MISCELLANEOUS. 



It may be new to many of our readers, who are familiar 

 with the Elegy in a Country Church-yard, to be told that its 

 author was at the pains to turn the characteristics of the 

 Linn^an orders of insects into Latin hexameters, the manu- 

 script of which is still preserved in his interleaved copy of 

 the " Systema Naturae." ^ 



It is related by Boerhaave, in his Life of Swamraerdam, 

 that when the Grand Duke of- Tuscany was visiting with 

 Mr. Thevenot the curiosities of Holland, in 1668, he found 

 nothing more worthy of his admiration than the great natu- 

 ralist's account of the structure of caterpillars, — for Swam- 

 merdam, by the skillful management of instruments of won- 

 derful delicacy and fineness, showed the duke in what man- 

 ner the future butterfly, with all its parts, lies neatly folded 

 up in the caterpillar, like a rose in the unexpanded bud. 

 He was, indeed, so struck with this and other wonders of 

 the insect world, disclosed to him by the great naturalist, 

 that he made him the offer of twelve thousand florins to in- 

 duce him to reside at his court; but Swammerdam, from 

 feelings of independence, modestly declined to accept it, 

 preferring to continue his delightful studies at home.^ 



There is an epitaph in the church of St. Hilary at Poic- 

 tiers, beginning "Yermibus hie ponor," which the people 

 interpreted to mean that a Saint was buried there who un- 

 dertook to cure children of the worms. Women, accord- 

 ingly used to scrape the tomb and administer the powder; 

 but the clergy, to prevent this absurdity (for Luther had 

 arisen), erected a barrier to keep them off. They soon be- 

 gan, however, to carry away for the same purpose pieces of 

 the wooden bars.^ 



1 Ins Archit., p. 7. 



2 Swammerdam, Hist, of Ins., p. 5. 



3 Garasse, Kecherches des Recherches de M. Estiene Pasquier, p. 357. 

 Southev's Com. Place Bk., 3d S. p. 282. 



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