FOOTNOTES:
[a] Spontaneous Generation, is a Doctrine so generally exploded, that I shall not undertake the Disproof of it. It is so evident, that all Animals, yea, Vegetables too, owe their Production to Parent-Animals and Vegetables; that I have often admir’d at the Sloath and Prejudices of the ancient Philosophers, in so easily taking upon Trust the Aristotelian, or rather, the Ægyptian Doctrine of equivocal Generation; that when they saw Flies, Frogs and Lice, for Instance, to be Male and Female, and accordingly to ingender, lay Eggs, &c. they could ever imagine any of these Creatures should be spontaneously produc’d, especially in so romantick a Manner, as in the Clouds: as they particularly thought Frogs were, and that they dropp’d down in Showers of Rain. For an Answer to this Case of Frogs, I shall refer to a Relation of my own, which my late most ingenious, and learned Friend, the great Mr. Ray, requested of me, and was pleas’d to publish in his last Edition of his Wisdom of God manifested, &c. p. 365.
But some will yet assert the Raining of Frogs; among which the curious Dr. Plot is somewhat of this Opinion; telling us of Frogs found on the Leads of the Lord Aston’s Gatehouse, at Tixal in Staffordshire, which he thinks by some such Means came there; as also on the Bowling-Green, frequently after a Shower of Rain. Plot’s Hist. Staff. c. 1. §. 47.
But we may take a Judgment of this, and an Hundred such like Reports, to be met with in considerable Authors, from other the like Reports that have been better inquir’d into. In a Scarcity in Silesia, a mighty Rumour was spread of its raining Millet-Seed; but the Matter being inquir’d into, ’twas found to be only the Seeds of the Ivy-leaved Speedwell, or small Henbit, growing in the Place in great Plenty. Eph. Germ. An. 3. Obs. 40. So in the Archipelago, it was thought Ashes were rain’d, Ships being cover’d therewith at a hundred Leagues Distance; but in all Probability, it was from an Eruption of Vesuvius, that then happen’d. About Warminster in Wilts, ’twas reported it rain’d Wheat; but a curious Observer, Mr. Cole, found it to be only Ivy-Berries, blown thither in a considerable Quantity by a Tempest. In the Year 1696, at Cranstead near Wrotham in Kent, a Pasture-Field was over-spread with little young Whitings, suppos’d to fall from the Clouds, in a Tempest of Thunder and Rain; but doubtless they were brought thither with Waters from the Sea by the Tempest. See the before-commended Mr. Lowth. Abridg. Philos. Trans. Vol. 2. p. 143, 144.
Neither needeth it seem strange, that Ashes, Ivy-Berries, small Fishes, or young Frogs, (which yet may have some other Conveyance,) should be thus transported by tempestuous Winds, considering to what Distance, and in what Quantities the Sea-Waters were carry’d by the Great-Storm, Nov. 26. 1703, of which an ingenious Friend sent me these Accounts from Lewes in Sussex, viz. That a Physician travelling soon after the Storm, to Tisehurst, twenty Miles from the Sea, as he rode along pluck’d some Tops of Hedges, and chewing them, found them Salt: That some Grapes hanging on the Vines at Lewes were so too. That Mr. Williamson Rector of Ripe, found the Twigs in his Gardens Salt the Monday after the Storm; and others observ’d the same a Week after. That the Grass of the Downs about Lewes, was so Salt, that the Sheep would not feed till Hunger compell’d them: And that the Miller of Berwick, (three Miles from the Sea,) attempting with his Man to secure his Mill, were so wash’d with Flashes of Sea-Water, like the Breakings of Waves against the Rocks, that they were almost strangled therewith, and forced to give over their Attempt.
I call’d this Doctrine of equivocal Generation, an Ægyptian Doctrine; because probably it had its Rise in Ægypt, to salve the Hypothesis, of the Production of Men, and other Animals, out of the Earth, by the Help of the Sun’s Heat. To prove which, the Ægyptians, (as Diod. Sicul. saith,) produce this Observation, That about Thebes, when the Earth is moistened by the Nile, by the Intense Heat of the Sun, an innumerable Number of Mice do spring out. From whence he infers, That all Kinds of Animals, might as well at first come likewise out of the Earth. And from these the learned Bishop Stillingfleet thinks other Writers, as Ovid, Mela, Pliny, &c. have, without examining its Truth, taken up the same Hypothesis. V. Stillingfleet’s Orig. Sacr. Part 2. Book 1. Chap. 1.
