148 - On the Caterpillar which 



the most general publicity in this city (not a Physician, 

 and scarcely an inhabitant of Baltimore, who does not 

 know of the experiment), I think I may in honour bring 

 it forward as authority. The experiment, in form, is 

 nearly as follows : Two reptiles were procured, and un- 

 molested (they remained on the bough taken from the 

 tree), were applied to an old cat, in perfect health. There 

 were several gentlemen present. The reptiles in ap- 

 pearance bit the cat. The following morning, the cat 

 possessed her usual characters of health, and the Physi- 

 cian mentioned the experiment as unsuccessful. But 

 the same day, in the afternoon, the cat refused to take 

 aliment. In the evening, the Physician was professionally 

 called from home, and did not return until early the next 

 morning. On his return the cat was dead. When leaving 

 home, he particularly charged his domestics to take good 

 care of the cat. She was, in the house, of value, and 

 somewhat of a favourite. Her head was much swollen, 

 as were also the heads of the kitten and pig, which died 

 under the experiments I witnessed ; at least we conceived 

 them to be so. A kitten that drew nutriment from the 

 teats of the old cat above-mentioned, likewise died in 

 eight-and-forty hours after its mother's death. The 

 above particulars I had from the Physician himself. Were 

 all the negative experiments accumulated into one scale, 

 and this solitary one, with its circumstances, put into the 

 other, they would be borne up as light and of no weight. 



From the above, let it be understood, I do not conclude 

 that the reptiles positively, by subtile poison or mecha- 

 nical wounds, killed the animals experimented on, but that 

 ?hc affirmative successfully bear up against the flood of 



