This little creature, described in the first _Figure_ of the 27. _Scheme_,
was a small scaled or crusted Animal, which I have often observ’d to be
generated in Rain-water; I have also observ’d it both in Pond and
River-water. It is suppos’d by some, to deduce its first original from the
putrifaction of Rain-water, in which, if it have stood any time open to the
air, you shall seldom miss, all the Summer long, of store of them frisking
too and fro.
’Tis a creature, wholly differing in shape from any I ever observ’d; nor is
its motion less strange: It has a very large head, in proportion to its
body, all covered with a shell, like other _testaceous_ Animals, but it
differs in this, that it has, up and down several parts of it, several
tufts of hairs, or brisles, plac’d in the order express’d in the Figure; It
has two horns, which seem’d almost like the horns of an Oxe, inverted, and,
as neer as I could guess, were hollow, with tufts of brisles, likewise at
the top; these horns they could move easily this or that way, and might,
perchance, be their nostrils. It has a pretty large mouth, which seem’d
contriv’d much like those of Crabs and Lobsters, by which, I have often
observ’d them to feed on water, or some imperceptible nutritive substance
in it.
I could perceive, through the transparent shell, while the Animal surviv’d,
several motions in the head, thorax, and belly, very distinctly, of
differing kinds which I may, perhaps, elsewhere endeavour more accurately
to examine, and to shew of how great benefit the use of a _Microscope_ may
be for the discovery of Nature’s course in the operations perform’d in
Animal bodies, by which we have the opportunity of observing her through
these delicate and pellucid teguments of the bodies of Insects acting
according to her usual course and way, undisturbed, whereas, when we
endeavour to pry into her secrets by breaking open the doors upon her, and
dissecting and mangling creatures whil’st there is life yet within them, we
find her indeed at work, but put into such disorder by the violence
offer’d, as it may easily be imagin’d, how differing a thing we should
find, if we could, as we can with a _Microscope_ in these smaller
creatures, quietly peep in at the windows, without frighting her out of her
usual byas.
The form of the whole creature, as it appear’d in the _Microscope_, may,
without troubling you with more descriptions, be plainly enough perceiv’d
by the _Scheme_, the hinder part or belly consisting of eight several
jointed parts, namely, ABCDEFGH, of the first _Figure_, from the midst of
each of which, on either side issued out three or four small brisles or
hairs, I, I, I, I, I, the tail was divided into two parts of very differing
make; one of them, namely, K, having many tufts of hair or brisles, which
seem’d to serve both for the finns and tail, for the Oars and Ruder of this
little creature, wherewith it was able, by frisking and bending its body
nimbly to and fro, to move himself any whither, and to skull and steer
himself as he pleas’d, the other part, L, seem’d to be, as ’twere, the
ninth division of his belly, and had many single brisles on either side.
From the end V, of which, through the whole belly, there was a kind of Gut
of a darker colour, MMM, wherein, by certain _Peristaltick_ motions there
was a kind of black substance mov’d upwards and downwards through it from
the orbicular part of it, N, (which seem’d the _Ventricle_, or stomach) to
the tail V, and so back again, which _peristaltick_ motion I have observ’d
also in a Louse, a Gnat, and several other kinds of transparent body’d
Flies. The _Thorax_ or chest of this creature OOOO, was thick and short,
and pretty transparent, for through it I could see the white heart (which
is the colour also of the bloud in these, and most other Insects) to beat,
and several other kind of motions. It was bestuck and adorn’d up and down
with several tufts of brisles, such as are pointed out by P, P, P, P, the
head Q was likewise bestuck with several of those tufts, SSS; it was broad
and short, had two black eyes, TT, which I could not perceive at all
pearl’d, as they afterwards appear’d, and two small horns, RR, such as I
formerly describ’d.
Both its motion and rest is very strange, and pleasant, and differing from
those of most other creatures I have observ’d; for, where it ceases from
moving its body, the tail of it seeming much lighter then the rest of its
body, and a little lighter then the water it swims in, presently boys it up
to the top of the water, where it hangs suspended with the head always
downward; and like our _Antipodes_, if they do by a frisk get below that
superficies, they presently ascend again unto it, if they cease moving,
until they tread, as it were, under that superficies with their tails; the
hanging of these in this posture, put me in mind of a certain creature I
have seen in _London_, that was brought out of _America_, which would very
firmly suspend it self by the tail, with the head downwards, and was said
to keep in that posture, with her young ones in her false belly, which is a
Purse, provided by Nature for the production, nutrition, and preservation
of her young ones, which is described by _Piso_ in the 24. Chapter of the
fifth Book of his Natural History of _Brasil_.