The before-commended Dr. Harris, from the Observations of Dr. Harvey, Sr. Malpighi, Dr. de Graaf, and Mr. Leewenhoeck, infers three Things concerning Generation as highly probable. 1. That Animals are ex Animalculo. 2. That the Animalcules are originally in femine Marium, & non in Fœminis. 3. That they can never come forward, or be formed into Animals of the respective Kind, without the Ova in Fœminis. His Proofs and Illustrations, see under the Word Generation, in his Lex. Techn. Vol. 2.
[] At certè Natura, si fieri potuisset, maximè optasset suum opificium esse immortale: quod cùm per materiam non liceret (nam quod——ex carne est compositum, incorruptibile esse non potest) subsidium quod potuit ipsi ad immortalitatem est sacricata, sapientis cujusdam urbis conditoris exemplo, &c. Nam mirabilem quondam rationem invenit, quomodo in demortui animalis locum, novum aliud sufficiat. Galen. de Usu. Part. l. 14. c. 22.
[c] Animantia Bruta Obstetricibus non indigent in edendo Partu, cùm inditâ Naturæ vi Umbilicus seipsum occludat. Ol. Rudbeck in Blasii Anat. Felis.
[f] The Ephemeron, as it is an unusual and special Instance of the Brevity of Life; so I take to be a wonderful Instance of the special Care and Providence of God, in the Conservation of the Species of that Animal. For, 1. As an Animal, whose Life is determin’d in about five or six Hours Time, (viz. from about six in the Evening, till about eleven a Clock at Night,) needs no Food; so neither doth the Ephemeron eat, after it is become a Fly. 2. As to its Generation; in those five Hours of its Life, it performs that, and all other necessary Offices of Life: For in the Beginning of its Life, it sheds its Coat; and that being done, and the poor little Animal thereby render’d light and agile, it spends the rest of its short Time in striking over the Waters, and at the same Time the Female droppeth her Egg on the Waters, and the Male his Sperm on them to impregnate them. These Eggs are spread about by the Waters; descend to the Bottom by their own Gravity; and are hatch’d by the Warmth of the Sun, into little Worms, which make themselves Cases in the Clay, and feed on the same without any Need of parental Care. Vid. Ephem. vita, translated by Dr. Tyson from Swammerdam. See also [Book VIII. Chap. 6. Note (r).]
[g] See [Chap. 13. Note (c)], and [Book VIII. Chap. 6.]
[h] The Worms in [Chap. 11. Note (x)], breed in the Holes they gnaw in Stone, as manifest from their Eggs found therein.
[] See [Book VIII. Chap. 6. Note (q).]
[k] Many, if not most Flies, especially those of the Flesh-Fly-kind, have a Faculty of extending their Uropygia, and thereby are enabled to thrust their Eggs into convenient Holes, and Receptacles for their Young, in Flesh, and whatever else they Fly-blow. But none more remarkable than the Horse-Fly, called by Pennius, in Mouffet, (p. 62.) Σκολιοῦρος, i.e. Curvicauda, and the Whame or Burrel-Fly, which is vexatious to Horses in Summer, not by stinging them, but only by their bombylious Noise, or tickling them in sticking their Nits, or Eggs on the Hair; which they do in a very dexterous Manner, by thrusting out their Uropygia, bending them up, and by gentle, slight Touches, sticking the Eggs to the Hair of the Legs, Shoulders, and Necks, commonly of Horses; so that Horses which go abroad, and are seldom dressed, are somewhat discoloured by the numerous Nits adhering to their Hair.
Having mentioned so much of the Generation of this Insect, although it be a little out of the Way, I hope I shall be excused for taking Notice of the long-tailed Maggot, which is the Product of these Nits or Eggs, called by Dr. Plot, Eruca glabra, [or rather Eula Scabra, it should be] caudata aquatico-arborea, it being found by him in the Water of an hollow Tree, but I have found it in Ditches, Saw-Pits, Holes of Water in the High-way, and such-like Places where the Waters are most still and foul. This Maggot I mention, as being a singular and remarkable Work of God, not so much for its being so utterly unlike as it is to its Parent Bee-like-Fly, as for the wise Provision made for it by its long Tail; which is so joynted at certain Distances from the Body, as that it can be withdrawn, or sheathed, one Part within another, to what Length the Maggot pleaseth, so as to enable it to reach the Bottom of very shallow, or deeper Waters, as it hath Occasion, for the gathering of Food. At the end of this tapering is a Ramification of Fibrillæ, or small Hairs representing, when spread, a Star; with the help of which, spread out on the top of the Waters, it is enabled to hang making by that means a small Depression or Concavity on the Surface of the Water. In the midst of this Star, I imagine the Maggot takes in Air, there being a Perforation, which with a Microscope I could perceive to be open, and by the Star to be guarded against the Incursion of the Water.
