IN3ECT€.. 



LETTER XXV. 



- . ■ /=« 



My dear hxn, 



In passing by a spring a few days ago, 1 was 

 called by some acquaintance to look at what they 

 called a curiosity. It was the filaria, horse-hair 

 worn), or gordios titjii^tlciis — its color was dusky, 

 4t§ length four or five inches, and its thickiiesi 

 iibout the size of a horse-hair. They representeu 

 U as a real horse-hair, transformed into an animal 

 by beirjg thrown into water, and although in 

 other respects intelligent men, they no doubt con- 

 scientiously believed it. Providence has design- 

 ed this little animal to perforate the most compact 

 and tenacious clay, by which means the imprison- 

 ed waters of subterranean springs find a passage 

 jp for the use of man, and other organic beings^ 

 in consequence of this incident, I was about 

 making som.e sage remarks on the low state of 

 natural science in this country, when it occurred 

 to me that the same doctrine of equivocal geiie-= 

 ration, or spontaneous production, was advocated 

 from the time of the Stagyrite down to Priestley 

 and Darwin. Harvey was the first philosopher 

 who had the tem,erity to enter the lists, in this 



