NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 55 



generatione variant autores. Quidam more alkrum avium per 

 coitum propagari putant, quidam ex ligno putri nafci volunt, 

 alii ex corruptis arboris cujufdam pomis, alii ex conchis. Quorum 

 iententias & rationes expendere hoc loco, noftri non eft inftituti. 

 Ut nihil de iis dicam, qui ftatuunt, diverfas effe aves, quae ex 

 conchis proveniunt, ab iis, quae ex putridis lignis aut pomis or- 

 tum trahunt. Immo non defunt, qui ex quovis ligno nafci polTe 

 adftruant, dummodo in mari 6C undis juxta Hebrides putredinem 

 concipiant Juft as doubtful writes Jul. Caef Scaliger about this 

 Infe6t, Exercit. 59. Seel. 2. and fays, that on the French coaft 

 they are called Craban. It is a pity that Dod. Grothaufen's Ex- 

 amination of this Infect is not come to light $ on which are Hr. 

 Frid. Chrift. Leffer's words, in his Teftaceo Theologico, P. i. L. i. 

 c. 3. $. 112, p. 442, thus: Anno 1732, the following writing 

 was promifed : Specimen Anatomico-Phyfkum, quo genuina 

 magis & accuratior hiftoria conchas Pholadis pfeudocheneae, vulgo ■ 

 anatiferae dicfee, quse anili fabulse, quod anferum quoddam genus 

 in arbonbus crefcat, anfam dedit, ratione & experientia ftabilitur, 

 £t figuris aeneis, ad vivum incifis, illuftratur, ad demonftrandam 

 fummi Numinis exiftentiam contra Atheos & concelebranda miri- 

 fica ejus opera & infinite ftupenda, in lucem editum a T. W. 

 Grothaus. M. D. I wrote on that account Anno 1740, to' a friend 

 in Copenhagen, who, on the 20th of December, advifed, it was 

 not publifhed. The late learned Grothaufen had undertaken, ac- 

 cording to account, to write a Natural Hiftory of all the king's, 

 dominions ; but that good man's death at St. Thomas's, in the 

 Weft Indies, fruftra ted our hopes ; he was other wife qualified 

 for the undertaking, preferable to me, and perhaps any other. 



C H A P. 



