THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
507 
1846 .] 
use them, when burnt, as coloring matter for their tattooing, rubbing the powder 
into the wounds, in which state they are said to have a strong animal smell. When 
newly dug up, the caterpillar is soft; and when divided, the intestinal canal is dis¬ 
tinctly seen. Most specimens possess the less entire, with the horny part of the 
head and claws. The vegetating process is said invariably to proceed from the 
nape of the neck, from which it may be inferred that the insect, in crawling to the 
place where it inhumes itself prior to its metamorphosis, whilst burrowing in the 
light vegetable soil, gets some of the minute seed . this fungus between the scales 
of its neck, from which, in its sickening state, it is unable to free itself, and con¬ 
sequently, being nourished by the warmth and moisture of the insect’s body, then 
lying in a motionless state, vegetates, and not only impedes the process of change, 
hut likewise occasions the death of the insect. That the vegetating process, then, 
commences during the life of the insect, appears certain, from the fact of the cat¬ 
erpillar, when converted into a plant, always preserving its perfect form; in no 
one instance, it is said, has decomposition appeared to have commenced, or any 
part to have contracted or expanded beyond its natural size. It has been observed 
that a plant of a similar kind has been discovered growing in abundance on the 
banks of the Murimbdge, New South Wales, in a rich, black, alluvial soil. Both 
are cryptogamous plants. 
It is a curious step in nature when the insect, instead of rising to the higher 
order of the butterfly, and soaring to the skies, sinks into a plant and remains 
attached to the soil in which it buried itself. 
I am, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient servant, 
JOHN B. WILLIAMS, Consul U. S. A. 
Francis Markoe, Jr., Esq., 
Corresponding Secretary National Institute , Washington. 
LETTER FROM HON. HENRY A. WISE, AMERICAN MINISTER IN 
BRAZIL, PRESENTING AN ANTIQUE COMPASS, MANUFACTURED 
IN 1604, WITH A DESCRIPTION. 
Legation of the United States, Rio de Janeiro, 
February 2, 1846. 
Mr dear Sir : I send you, by the hands of Passed Midshipman Warrington, an 
antique instrument of science, for the National Institute. 
The accompanying correspondence with Lieut. B. Shepard, of the United 
States frigate Raritan, will describe it. 
Very respectfully and truly yours, 
HENRY A. WISE. 
To F. Markoe, Jr., Esq., 
Corresponding Secretary of the National Institute , Washington , D. C. 
U. S. Ship Raritan, Rio de Janeiro, January 30, 1846. 
My dear Sir : I send ashore, to be forwarded to you by Mr. Garrett, the com¬ 
pass. If there is any merit in its having marked the magnetic poles through all 
their variations for two hundred and forty-two years, then it may claim some ; for 
that the date (1604) borne on it is genuine, scarcely admits of a doubt. 
The idea that so complicated an affair, with quite an almanac inscribed on its 
plates, evidently calculated for “time long, long ago,” would be constructed for 
deceptive speculation, and sold for twenty-two milrees—the amount I obtained it 
for—appears to me absurd. Besides, it shows such true signs of age as, I think, 
would defy imitation in recent manufacture. I have no doubt there may be other 
compasses of more ancient date, but I believe it would be difficult to find one more 
unique in its construction. 
Professor Ward has been so kind as to examine it, and the result of his deci¬ 
pherings I enclose—though he thinks, for want of leisure, he has been able to do 
but partial justice to its configurations. For my own part, I have not had the 
time to examine it with attention. 
