E E L S IJ* P A S T E, -n 



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decrees, an equal quantity of boiling water into the veffel of fea-water. 

 He then feparated each polypus with pincers from its (liell, and plunged 

 each feparately into fmall cryftal vafes, filled with fpirit of wine mixed 

 with water. By this means the animal was preferved entire, without hav- 

 ing had time to contract itfelfj and thus he perceived a variety of kinds, 

 almoft equal to that variety of produflions which thefe little animals 

 form. He perceived and dcfcribed fifty kinds, each poflefling its pe- 

 culiar mode of conftrudion, and forming a coraline none of the reft 

 can imitate. On every coraline fubftance are a number of polypi, «oc 

 refembling the erectors of the building, but a vagabond race. 



In o-eneral the famedifi^erence that fubfifts between the honey-comb of 

 the bee, and the paper-like cells of the wafp, fubfifts between the differ- 

 ent habitations of coral-m.aking polypi. They have been named by 

 their likcnefs to fome well-known objefb, fuch ascoralines, fungi, madre- 

 pores, fponges, aftroites, and keratophytes. Though thefe differ ex- 

 tremely in their outward appearances, they all are formed in the fame 

 manner by polypi of various kinds and nature. When examined che- 

 jnically, corals diffolve in acids, and fponges burn with an odour ftrong- 

 ly refembling that of burnt horn. 



Probably the fubftance of coral is produced, like the fhell of a fnail, 

 from a Ilimy matter, which covers its body, and hardening, becomes ai> 

 habitation ; feveral of thefe united, form at length a confiderabls mafs. 



Minute and diminutive as fome of thofe creatures feem to whofe 

 manners we have paid attention, they are large when compared to others, 

 of whom we have information, but whofe natures are greatly concealed 

 by their fmallnefs. Among the moft rem.arkable of thefe are, 



EELS IN PASTE. 



FLOUR and water boiled together till moderately confiftent, and 

 expofed to the air m an open veffel, after fome days (if not mouldy) 

 will turn four, and exhibit multitudes of long, (lender, wriggling animal- 

 cula, not always invifibie to the naked eye. They may be kept a 

 year, by fupplying a drop of vinegar, or water, cccafionally j thefe are 

 viviparous, and many young are found in the body of the parent, each 

 coiled up and included in its proper membrane, to the number of an 

 hundred. 



How far the form.cr arc related to etU in blighted wbeai is dubious : 



thcfc 



