how they contrived to arrive at the surface, and 
to extricite themselves from the fluid: yet this they,did repeat- 
edly ; their old places were vacated, and others were born in new 
ones. Whether they were in an imperfect state (except just at 
the commencement of their formation), or in a perfect one, they 
had all the distinguishing characteristic of bristles projecting from 
their bodies, which occasioned the French savans to remark that 
they resembled a microscopic porcupine. I must not omit to state, 
that the room in which these three batteries were acting was kept 
almost constantly darkened. It was not my intention to make. 
known these observations until I myself should be better informed 
int the matter. Chance led to the publication of an erroneous 
of them, which I was under the necessity of explaining. - 
Iti is so difficult to arrive at the truth, that mankind would do bet- 
ter to lend their assistance to explore what may be worth investi- 
gating, than to endeavor to crush in its bud that which might 
otherwise expand into a flower. In giving this account, I have 
merely stated those circumstances regarding the appearance of 
insects, which I have noticed during my investigations into the 
formation of mineral matters; I have never studied physiology, 
and am not aware under what circumstances the birth of this class 
of insects is usually developed. In my first experiment I had 
made use of flannel, wood, and a volcanic stone ; in the last, none — 
of these substances were present. I never, for a moment, enter- 
tained the idea that the electric fluid had animated: the organi¢ 
remains of insects, or fossil eggs, previously existing in the stone 
or the silica ; and have formed no visionary theory which I would 
travel out -- my way to support. I have since. repeated these 
latter experiments in a third room, in which there are now two 