[l] The Excrescences on the Root of Cabbages, Turneps, and divers other Plants, have always a Maggot in them; but what the Animal is that thus makes its way to the Root under Ground, whether Ichneumon, Phalæna, Scarab, or Scolopendra, I could never discover, being not able to bring them to any thing in Boxes.
[m] I presume they are only of the Ichneumon-Fly-kind, that have their Generation in the Trunks of Vegetables. In Malpighi de Gallis, Fig. 61. is a good Cut of the gouty Excrescences, or rather Tumours of the Briar-stalk: From which proceeds a small black Ichneumon-Fly, with red Legs; black, smooth jointed Antennæ; pretty large Thorax; and short, round Belly, of the Shape of an Heart. It leapeth as a Flea. The Male, (as in other Insects,) is lesser than the Female, and very venereous, in spite of Danger, getting upon the Female, whom they beat and tickle with their Breeches and Horns, to excite them to a Coït.
Another Example of the Generation in the Trunks of Vegetables, shall be from the Papers of my often-commended Friend Mr. Ray, which are in my Hands, and that is an Observation of the ingenious Dr. Nath. Wood: I have (said he) lately observed many Eggs in the common Rush. One sort are little transparent Eggs, in Shape somewhat like a Pear, or Retort, lying within the Skin, upon, or in the Medulla, just against a brownish Spot on the out-side of the Rush; which is apparently the Creatrix of the Wound made by the Fly, when she puts her Eggs there. Another Kind is much longer, and not so transparent, of a long oval, or rather cylindrical Form; six, eight, or more, lie commonly together, across the Rush, parallel to each other, like the Teeth of a Comb, and are as long as the Breadth of the Rush. Letter from Kilkenny in Ireland, Apr. 28. 1697.
[n] See [Book VIII. Chap. 6. Note (d).]
[o] I have in [Chap. 13. Note (u)], and [Book VIII. Chap. 6. Note (c), (f)], taken Notice of the Nidification and Generation of some Insects on the Leaves of Vegetables, and shall therefore, for the Illustration of this Place, chuse an uncommon Example out of the Scarab-kind (the Generation of which Tribe hath not been as yet mentioned) and that is of a small Scarab bred in the very Tips of Elm-Leaves. These Leaves, in Summer, may be observed to be, many of them, dry and dead, as also turgid; in which lieth a dirty, whitish, rough Maggot. From which proceeds a Beetle of the smallest kind, of a light, Weesle Colour, that leapeth like a Grashopper, although its Legs are but short. Its Eyes are blackish, Elytra thin, and prettily furrowed, with many Concavities in them; small club-headed Antennæ, and a long Rostrum like a Proboscis.
The same, or much like this, I have met with on Tips of Oaken and Holly-Leaves. How the Scarab lays its Eggs in the Leaf, whether by terebrating the Leaf, or whether the Maggot, when hatched, doth it, I could never see. But with great Dexterity, it makes its Way between the upper and under Membranes of the Leaf feeding upon the parenchymous Part thereof. Its Head is slenderer and sharper than most of Maggots, as if made on purpose for this Work; but yet I have often wondered at their Artifice in so nicely separating the Membranes of the Elm-Leaf, without breaking them, and endangering their own tumbling out of ’em, considering how thin and very tender the Skins of that Leaf (particularly) are.
[p] See [Book VIII. Chap. 6. Note (z).]
[q] See [Book VIII. Chap. 6.] to [Note (bb)], &c.
[r] Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἐκτροφὰς τῶν τέκνων στοχαζέμενα, ποιοῦνται τὸν συνδυασμὸν ἐν τῇ ἀπαρτιζούσῃ ὥρᾳ. Arist. Hist. An. l. 5. c. 8 ubi plura.
