. box, without any thing to feed upon. 
ThebOH IS TORY. && VNSEH TS. a1 
taught to believe, that all the things we fee 
are liable to decay and deftruction. God's 
power and wifdom is not to be feparated from 
his juftice, fince, according to the unerring tef- 
~ timony of his holy fpirit, he has entered into 
a covenant with his creatures; and thefe, un- 
der their corruption, groan and figh after 
liberty. 
That vulgar opinion, more worthy of brutes 
than of rational beings, which afcribes the 
birth and growth of animals to putrefaction 
and chance, is diametrically oppofite to found 
reafon, and favours rankly of atheifm. It has 
not even the leaft thadow of experiment, or 
obfervation to fupport its truth ; but is founded 
altogether upon floth, prejudice, ftupidity, and 
error; all which is the more obvious, as in the 
{malleft anima!s we conftantly every where find 
as much order, contrivance, beauty, wifdom, 
and omnipotence in the Great Architect, as are 
fhewn in the vifcera or bowels of the largeft 
animals. For to thefe greater animals all 
others, however contemptibly minute, if their 
minutenefs can make them contemptible, are 
fimilar in the great refpects of brain, nerves, 
mufcles, heart, ftomach, inteftines, and parts 
fubfervient to generation, and to every other 
ufeful purpofe; fo that one might in a manner 
affirm, that God has created but one animal, 
though divided into an infinite number of kinds 
or fpecies, differing from each other in the 
figures and inflexions, and extenfions of their 
limbs; as likewife in their difpofitions, food, 
and manner of living. 
As Caterpillars, which turn to Butterflies, 
often contain in them Worms which change 
The manner in which Mites 
HESE Mites, when they are about to 
“become Nymphs, generally defert the 
cheefe in which they had hitherto lived, by 
leaping up and down, till they find, if poffible, 
a more favourable fituation. In three or four 
days after this they loofe all motion, grow ftiff, 
and harden. I have remarked alfo, that the 
change of thefe Worms may be forwarded by 
enclofing them, when well grown, in a dry 
Tn try- 
ing this experiment I have obferved, that fome 
{maller Mites remained alive in this confine- 
ment, without any food, for two or three weeks 
together; when they at length died, without 
turning to Nymphs; the embryo member hid 
under their {kin not having attained the growth 
and firmnefs requifite for that ftate, which is 
obtained by the reft in the following manner. 
Firft, the Mite draws up together the rings 
of its body, fo as to make the interftices appear 
full of wrinkles; and this contraction is fo 
great, that the Worm becomes twice as fhort 
tocommon Flies; fo the Worms, which change 
to Beetles, very often contain in their vifcera 
alfo certain Worms, that turn to Beetles of a 
{maller kind: and, in thefe changes, Nature 
obferves the fame conftant order and method, 
as in the firft. From hence I again conclude, 
that nothing is produced by putrefaction; but 
that the bufinefs of generation unalterably pro- 
ceeds in a certain and regular manner. And 
certainly, if our little philofophers would atten- 
tively examine what is the nature of putrefac- 
tion, when it breaks out in an animal, or in 
any part of one, which thereby rots, and is 
refolved into its conftituent principles; and 
would withal confider that {pecies of putrefac- 
tion which Worms occafion, and which they 
cannot but occafion, in other bedies, or in fome 
parts of their own; they would foon free them- 
felves from the yoke of fo abfurd and flavith 
an opinion. 
As yet, I cannot by any obfervation deter- 
mine, whether the Mites, which are found to 
contain other Worms, are perforated by them, 
while they remain in the cheefe, or after they 
forfake it, and turn to Nymphs. It is only 
within thefe fix or feven weeks, that I have 
made the experiments concerning thefe infects, 
which I have juft now related, having never 
exprefly examined them before that time. 
However, in this time I could difcover in the 
cheefe a great number of dead and rotten 
Worms, of a red, purple, and livid colour, 
whofe carcafes not.a little contributed to-in- 
creafe the ftench and putrefaction of the cheefe 
in which they lay, and likewife the acrid and 
peculiar tafte found in fuch parts. 
are changed into Nymphs *. 
as it was before, Tab. XLIII. Fig. x. This 
alfo renders the rings lefs difcernible: however, 
the fore part of the head, Fig. x1. @, may be 
{till diftinGly perceived, as well as the tuber- 
cules, 4, at the cther extremity of the body. 
As to the form of the little animal at this pe- 
riod, it {carce affords any thing worth particu- 
Jar mention; for the {kin lofes its tranfparency. 
In this ftate the Worm gradually changes its 
colour, till from white it becomes red, and in 
the end refembles pure red lead. 
The moft experienced naturalift fignior Redi, 
who has favoured the world with a fhort hiftory 
of the Mite, tells us, that its mutation agrees in 
nothing with that of Chryfallides, and other 
Nymphs, but he does not acquaint us wherein 
they really differ. Other authors confider Mites 
at this period as eggs, though they have no other 
reafon for thinking fo, than a bare fuppofed re- 
femblance. This indeed, is fo far from being even 
a fuperficial one, in proper terms, that it can only 
be found in their own extravagant imaginations, 
_” Let the reader be cautious not to extend what is here faid of the Nymph of the Mite, and its change into a Fly, to the common 
little infect, ufually called a Mite by us; that is, an infect which is hatched perfe€@t from the ege of its parent, and undergoes no 
change, but only grows larger. ‘This ftate of change belongs to the offspring of all winged infects, and to no others. ‘Therefore 
not. 
it is neceflary, according to the univerfal law of Nature, that this Mageot should undergo fuch a change, and that the Mite fhould 
They 
