In _September_ and _October, 1661._ I observ’d in _Oxford_ several of these
little pretty Creatures to wander to and fro, and often to travel over the
plains of my Window. And in _September_ and _October, 1663._ I observ’d
likewise several of these very same Creatures traversing a window at
_London_, and looking without the window upon the subjacent wall, I found
whole flocks of the same kind running to and fro among the small groves and
thickets of green moss, and upon the curiously spreading vegetable blew or
yellow moss, which is a kind of a Mushrome or Jews-ear.
These Creatures to the naked eye seemed to be a kind of black Mite, but
much nimbler and stronger then the ordinary Cheese-Mites; but examining
them in a _Microscope_, I found them to be a very fine crusted or shell’d
Insect, much like that represented in the first Figure of the three and
thirtieth _Scheme_, with a protuberant oval shell A, indented or pitted
with an abundance of small pits, all covered over with little white
brisles, whose points all directed backwards.
It had eight legs, each of them provided with a very sharp tallon, or claw
at the end, which this little Animal, in its going, fastned into the pores
of the body over which it went. Each of these legs were bestuck in every
joynt of them with multitudes of small hairs, or (if we respect the
proportion they bore to the bigness of the leg) turnpikes, all pointing
towards the claws.
The _Thorax_, or middle parts of the body of this Creature, was exceeding
small, in respect both of the head and belly, it being nothing but that
part which was covered by the two shells BB, though it seem’d to grow
thicker underneath: And indeed, if we consider the great variety Nature
uses in proportioning the three parts of the body, (the _Head_, _Thorax_,
and _Belly_) we shall not wonder at the small proportion of this _Thorax_,
nor at the vaster bulk of the belly, for could we exactly anatomise this
little Creature, and observe the particular designs of each part, we should
doubtless, as we do in all her more manageable and tractable fabricks, find
much more reason to admire the excellency of her contrivance and
workmanship, then to wonder, it was not made otherwise.
The head of this little Insect was shap’d somewhat like a Mite’s, that is,
it had a long snout, in the manner of a Hogs, with a knobbed ridge running
along the middle of it, which was bestuck on either side with many small
brisles, all pointing forward, and two very large pikes or horns, which
rose from the top of the head, just over each eye, and pointed forward
also. It had two pretty large black eyes on either side of the head EE,
from one of which I could see a very bright reflection of the window, which
made me ghess, that the _Cornea_ of it was smooth, like those of bigger
Insects. Its motion was pretty quick and strong, it being able very easily
to tumble a stone or clod four times as big as its whole body.
At the same time and place, and divers times since, I have observed with my
_Microscope_, another little Insect, which, though I have not annexed the
picture of, may be worth noting, for its exceeding nimbleness as well as
smalness; it was as small as a Mite, with a body deep and ridged, almost
like a Flea; it had eight blood-red legs, not very long, but slender; and
two horns or feelers before. Its motion was so exceeding quick, that I have
often lost sight of one I have observed with my naked eye; and though, when
it was not frighted, I was able to follow the motions of some with my
_Microscope_; yet if it were never so little startled, it posted away with
such speed, and turn’d and winded it self so quick, that I should presently
lose sight of it.
When I first observ’d the former of these Insects, or Mites, I began to
conjecture, that certainly I had found out the vagabond Parents of those
Mites we find in Cheeses, Meal, Corn, Seeds, musty Barrels, musty Leather,
&c. these little Creatures, wandring to and fro every whither, might
perhaps, as they were invited hither and thither by the musty steams of
several putrifying bodies, make their invasions upon those new and pleasing
territories, and there spending the remainder of their life, which might be
perhaps a day, or thereabouts, in very plentiful and riotous living, might
leave their offspring behind them, which by the change of the soil and
Country they now inhabite, might be quite alter’d from the hew of their
_primogenitors_, and, like _Mores_ translated into Northern _European_
Climates, after a little time, change both their skin and shape. And this
seems yet more probable in these Insects, because that the soil or body
they inhabit, seems to be almost half their parent, for it not only hatches
and brings those little eggs, or seminal principles, to perfection, but
seems to augment and nourish them also before they are hatch’d or shaped;
for it is obvious enough to be observ’d, that the eggs of many other
Insects, and particularly of Mites, are increas’d in bulk after they are
laid out of the bodies of the Insects, and plump’d sometimes into many
times their former bigness, so that the bodies they are laid in being, as
it were, half their mothers, we shall not wonder that it should have such
an active power to change their forms. We find by relations how much the
_Negro_ Women do besmeer the of-spring of the _Spaniard_, bringing forth
neither white-skinn’d nor black, but tawny hided _Mulattos_.
Now, though I propound this as probable, I have not yet been so farr
certify’d by Observations as to conclude any thing, either positively or
negatively, concerning it. Perhaps, some more lucky diligence may please
the curious Inquirer with the discovery of this, to be a truth, which I now
conjecture, and may thereby give him a satisfactory account of the cause of
those creatures, whose original seems yet so obscure, and may give him
cause to believe, that many other animate beings, that seem also to be the
mere product of putrifaction, may be innobled with a Pedigree as antient as
the first creation, and farr exceed the greatest beings in their numerous
Genealogies. But on the other side, if it should be found that these, or
any other animate body, have no immediate similar Parent, I have in another
place set down a conjectural _Hypothesis_ whereby those _Phænomena_ may
likely enough be solv’d, wherein the infinite wisdom and providence of the
Creator is no less rare and wonderfull.
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