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 exhaufted 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 pafture; hence it is no unufual thing to fee them leave their cells in thofe plain grounds, and haften to fome 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 substance, in which they fix their claws, and then, with an effort which requires the utmoft exertion of their ftrength, they burst their cafe, which always opens from the fhoul. ders to the fore part of the head,

out of which they crawl, leaving it fticking faft behind. Thoufands of thefe cafes may be feen in a morning, fticking to all parts of trees, which being hardened in the fun, have a fcaly-like fubftance, 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 operation; and wait for the enlivening influence of the warm fun to ftrengthen and give confiftence to their wings, which at firft 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 shaft of that of the female, where it remains for many hours together;

during which time, they are not to be feparated without lacera

tion.

During the feafon of copulation, from fun-rife to fun-fet, the noife they make is fo loud and perpetual, that little elfe can be heard in the woods where they abound; and it is doubtful, whether, during 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 purpose 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 feem to have none for the purpose 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 account to the academy 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 clofed 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 ftate

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 fhed 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 must be pierced with an infinity of fmall holes, each furnished with its valve; and that thofe valves are fo difpofed, that water may enter therein from without inwardly in the natural state of the bladder; but, on the contrary, that neither water nor air can pafs through it from within outwardly, how foever great the compreffion of the air may be when shut The moft up in this membrane. proper construction of thofe valves for producing thefe effects, is according to M, de la Hire, the fame as may be observed in the valves of the colon of fome fishes. The valves of the bladder will therefore be as papillæ 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 contrary, fhut exactly the paffage from within to without in flatting and lying upon the internal body of

the bladder.

M. de la Hire drew from this experiment fome conjectures in regard to the dropfy, which, according to him, might be only a dif. 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

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. But what fhould one think, if I undertook to prove that the nutmeg alone poffeffes these three different qualities; that it is at the fame time falutary in certain cafes, in others dangerous, and that it is fometimes mortal; and that confequently the verfe of the fchool 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, having felt, during fome days, a belly. ach, 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 lethargic ftate which is called a coma vigil, with a weak and intermitting pulfe. I made him immediately take fome cepha

lic

1

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 reafon, and told us, that, during the first 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 ftate; 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 narcotic fulphur, which refides likewife 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

animal fpirits fo exalted, and intercepting their courfe in the nerves, had afterwards caused the ftupor in the limbs, the aphony, and the palfy. But I leave others to give us an explanation of these phænomena, and I have only in view, by communicating this ob fervation, to fhew that the immoderate ufe of nutmeg may be attended with very great danger.

An account of a dwarf kept in the palace of the late King of Poland. Translated from the left vol. of Buffon's Natural Hiftory, just published.

THE parents of this dwarf

were healthy ftrong peafants; 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 baptized, 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 fuckied therefore by a goat, and the performed the part of a nurfe admirably well. When fix months old, he had the fmall-pox, and recovered without any other affiftance 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 himself upon his legs, and walk almost without affiftance; a pair of shoes were then made for him, which were no more than an inch and a

half

-

half in length. He was attacked by feveral difeafes; but there were no marks of any other difeafe on The skin, befides the fmall-pox.he was now fix years of age: hitherto his food had been gardenftuff, bacon, and potatoes; his height was about fifteen inches, and he did not weigh more than thirteen pounds; his perfon was agreeable and well proportioned; he was in perfect health, but there was little appearance of intellect. At this time the King of Poland ordered him to Luneville, gave him the name of Bebé, and kept him in his palace.

Bebé thus exchanged the condition of a peafant for the luxuries of a court; but he experienced no change either in his body or his mind. He had no fenfe of religion; was incapable of reafoning; could learn neither mufic or dancing; was fufceptible, however, of paffions, particularly anger, jealoufy, et le defir ardent.-When fixteen years old, he was only twenty one inches in height; he was ftill healthy and well proportioned; but at this time, la puberté produifit fur les organes de la generation un trop grand effet; his ftrength began to decreafe, the fpine became crooked, the head feli forwards, the legs were enfeebled, one thoulder-blade projected, the nose was greatly enlarged; Bebé loft his gaiety, and became a valetudinarian; and yet histature was increafed four inches in the four fucceeding years. M. le Comte de Treffan, foretold that this dwarf would die of old age before he was thirty; and in effect fo it was, for at twenty-one, he was fhrunk and decrepit; and, at twenty-two, it was with diffi.

culty he could make an hundred fteps fucceffively.-In his twentythird year, he was attacked with a flight fever, and fell into a kind of lethargy; he had fome intervals, but fpoke with great difficulty: For the five laft days, his ideas feemed to be more clear than when he was in health. This disease foon proved fatal. At the time of his death, he meafured thirty-three inches.

New experiments concerning the putrefaction of the juices and humours of animal bodies. By M. Jean Baptifte Gaber. Tranflated from the Memoirs of the Academy of Turin.

HE great Lord Chancellor

dered as the reftorer of philofophy, was well apprifed of the great advantages which medical and natural knowledge would derive from a judicious hiftory of putrefaction founded upon experiment. I shall not, however, attempt fuch a work in its utmost extent, nor even to furnith materials for fuch a work, with refpect to all fubjects, for fear my attention should be too much divided among a great variety of facts to be properly employed upon any. I fhall confine myfelf to the animal juices; and, indeed, my experiments have been made only on the moft confiderable of, them, or fuch, at least, as appeared to me to be the most proper to throw light upon the internal caufes of many difeafes, upon their effects or symptoms, and the indications of cure.

1. A man aged about fifty years, died of an inveterate jaundice with

out