The motion of it was with the tail forwards, drawing its self backwards, by
the striking to and fro of that tuft which grew out of one of the stumps of
its tail. It had another motion, which was more sutable to that of other
creatures, and that is, with the head forward; for by the moving of his
chaps (if I may so call the parts of his mouth) it was able to move it self
downwards very gently towards the bottom, and did, as ’twere, eat up its
way through the water.
But that which was most observable in this creature, was, its Metamorphosis
or change; for having kept several of these Animals in a Glass of
Rain-water, in which they were produc’d, I found, after about a fortnight
or three weeks keeping, that several of them flew away in Gnats, leaving
their husks behind them in the water floating under the surface, the place
where these Animals were wont to reside, whil’st they were inhabitants of
the water: this made me more diligently to watch them, to see if I could
find them at the time of their transformation; and not long after, I
observ’d several of them to be changed into an unusual shape, wholly
differing from that they were of before, their head and body being grown
much bigger and deeper, but not broader, and their belly, or hinder part
smaller, and coyl’d, about this great body much of the fashion represented
by the prick’d line in the second _Figure_ of the 27. _Scheme_, the head
and horns now swam uppermost, and the whole bulk of the body seem’d to be
grown much lighter; for when by my frighting of it, it would by frisking
out of its tail (in the manner express’d in the Figure by BC) sink it self
below the surface towards the bottom; the body would more swiftly
re-ascend, then when it was in its former shape.
I still marked its progress from time to time, and found its body still to
grow bigger and bigger, Nature, as it were, fitting and accoutring it for
the lighter Element, of which it was now going to be an inhabitant; for, by
observing one of these with my _Microscope_, I found the eyes of it to be
altogether differing from what they seem’d before, appearing now all over
pearl’d or knobb’d, like the eyes of Gnats, as is visible in the second
_Figure_ by A. At length, I saw part of this creature to swim above, and
part beneath the surface of the water, below which though it would quickly
plunge it self if I by any means frighted it, and presently re-ascend into
its former posture; after a little longer expectation, I found that the
head and body of a Gnat, began to appear and stand cleer above the surface,
and by degrees it drew out its leggs, first the two formost, then the
other, at length its whole body perfect and entire appear’d out of the husk
(which it left in the water) standing on its leggs upon the top of the
water, and by degrees it began to move, and after flew about the Glass a
perfect Gnat.
I have been the more particular, and large in the relation of the
transformation of divers of these little Animals which I observ’d, because
I have not found that any Authour has observ’d the like, and because the
thing it self is so strange and heterogeneous from the usual progress of
other Animals, that I judge it may not onely be pleasant, but very usefull
and necessary towards the compleating of Natural History.
There is indeed in _Piso_, a very odd History, which this relation may make
the more probable; and that is in the 2. Chapter of the 4. Book of his
Natural History of _Brasil_, where he says, _Porro præter tot documenta
fertilitatis circa vegetabilia & sensitiva marina telluris æmula, accidit &
illud, quod paucis à Paranambucensi milliaribus, piscatoris uncum citra
intentionem contingat infigi vadis petrosis, & loco piscis spongia,
coralla, aliasque arbusculas marinas capi. Inter hæc inusitatæ formæ prodit
spongiosa arbuscula sesquipedis longitudinis, brevioribus radicibus,
lapideis nitens vadis, & rupibus infixa, erigiturque in corpus spongiosum
molle oblongum rotundum turbinatum: intus miris cancellis & alveis
fabricatum, extus autem tenaci glutine instar Apum propolis undique
vestitum, ostio satis patulo & profundo in summitate relicto, sicut ex
altera iconum probe depicta videre licet _(see the third and fourth
_Figures_ of the 27. _Scheme_.)_ Ita ut Apiarium marinum vere dixeris;
primo enim intuitu è Mare ad Terram delatum, vermiculis scatebat cæruleis
parvis, qui mox à calore solis in Muscas, vel Apes potius, easq; exiguas &
nigras transformebantur, circumvolantesque evanescebant, ita ut de eorum
mellificatione nihil certi conspici datum fuerit, cum tamen cærosa materia
propolis Apumque cellæ manifeste apparerent, atque ipsa mellis qualiscunque
substantia proculdubio urinatoribus patebit, ubi curiosius inquisiverint
hæc apiaria, eaque in natali solo & salo diversis temporibus penitius
lustrarint_.
