25 
Among all these vagaries there are grains of truth, and 
facts based on actual observation. The assertion of the com- 
mentators of Nicander, for instance, that bees or wasps are 
produced from the skin of animals, evidently refers to bot-flies 
(Oestridae). The larvae of the genus Hypoderma occur in the 
skin of living oxen, horses, asses etc.; the flies resemble humble- 
bees much more than honey-bees. The confusion between wasp 
and hornet, in connection with the horse, which I have explai- 
ned above, seems also to have puzzled Redi. 
The story of wasps or hornets, originating in carcases of 
dead horses (Aelian, De nat. anim. I, 28; also Ovid) gave oc- 
casion to the celebrated German scholar and critic Lessing, to 
compose, under the guise of a fable, a very malignant and un- 
just epigram against the Italian nation (Lessing, Fabeln, I, 16: 
Die Wespen). (1) 
The climax of the absurdities of the spontaneous generation 
was reached when it was contended that the vertebral column 
of a dead man could sometimes be converted into a snake: 
Sunt qui cum clauso putrefacta est spina sepulcro 
Mutari credant himanas angue medullas. (2) 
Such are the words which Ovid (Met. XV, 390) puts into 
the mouth of Pythagoras. The same myth is mentioned in Plu- 
tarch (Cleomenes, at the end); I reproduce the passage here, 
because it has also reference to the Bugonia: ,A few days 
later, those who watched over the body of Cleomenes fastened 
to the cross, saw a large snake coiled around his head, as if 
to prevent birds of prey from resting upon it.... The inhabi- 
tants of Alexandria went to the place to worship Cleomenes 
as a hero and a son of God, until wiser men explained to them 
that just as bees are born from dead cows, wasps from dead 
(1) My attention to this epigram I owe to Mr. R. Pilet, the accomplished 
member of the French Consulate in Mannheim. The german text of it, with a 
translation, will be found in the Supplement VI. 
(2) (Lranslation) ,Some people believe that when a human spine is de- 
caying in the grave, the marrow changes into a snake.“ 
