Chapter XX: Book VIII: Of INSECTS and REPTILES (2)

And to Foreigners, it is a very strange Story (but attested by Persons of great Repute,) of _Catharina Geileria_, that dy’d in _Feb_. 1662, in the Hospital of _Altenburg_, in _Germany_, who for twenty Years voided by Vomit and Stool, _Toads_ and _Lizzards_, &c. _Ephemer. Germ._ T. 1. Obs. 103. See also the 109. Observation of a Kitten bred in the Stomach, and vomited up; of Whelps also, and other Animals, bred in like Manner. But I fear a Stretch of Fancy might help in some of those last Instances, in those Days when spontaneous Generation was held, when the Philosophers seem to have more slightly examined such Appearances than now they do. But for the breeding of _Frogs_ or _Toads_, or _Lacertæ Aquaticæ_ in the Stomach, when their Spawn happeneth to be drank, there is a Story in the second _Tome_ of the _Ephem. Germ._ Obs. 56. that favours it, _viz._ _In the Year 1667, a ~Butcher’s~ Man going to buy some Lambs in the Spring, being thirsty, drank greedily of some standing Water, which a while after, caus’d great Pains in his Stomach, which grew worse and worse, and ended in dangerous Symptoms. At last he thought somewhat was alive in his Stomach, and after that, vomited up three live Toads; and so recover’d his former Health._

Such another Story Dr. _Sorbait_ tells, and avoucheth it seen with his own Eyes, of one that had a Toad came out of an Abscess, which came upon drinking foul Water. _Obs._ 103.

[n] Not only in the Guts, and in the Flesh; but in many other Parts of the Body, Worms have been discover’d. One was voided by Urine, by Mr. _Mat. Milford_, suppos’d to have come from the Kidneys. _Lowth._ ib. p. 135. More such Examples _Moufet_ tells of. _Ibid._ So the _Vermes Cucurbitini_ are very common in the Vessels in Sheeps Livers: And Dr. _Lister_ tells of them, found in the Kidney of a Dog, and thinks that the Snakes and Toads, _&c._ said to be found in Animals Bodies, may be nothing else. _Lowth._ ib. p. 120. Nay, more than all this: In Dr. _Bern. Verzascha_’s sixth Observation, there are divers Instances of Worms bred in the _Brain_ of Man. One, a patient of his, troubled with a violent Headach, and an itching about the Nostrils, and frequent Sneezing; who, with the Use of a Sneezing-Powder, voided a Worm, with a great deal of Snot from his Nose. A like Instance he gives from _Bartholine_, of a Worm voided from the Nose of _O. W._ which he guesseth was the famous _Olaus Wormius_: Another, from a Country Woman of _Dietmarsh_; and others in _Tulpius_, _F. Hildanus_, _Schenchius_, &c. These Worms he thinks are undoubtedly bred in the Brain: But what way they can come from thence, I can’t tell. Wherefore I rather think, they are such Worms as are mentioned in _Note (k)_, and even that Worm that was actually found in the Brain of the _Paris Girl_ (when opened) I guess might be laid in the _Laminæ_ of the Nostrils, by some of the _Ichneumon_, or other Insect Kind, and might gnaw its way into the Brain, through the _Os cribiforme_. Of this he tells us from _Bartholine_, _Tandem cùm tabida obiisset, statim aperto cranio præsentes Medici totam cerebelli substantiam, quæ ad dexterum vergit, à reliquo corpore sejunctam, nigrâque tunicâ involutam deprehenderunt: hæc tunica ruptæ, latentem Vermem vivum, & pilosum, duobus punctis splendidis loco oculorum prodidit, ejusdem fere molis cum reliquâ Cerebri portione, qui duarum horaram spacio supervixit._ B. Verzas. Obs. Medicæ, p. 16.

_Hildanus_ tells us such another Story, _viz._ _Filius Theod. aust der Roulen, Avunculi mei, diuturno vexabatur dolore capitis.——Deinde febriculâ & sternutatione exortâ, ruptus est Abscessus circa os cribrosum——& Vermis prorepsit._ By his Figure of it, the Maggot was an Inch long, and full of Bristles. _Fabri Hildan. Cent._ 1. Obs.

_Galenus Wierus_ (Physician to the _Princ. Jul. & Cleve_) he saith, told him, that he had, at divers Times, found Worms in the _Gall-bladder_ in Persons he had opened at _Dusseldorp_. Id. ib. Obs. 60.

