ji6 THE PHILOSOPHY 



Moft InfeBsy efpecially after their lafl; transformation, are fliort- 

 lived. But the fpecies are continually fupported by their wonderful 

 fecundity. Thofe animals vvhofe parts require a long time of harden- 

 ing and expanding are endowed with a proportional degree of lon- 

 gevity. Infeds grow, and their bodies harden, more quickly than 

 thofe of larger animals. Many of them complete their growth in 

 a few weeks, and even in a few days. The duration of their ex- 

 iftence is accordingly limited to very ftiort periods. Some fpecies of 

 flies lie in a torpid ftate during the winter, and revive when the heat 

 of fpring or fummer returns. The ephemeron flies, of which there 

 are feveral kinds, feldom live above orc day, or one hour, after their 

 transformation. But, to continue the fpecies. Nature has taken care 

 that myriads of males and females fhould be transformed nearly at 

 the fame inftant. Were it otherwife, the males and females could 

 have no opportunity of meeting, and the fpecies would foon be ex- 

 tinguiftied. Other kinds are transformed more irregularly, and live 

 feveral days. Here the wifdom of Nature is confpicuous : She pro- 

 longues the exiftence of thefe animals for no other purpofe but to 

 allow the individuals of both fexes to meet and multiply the fpecies. 

 Bees, and flies of all kinds, after lying long in water, and having 

 every appearance of death, revive by the application of a gentle 

 heat, or by covering their bodies with afhes, chalk, or fand, which 

 abforb the fuperfluous moifture from their pores. Reaumur made 

 many experiments upon the revivifcence of drowned bees. He 

 found, that, after being immerfed in water for nine hours, fome of 

 them returned to life ; but he acknowledges that many of them, in 

 the fourth part of this time, were attually dead, and that neither 

 heat, nor the application of abforbent powders, could reftore them 

 to life. Analogical reafoning is often deceitful, but it frequently 

 leads to ufeful truths. As flies of all kinds, after immerfion in wa- 

 ter, and exhibiting every mark of adual death, can be reftored to 

 life by covering their bodies with any abforbent fubflance, without 



