70 . The BiO.O.K of NATURES or; 
pillar, kill it by their corroding, and afterwards 
make their way out again through, the {kin. 
The fecond way is, when two or three Worms 
lay hold of a Chryfalis, and, after killing the 
enclofed animal, efcape in the fame manner. 
In the third way, the Worms, after depriving 
the Caterpillar of life and motion, eat up ‘all 
its infide; and, this done, they bore or gnaw 
themfelves holes to creep out at in its hardened 
fkin. Fourthly, when one or many Worms 
treat a Chryfalis in the fame manner exactly, 
in which the Caterpillar is treated in the third 
way. 
There are feveral other things to be confi- 
dered in this place. Firft, when the Cater- 
pillar happens to be killed by a fingle Worm, 
which afterwards fixes its refidence between 
that creature’s body and its web, then the 
Worm fpins itfelf another white oval web, in 
which it changes to a Nymph, and afterwards 
toaFly. But if the Caterpillar is deftroyed, 
and perforated by a number of Worms, then 
thefe Worms fettle themfelves under the belly 
of the dead Caterpillar; where each of them 
makes itfelf a gold-coloured web, in which 
they caft their fkins, then become Nymphs, 
and at laft aflume the form of Flies. 
Secondly, when two or three Worms eat 
into a Chryfalis, and afterwards creep out of 
it, they do not, immediately after fo doing, caft 
their fkins, but only contract their bodies: and 
while they are in this‘ftate, they affume, in an 
orderly manner, and with a conftant regular 
facceffion, thirteen different colours; the laft 
of which, alone, they finally retain. At laft, 
they turn to Nymphs within their old fkins, 
and then to two or three common Flies. 
Thirdly, the Worm which fingly takes pof- 
feffion of a Caterpillar, and, after having eat 
up all its infide, remains within the skin ; 
fometimes makes itfelf a web within this {kin, 
and then becomes a Nymph, and at laft changes 
to a Fly like the baftard Wafp, Pfeudo-{pheca, 
or Ichneumon-fly. In this cafe, we always 
find fome excrements within the Caterpillar’s 
fkin; as likewife the two fkins which the en- 
clofed Worm has feverally thrown off, on turn- 
ing to a Nymph, and then toa Fly. But the 
minute Worms, which remain in the Caterpil- 
lar they have deftroyed, make no web in it; 
though they grow to Flies, in the fame manner 
with the Worms producing that kind of baftard 
Wafp juft fpoke of, and then gnaw themfelves 
holes to make their efcape. 
In the fourth place, the Worm, which re- 
mains fingly in a Chryfalis, makes alfo a web 
within it, voids its excrements there, and then 
changes to a kind of baftard Wafp, in the 
fame manner with the Worm juft now men- 
tioned, as living fingly within a Caterpillar. 
If you open the fide of this emptied Chryfalis, 
before the enclofed Worm changes to aNymph, 
it immediately {pins a patch againft the broken 
part. But when many Worms are placed to- 
gether in a Chryfalis, they neither make them- 
felves webs, nor do. they even contract them- 
felves, but only change to a-great number of 
{mall Nymphs, which afterwards turn to ag 
many Flies. Thefe Flies, which are of a moft 
elegant ftru@ture, fometimes enaw themfelves 
one, and fometimes more holes, for their 
efcape, in the dried fkin of the Chryfalis. 
All thefe things proceed every year in fo 
conftant, certain, and regular a manner, that 
no accident whatfoever can alter the courfe of 
the operation. One very fingular inftance of 
this unchangeable order in nature, is, that even 
the Caterpillars and Chryfallides, which are to 
become the fcenes of the laft mentioned 
changes, may be eafily diftinguithed from the 
other infects of the fame kind. In the firft 
mode of thefe mutations, when the Worms, 
which have lodged, many together, in a Cater- 
pillar, place themfelves under its belly, the 
Caterpillar raifes that part, to make way- for 
them; and though, by this time, it has re- 
ceived its death’s wound from thofe cruel in- 
vaders, it notwithftanding, with the greateft 
care and attention, enclofes and connects all 
their particular webs, within one of its own 
{pinning, for fear they fhould be fcattered 
abroad and loft, and after this expires. 
From hence we may reafonably conclude;, 
that if the Worms had thus lodged in the Ca- 
terpillar, and killed it, merely by accident, in- 
ftead of doing both, in confequence of an im- 
mutable decree of the All-governing Power, 
the Caterpillar, when it found itfelf fo roughly 
treated by them, would by no means take this 
regular care to fecure them from rain and 
winds, and thereby infure the renewal of that 
particular {pecies of infects; for they generally 
turn to Flies the year following. 
The fame order is obfervable in all the 
other perforations, deftructions, and excava- 
tions of Caterpillars and Chryfallides, which I 
have already taken notice of, fo that we can 
only aicribe to our own rafhnefs and ignorance 
that erroneous notion, of putrefaction being 
able to perform wonders worthy of the Deity, - 
and to which the power of the Deity alone 
can be rationally deemed equal. It is there- 
fore in the higheft degree furprifing, that all 
mankind, the learned as well as the ignorant, 
fhould have fo readily adopted, and {fo long 
entertained, fo grofs an error ; efpecially as the 
leaft degree of reflexion muft’ have convinced 
them, it arofe from prejudice; at the fame time 
that the fmalleft diligence, in examining the 
works of Nature in themfelves, would have put 
them. in the way of obtaining more juft ideas 
on this fubject. 
Let us then be wifer than thofe who have 
gone before us, and accurately furvey and exa- 
mine the fenfible wonders of the Deity, with 
all their conditions and circumftances, if we 
intend to obtain a true and folid knowledge of 
them. Let us not fervilely fubmit our judg- 
ments to the doctrine of Ariftotle, and the reft 
of the heathen philofophers, who afcribe to 
putrefaction, works that contain vifible marks 
of an all-perfect Contriver and Maker; tho’ 
at the fame time we are, as men, convinced 
by daily experience, and, as chriftians, are 
taught 
