134 The BOOK 
Whoever would preferve thefe and fuch kind 
of eggs muft pierce them with a very fine 
needle, prefs out the contained humours, and 
having afterwards blown them up with a {mall 
glafs tube, he muft fill them with a little rofin 
diffolved in oil of fpike. I have now fome 
eges taken out of the ovary of the human fpe- 
cies and kept in this manner. ‘Thefe I difco- 
vered in the year 1666, and from hence I be- 
gan to fufpect that I fhould have found eggs in 
all other animals; nor was my reafoning in this 
point without its foundation. 
Let us proceed in the hiftory of this infect. 
As foon as the Vermicle or Worm of the nofe- 
horned Beetle has crept out of its egg, it im- 
mediately finds its food ready prepared for it ; 
that is an old tree growing rotten, or the re- 
mains of the fumach, for in thofe the egg is 
depofited by the mother Beetle. Nor does fhe 
afterwards take any further care of her egg or 
of the Vermicle; this creature therefore, 
though much lefs in bulk, refembles the tall 
Oftrich, whereof the infpired writer fays, Job 
XXXix. 14, 15, 16, 173 “* Which leaveth her 
** eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the 
“ duit, and forgetteth that the foot may crufh 
of NATURE; 
oF, 
ferved. Some again hide their future progeny 
in the fhoots of fruitsand plants, which for this 
purpofe they firft pierce with tharp inftruments, 
given them by God for that purpofe: laftly, 
others leave or place their iffue in the bodies of 
living animals, or in other inacceffible places, 
in order to find natural nourifhment ready as 
foon as they are out of the egg, for it is not 
allowed them by nature to take any further 
concern about their progeny. 
To this place might be likewife properly re- 
ferred thofe particular obfervations which I have 
made on the excrefcences of oaks and other 
trees and plants. But fince we fhall profeffedly 
treat of thefe hereafter in their proper place, 
we fhall remit the reader thither, and now 
rather profecute the hiftory of the Rhinoceros- 
Beetle. 
How long the Vermicle of this Beetle isin 
nourifhing, until it acquires a ftrength proper 
for undergoing its change, I cannot eafily deter-- 
mine: for fome years before I knew that this 
fingular creature was produced from thofe 
Worms, I kept them above a year in the re- 
mains of fumach and earth ina glafs bottle, and 
during all that time obferved no change in them. 
“them, or that the wild beafts may break. I have likewife, not long fince, kept fuch a 
** them. She is hardened againft her young 
“< ones, as though they were not hers, her 
« jabour is in vain without fear: becaufe 
“* God hath deprived her of wifdom, neither 
hath he imparted to her underftanding.” 
Many are alfo of this difpofition, though fome 
of them take great pains to depofit their young 
among proper nourifhment. However negli- 
gent and carelefs this Rhinoceros-Bectle may 
be in providing for her iffue, yet we obferve 
in others a much more admirable innate fenfe 
or inftinét, by which they maintain and bring 
up their young after they are out of the egg. 
Do not the laborious Ants and careful Bees 
teach this leffon? the latter daily nourifhing 
their offspring with banquets of the pureft honey. 
Other infects enclofe their young or eggs in 
rotten trees, as the celebrated Redi well ob- 
Cad 
n 
Citi. A, ek 
Worm a whole year in the fame fumach 
wherein I found. it, without wetting it; how- 
ever much this moifture may be requifite and 
neceflary to fuftain the life fof thefe Worms, 
this I mention only to fhew the ftrength of 
their life *. And hence I alfo conclude, that 
if this Worm can live for a whole year, after 
being come to its full growth, furely the 
younger Vermicles or Worms that are not yet 
grown to perfection, muft take fome years to 
their increafe, before they attain this ftate- 
and it is certainly an admirable thing, that even 
the Worm out of which the Ephemerus before 
defcribed is produced, fhould require three years 
before it attains its change, though its appear~ 
ance under this laft form does not continue 
above five hours: this may be feen at large in 
the preceding hiftory of the Ephemerus. 
II. 
The name of the We arin out of which the Rhinoceros-Beetle is produced; alfo its 
external parts, difpofition and motions. That it loves heat, and that it cafts 
a fein, with other incidents tending to illuftrate this fubject. | 
9 SHE Worm I have been hitherto fpeak- 
ing of, is defcribed by Mouffet and other 
authors, under the name of Coffus, and is, 
when it is arrived to its full growth, half an 
inch thick and two inches long, and of a white 
colour; its body is very deeply wrinkled, ‘Tab. 
XXVIL fig. v. @, and is divided in a beautiful 
manner into folds or plaits. The whole body 
is compofed of annular incifions common to 
infe€ts, and to which authors give the name of 
annuli or rings; this denomination, however, 
does not feem fo proper, when thefe annul or 
rings are not compofed of a horny or bon 
matter, as is the cafe in many befide thefe. On 
* We have an account of the ftrength of the principle of life in the beetle recorded in the Philofophical Tranfactions, which 
is altogether furprifing. Mr. Baker, a perfon of undoubted credit, kept one of thefe alive under a glafs, without any food, 
two years and a half, and it then efcaped by accident. He had firft attempted to deftroy it by drowning it in {pitit of wine, 
but it revived after repeated trials of this kind, though in one of them it was kept in the fpirit a whole night. 
each 
