I have obferved that in the na tural way the eggs are ufually hatched in fix weeks; but if, by the luxuriance of the growth of the shoots into which the eggs are darted, the rind of the tree clofes and confines them, they will in that fituation remain feveral months, till by fome lucky accident they are difengaged, and then they will hatch in a few minutes after, and feek their retreat in the earth, in the fame manner as thofe hatched in the ufual time. But many perish by being thus imprisoned. Viewed through a microfcope the moment they are hatched, they appear in every refpect as perfect as at the time of their laft transformation, when they rife out of the earth, put off their fcaly covering, expand their wings, difplay their gaudy colours, dart forth their eggs, and after a few days existence, to fulfil the wife purpofes of their maker, close the period of their lives by an easy death. How aftonishing therefore and infcrutable is the defign of providence in the production of this infect, that is brought into life, according to our apprehen: fion, only to fink into the depths of the earth, there to remain in darkness, till the appointed time comes when it afcends again into light by a wonderful refurrection! The means by which they are enabled to continue their fpecies, s no lefs fingular than their manner of existence. The females, are furnished with a bearded dart, with which they pierce the tender fhoots of all trees they happen to light upon, without regard to fituation or fpecies many therefore perish by the quick growth of the trees in which the eggs are darted; and more perhaps by being laid in twigs that hang over ftreamscor ftanding waters. The dart by which the operation is performed confifts of three parts; a middle, and two fides: The middle is hollow, through which the eggs are darted, and the two fides ferve for a covering to defend it. Thefe may easily be taken apart, by flipping the middle through the grooves of the too fides, and it is by flipping the two outfide parts by each other rapidly, that they work a kind of flant hole in the foft twig they make choife of, till they reach the pith, and then they eject their eggs into it to the number of twelve; when this is performed, they begin another hole close by the fide of the former, and fo continue to work till they have carried along two rows, each row соп confifting of twelve or more holes. They then remove to another twig, and proceed as before; and fo from twig to twig till they have exhaulted their ftore, after which they foon expire. I have not yet been able to difcover the full depth to which thefe little animals defcend. Some, I have heard, have been found thirty feet deep. I myself have feen them ten. They do not, however, feem to travel to any great diftance horizontally; for they are feldom found far from the woods, unlefs in grounds that have been newly cleared. It often, however, happens, that in the long period of their torpid ftate, great tracts of country are cleared in North America from trees, and coverted into arable or pasture; hence it is no unufual thing to fee them leave their cells in thofe plain grounds, and haften to some adjoining fence to put off their incumbrance, and prepare themfelves for flight. This they do always in the night, by crawling to fome tree, along a fence, or among bushes or ftrong grafs; and it is remarkable, that they differ in this from every other infect in this chryfalis ftate; for inftead of being wrapped up in a plain covering, which confines the inhabitant to a certain fpot till it burfts, they have a covering fitted to their form, in which they can travel to a confiderable diftance; and which they cannot leave till they find fome folid fubftance, in which they fix their claws, and then, with an effort which requires the utmost exertion of their ftrength, they burst their cafe, which always opens from the fhoulders to the fore part of the head, out of which they crawl, leaving it fticking faft behind. Thoufands of these cafes may be seen in a morning, fticking to all parts of trees, which being hardened in the fun, have a fcaly-like fub. ftance, which not being flexible, after it is dry, often fo incumbers them before they can put it off, that many perish in the attempt. For this reafon, they always chufe the night for this opération; and wait for the enlivening influence of the warm fun to ftrengthen and give confiftence to their wings, which at first are white, foft, and moift, but foon affume a dark brown colour, with a firmnefs that enables them to fly, and a tranfparency that adds a beauty to their appearance, which before was wanting. It is remarkable, that in every ftate of this infect's existence, it is eagerly purfued for food by others. In the very egg, it is the prey of ants and birds of every kind; in that of the grub, by hogs, dogs, and all carnivorous animals that can unearth it: and in its most perfect ftate, not only by many kinds of beafts and birds, but even by men, many of the Indians, it is faid, feeding fumptuously upon them. Soon after they arrive at their laft ftate of transformation, they feek mates to enable them to continue their fpecies; and in this too they are very fingular; the female, as has been obferved, is furnished with a dart, the fhaft of which, takes its rife below the middle of the infect; on the contrary, the male projects his dart from be. hind, and fixes it near the fhaft of that of the female, where it remains for many hours together; during which time, they are not to be feparated without laceration. During the feafon of copulation, from fun-rife to fun-fet, the noise they make is fo loud and perpetual, that little elfe can be heard in the woods where they abound; and it is doubtful, whether, dur. ing this feafon, or indeed, during their whole time of existence in this ftate, they eat any thing, or fubfift only by fipping the dew; for which purpofe they feem to be furnished with a long tube, extending from their heads flat to their breaft, and terminating between their legs, without the power of altering its pofition. Other than this tube they seem to have none for the purpofe of fubfiftence. In fhort, the natural hiftory of this little infect, feems highly to deferve the attention of the curious. M. BARTRAM. .