INTRODUCTION. e 
Upon pofts, and on the fides of windows in country villages, little 
round eggs have been feen refembling pearls, which produced fmall 
airy caterpillars, and thofe like the reft are all laid in very regular ordef, 
he enat, though fo very fmall, is yet very curious in the manner of 
depofiting her eggs, or fpawn. It lays them on the water, but fixes. 
lem to tome floating fubikance by means of a ftalk, which prevents 
t em from finking. Lhe eggs are contained in a fort of tranfparent 
Jey, and very neatly laid ; when hatched by the warmth of the teafony 
they fink to the bottom, where they become imall maggots, flick td 
the ftones, and provide themfélves cafes, or cells, which they cree 
into or go out of at pleafure, and thus continue till they take the ufua 
change into that of a fly. Moft of thefe infects are tinged with oné 
Principal colour, refembling either that of the leaves on which they 
{ubGA, or the branches to which they faften; on thefe they march 
with great fJlownefs, and by this artifice are confounded with what they 
fwitit upon, fo as to efcape the birds, their rapacious and watchful 
enemies. Such is the manner with thofe infeéts which being hatched 
Tom eggs, are then transformed into caterpillars, which may be called 
their eating flate ; after that wrapped round with a covering of theit 
own fabrication, and thus turned into nymphe, which may be called 
their fleeping flate; and laftly furnifhed with wings, and metamor+ 
phofed into butterflies, which is their generating ftate. ees 
But there are numberlefs other infeéts which are brought forth alivés 
fuch as the fpider, and the {nail produced with a hell, which grows with 
its growth, and is never found to forfake it. ‘Thefe are never fee 
to change, but continue their growth ; the fpider, as it becomes older, . 
has its legs longer, and if they be cut off, like thofe of the loblter they 
Sow outatreth. ‘The fnail, as it becomes more old, acquires additional 
Tinglets to its fhell, and contains in itfelf both fexes. But theré is afi 
animal iately difcovered, whofe powers of generation are {till more 
extraordinary than any thing hitherto taken notice of, and from the phes 
Homena attending which, Mr Buffon has ventured to affirm, that hé 
fill believes there may be fuch a thing as equivocal generation. ‘The 
animal in queftion is called the polypus, a fmall reptile found on aquati¢e 
plants, and in muddy ditches. ‘lhis furprizing creature, though cut inte 
never fo many parts, {till continues to live in every divifion, and each; 
in lefs than three days; becomes in every refpect a perfect polypus, 
like that which was at firft divided. This I think may be juftly eReemed 
the loweft of animated beings, and fearce to be ranked above the fen- 
fitive plant, except by being endowed with a locomotive faculty, or 4 
Power of moving from one leaf to another. It is thus that Naturé 
chufes to mix the kinds of being by imperceptible gradation, fo that 
it becomes hard to determine where animals end, or vegetables begin: 
In this there are evident marks of her wifdom in filling up every chafiii 
in the great feale of being, fo that no poflible exiftence may be want= 
ing in her univerfal plan. Were we to afk, why thefe minuté créa= 
tures, in general little regarded by man, except from the prejudice they 
are of to his labours, where formed in fuch great abundance, it would 
Pe no eafy tafk to find a reply. For man’s ule they were not madé; 
as they are allowed to be noxious to him; nor for the fultenance of othe? 
&mimals that may be of ufe to him, fince the advantages of the latter 
: Gannod: 
