conversant in this part of Natural History can be 

 supposed to have studied these authors; and to 

 such it should seem, highly necessary to give at 

 Jea>t some abridged description of the particulars 

 most worthy of attention which have been dis- 

 covered by those who have written professedly on 

 the subject. 



It must be absolutely unnecessary in the present 

 enlightened days of science to say any thing rela- 

 tive to the ancient idea of what was termed the 

 equivocal production of Insects, and their sup- 

 posed or pretended origin from putrefaction. One 

 single experiment of Redi, a celebrated physi- 

 cian and philosophic observer in the seventeenth 

 century, must be fully sufficient to prove the ab- 

 surdity of the doctrine entertained by the ancients. 

 Let some animal flesh, for instance, be placed in 

 an open vessel, and exposed to the air for some 

 days; and let another vessel with the same kind 

 of flesh in it be also placed with it, but instead of 

 being exposed to the air, let it be covered with a 

 piece of silk or fine gauze, tied over it. The con- 

 sequence will be, that the flesh in the open vessel 

 will in a short time abound with the larvas or 

 maggots of flies, which have deposited their eggs 

 on the meat ; but, on opening the covered vessel, 

 not th* least appearance of such beings will be 

 found, though the flesh be in the same state of 

 putrefaction with the other. I know not that the 

 truth of this experiment has ever been called in 

 question; but if it has, it must have been owing 

 to the experiment not having been properly con- 



