108 INSECT! 



LETTER XXV. 



Canandaigua, July, 1820. 

 .My dear Sir, 



In passing by a spring a few days ago, I was 

 called by some acquaintance to look at what tbey 

 called a curiosity. It was the fiJaria, horse-hair 

 worm, or gordius aquaticus — its color was dusky, 

 its length four or five inches, and its thickness 

 about the size of a horse-hair. They represented 

 it as a real horse-hair, transformed into an animal 

 by being thrown into water, and although in 

 other respects intelligent men, they no doubt con- 

 scientiously believed it. Providence has design- 

 ed this little animal to perforate the most compact 

 and tenacious clay, by which means the imprison- 

 ed waters of subterranean springs find a passage 

 up for the use of man, and other organic beings. • 

 In consequence of this incident, I was about 

 making some sage remarks on the low state of 

 natural science in this country, when it occurred 

 to me that the same doctrine of equivocal gene- 

 ration, or spontaneous production, was advocated 

 from the time of the Stagy rite down to Priestley 

 :md Darwin. Harvey was the first philosopher 

 who had the temerity to enter the lists, in t l 