[o] See before _Book IV. Chap. 13. Note (c)._

[p] Some Insects lay up their Eggs in Clusters, as in Holes of Flesh, and such Places, where it is necessary they should be crowded together; which, no question, prevents their being too much dried up in dry Places, and promotes their hatching. But,

[q] As for such as are not to be clustered up, great Order is used. I have seen upon the Posts and Sides of Windows, little round Eggs, resembling small Pearl, which produced small hairy Caterpillars, that were very neatly and orderly laid. And to name no more, the _White Butterfly_ lays its neat Eggs on the Cabbage Leaves in good Order, always gluing one certain End of the Egg to the Leaf. I call them neat Eggs, because if we view them in a Microscope, we shall find them very curiously furrowed, and handsomely made and adorned.

[r] By Reason it would be endless to specify the various Generation of Insects in the Water, I shall therefore (because it is little observed) raise _Pliny_’s Instance of the _Gnat_, a mean and contemned Animal, but a notable Instance of Nature’s Work, as he saith.

The first Thing considerable in the Generation of this Insect is (for the Size of the Animal) its vast _Spawn_, being some of them above an Inch long, and half a quarter Diameter; made to float in the Waters, and tied to some Stick, Stone, or other fix’d Thing in the Waters, by a small Stem, or Stalk. In this gelatine, transparent Spawn, the Eggs are neatly laid; in some Spawns in a single, in some in a double spiral Line, running round from end to end, as in Fig. 9, and 10; and in some transversly, as Fig. 8.

When the Eggs are by the Heat of the Sun, and Warmth of the Season hatched into small Maggots, these Maggots descend to the bottom, and by means of some of the gelatine Matter of the Spawn (which they take along with them) they stick to Stones, and other Bodies at the bottom, and there make themselves little Cases or Cells, which they creep into, and out of at Pleasure, until they are arrived to a more mature _Nympha-State_, and can swim about here and there, to seek for what Food they have occasion; at which Time, they are a kind of Red-worms, above half an Inch long, as in Fig. 11.

Thus far this mean Insect is a good Instance of the divine Providence towards it. But if we farther consider, and compare the three States it undergoes after it is hatched, we shall find yet greater Signals of the Creator’s Management, even in these meanest of Creatures. The three States I mean, are its _Nympha-Vermicular_ State, its _Aurelia_, and _Mature_-State, all as different as to Shape and Accoutrements, as if the Insect was three different Animals. In its _Vermicular_-State, it is a Red-Maggot, as I said, and hath a Mouth and other Parts accommodated to Food: In its _Aurelia_-State it hath no such Parts, because it then subsists without Food; but in its _Mature_, _Gnat_-State, it hath a curious well-made Spear, to wound and suck the Blood of other Animals. In its _Vermicular_-State, it hath a long Worm-like Body, and something analogous to Fins or Feathers, standing erect near its Tail, and running parallel with the Body, by means of which resisting the Waters, it is enabled to swim about by Curvations, or flapping its Body, side-ways, this way and that, as in Fig. 12.

But in its _Aurelia_-State, it hath a quite different Body, with a _Club-Head_ (in which the Head, _Thorax_, and Wings of the _Gnat_ are inclosed) a slender _Alvus_, and a neat _finny Tail_, standing at right Angles with the Body, quite contrary to what it was before; by which means, instead of easy flapping side-ways, it swims by rapid, brisk Jirks, the quite contrary way; as is in some measure represented in Fig. 13. But when it becomes a _Gnat_, no finny Tail, no Club-Head, but all is made in the most accurate manner for Flight and Motion in the Air, as before it was for the Waters.

[s] See _Book IV. Chap. 13. Notes (n), (o)._

[t] Thus the Mouths and other Parts of the _Ichneumon-Wasps_ in _Book IV. Chap. 13. Note (t)._ So the Feet of the _Gryllotalpa_, _ibid._ _Note (s)._

[u] See the last cited Places, _Note (o)._

[w] Of the textrine Art of the _Spider_, and its Parts serving to that Purpose, see the last cited Place, _Note (x)._

Besides these, _Caterpillars_, and divers other Insects, can emit Threads, or Webs for their Use. In this their _Nympha-State_, they secure themselves from falling, and let themselves down from the Boughs of Trees, and other high Places, with one of these Threads. And in the Cases they weave, they secure themselves in their _Aurelia-State_.

