146 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1704. 



judged to be the excrements of the animalcula; I saw also abundance of legs 

 with three joints, and some also that had but two joints, and a few one joint 

 only ; among these legs, some had claws on, which were either white, or dark 

 coloured, or of a light red. 



- I could perceive, though with great difficulty, 6 legs in some of the animal- 

 cula I had extracted out of the abovementioned eggs, disposed in such exact 

 order, as may be observed in the aurelia of a silk-worm. At the same time I 

 discovered that the unborn animalcula had two horns, in which, at one time, I 

 counted five joints, and another time I thought I saw more. 



After these observations, viz. that the cochineal animalcula are not changed 

 from worms to flies, I reject my former positions, viz. that they have no 

 shields with which they cover their wings ; having found among the cochi- 

 neal grains, little black shields or vaginae, with a small round red spot on 

 each shield. 



The animalcula, whose wings are covered with shields, seem all of them 

 produced either in the earth or in wood, from whence they receive their 

 nourishment and growth ; and if nature had not made this provision for them, 

 being shut up in the earth or wood after that they are changed into flying 

 insects, they could not dig out their way, without hurting their tender wings. 

 For having found among the cochineal grain, one of the aforesaid shields on 

 the hinder part of an animalculum, and viewed the same more narrowly, I saw 

 plainly, that that trunk or hinder part had no similitude with any of the other 

 grains. 



Now seeing that all animals from the beginning are made to bring forth their 

 like, if the young cochineal flies had been endowed with wings, it would have 

 been in vain, for the reasons above-mentioned ; though indeed it is necessary 

 they should have wings as soon as they are full grown. 



I sent my Amsterdam friend a duplicate of what I have here related, as also a 

 copy of the figures, who returned me an answer, stating, that he has also taken 

 2CX) particles out of a large cochineal grain ; but that he could not, after the 

 nicest observations, discover any animalcula in the eggs, &c. wherefore he finally 

 concludes, that what I called blood-vessels, are analogous to the same parts which 

 we find in cherries, grapes, &c. and that what I take for the shell or membrane 

 of the egg, are only the skins that cover the seed. Now, though I was entire^ 

 ly satisfied with the account I have given, and with the figures taken of the 

 cochineal grain ; yet I dissected several others of the largest sort, and took the 

 animalcula out of the egg-shell, and placed them before divers glasses in such 

 order, that I could not only distinctly see the body of the animalculum, with 

 its parts, divided into several circles, but the two horns also, with the joints 



