426 PHILOSOPHICAL TIIANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 740. 



There is a short dissertation, with four figures of the tongue, its vessels 

 glands, muscles, and nerves annexed, by the same author ; whose principal 

 intent is to show, that the vessels called salival ducts by Coschwilzius, are not 

 salival ducts, but veins. 



Some curious Experimetils and Observations on a Beetle,* that lived three Years 

 without Food. By Mr. Henry Baker.-f- N° 457, p. 441. 



In the middle of the month of June 1737, while Mr. Baker was at a rela- 

 tion's house at Tottenham in the county of Middlesex, a large cistern of lead, 

 that was placed in the coach-house-yard, to receive by pipes the rain-water from 

 some out-buildings, fell down. Curiosity led him to examine into this cistern; 

 and at the bottom he observed several black beetles, plunging in a muddy slimy 

 sediment, which the water had left. Taking out 2 or 3 of them, he found 

 them of a middling size, somewhat above an inch in length, having 6 pretty 

 long legs, with 2 little hooks at the extremity of each, in the manner of the 

 common beetles: they were all over of a rusty black colour, with antennae long 

 and jointed; a body covered with one strong shell, forming an appearance of 

 case-wings, but undivided, and without any filmy wings underneath, and a tail 

 turning up a little : in short, they resembled very much a sort of beetle that is 

 sometimes seen in houses, but were of a stronger and much more firm con- 

 texture. 



As Mr. B. had preserved most of our English insects, he chose one of the 



* The insect, whose strength of constitution was thus tried by Mr. Baker, is the tenebrio mortisa- 

 gus of Linnaeus. 



t Mr. Henry Baker, F. R. S. was a learned antiquarj' and naturalist, on which subjects he com- 

 municated a great number of curious papers to the R. S. which were published in the Philos. Trans, 

 in the several volumes, from the 41st to the 56th j as well as some ingenious separate works ; as, the 

 Microscope made easy, in 8vo, 1742; and Employment for the Microscope, 8vo, 1764. He wrote 

 also Original Poems, Serious and Humourous, 8vo, 1725 j also the Universe, a Poem, intended to 

 restrain the pride of man. 



Mr. Baker was born in London, and brought up to the business of a bookseller ; but he quitted 

 that profession, and undertook to teach deaf and dumb persons to speak and read, &c. ; by which he 

 acquired a decent fortune. In 1740 he was elected Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, 

 from the former of which he received, the same year, the annual gold medal, for his microscopical 

 experiments on saline particles. Mr. B. married a daughter of the celebrated Daniel De Foe, by 

 whom he had two sons, one of whom, Henry, had some pretentions to mathematical and philoso- 

 phical learning, and had received lessons in the former of these branches from the celebrated Wm. 

 Jones, Esq. father of the late Sir Wm. Jones, chief judge in India ; but taking a turn to the theatre, 

 he married a lady eminent in that profession, and became a comedian himself; in which profession 

 he published a useful little book, called A Companion to the Playhouse. Our author, the father, 

 died in 1774, being upwards of 70 years of age. 