[t] Mr. Ray alledges good Reasons to conclude, that although Birds have not an exact Power of numbering, yet, that they have of distinguishing many from few, and knowing when they come near to a certain Number; and that they have it in their Power to lay many or few Eggs. All which he manifesteth from Hens, and other domestick Fowls, laying many more Eggs when they are withdrawn, than when not. Which holds in wild as well as domestick Birds, as appears from Dr. Lister’s Experiment in withdrawing a Swallow’s Eggs, which by that Means laid nineteen Eggs successively before she gave over. V. Ray’s Wisdom of God, &c. p. 137.
[] Palumbes incubat fœmina post meridiana in matutinum, cætero mas. Columbæ incubant ambo, interdiu Mas, noctu Fœmina. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 58.
[w] Of the common Crow, Mr. Willughby saith, The Females only sit, and that diligently, the Males in the mean time bring them Victuals, as Aristotle saith. In most other Birds, which pair together, the Male and Female sit by Turns. Ornithol. l. 2. §. 1. c. 2. §. 2. And I have observed the Female-Crows to be much fatter than the Males, in the Time of Incubation, by Reason the Male, out of his conjugal Affection, almost starves himself, to supply the Female with Plenty.
[y] Volucribus Natura novam quandam, Pullos educandi, rationem excogitavit: ipsis enim præcipuum quendam amorem in ea quæ procrearent, ingeneravit, quo impulsu bellum pro pullis cum ferocibus animalibus, quæ ante declinârunt, intrepide suscipiunt, victúmque ipsis convenientem suppeditant. Galen. de Us. Part. l. 14. c. 4.
[z] In iis animanatibus quæ lacte aluntur, omnis ferè cibus matrum lactescere incipit; eaque, quæ paulo antè nata sunt, sine magistro, duce naturâ, mammas appetunt, earumque ubertate saturantur. Atque ut intelligamus nihil horum esse fortutitum, & hæc omnia esse provida, solertisque naturæ, quæ multiplices fœtus procreant, ut Sues, ut Canes, his Mammarum data est multitudo; quas easdam paucas habent eæ bestiæ, quæ pauca gignunt. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 51. Consule quoque Galen de Us. Part. l. 4. c. 4. & l. 15. c. 7.
[aa] Animalia solidipeda, & ruminantia, vel cornigera, inter femora Mammas habent, quorum Fœtus statim à partu pedibus insistunt, quòd matres inter lactandum non decumbant, ut Equa, Asina, &c. Animalia digitata & multipara in medio ventre, scil. spatio ab inguine ad pectus (in Cuniculo usque ad jugulum) duplicem mammarum seriem fortita sunt, quæ omnia decumbentia ubera fœtibus admovent, ut Ursa, Leæna, &c. Si verò hæc in solo inguine Mammas gererent, propria cura inter decumbendum fœtus accessum ad mammas nonnihil præpedirent. Mulieribus Mammæ binæ sunt, ut & Papillæ, nimirum ut latus lateri conformitèr respondeat, & ut alternatim infans à latere in latus inter sugendum tranferatur, ne corpus ejus uni lateri nimis assuescens quoquo modo incurvetur. Simia, homo Sylvestris, &c. Blas. Anat. Animal. Par. 1. Cap. 6. de Cane ex Whartono. See here what Pliny hath also, L. 11. Cap. 40.
In the Elephant, the Nipples are near the Breast, by Reason the old one is forced to suck her self, and by the help of her Trunk conveys the Milk into the Mouth of her Young. Vid. Phil. Trans. No. 336.
[bb] For an Exemplification, I might name many Animals, particularly Birds, whole Parts are compleatly suited to this Service. They are Characteristicks of rapacious Birds, to have aduncous Bills and Talons to hold and tear, and strong brawny Thighs to strike and carry their Prey, as well as a sharp piercing Sight to spy it afar off. Raii Synops. Method. Av. p. 1. The Pelecane also might be here named, for its prodigious Bag under its Bill and Throat, big enough to contain thirty Pints. Id. ibid. p. 122. And to name no more, the common Heron hath its most remarkable Parts adapted to thus Service; long Legs for wading, and a long Neck answerable thereto to reach Prey, a wide, extensive Throat to pouch it; long Toes, with strong hooked Talons, (one of which is remarkably serrate on the Edge) the better to hold their Prey; a long sharp Bill to strike their Prey, and serrate towards the Point, with sharp hooked Beards standing backward, to hold their Prey fast when struck; and lastly, large, broad, concave Wings (in Appearance much too large, heavy and cumbersome for so small a Body, but) of greatest Use to enable them to carry the greater Load to their Nests at several Miles Distance; as I have seen them do from several Miles beyond me, to a large Heronry above three Miles distant from me. In which I have seen Plaise, and other Fish, some Inches long, lying under the high Trees in which they build; and the curious and ingenious Owner thereof, D’Acre Barret, Esq; hath seen a large Eel convey’d by them, notwithstanding the great Annoyance it gave them in their Flight, by its twisting this Way and that Way about their Bodies.
