i92 ' NATURAL HISTORY: 
In winter they lye hid in the crevices of walls, and all forts of buiid- 
ings. When the eggs are firft hatched, they appear like a fort of 
Worms of a whitifh colour, and feem fearce able to ftir; but they foon 
feed; and become very brifk : this infeét is of great ufe in medicine, for 
it is very diuretic and aperient, for which reafon ‘it is good in the drop- 
fy, and is often given with fuccefs for dulnefs of fight. ; 
The water Mullepedes is about half an inch in length, and nearly a 
quarter broad ; the colour is a pale brownilh grey, and the whole body 
is fo thin it feems almoft tranfparent. It confifts of feven joints, be- 
fides the head and tail, and that at the tail is roundith, a little flat, 
and larger than any of the reft: the tail is forked, and each fork is divided 
into two parts at theend; the legs are flender, pretty long, of a pale brown 
and tranfparent, being feven in number on each fide: the feelers confit 
of three joints each, and this infe& is common in ponds and ditches. 
The greater'livid Millepedes is half an inch long, and of an oval 
fhape, and is livid all over, except at the edges of the fegments, which 
are whitith, and on each fide there is a whitifh fpot near the hinder 
legs, and its ikin is tough and gloff7; its legs are fhort, and its tail 
blunt, being without any diviGon. eh ee 
The fea Millepedes is an inch long, and half an inch broad; it is of 
a whitifh colour, with a roundifh back, a flat belly, and fharp fides : 
the legs are feven on each fide, and the three pair before are {mall and 
fmooth, but thofe behind large, pretty long, and hairy on the fides. It 
has two pair of feelers, and the body confilts of feven joints, befides the 
head and tail, which lait is three quarters of an inch long, fomewhat of a 
triangular thape, being marked with two convex parallel rayson each fide. 
In the Wef: Indies; there is an infe@; which the French call Pous de 
éois, that is Wood Lice, though they perhaps may be placed more pro- 
perly among the Ants; for they only have their name from gnawing 
and eating holes in the wood that they fix upon: they are of a whitifh 
colour; and are fuppofed to be a very great delicacy, becaufe all forts. 
of {mall birds, domeftic fowls, and little lizards, are very fond of 
them: they build in the earth a fort of {mall galleries or roads, a lit- 
tle larger than the barrel of a quill, in which there are fo many turn- 
ings and windings, that at-length the whole building makes a hillock 
. as large as a kilderkin. 
Within this habitation there is a fort of little republic, where they 
are fecure from all the attacks of their enemies. If any breach is made’ 
in their walls, they immediately all fet to work, to repair the damage 
as foon as they can, and it is a great pleafure to behold them fo bufily 
employed about it: the roads may be eafily fpoiled, by pouring oil of 
a Sea-cow thereinto, or even fprinkling it upon their whole buildings 
for this will caufe them to forfake their habitation. When thefe infects 
grow old, they begin to have wings like Ants, and then they have 
their places of abode in the earth, that is the hillocks which become 
black, dry up, and burn like a candle. Some call them Negroe’s 
heads, becaufe they are round, and feem to be curled like a Negroes 
head. Some furgeons make ufe of this earth, in the cure of dropfies- 
making the patient {weat, by means of the fmoke that proceeds from it 
The favages ufe it for baking’ their earthen pots, by placing them in its 
_and covering them with it on all fides; after which they fet it on fires 
and though it burns but flowly, it will bake them as well as if they wer® 
put in an oven. 
CHAP. © 
