ON WORMS. 453 



hatching, mud be received into the body, at 

 the one end or the other, at any rate. Thus 

 the learned Dr. Gafpari, as Valhfnieri gravely 

 afTures us, one day by chance, and mere acci- 

 dent, enjoyed the rare and uncommon oppor- 

 tunity of witnefling the forcible entry of a large 

 fly, after a number of ineffettual attempts, into 

 the anus of his mare, feeding in the field, for 

 the purpofe of finding a warm and convenient 

 birth to depofit her eggs. Alas ! had the good 

 Dofctor been an adept in the noble Englifli 

 praftice of figging, experimentally convinced 

 of the contra6liie force of xhtfphinEier ani in a 

 horfe, and the difficulty of penetration, he 

 would furely have found another paffage into 

 the body for thofe eggs, which he was deter- 

 mined, at all events, fnould be there carried and 

 depofited. Whence come the parental ova, 

 Do6for, of thofe maggots which are hatched in 

 a foul and neglecled ulcer, or a chandler's nofe ? 

 How much eafier it is to fay, that all putrefcent 

 animal fluids fpontaneoufly produce animalcula, 

 and fave ourfelves the trouble of playing at 

 ' I fpy' with flies. Putrefaftion and reproduc- 

 tion, death and life, life and death, are vica- 

 rious : they ferve to form nature's metempfy- 

 chojis, or merry-go-round ; all we know, all we 

 can know, and therefore all we ought to know: 

 they who dream that more is, and ought to be 

 known, may, as has always been the good fa- 



fliion, 