[cc] This is reported of the American Ostrich, mentioned by Acarette, in Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 89. Of which see [Book VII. Chap. 4. Note (e).]
[dd] Hornets, Wasps, and all the Kinds of Bees provide Honey; and many of the Pseudosphecæ, and Ichneumon Wasps and Flies, carry Maggots, Spiders, &c. into their Nests; of which see above, [Note (c) Chap. 13.]
CHAP. XVI.
The Conclusion.
Thus I have, as briefly as well I could (and much more briefly than the Matters deserved) dispatched the Decad of Things I proposed in common to the sensitive Creatures. And now let us pause a little, and reflect. And upon the whole Matter, what less can be concluded than that there is a Being infinitely Wise, Potent, and Kind, who is able to contrive and make this glorious Scene of Things, which I have thus given only a Glance of? For what less than Infinite, could stock so vast a Globe with such a noble Set of Animals? All so Contrived, as to minister to one another’s Help some Way or other, and most of them serviceable to Man peculiarly, the Top of this lower World, and who was made, as it were, on purpose to observe, and survey, and set forth the Glory of the infinite Creator, manifested in his Works! Who! What but the Great GOD could so admirably provide for the whole Animal World every Thing serviceable to it, or that can be wished for, either to conserve its Species, or to minister to the Being or Well-being of Individuals! Particularly, who could Feed so spacious a World, who could please so large a Number of Palates, or suit so many Palates to so great a Variety of Food, but the infinite Conservator of the World! And who but the same great HE, could provide such commodious Cloathing for every Animal; such proper Houses, Nests and Habitations; such suitable Armature and Weapons; such Subtilty, Artifice and Sagacity, as every Creature is more or less armed and furnished with, to fence off the Injuries of the Weather, to rescue it self from Dangers, to preserve it self from the Annoyances of its Enemies; and, in a word, to conserve its Self, and its Species! What but an infinite superintending Power could so equally balance the several Species of Animals, and conserve the Numbers of the individuals of every Species so even, as not to over or under-people the terraqueous Globe! Who, but the infinite wise Lord of the World, could allot every Creature its most suitable Place to live in, the most suitable Element to breath, and move, and act in. And who but HE could make so admirable a Set of Organs, as those of Respiration are, both in Land and Water-Animals! Who could contrive so curious a Set of Limbs, Joynts, Bones, Muscles, and Nerves, to give to every Animal the most commodious Motion to its State and Occasions! And to name no more, what Anatomist, Mathematician, Workman, yea Angel, could contrive and make so curious, so commodious, and every way so exquisite a Set of Senses, as the five Senses of Animals are; whole Organs are so dexterously contrived, so conveniently placed in the Body, so neatly adjusted, so firmly guarded, and so compleatly suited to every Occasion, that they plainly set forth the Agency of the infinite Creator and Conservator of the World.
So that here, upon a transient View of the Animal World in general only, we have such a Throng of Glories, such an enravishing Scene of Things as may excite us to admire, praise, and adore the infinitely wise, powerful, and kind CREATOR; to condemn all atheistical Principles; and with holy David, Psalm xiv. 1. to conclude that he is in good earnest a Fool, that dares to say, There is no God, when we are every where surrounded with such manifest Characters, and plain Demonstrations of that infinite Being.
But in the next Book we shall still find greater Tokens, if possible, when I come to take a View of Animals in particular.
A
SURVEY
Of the Particular
Tribes of ANIMALS.
In the foregoing Book, having taken a View of the Things in common to Animals, my Business in the next, will be to inspect the particular Tribes, in order to give further Manifestations of the Infinite Creator’s Wisdom, Power and Goodness towards the Animal World.