Which History contains things sufficiently strange to be consider’d, as
whether the husk were a Plant, growing at the bottom of the Sea before, of
it self, out of whose putrifaction might be generated these strange kind of
Magots; or whether the seed of certain Bees, sinking to the bottom, might
there naturally form it self that vegetable hive, and take root; or,
whether it might not be placed there by some diving Fly; or, whether it
might not be some peculiar propriety of that Plant, whereby it might ripen
or form its vegetable juice into an Animal substance; or, whether it may
not be of the nature of a Sponge, or rather a Sponge of the nature of this,
according to some of those relations and conjectures I formerly made of
that body, is a matter very difficult to be determined. But indeed, in this
description, the Excellent _Piso_ has not been sufficiently particular in
the setting down the whole process, as it were to be wish’d: There are
indeed very odd progresses in the production of several kinds of Insects,
which are not less instructive then pleasant, several of which, the
diligent _Goedartius_ has carefully observ’d and recorded, but among all
his Observations, he has none like this, though that of the _Hemerobius_ be
somewhat of this kind, which is added as an Appendix by _Johannes Mey_.
I have, for my own particular, besides several of those mention’d by him,
observ’d divers other circumstances, perhaps, not much taken notice of,
though very common, which do indeed afford us a very _coercive_ argument to
admire the goodness and providence of the infinitely wise Creator in his
most excellent contrivances and dispensations. I have observ’d, at several
times of the Summer, that many of the leaves of divers Plants have been
spotted, or, as it were scabbed, and looking on the undersides of those of
them that have been but a little irregular, I have perceiv’d them to be
sprinkled with divers sorts of little Eggs, which letting alone, I have
found by degrees to grow bigger, and become little Worms with leggs, but
still to keep their former places, and those places of the leaves, of their
own accords, to be grown very protuberant upwards, and very hollow, and
arched underneath, whereby those young creatures are, as it were, shelter’d
and housed from external injury; divers leaves I have observ’d to grow and
swell so farr, as at length perfectly to inclose the Animal, which, by
other observations I have made, I ghess to contain it, and become, as it
were a womb to it, so long, till it be fit and prepar’d to be translated
into another state, at what time, like (what they say of) Vipers, they gnaw
their way through the womb that bred them; divers of these kinds I have met
with upon Goosberry leaves, Rose-tree leaves, Willow leaves, and many other
kinds.
There are often to be found upon Rose-trees and Brier bushes, little red
tufts, which are certain knobs or excrescencies, growing out from the Rind,
or barks of those kinds of Plants, they are cover’d with strange kinds of
threads or red hairs, which feel very soft, and look not unpleasantly. In
most of these, if it has no hole in it, you shall find certain little
Worms, which I suppose to be the causes of their production; for when that
Worm has eat its way through, they, having performed what they were
design’d by Nature to do, by degrees die and wither away.
Now, the manner of their production, I suppose to be thus, that the Alwise
Creator has as well implanted in every creature a faculty of knowing what
place is convenient for the hatching, nutrition, and preservation of their
Eggs and of-springs whereby they are stimulated and directed to convenient
places, which become, as ’twere the wombs that perform those offices: As he
has also suited and adapted a property to those places wherby they grow and
inclose those seeds, and having inclosed them, provide a convenient
nourishment for them, but as soon as they have done the office of a womb,
they die and wither.
The progress of inclosure I have often observ’d in leaves, which in those
places where those seeds have been cast, have by degrees swell’d and
inclos’d them, so perfectly round, as not to leave any perceptible passage
out.
From this same cause, I suppose that Galls, Oak-apples, and several other
productions of that kind, upon the branches and leaves of Trees, have their
original, for if you open any of them, when almost ripe, you shall find a
little Worm in them. Thus, if you open never so many dry Galls, you shall
find either a hole whereby the Worm has eat its passage out, or if you find
no passage, you may, by breaking or cutting the Gall, find in the middle of
it a small cavity, and in it a small body, which does plainly enough yet
retain a shape, to manifest it once to have been a Worm, though it dy’d by
a too early separation from the Oak on which it grew, its navel-string, as
’twere, being broken off from the leaf or branch by which the Globular body
that invelop’d it, received its nourishment from the Oak.
