VOL. XV.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 121 



be bored in a tree, and this worm be closed up therein, so as to starve and die, 

 the leaves and bark of that tree ever after infused in water, and given as a 

 drench, cures the disease. Another fancy, and as ill grounded, they have, 

 that if a man bruise this worm between his hands, and let the expressed juice 

 dry on them, ever after the water he first washes in, in the morning, given to 

 the beast to drink, cares it. 



But for myself, I am very apt to suspect that this worm is no more poison 

 than other caterpillars, of which species it is ; and Godartius, in his book of 

 insects, calls it the elephant-caterpillar. But I verily believe that the ugliness 

 of the worm, it being of a dark fuscous, and as they say, poisonous colour, 

 together with its largeness beyond common caterpillars, has so wrought upon 

 the fearful and ignorant vulgar, that they have given it the name of venomous. 



Fig. 1, pi. 4, AB, is the worm lying on his belly, its length 2-^ inches 

 almost; c its head; dd two variegated spots, mistaken for eyes ; e a small pro- 

 tuberance towards its tail, from whence arises a part in shape of a horn, mis- 

 taken for a sting. 



Fig. 2, represents the worm reclined almost on his back ; f its mouth, formed 

 like that of other caterpillars, as appeared in the microscope; gg, &c. six small 

 horny feet or claws, 3 on each side, as in other caterpillars; hh, &c. eight pa- 

 pillae, with which it fastens itself to what it goes or hangs on, as children's 

 suckers are fastened to wet stones; ii two larger papillae, with which it both 

 sucks itself fast, and commonly grasps the stems of grass and herbs, to which 

 it clings with the others. 



Of a prodigious Os Frontis in the Medicine School, at Leyden. By Mr. Tho. 



Molyneux. N° l68, p. 880. 



This OS frontis is complete every way, and differs in no respect from that of 

 a man's, but in its size; and since there is no creature, especially of the larger 

 sort, that has this bone at all resembling the human, there is not the least 

 question to be made, but that it formerly belonged to a man, and that of a most 

 extraordinary large size. Its dimensions were as follow; from its juncture with 

 the nasal bones, to the place where the sutura sagittalis terminated the convex 

 way, Q-tV inches, transversely from side to side, still measuring the convex way 

 it was 12-tV inches; in thickness about half an inch. I have measured this 

 same bone in several ordinary skulls, according to all these dimensions, and 

 find that one with another, they scarcely answer it in half proportion; for where 

 it was 9-fV inches, they are but 44- inches; and where it was 12-tV inches, 

 they are not above 6; and in thickness not above -J- of an inch. So that, sup- 



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