Microscopical Essays. 



2 49 



all life, and that therefore, when manifefted, it muft be replete 

 with infinite wonders ; but then they alfo fhewed, that if in it's 

 defcent through the higher orders of being it was perverted, it 

 would be manifefted in loathfome forms, and with filthy pro- 

 pensities ; and that according to the degree of reception of the 

 Divine goodnefs and truth, or the perverfion thereof, new forms 

 of life would be occafionally manifefted. The gloom of night 

 ftill wraps this fubject in obfcurity ; will the dawn of day ere 

 long gild the horizon of the fcientific world ? or is the time of 

 it s breaking forth yet far from us ? Be this as it may, infects 

 will be found to conform to that general law of order which 

 runs through the whole of animated nature, namely, that the 

 conjunction of the male and female is neceffary for the production 

 of their offspring. Where we cannot afcertain caufes, we muft 

 be content with facts. 



Though infects are, like larger animals, diftinguimed into 

 male and female, yet in fome claries there is a kind of mules, 

 partaking of neither fex, though originating themfelves from the 

 conjunction of both: many other particularities relative to the 

 lexes can only be touched upon here. 



In many infects the male and female are with difficulty diftin- 

 guimed, and in fome they differ fo widely, that an unfkilful 

 perfon might eafily take the male and female of the fame infea 

 for different fpecies; as for inftance, in the phalsena humuli, 

 piniaria, ruffula. The diffimilarity is ftill greater irt thofe infers 

 in which the male has wings and the female none, as in the 

 coccus Jampyris, phalsena antiqua, &c. 



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