VOL. XLVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 185 



cessary functions; while the old shell is left in two parts, that which 

 covered the body in one part, and that which covered the breast and legs, in 

 another. 



It happens sometimes that the shell hardens prematurely. In this case the 

 poor animal is made a prisoner, being so cramped, that he cannot disengage 

 himself from his hiding-place, till found by the fishermen, and set at liberty by 

 moving the stones from about him. It is surprizing to consider how a creature 

 can live long confined without any aliment, and yet increase in its dimensions 

 But that the crab will subsist without a sensible decay in the fishermen's pen- 

 pots,* for the space of some months, is very certain. The more healthy and 

 thriving a crab is, the more frequently he casts his sheH. But, if he becomes 

 sickly and wasting, the old shell remains on him, till such time as he recovers 

 strength and vigour to cast it. 



When the fishermen take a crab, that is not in a good condition, they return 

 it into the sea, and often mark it on the back with a sharp-pointed iron, or 

 top of a knife ; and this mark not only remains on the old shell, as long as 

 it continues on, but is found in the same manner impressed or serrated on 

 the new shell ; a very strange and surprizihg phenomenon, but I am assured 

 it is fact. 



If a crab receives a small wound in the very extremity of the claw, he 

 generally bleeds to death, or pines away by slow and insensible leaking of 

 the vital moisture. But if he receives any considerable wound or hurt, that 

 gives him pain, he instantly throws off the offending member, and all is 

 safe, and a new limb soon succeeds to make it again perfect. The leg is 

 always thrown off at the same joint ; the blood is stopped by the membrane, 

 that lines that articulation, contracting itself in the form of a purse. 

 If a crab be brought near the fire, he throws off the legs, which feel a pain- 

 ful heat. In like manner if a crab be thrown into hot water, he casts off all 

 his legs together. For which reason, when they are to be boiled, they put 

 them into the pot in cold water, and let it warm very slowly, till the creature 

 gradually die. 



The lobster casts its shell much in the same manner as the river crayfish, 

 which are a species of fi-esh water lobsters. 



JX. An Account of the Right Hon. Horace fValpole,'\- clraivn up by Himself. 



Dated April 1750. p. 43. 



Mr. W. here states, that Lord Barrington having heard of his complaint, 



• These are cages in the sea, made with willow-twigs to keep the crabs in. — Orig. 

 + Brother to the celebrated statesman Sir Robert Walpole, and uncle to the late Horace Walpole 

 (Lord Orford). He died in 1737. From his earliest years (observes Mr. Coxe in his Memoirs of 

 VOL. X. s 4 



