22 NATURAL HISTORY. 



not blown, where the dew sticketh ; but especially 

 caterpillars, both the greatest and the most, breed upon 

 cabbages, which have a fat leaf, and apt to putrefy. 

 The caterpillar, towards the end of summer, waxeth 

 volatile, and turneth to a butterfly, or perhaps some 

 other fly. There is a caterpillar that hath a fur or 

 down upon him, and seemeth to have affinity with 

 the silk-worm. 



Experiment solitary touching the flies cantharides. 



729. The flies cantharides are bred of a worm or 

 caterpillar, but peculiar to certain fruit-trees ; as are 

 the fig-tree, the pine-tree, and the wild briar ; all 

 which bear sweet fruit, and fruit that hath a kind of 

 secret biting or sharpness : for the fig hath a milk in 

 it that is sweet and corrosive ; the pine-apple hath a 

 kernel that is strong and abstersive : the fruit of the 

 briar is said to make children, or those that eat them, 

 scabbed. And therefore no marvel though cantharides 

 have such a corrosive and cauterising quality ; ^ for 

 there is not any other of the insecta, but is bred of a 

 duller matter. The body of the cantharides is bright 

 coloured ; and it may be, that the delicate coloured 

 dragon-flies may have likewise some corrosive quality. 



Experiments in consort touching lassitude. 



730. Lassitude is remedied by bathing, or anointino- 



1 All the species of the genus Cantharis, if not all the family of which 

 this genus is the type, appear to have more or less the power of irritating 

 the skin. The one commonly employed, namely Cantharis vesicatoria. 

 seems to be preferred chiefly because on account of its gregarious habits 

 it is more easily obtained. That it is only found on fruit-trees is an error. 

 It is worth remarking, that by pine-apple Bacon means the cone of a pine. 

 The name was transferred to the fruit of the Anana, in consequence of the 

 resemblance the latter bears to a fir-cone. 



