The HISTORY of INSECTS. 
cognizance of the eye-fight. For, who can fee 
the wound in his fkin, made by the ftroke of a 
Gnat or Flea, immediately after it is inflicted? 
Surely no one. What one fees in the fkin, is 
nothing elfe but a change of colour: and this is 
likewife obferved in the leaf of Willows ; that 
is, the place through which the egg is conveyed 
and joined to the leaf, is diftinguifhable in no 
other manner but by a {mall difcolouring. To 
which we may add, that the little wound, given 
to the fucculent leaf, by fo {mall a creature, ea- 
fily clofes up again, and is {topped and filled up 
by the impelled humours. . 
~ It will be afked, why are tubercles produced 
in the Willow leaves, for the benefit of thofe 
eggs conveyed into them? And how are thofe 
rare and admirable excrefcences generated in 
other plants and trees? I confefs this queftion is 
very difficult to explain. Nor do J know what 
other anfwer to make to it, but that the firft 
_ ftroke, which the infect mother gave the plant, 
fruit or leaf, into which it endeavours to put the 
egg, is the real caufe of the tubercles produced 
afterwards, whatever form or figure it may af- 
fume. Do not we thus on Pompions, and other 
fruits, and even on trees, by the help of a knife, 
ot bodkin, cut letters.and characters ; the vefti- 
ges whereof infenfibiy {welling with the hu- 
mours, raife themfelvés up confiderably beyond 
the common furface? 7 
I do not think this is done by chance, but by 
a previous defign of nature, which has ordered, 
that this generation of infects, and the tubercles 
which ferve for nourifhing them, fhould be pro- 
duced in this, and in no other order. Therefore 
alfo, the generation of thefe infects is plainly re- 
gular, and is not fubject to any fortuitous change. 
The great Harvey, in his book of getieration, 
fully demonftrates, how much the ftrokes, {truck 
with one and the fame external inftrument, dif- 
fer from one another; when he fays, from ex- 
perience, ‘ That the flefh itfelf diftinguifhes the 
« poifoned ftroke of a fting, from that which is 
“not poifoned:’ and further proceeds: * And 
‘therefore, from the poifoned wound, it is 
€ {trained and condenfed, and therefrom arife 
“tumours and inflammations. I once, fays he, 
‘for the fake of the experiment, pricked my 
‘hand with a needle, and immediately after, in 
‘another place, with the poifonous tooth of an 
* African Spider; I could not difcover any dif- 
© ference between thefe two little wounds in feel- 
‘ing; but there was a great difference fhewn in 
* the {kin ; for when the poifoned pun¢ture had 
‘been made, it fuddenly fwelled.’ Who can 
prefume to deny, that plants have this kind of 
fenfe? I fhould indeed think they would exhi- 
bit manifeft figns of fenfe, if they had mutcles; 
the want of which feems to be only the caufe, 
that prevents their being able to thew us their 
faculty of fenfation. ‘This is evident in the ce- 
lebrated fenfitive plant; which, in my opinion, 
has a certain {pecies of mufcles, by the help of 
which, it extends and contracts its little boughs, 
almoft like arms. 
As to the different figures of thefe tubercles, 
which are never found on plants, but they are 
J 
oe 
pregnant with little infets, to be nourithed | 
withinthem; I think they are caufed principally 
by the variety of the ftroke, whereby thofe crea- 
tures perforate plants, and fix, and, as it were, 
inoculate their eggs in them: this may be like- 
wife feen in all inoculations. For the fame rea- 
fon, the Flea forms with its ftroke in our kin, 
a {welling altogether different from that of the 
Bug: and the latter differs alfo from that of the 
Bee. Allthefe things are far from being fab- 
ject to chance; they proceed in a certain order; 
and they are obferved to be always fimilar: ex- 
cept when the plants, or bodies of animals, have 
different figures; as the celebrated Redi hath ac- 
curately and clearly obferved in regard to the bites 
of ferpents, 
I have often {een the legs of infects fo ftrongly 
impreffed upon the tender branches of trees, that 
they could not be taken off without injuring them, 
But, principally, the Dutch phalena, which 
proceeds from the Worm, found chiefly in the 
bark of Willow-trees, and of the Maple, which 
it corrodes in fome meafure, and impreffes its 
eggs outwardly on the bark: hence it follows, 
that the Worms produced therefrom, afterwards 
make a paflage for themfelves inwardly towards 
the wood. Nay, if you pull thefe Worms out of 
the tree, they firft weave and cover themfelves 
with a web; and then having afterwards broken 
it, they pierce the wood with their teeth; and, in 
fo doing, reft upon the web on their backfide, 
in order to get fufficient power and ftrength to 
penetrate, 
This winter, I obferved in turnips many warts 
and tubercles of various fizes, in which lay fo 
many Worms without feet, but furnithed with 
eyes and hard teeth. In the {malleft of the warts 
or tubercles, I found a little egg; and in the 
larger fort, a tender and foft Worm. In regard 
to thefe Worms without feet; that are found in 
tubercles cn plants; it is worthy of notice, that 
they can by no means be kept alive, when they 
are drawn out of the cells, which they havé 
formed for themfelves, in proportion to the bulk 
of their body within the excrefcences, and in 
which they are nourifhed. The cavity, wherein 
that wonderful Worm is lodged, which lives 
enclofed in the young buds of Willow trees, as 
in arofe, which will be afterwards particularly 
defcribed, exaétly anfwers to the bulk of its 
body. The Worm that lies in Turnips, has a 
cavity fomewhat larger than its body. I have 
obferved alfo, that thofe little cells, which the 
Worms, without feet, form themfelves with 
wonderful art in dry timber, are nicely fitted to 
their bodies; and they can therefore, with fuf- 
ficient quicknefs, move through thele cavities: 
They perform this motion by drawing in, and 
fixing their hinder parts to the wood, and ftretch- 
ing out their forepart: and thus they move 
forward with great {wiftnefs in thefe burrows, 
When thefe little infeGts are deprived of thei 
cells or caverns, and the nourifhment they have 
there ready ; they cannot move any more; they 
ftiffen with the heat and drynefs of the air, and 
perifh by innumerable other ways. Many feet- 
lefs infects alfo, that live under the earth, and in 
“a the 
