ENTOMOLOGY. 



carried on, not merely without the presence of trans- 

 parent humours, but by means of dark and solid 

 parts as in the eyes of insects, is a fact at present 

 quite unexplained. 



Snails. 



A gentleman cleaned and dried some snail-shells, 

 and put them up in his cabinet. Many years after- 

 wards he found the snails crawling about, and, on 

 examination, it appeared that some water had got 

 access and moistened the snails, so as to restore 

 them to life. 



The eyes of snails are lodged in their horns, one 

 at the end of each horn, which they can retract at 

 pleasure. 



Spallanzani cut off the head and horns of snails 

 by a sort of machine like a guillotine, and found they 

 grew again. 



The Boring Insect. 



Mr. Osier thinks the saxica, or boring insect, as 

 also some -other animals, avail themselves of chemical 

 as well as mechanical means by their uniform exer- 

 tions on calcareous bodies, while their progress is 

 arrested by siliceous bodies. The nature of the sol- 

 vent (probably an acid) he could not discover. 



i 

 Frogs. 



It is said the frog does not reach its full size until 

 five years old, and that it lives from ten to twelve 

 years. In the winter it becomes torpid among the 

 soft mud, or in cavities beneath the banks of stag- 

 nant waters, and is, like other reptiles, extremely 

 tenacious of life. 



Isaac Walton says, the mouth of the frog may be 

 opened from the middle of April until August ; then 

 the frog's mouth grows up, and he continues so for 

 at least six months without eating. 

 R 