And indeed, if we consider the great care of the Creator in the
dispensations of his providences for the propagation and increase of the
race, not onely of all kind of Animals, but even of Vegetables, we cannot
chuse but admire and adore him for his Excellencies, but we shall leave off
to admire the creature, or to wonder at the strange kind of acting in
several Animals, which seem to favour so much of reason; it seeming to me
most manifest, that those are but actings according to their structures,
and such operations as such bodies, so compos’d, must necessarily, when
there are such and such circumstances concurring, perform: thus, when we
find Flies swarming, about any piece of flesh that does begin a little to
ferment; Butterflies about Colworts, and several other leaves, which will
serve to hatch and nourish their young; Gnats, and several other Flies
about the Waters, and marishy places, or any other creatures, seeking and
placing their Seeds in convenient repositories, we may, if we attentively
consider and examine it, find that there are circumstances sufficient, upon
the supposals of the excellent contrivance of their machine, to excite and
force them to act after such or such a manner; those steams that rise from
these several places may, perhaps, set several parts of these little
Animals at work, even as in the contrivance of killing a Fox or Wolf with a
Gun, the moving of a string, is the death of the Animal; for the Beast, by
moving the flesh that is laid to entrap him, pulls the string which moves
the trigger, and that lets go the Cock which on the steel strikes certain
sparks of fire which kindle the powder in the pann, and that presently
flies into the barrel, where the powder catching fire rarifies and drives
out the bullet which kills the Animal; in all which actions, there is
nothing of intention or ratiocination to be ascrib’d either to the Animal
or Engine, but all to the ingeniousness of the contriver.
But to return to the more immediate consideration of our Gnat: We have in
it an Instance, not usual or common, of a very strange _amphibious_
creature, that being a creature that inhabits the Air, does yet produce a
creature, that for some time lives in the water as a Fish, though afterward
(which is as strange) it becomes an inhabitant of the Air, like its Sire,
in the form of a Fly. And this, methinks, does prompt me to propose certain
conjectures, as Queries, having not yet had sufficient opportunity and
leisure to answer them my self from my own Experiments or Observations.
And the first is, Whether all those things that we suppose to be bred from
corruption and putrifaction, may not be rationally suppos’d to have their
origination as natural as these Gnats, who, ’tis very probable, were first
dropt into this Water, in the form of Eggs. Those Seeds or Eggs must
certainly be very small, which so small a creature as a Gnat yields, and
therefore, we need not wonder that we find not the Eggs themselves, some of
the younger of them, which I have observ’d, having not exceeded a tenth
part of the bulk they have afterwards come to; and next, I have observed
some of those little ones which must have been generated after the Water
was inclosed in the Bottle, and therefore most probably from Eggs, whereas
those creatures have been suppos’d to be bred of the corruption of the
Water, there being not formerly known any probable way how they should be
generated.
A second is, whether these Eggs are immediately dropt into the Water by the
Gnats themselves, or, mediately, are brought down by the falling rain; for
it seems not very improbable, but that those small seeds of Gnats may
(being, perhaps, of so light a nature, and having so great a proportion of
surface to so small a bulk of body) be ejected into the Air, and so,
perhaps, carried for a good while too and fro in it, till by the drops of
Rain it be wash’d out of it.
A third is, whether multitudes of those other little creatures that are
found to inhabit the Water for some time, do not, at certain times, take
wing and fly into the Air, others dive and hide themselves in the Earth,
and so contribute to the increase both of the one and the other Element.
