Miscellanies. 375 



once to take the liberty of transmitting to the press, and particularly 

 the local press, from which so many reports have emanated, an ab- 

 stract of a letter I have received from Mr. Crosse, with an account 

 of his experiments, in the language of a private communication, (not 

 that which he would probably have chosen, had he made the com- 

 munication himself,) and without further comment. 



" The following is an accurate account of the experiments in which 

 insects made their appearance : — 



" Experiment first. — I took a dilute solution of silicate of potash, 

 supersaturated with muriatic acid, and poured it into a quart basin, 

 resting on a piece of mahogany ; a Wedgwood funnel was placed in 

 such a manner that a strip of flannel, wetted with the same, and act- 

 ing as a siphon, conveyed the fluid, drop by drop, through the funnel 

 upon a piece of somewhat porous Vesuvian red oxide of iron, which 

 was thus kept constantly wetted by the solution, and across the sur- 

 face of which, (by means of two platina wires connected with the 

 opposite poles of a voltaic battery, consisting of nineteen pair of five- 

 inch plates in cells filled with water and ^i^ muriatic acid,) a con- 

 stant electric current was passed. This was for the purpose of pro- 

 curing crystals of silex. At the end of fourteen days I observed twa 

 or three very minute specks on the surface of the stone, white, and 

 somewhat elevated. On the eighteenth day, fine filaments projected 

 from each of these specks, or nipples, and the whole figure was in- 

 creased in size. On the twenty-second day, each of these figures 

 assumed a more definite form, still enlarging. On the twenty-sixth 

 day, each assumed the form of a perfect insect, standing upright oa 

 four or five bristles which forms its tail. On the twenty-eighth day,, 

 each insect moved its legs, and in a day or two afterwards detached 

 itself from the stone and moved at will. It so happened that the ap- 

 paratus was placed fronting the south, but the window opposite was 

 covered with a blind, as I found these little animals much disturbed 

 when a ray of light fell on them ; for out of about fifty which made 

 their appearance at once, at least forty-five took up their habitation 

 on the shaded side of the stone. I ought to have added, that when 

 all the fluid, or nearly so, was drawn out of the basin, it was caught 

 in a glass bolde, placed under a glass funnel which supported the 

 stone, and was then returned into the basin without moving the 

 stone. The whole was placed on a light frame made for the pur- 

 pose. These insects have been seen by many of ray friends, and 

 appear, when magnified, very much like cheese-mites, but from twice 