And not only the Off-spring of the _Phalæna-Tribe_, but there are some of the _Ichneumon-Fly_ Kind also, endowed with this textrine Art. Of these I have met with two Sorts; one that spun a Milk-white, long, round, silken Web, as big as the top of ones Fingers, not hollow within, as many are, but filled throughout with Silk. These are woven round Bents, Stalks of Ribwort, &c. in Meadows. The other is a lump of many yellow, silken Cases, sticking confusedly together on Posts, under Cole-worts, _&c._ These Webs contain in them, small, whitish Maggots; which turn to a small, black, _Ichneumon-Fly_, with long, capillary _Antennæ_; Tan-coloured Legs; long Wings reaching beyond their Body, with a black Spot near the middle; the _Alvus_, like an Heart; and in some, a small setaceous Tail. Some of these Flies were of a shining, beautiful green Colour. I could not perceive any Difference, at least, not specifical, between the Flies coming from those two Productions.

[x] I have often admired how _Wasps_, _Hornets_, _Ichneumon-Wasps_, and other Insects that gather dry Materials for building their Nests, have found a proper matter to cement and glue their Combs, and line their Cells; which we find always sufficiently context and firm. But in all Probability, this useful Material is in their own Bodies; as ’tis in the _Tinea vestivora_, the _Cadew Worm_, and divers others. _Goedart_ observes of his _Eruca_, _Num._ xx. 6. that fed upon _Sallow-Leaves_, that it made its Cell of the comminuted Leaves, glued together with its own Spittle, _hæc pulveris aut arenæ instar comminuit, ac pituitoso quodam sui corporis succo ita maceravit, ut inde accommodatum subeundæ mutationi instanti locum sibi extruxerit. Domuncula hæc à communi Salicum ligno nihil differre videbatur, nisi quòd longè esset durior, adeò ut cultro vix disrumpi posset._

[y] _An ingenious Gentlewoman of my Acquaintance, Wife to a learned Physician, taking much Pleasure to keep Silk-Worms, had once the Curiosity to draw out one of the oval Cases, which the Silk-Worm spins——into all the Silken Wire it was made up of, which, to the great Wonder as well of her Husband, as her self,——appeared to be, by measure, a great deal above 300 Yards, and yet weighed but two Grains and an half._ Boyl Subtil. of Effluv. ch. 2.

[z] Since my penning this, I have met with the most sagacious _Malpighi_’s Account of _Galls_, &c. and find his Descriptions to be exceedingly accurate and true, having traced my self many of the Productions he hath mentioned. But I find _Italy_ and _Sicily_ (his Book _de Gallis_ being published long after he was made Professor of _Messina_) more luxuriant in such Productions than _England_, at least, than the Parts about _Upminster_ (where I live) are. For many, if not most of those about us, are taken Notice of by him, and several others besides that I never met with; although I have for many Years as critically observed all the Excrescences, and other morbid Tumors of Vegetables, as is almost possible, and do believe that few of them have escaped me.

As to the Method how those _Galls_ and _Balls_ are produced, the most simple, and consequently the most easy to be accounted for, is that in the Gems of Oak, which may be called _Squamous-Oak-Cones_, _Capitula squamata_, in _Malpighi_: Whose Description not exactly answering our _English-Cones_ in divers Respects, I shall therefore pass his by, and shew only what I have observed my self concerning them.

These _Cones_ are, in outward Appearance, perfectly like the Gems, only vastly bigger; and indeed they are no other than the Gems, encreased in Bigness, which naturally ought to be pushed out in Length: The Cause of which Obstruction of the Vegetation is this: Into the very Heart of the young tender Gem or Bud (which begins to be turgid in _June_, and to shoot towards the latter end of that Month, or beginning of the next; into this, I say) the Parent-Insect thrusts one or more Eggs, and not perhaps without some venomous Ichor therewith. This Egg soon becomes a Maggot, which eats it self a little Cell in the very Heart or Pith of the Gem, which is the Rudiment of the Branch, together with its Leaves and Fruit, as shall be hereafter shewn. The Branch being thus wholly destroyed, or at least its Vegetation being obstructed, the Sap that was to nourish it, is diverted to the remaining Parts of the Bud, which are only the scaly Teguments; which by these Means grow large and flourishing, and become a Covering to the Insect-Case, as before they were to the tender Branch and its Appendage.

The _Case_ lying within this Cone, is at first but small, as the Maggot included in it is, but by degrees, as the Maggot increaseth, so it grows bigger, to about the Size of a large white Pease, long and round, resembling the Shape of a small Acorn.

The _Insect_ it self, is (according to the modern Insectologers) of the _Ichneumon-Fly_ Kind; with four Membranaceous _Wings_, reaching a little beyond the Body, articulated _Horns_, a large _Thorax_, bigger than the Belly; the _Belly_ short and conical; much like the Heart of Animals: The _Legs_ partly whitish, partly black. The _Length_ of the Body from Head to Tail, about ²⁄₁₀ of an Inch; its _Colour_, a very beautiful shining Green, in some tending to a dark Copper-Colour. Figures both of the Cones, Cases, and Insects, may be seen among _Malpighi_’s Cuts of Galls, Tab. 13. and Tab. 20. Fig. 72. which Fig. 72. exhibits well enough some others of the _Gall-Insects_, but its _Thorax_ is somewhat too short for ours.

