WEE 



WEE 



he had the misfortune to lofe that able inftruftor. His 

 talent was not of fo general a nature as that of his father ; 

 but in birds, flowers, animals, and fruit, he has feldom been 

 furpaflTed for the boldnefs, animation, and correftnefs of 

 touch, or the briUiancy and clearnefs of colour, as well as of 

 chiaro-ofcuro. The eleilor John William invited him to 

 his court, and many of his moft confiderable produftions 

 are at the gallery of Ihiffeldorf. He decorated a hunting 

 feat of the eleftors, the chateau of Benfberg, with a feries 

 of hunting of the boar and the ftag, in which he difplayed 

 his fliill and tafte with brilliant effed. His fmaller works are 

 exquifitely finiflied, yet with great breadth, and defervedly 

 efteemed. He died in 1 7 19, at the age of 75. 

 WEEPER, in Zoology. See Simia Capucina. 

 WEEPING, in Phyfiology. See Lungs and Tears. 

 WEEPlNG-/?of/f, in Agriculture, that fort of laminated, 

 or porous, open rock, through which water palfes in a flow, 

 gradual, weeping manner. Strata of this kind are not un- 

 frequently very troublefome in the praftice of draining. 

 See WALL-Spring and SpRiHG-Drain'mg. 



WEEPltiG-Spring, that fort of difcharge of water from 

 the internal parts of the earth which is produced in a very 

 flow weeping manner. The draining of fprings of this fort 

 is fometimes not attended with much difficulty, while in 

 other cafes they are often very troublefome. See Spring 

 and SpRiyG-Draining. 

 WEEK. See Weir. 



WEERAWAU, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, 

 on the borders of the defert of Cutch ; 40 miles W. of 

 Buddakano. 



WEERDT, or Werdt, a town of Germany, in the 

 bilhopric of Munfl:er, on the Old Iffel ; 40 miles W. of 

 Munfter. N. lat. 51° 52'. E. long. 6^ 33'. 



WEERT, or Wert, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Lower Meufe ; 10 miles W. of Ruremond. 

 N.lat. 5i°i7'. E. long. 5"= 43'. 



Weert, Nieder, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Lower Meufe; 10 miles S.W. of Venlo. 



WEESDALE, a town of the ifland of Shetland ; 6 

 miles N.W. of Lerwick. 



WEESENSTEIN, or Wesenstein, a town of Sax- 

 ony, in the margraviate of Meiflen ; 5 miles S.W. of 

 Pirna. 



WEEVER. SeeWEVER. 



Weever, in Ichthyology, the Englifh name for the fi{h 

 called by Willughby and other authors the draco-marlnus, 

 or fea-dragon. 



Belon fays, that this name is a corruption of the French 

 la ■vive, becaufe this fifh is capable of living long out of the 

 water. 



Mr. Pennant defcribes another fpecies, under the name of 

 the great weever, the draco major, or araneus of Salvian, 

 which inhabits the fea near Scarborough. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. 

 p. 171. 



WEEVIL, in Natural Hi/lory, the name of a fmall m- 

 feiSt which does great damage in magazines of corn, by 

 eating into the feveral grains, and deftroying their whole 

 fubftance. 



This creature is fomewhat bigger than a large loufe, and 

 is of the fcarab or beetle kind, having two pretty, jointed, 

 tufted horns, and a trunk or piercer, projefting from the 

 fore part of its head : at the end of this trunk, which is 

 very long in proportion to its body, there is a fort of for- 

 ceps or iharp teeth, with which it gnaws its way into the 

 heart of the grain, either to feek its food, or to depofit its 

 eggs there. 



By keeping thefe creatures alive in glafs tubes, with a 



few grains of wheat, their copulation and manner of gene- 

 ration have been difcovered. The female perforates a 

 grain of wheat, and in it depofits a lingle egg, or, at the 

 utmoft, two eggs ; and this fhe does to five or fix grains 

 every day, for feveral days together. Thefe eggs, which 

 are not larger than a grain of fand, in about a week pro- 

 duce as odd a fort of white maggot, which wriggles its 

 body very much about, but is very httle able to move from 

 place to place : this, in about a fortnight, turns to an au- 

 relia, from which is produced the perfeft weevil. This de- 

 ftruftive creature is itfelf very fubjeft to be deftroyed, and 

 when in the egg or aurelia ftate, it is very fubjeft to be 

 eaten by mites. Baker's Microf. p. 221. Leewenhoeck, 

 torn. iv. ep. 76. 



It is ftated in a feries of communications which contain 

 different interefting particulars, inferted in the appendix to 

 the Correfted Report on the Agriculture of the County of 

 Middlefex, that J. L. Banger, efq. of the ifland of Ma- 

 deira, has found that iteaming fuch grain as is infelfed with 

 the weevil has the effeft of preferving it. In comparing 

 the method ufed by another perfon with his, on portic -s of 

 the fame cargo of grain, the quantity or weight was greater 

 in the latter ; but the moft. effential difference was in the 

 quality, which in the former was almoft unfaleable, while in 

 the latter, or that of fteaming, it was better and fweeter 

 than when firft received. The produce of grain from the 

 ifland of St. Michael it is found cannot be preferved fo long 

 a time as that which is imported from any other country, 

 though the manner of keeping it there, which might throw 

 fome light upon the fubjeft, is not known : of this the 

 writer has recently obtained fufficient experience, it is faid, 

 by having ordered a part of a cargo of grain to be placed in 

 a flore which had lately been ufed witli that ifland wheat ; 

 and from this caufe, in a very fhort time, had become badly 

 infedled with the weevil. Another purchafer of a part of 

 the fame cargo, too, is, from a fimilar caufe, a fufferer. 

 The writer has not, however, much anxiety about it, as the 

 grain he purchafed and fteamed once on the iirft of January, 

 and again on the firft of June, is now, (the time of writing,) 

 in perfeft prefervation, and free from the weevil. The In- 

 dian corn too, that was purchafed then in March laft, at 

 which time it was very full of the infeft, is at prefent free 

 and perfeft, it is faid, without a fecond heating. It is in- 

 tended palling it again through the fteam, however, it is faid, 

 as foon as the apparatus is properly fixed, when no doubt is 

 made of its keeping through the year. In examining the 

 particular tendency that the grain lately arrived has to the 

 generation of the infeft, the writer has imagined it in fome 

 meafure to proceed from the embargo laid upon American 

 veffels having obliged the merchants in the different fea-ports 

 to keep their granaries fo full as to have heated the grain ; 

 though he has fome reafon to think that the months of March 

 and September are attended with peculiar circumftances re- 

 fpefting the increafe of the weevil. 



It is found that by the confumption of one hundred 

 pounds weight of coals in a kitchen portable fteam appara- 

 tus, three moys, or feventy-two Englifh bufhels of grain can 

 be fteamed in the common hours of work of one day. 



The writer had then lately ffeamed a granary of fixty 

 moys, or one thoufand four hundred and forty Enghfh 

 bufhels, in about three weeks. The wafte of grain, not 

 badly infefted with the weevil, is found to be one per 

 cent, in weight in one month, and the increafe fo rapid, that 

 if proper precautions be not taken, in lefs than fix it will 

 be rendered totally unfit for ufe ; and that in the Wefl 

 Indies the writer is fatisfied from his own experience, that 

 three months will be equal, in deflruftion to the grain, to 



that 



