8 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I672. 



powder (which I said to be excrement) being mites as well as that liquamen or 

 softer palp (which I took to be bee's meat) concerning both which particulars I 

 am pretty well assured by my own, and also by my ingenious friend Dr. John- 

 son of Pomfret's more accurate microscopical observations. 4. That the bee- 

 grubs actually feed on mites, there being no other food for them. 5. That 

 there are other species of bees or wasps besides those by me described ; which 

 are sometimes found to make these mites their food; Dr. Johnson having 

 opened one husk, with one only large maggot in it. 6. That there are proba- 

 bly different sorts of mites in these husks, making possibly different species of 

 kermes ; for some I have found to hold carnation-coloured mites, enclosed in a 

 fine white cotton, the whole husk starting from the twig, shrivelling up, and 

 serving only for a cap or cover to that company of mites. Other mites I have 

 seen white, and (which is most usual) the husks continuing entire, and not 

 coming away from the twig they adhere to, and but little cotton at the bottom. 

 Those of the first sort are the white cob-webs on the vine, described by Mr. 

 Hook Micrograph. Obs. 56. 7- That the shrivelled cap to be found upon the 

 mites enclosed in cotton, as also the whole husk itself, if taken early in April, 

 while soft, will, dried in the sun, shrink into the very figure of cochineal; 

 whence we guess that cochineal may be a sort of kermes taken thus early and 

 sun-dried. 



Hitherto this summer's notes concerning kermes. This advantage at least 

 we may have by them; that the account taken from M. Verney by Dr. Croon, 

 and published in one of the Transactions,* is made more intelligible; the small 

 scarlet powder there mentioned being to be understood of those mites, and they 

 to be distinguished from the bee-grubs, which are changed into the skipping 

 fly, that is, the bee, (for kind at least) by us described formerly, I am, &c. 

 York, Oct. p, 1671. 



An Extract of a Letter from Mr. Thomas Piatt, from Florence, August 6, 

 \QT1, concerni7ig some Experiments there made upon Vipers, since M. Charas's 

 Reply to the Letter ivritten by Sig. t'rancesco Redi to M. Bourdelot and 

 M. Morus. N° 87, p. 5060. 



The experiments related in this paper afford a complete refutation of Charas's 

 opinion, that the venom of vipers is in their angered spirits, and confirm in the 

 strongest manner the fact advanced by Redi, that their poison resides in the 

 yellow fluid contained in the vesicles attached to their gums. Mr. Piatt states, 



* See No. 20. • 



