[878] 
bruife one of thcfe Worms in his hands, and ever fmce 
he has been often applyed to from feverall parts ol the- 
Country for his Virtue, and the People go away well la- 
tisficd, afTuring him (when he asks them afterwards,) 
that the Remedy proved very effeduallon their afHided 
Beaft. 
But that I may give you my own fentimentSj I am 
very apt to fufped: that this Worm is no more poyfon 
then other Catterpillers ( for 'tis of the Catterpiller 
kind J and I believe, in Godartms of Infeds, lately en- 
gliflied by the moft learned and ingenious Dr. Lifler, you 
will find the very fame Animal as this! fpeak of> but 
atprefent I have not that book by me, having fent it to 
my Brother in Holland, I never had, or have feen, but 
thisone, and fo 1 would make no experiment therewith, 
being forced ("as I told you,) to kill it. But I verily be- 
lieve that the Uglinefs of the Worm (\t being of a dark 
fufcous> and as they fay, poyfonous colour,) together with 
its largenefs' beyond common Catterpillers, has wrought 
fo upon the fearfull and ignorant Vulgar, that they have 
given it the name of Venemous* As to the Gentlemans 
forementioned Reafons, they are but conjedures, and as 
luch l fubmit them to your judgment ; and my negative 
opinion has much the fame foundation, for I find the 
People of our Country much in the wrong in fome parti- 
culars relating to the Animal, which makes me fufpedl 
they may be in an error relating to its poyfon. For firft 
tis commonly afTerted^ by them, that the two fpots 
mafked^^Fig: /. are Goggle Eyes, whereas they are 
nothing more then two Variega-ted fpots of a colour dif- 
ferent from the reft of the Back. Secondly, they affert; 
likewife,.that the part marked Fig: /, is a fting, where- 
as this Protuberance in the Tail is common with it to 
feverall other Catterpillers^ and the greater the Gatter- 
piller, the larger this Horn. So that if their fear or 
abhorrence of the Worm may make them beli^vethofe 
. parts 