* * * * *
_Postscript._
A good while since the writing of this Description, I was presented by
Doctor _Peter Ball_, an ingenious Member of the _Royal Society_, with a
little Paper of Nuts, which he told me was sent him from a Brother of his
out of the Countrey, from _Mamhead_ in _Devonshire_, some of them were
loose, having been, as I suppose, broken off, others were still growing
fast on upon the sides of a stick, which seem’d by the bark, pliableness of
it, and by certain strings that grew out of it, to be some piece of the
root of a Tree; they were all of them dry’d, and a little shrivell’d,
others more round, of a brown colour; their shape was much like a Figg, but
very much smaller, some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry, others, and
the biggest, of a Hazel-Nut. Some of these that had no hole in them, I
carefully opened with my Knife, and found in them a good large round white
Maggot, almost as bigg as a small Pea, which seem’d shap’d like other
Maggots, but shorter. I could not find them to move, though I ghess’d them
to be alive, because upon pricking them with a Pinn, there would issue out
a great deal of white _mucous_ matter, which seem’d to be from a voluntary
contraction of their skin; their husk or matrix consisted of three Coats,
like the barks of Trees, the outermost being more rough and spongie, and
the thickest, the middlemost more close, hard, white, and thin, the
innermost very thin, seeming almost like the skin within an Egg’s shell.
The two outermost had root in the branch or stick, but the innermost had no
stem or process, but was onely a skin that cover’d the cavity of the Nut.
All the Nuts that had no holes eaten in them, I found to contain these
Maggots, but all that had holes, I found empty, the Maggots, it seems,
having eaten their way through, taken wings and flown away, as this
following account (which I receiv’d in writing from the same person, as it
was sent him by his Brother) manifests. _In a moorish black Peaty mould,
with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands, upon occasion of digging a
hole two or three foot deep, at the head of a Pond or Pool, to set a Tree
in, at that depth, were found, about the end of _October 1663._ in those
very veins of Sand, those Buttons or Nuts, sticking to a little loose
stick, that is, not belonging to any live Tree, and some of them also free
by themselves._
_Four or five of which being then open’d, some were found to contain live
Insects come to perfection, most like to flying _Ants_, if not the same; in
others, Insects, yet imperfect, having but the head and wings form’d, the
rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance._
Now, as this furnishes us with one odd History more, very agreeable to what
I before hinted, so I doubt not, but were men diligent observers, they
might meet with multitudes of the same kind, both in the Earth and in the
Water, and in the Air, on Trees, Plants, and other Vegetables, all places
and things being, as it were, _animarum plena_. And I have often, with
wonder and pleasure, in the Spring and Summer time, look’d close to, and
diligently on, common Garden mould, and in a very small parcel of it, found
such multitudes and diversities of little _reptiles_, some in husks, others
onely creepers, many wing’d, and ready for the Air; divers husks or
habitations left behind empty. Now, if the Earth of our cold Climate be so
fertile of animate bodies, what may we think of the fat Earth of hotter
Climates? Certainly, the Sun may there, by its activity, cause as great a
parcel of Earth to fly on wings in the Air, as it does of Water in steams
and vapours. And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those
plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain
in such vast quantities? So that we need not much wonder at those
innumerable clouds of Locusts with which _Africa_, and other hot countries
are so pestred, since in those places are found all the convenient causes
of their production, namely, genitors, or Parents, concurrent receptacles
or matrixes, and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture.
I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out
of _Devonshire_, but chancing to examine Mr. _Parkinson_’s Herbal for
something else, and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples, I found among
no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak, which I doubt
not, but upon examination, will be all found to be the _matrixes_ of so
many several kinds of Insects; I having observ’d many of them my self to be
so, among 24. several kinds, I say, I found one described and Figur’d
directly like that which I had by me, the _Scheme_ is there to be seen, the
description, because but short, I have here adjoin’d _Theatri Botanici
trib. 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the
Spring-time, and sometimes also in the very heat of Summer, a peculiar kind
of Mushrom or Excrescence, call’d _Uva Quercina_, swelling out of the
Earth, many growing one close unto another, of the fashion of a Grape, and
therefore took the name, the _Oak-Grape_, and is of a Purplish colour on
the outside, and white within like Milk, and in the end of Summer becometh
hard and woody._ Whether this be the very same kind, I cannot affirm, but
both the Picture and Description come very neer to that I have, but that he
seems not to take notice of the hollowness or Worm, for which ’tis most
observable. And therefore ’tis very likely, if men did but take notice,
they might find very many differing Species of these Nuts, _Ovaries_, or
_Matrixes_, and all of them to have much the same designation and office.
And I have very lately found several kinds of Excrescencies on Trees and
Shrubs, which having endured the Winter, upon opening them, I found most of
them to contain little Worms, but dead, those things that contain’d them
being wither’d and dry.
* * * * *