、 Experiments on a bog's bladder.From the hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. M. De la Hire has given an of fome very curious experiments he had made on the bladder. Having taken the bladder of a hog quite fresh and very clean, he filled it with air, till it appeared to be as tenfe as it poffibly could be. In this ftate there was no room to doubt of its being exactly closed up, and that the air could not get out of it; but, having made an aperture in the bladder, it flagged immediately of itfelf: Afterwards, whilft it was ftill quite fresh, he turned it fo as that the part that was outward in the natural state became the inward and having poured water into it to about three fifths of what it might contain, immediately after the water began to ooze or drop out at feveral places, and in twelve hours time the half of the water was already run out. This water, fo filtrated, was tinged with a very deep red colour, though the bladder feemed clear and tranfparent before the experiment. Hence it was judged, that the ftrong tenfion of the bladder, when it was filled with air, had made the blood to pafs out that was contained in the infinity of the fmall blood-veffels with which this membrane is diffeminated and that this blood, which was shed between the fibres, had been carried off by the water that oozed through, and gave it this ftrong tincture. In fact, the bladder became very white after the water was entirely run out. Hereupon M. de la Hire conjectured, that the membrane of the bladder muft be pierced with an infinity of fmall holes, each furnifhed with its valve; and that thofe valves are fo difpofed, that water may enter therein from with the bladder; but, on the contrary, that neither water nor air can pafs through it from within outwardly, how foever great the compref. fion of the air may be when shut up in this membrane. The moft proper conftruction of thofe valves for producing thefe effects, is according to M. de la Hire, the fame as may be obferved in the valves of the colon of fome fifhes. The valves of the bladder will there. fore be as papille formed by a duct that proceeds by diminishing towards the interior of the mem. brane brane, and which may give an eafy entrance to the furrounding liquids; but which, on the contra1y, fhut exactly the paffage from within to without in flatting and lying upon the internal body of the bladder. of that work had in view three different kinds of nuts, and that their meaning is, that the nutmeg is of fervice to health, that the common nut is, on the contrary, hurtful to the body, and that the nux vomica is a fort of poifon. M. de la Hire' drew from this But what fhould one think, if I experiment fome conjectures in re undertook to prove that the nut gard to the dropfy, which, accord- meg alone poffeffes these three dif ing to him, might be only a different qualities; that it is at the temper of the bladder, whofe pores or apertures fhould happen to be ftopt up by fome caufe or other: In this ftate it is eafy to comprehend it would no longer receive the waters of the lower belly, which come there continually by paffing through the membranes of the ftomach, as M. Mery has experienced. It is, perhaps, alfo, by this way, that the mineral waters which are drank, are fo eafily and readily evacuated.. fame time falutary in certain cafes, in others dangerous, and that it is fometimes mortal; and that confequently the verfe of the school of Salernum had no other nut in view but this? Be the matter as it may, I fhall relate, in a few words, what I obferved touching its properties and effects. A gentleman of Lower Silefia, about thirty-fix years old, of a good conftitution, and who enjoyed a good ftate of health, hav ing felt, during fome days, a bellyach, occafioned by wind, took it in his head, in order to mitigate the pain, to eat four nutmegs, which weighed altogether two ounces, and he drank, in eating them, fome glaffes of beer; which he had no fooner done but was feized with a great heat, a violent pain in the head, a vertigo and delirium, and inftantly deprived of the ufe of fight, fpeech, and all his fenfes. He was put to bed, where he spent two days and two nights; his body was oppreffed with laffitude, always drowfy, yet without being able to fleep. Being called upon to fee him the third day, I found on him all the fymptoms I have related, and he was in that lethargie ftate which is called a coma vigil, with a weak and intermitting pulfe. I made him immediately take fome cepha lic remedies, cordials, and, among others, the fpirits of cephalic vitriol, and the effence of caftoreum, in good fpirit of falt ammoniac. The fourth day he recovered a little out of his lethargic ftate, but had abfolutely loft his memory, fo as not to remember the leaft thing he had done in his life. A continued fever then came upon him, accompanied by an obftinate watchfulness; a palpitation of the heart feemed to be the forerunner of other fymptoms, and he was finally ftruck with a palfy in all his limbs. At the expiration of eight days, he recovered the use of reason, and told us, that, during the firft four days of his illness, he feemed to himself to have conftantly a thick veil before his eyes, and that a great number of fparks and flashes continually iffued from it. All the bad fymptoms of this malady yielded at laft fucceffively to the continued ufe of remedies appropriated to his flate; and in three months time he was perfectly recovered, but he was particularly indebted, for his cure, to mercurial and ammoniacal remedies. According to chymical principles, it might, perhaps, be faid, that the aromatic and oily falt contained in nutmeg, of which this patient had taken too large a dofe, had immediately excited fo great an agitation in the humours, and fo rapid a motion in the animal fpirits, that in fome measure they had contracted an igneous nature; and that a vifcid and nar cotic fulphur, which refides like wife in the nutmeg, though in a lefs fenfible manner, being carried at the fame time into the mafs of the blood, by fuddenly fixing the An account of a dwarf kept in the palace of the late King of Poland. Tranflated from the lift vol. of Buffon's Natural History, juft published. THE parents of this dwarf were healthy ftrong pea fants; who affirmed, that at the time of his birth, he fcarcely weighed a pound and a quarter. It is not known what were then his dimenfions, but one may judge they were very fmall, as he was prefented upon a plate to be bap tized, and for a long time had a wooden fhoe for his bed. His mouth, though well proportioned to the rest of his body, was not large enough to receive the nipple of the mother; he was fuckled therefore by a goat, and the performed the part of a nurfe admi. rably well. When fix months old, he had the fmall-pox, and recovered without any other affistance than the care of the mother and the milk of the goat. At the age of eighteen months he could articulate fome words. At two years, he could fupport himfelf upon his legs, and walk almoft without affiftance; a pair of shoes were then made for him, which were no more than an inch and a half |