the Termites of Africa and other hot Climates . 163 
Among thefe you will find, I muff confefs, fome very 
extraordinary relations, and many that do not admit a pofti- 
bility of demonftration ; fuch is the defcription of the form of 
an army of the 'Termites alarum marching, and the account 
of the regularity ufed by the Termites mhcoji in repairing a 
breach in their hills. But the very lingular fadts, of which 
you have the proofs before you, are fufhcieftt I fhould conceive 
to procure, me belief for the others. Should any perfon doubt, 
I would with them to confider, that a ftudent of nature 
and nature’s laws, in any matter relating thereto, has no temp- 
tation to tranfgrefs the bounds of truth. 1 am very fenfible, 
that the works of the creation, and the order thereof, are 
eftablifhed in the higheft wifdom ; that it is as abfurd to attempt 
to exaggerate as to detract from them ; and can only ferve to 
expofe the ignorance of him who attempts it. Befides, what 
I have here advanced mu ft be confirmed or contradidled in two 
or three years, fince it will doubtlefs be examined into by all 
the curious who vifit tropical regions. 
I have obferved before, that there are of every fpecies of 
Termites three orders ; of thefe orders the working infedts or 
labourers are always the moft numerous; in the Termes belli erf us 
there feems to be at the leaftone hundred labourers toone of the 
fighting infedts or foldiers. They are in this ftate about one- 
fourth of an inch long, and twenty-five of them weigh about a 
grain ; fo that they are not fo large as fome of our ants (tab. X. 
fig. 6.). From their external habit and fondnefs for wood, they 
have been very exprefiively called Wood Lice by fome people, and 
the whole genus has been known by that name, particu- 
larly among the French. They referable them, it is true, 
very much at a diftance^ but they run as faft or fafter than any 
Y 2 other 