[aa] Not only the Willow, and some other Trees, but Plants also, as _Nettles_, _Ground-Ivy_, &c. have Cases produced on their Leaves, by the Injection of the Eggs of an _Ichneumon-Fly_. I have observed those Cases always to grow in, or adjoining to some Rib of the Leaf, and their Production I conceive to be thus, _viz._ The Parent-Insect, with its stiff setaceous Tail, terebrates the Rib of the Leaf, when tender, and makes Way for its Egg into the very Pith or Heart thereof, and probably lays in therewith, some proper Juice of its Body, to pervert the regular Vegetation of it. From this Wound arises a small Excrescence, which (when the Egg is hatched into a Maggot) grows bigger and bigger, as the Maggot increases, swelling on each Side the Leaf between the two Membranes, and extending it self into the parenchymous Part thereof, until it is grown as big as two Grains of Wheat. In this Case lies a small, white, rough Maggot, which turns to an _Aurelia_, and afterwards to a very beautiful green, small _Ichneumon-Fly_.

[bb] What I suspected my self, I find confirmed by _Malpighi_, who in his exact and true Description of the Fly bred in the _Oaken Galls_, saith, _Non sat fuit naturæ tam miro artificio Terebram seu Limam condidisse; sed inflicto vulnere, vel excitato foramine infundendum exinde liquorem intra Terebram condidit: quare fractâ per transversam muscarum terebrâ frequentissimè, vivente animali, guttæ aliquot diaphani humoris effluunt._ And a little after, he confirms, by ocular Observation, what he imagin’d before, viz. _Semel prope Junii finem vidi Muscam, qualem superiùs delineavi, insidentum quercinæ gemmæ, adhuc germinanti; hærebat etenim foliola stabili ab apice hiantis gemmæ erumpenti; & convulso in arcum corpore, terebram evaginabat, ipsamque sensam immittebat; & tumefacto ventre circa terebræ radicem tumorem excitabat, quem interpolatis vicibus remittebat. In folio igitur, avulsà Muscâ, minima & diaphana reperii ejecta ova, simillima iis, quæ adhuc in tubis supererant. Non licuit iterum idem admirari spectaculum, ~&c.~_

Somewhat like this, which _Malpighi_ saw, I had the good Fortune to see my self once some Years ago: And that was, the beautiful, shining _Oak-Ball Ichneumon_ strike its _Terebræ_ into an Oak-Apple divers Times, no doubt to lay its Eggs therein. And hence I apprehend we see many _Vermicules_ towards the Outside of many of the Oak-Apples, which I guess were not what the Primitive Insects laid up in the Gem, from which the Oak-Apple had its Rise, but some other supervenient, additional Insects, laid in after the Apple was grown, and whilst it was tender and soft.

[cc] The _Aleppo-Galls_, wherewith we make Ink, may be reckoned of this Number, being hard, and no other than Cases of Insects which are bred in them; who when come to Maturity, gnaw their Way out of them; which is the Cause of those little Holes observable in them. Of the Insects bred in them, see _Philos. Transact._ Nᵒ. 245. Of this Number also are those little smooth Cases, as big as large Pepper-Corns, growing close to the Ribs under Oaken-Leaves, globous, but flattish; at first touched with a blushing red, afterwards growing brown; hollow within, and an hard thin Shell without. In this lieth commonly a rough, white Maggot, which becomes a little long winged, black _Ichneumon-Fly_, that eats a little Hole in the Side of the Gall, and so gets out.

[dd] For a Sample of the tender Balls, I shall choose the globous Ball, as round, and some as big as small Musket-Bullets, growing close to the Ribs, under Oaken-Leaves, of a greenish yellowish Colour, with a blush of red; their Skin smooth, with frequent Risings therein. Inwardly they are very soft and spongy; and in the very Center is a Case with a white Maggot therein, which becomes an _Ichneumon-Fly_, not much unlike the last. As to this Gall, there is one Thing I have observed somewhat peculiar, and I may say providential, and that is, that the Fly lies all the Winter in these Balls in its Infantile-State, and comes not to its Maturity till the following Spring. In the Autumn, and Winter, these Balls fall down with their Leaves to the Ground, and the Insect inclosed in them is there fenced against the Winter Frosts, partly by other Leaves falling pretty thick upon them, and especially by the thick, parenchymous, spongy Walls, afforded by the _Galls_ themselves.

