368 THE PHILOSOPHY 



« mufcles of every fegment, and is become one vaft matrix 



< full of eggs, which make long circumvolutions through an 



< innumerable quantity of very miimte velTels that circulate 

 « round the infide in a ferpentine manner, which would exer- 

 « cife the ingenuity of a flcilful anatomift to diffedt and deve- 



* lope. This fingular matrix is not more remarkable for its 



* amazing extenfion and Aze than for its periftaltic motion, 

 « which refembles the undulating of waves, and continues in- 



< cefTantly without any apparent effort of the animal -, fo that 



* one part or other, alternately, is riling and linking in per- 

 « petual fucceffion, and the matrix feems never at reft, but is 

 « always protruding eggs to the amount (as I have frequent- 

 ^ ly counted in old queens) of fixty in a minute, or eighty 



* thoufand and upward in one day of twenty-four hours. 



« Thefe eggs are inftantly taken from her body by the at- 

 ^ tendants, (of whom there always are, in the royal chamber 



< and the galleries adjacent, a fufficient number in waiting), 



< and carried to the nurferies, which, in a great neft, may 

 ' fome of them be four or five feet diftant in a ftraight line, 



* and, confequently, much farther by their winding galleries. 



* Here, after they are hatched, the young are attended and 

 ' provided with every thing neceffary until they are able to 



< fhift for themfelves, and take their fhare of the labours of 

 « the community.' 



We fliall now endeavour to give fome idea of the almoft 

 incredible architecture and oeconomy of thefe wonderful in-^ 

 feas. 



Tjie nefts of the termites heUicofi^ or wood-lice, are called 

 hills by the natives of Africa, New Holland, and other hot 

 climates. This appellation is highly proper ; for they are 

 often elevated ten or twelve feet above the furface of the 

 earth, and are nearly of a conical figure. Thefe hills, inftead 

 of being rare phenomena, are fo frequent in many places 

 near Senegal, that, -as defcribed' with great propriety by 



