With this earnest Concern of the irrational Animals for their Young, we may join in the
V. And last Place, Their Faculty and Sagacity of feeding them. About which I shall take notice of three Things.
1. The Faculty of suckling the Young, is an excellent Provision the Creator hath made for those helpless Creatures. And here the Agreeableness and Suitableness of that Food to young Creatures, deserves particular Observation, as also their Delight in it, and Desire and Endeavours after it, even as soon as born[z], together with the Willingness of all, even the most savage and fierce Animals, to part with it, and to administer it to their Young, yea, to teach and institute them in the Art of taking it.
And lastly, to name no more, the curious Apparatus which is made for this Service in the divers Species of Animals, by a due Number of Breasts, proportionable to the Occasions of each Animal, by curious Glands in those Breasts, to separate that nutritive Juice, the Milk, by Arteries and Veins to convey it to them, and proper Rivulets and Channels to convey it from them, with Dugs and Nipples, placed in the most convenient Part of the Body[aa] of each Animal, to administer it to their Young; all these Things, I say, do manifestly proclaim the Care and Wisdom of the great Creator.
2. As for such Animals as do in another manner breed up their Young, by finding out Food, and putting it into their Mouth, the Provision made in them for this Service, to strike, catch, to pouch and convey their Prey and Food to their Young[bb], is very considerable. And so is also their Sagacity in equally distributing it among them, that among many, all shall be duly, equally, and in good Order, fed.
3. There is yet another Instinct remaining, of such Animals as can neither administer Suck to their Young, neither lay them in Places affording Food, nor can convey and bring them Food, but do with their Eggs, lay up Provisions for their future Young. Somewhat of this is reported of some Birds[cc]; but I have my self with Pleasure, frequently seen some of the Species of Insects to carry ample Provisions into their dry and barren Cells, where they have seal’d them carefully and cautiously up with their Eggs, partly, ’tis like, for Incubation sake, and partly as an easy Bed to lodge their Young; but chiefly for future Provision for their Young, in their Nympha-State, when they stand in need of Food[dd].
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.