EXPERIMENTS. 2" I 



side of the insects, and scraped away the inner bark, so as 

 to destroy all the ascending vessels. I also cut a hole in 

 the side of the branch, reaching to the middle, and then 

 cut out the pith and internal vessels. The distillation 

 was then going on at the rate of one drop each sixty-seven 

 seconds, or about 2 ounces 5£ drachms in twenty-four 

 hours. Next morning the distillation, so far from being 

 affected by the attempt to stop the supplies, supposing 

 they had come up through the branch from the tree, was 

 increased to a drop every five seconds, or twelve drops 

 per minute, making one pint (16 ounces) in every twent} r - 

 four hours. I then cut the branch so much that, during 

 the day, it broke ; but they still went on at the rate of a 

 drop every five seconds, while another colony on a branch 

 of the same tree gave a drop every seventeen seconds 

 only, or at the rate of about 10 ounces 4| drachms in 

 twenty-four hours. I finally cut off the branch ; but this 

 was too much for their patience, for they immediately 

 decamped, as insects will do from either a dead branch or 

 a dead animal, — which Indian hunters soon know when 

 they sit down on a recently-killed bear. The presence of 

 greater moisture in the air increased the power of these 

 distillers : the period of greatest activity was in the morn- 

 ing, when the air and every thing else was charged with 

 dew. 



Having but one day left for experiment, I found again 

 that another colony on a branch denuded in the same way 

 yielded a drop every two seconds, or 4 pints 10 ounces in 

 twenty-four hours, while a colony on a branch untouched 

 yielded a drop every eleven seconds, or 16 ounces 2i§ 

 drachms in twenty-four hours. I regretted somewhat the 

 want of time to institute another experiment, namely, 

 to cut a branch and place it in water, so as to keep it in 

 hfe, and then observe if there was any diminution of the 

 quantity of water in the vessel. This alone was wanting 

 to make it certain that they draw water from the atmo- 

 sphere. I imagine that they have some power of which we 



