MICROSCOPICAL 



Essays. 



At the baths of Abano, a fmall town in the Venetian (late, 

 there is a multitude of fprings, flrongly impregnated with fulphur, 

 and of a boiling heat. In the midft of thefe boiling fprino-s, 

 within three feet, of four or five of them, there is a tepid one 

 about blood-warm. In thefe waters, not only the common pota- 

 mogeitous and confervas, or pond- weeds and water- mofies, are 

 found growing in an healthy ftate ; but numbers of fmall black 

 water-beetles are feen fwimming about, which die on being taken 

 out and plunged fuddenly into cold water.* 



Many infe&s that live under the -furface of the earth -crawl out 

 on certain occafions, as the.julus, fcolopendra, and the onifcus - 3 

 they are alfo often to be found under ftones, or pieces of rotten 

 wood. Some infefts remain under ground, part of their life,butquit 

 that fituation after their change ; as do fome caterpillars, many of 

 the coleoptrous clafs, Sec. We have already taken notice that 

 numbers delight to dwell in filth and naflinefs. The formica leo 

 forms it's habitation in the fand, as well as-many fpiders ; one of 

 thefe forms a hole in the fand, and then lines it with a -kind of 

 filk, to prevent it's crumbling away ; it generally keeps on the 

 watch near the mouth of the hole, and if it perceives a fly, runs 

 at it with fuch velocity, asfeldom to fail in it's attempt offeizing 

 it, and then carries it to it's little den. 



Another fpider, difeovered by Mr. 1'Abbe Sauvage,t burrows 

 in the earth like a rabbit, making a hole one or two feet deep, of 

 a regular diameter, and fufficiently large to move itfelf with eafe. 

 It lines the whole of it, either to keep the ground from tumblin a- 



Mm in 3 



* Jones's Phyfiological Difquifitions, p. 171.. 



* -Hiftoire de l'Acad. 1758, p. 26, 