Another Sample shall be the large _Oak-Balls_, called _Oak-Apples_, growing in the Place of the Buds, whose Generation, Vegetation and Figure, may be seen in _Malpig. de Gallis_, p. 24. and Tab. 10. Fig. 33, _&c._ Out of these Galls, he saith various Species of Flies come, but he names only two, and they are the only two I ever saw come out of them: _Frequenter_ (saith he) _subnigræ sunt muscæ brevi munitæ terebrâ. Inter has aliquæ observantur aureæ, levi viridis tincturâ suffusæ, oblongâ pollentes terebrâ._ These two differently coloured Flies, I take to be no other than Male and Female of the same Species. I have not observed Tails (which are their _Terebræ_) in all, as _Malpighi_ seems to intimate: Perhaps they were hid in their _Thecæ_, and I could not discover them: But I rather think there were none, and that those were the Males: But in others, I have observed long, recurvous Tails, longer than their whole Bodies. And these I take to be the Females. And in the _Oak-Apples_ themselves, I have seen the _Aureliæ_, some with, some without Tails. And I must confess, ’twas not without Admiration as well as Pleasure, that I have seen with what exact Neatness and Artifice, the Tail hath been wrapt about the _Aurelia_, whereby it is secured from either annoying the Insect, or being hurt it self.

[ee] See before _Note (z)._

[ff] As in the preceding Note.

[gg] Of the rough or hairy Excrescences, those on the _Briar_, or _Dog-Rose_, are a good Instance. These _Spongiolæ villosæ_, as Mr. _Ray_, _Gallæ rumosæ_, as Dr. _Malpighi_ calls them, are thus accounted for by the latter; _Ex copiosis relictis ovis ita turbatur affluens ~[Rubi]~ succus, ut strumosa fiant complura tubercula simul confusè congesta, quæ utriculorum seriebus, & fibrarum implicatione contexta, ramosas propagines germinant, ita ut minima quasi sylva appareat. Qualibet propago ramos, hinc inde villosos edit. Hinc inde pili pariter crumpunt, ~&c.~_

These Balls are a safe Repository to the Insect all the Winter in its Vermicular-State. For the Eggs laid up, and hatched the Summer before, do not come to mature Insects until the Spring following, as Mr. _Ray_ rightly observes in _Cat. Cantab._

As to the _Insects_ themselves, they are manifestly _Ichneumon-Flies_, having four Wings, their _Alvus_ thick and large towards the Tail; and tapering up till it is small and slender at its setting on to the _Thorax_. But the _Alvi_ or Bellies are not alike in all, though coloured alike. In some they are as is now described, and longer, without _Terebræ_, or Tails; in some shorter with Tails: And in some yet shorter, and thick, like the Belly of the _Ant_, or the Heart of Animals, as in those before, _Note (z)._ But for a farther Description of them, I shall refer to Mr. _Ray_, _Cat. Plant. circa Cantab._ under _Rosa Sylvest._

[hh] It being an Instance somewhat out of the Way, I shall pitch upon it for an Example here, _viz._ The _gouty Swellings_ in the Body, and the Branches of the _Blackberry-Bush_; of which _Malpighi_ hath given us two good Cuts in Tab. 17. Fig. 62. The Cause of these is manifestly from the Eggs of Insects laid in (whilst the Shoot is young and tender) as far as the Pith, and in some Places not so deep; Which for the Reasons before-mentioned, makes the young Shoots tumify, and grow knotty and gouty.

The Insect that comes from hence is of the former Tribe, a small, shining black _Ichneumon-Fly_, about a tenth of an Inch long; with jointed, red, capillary Horns, four long Wings, reaching beyond the Body, a large _Thorax_, red Legs, and a short, heart-like Belly. They hop like Fleas. The Males are less than the Females; are very venereous, endeavouring a _Coït_ in the very Box in which they are hatch’d; getting up on the Females, and tickling and thumping them with their Breeches and Horns, to excite them to Venery.

_The CONCLUSION._

And now these Things being seriously considered, what less can be concluded, than that there is manifest Design and Forecast in this Case, and that there must needs be some wise Artist, some careful, prudent Conservator, that from the very Beginning of the Existence of this Species of Animals, hath with great Dexterity and Forecast, provided for its Preservation and Good? For what else could contrive and make such a Set of curious Parts, exactly fitted up for that special Purpose: And withal implant in the Body such peculiar Impregnations, as should have such a strange uncouth Power on a quite different Rank of Creatures? And lastly, what should make the Insect aware of this its strange Faculty and Power, and teach it so cunningly and dextrously to employ it for its own Service and Good?