this place, with inftancing only one mark of conformity between infects and other animals, it was not for want of more: but, because the one mentioned in the text, is that which diftinguishes them moft remarkably from vegetables in general. The analogies, however, which fubfift between infects and other animals, are very numerous, and in order to mention fome of them, I fhall obferve, firft, that both of them grow, and are propagated, almoft entirely in the fame. way. 2. That the internal parts of the one, are analogous to thofe of the others. All infects, like the larger animals, with few exceptions if any, have a ftomach, inteftines, a heart, veins, lungs, a brain, fpinal marrow, mufcles, an ovary, &c. 3. That infects likewife are endowed with senses. All have taste and feeling, the greater part have fight, and probably alfo finell, nor can it be doubted, that many have hearing. [*The ears of infects have been lately demonstrated by Profeffor Fabricius, who published an account, with figures of thofe organs, in the crab and lobster, in the New Copenhagen Tranfactions, Vol. II. p. 375. That eminent entomologist found the external orifice of the organ in these animals, to be placed between the long and the short antennæ, the cochlea, &c. being lodged in the upper part of what Linnæus calls the thorax, near the base of the ferrated projection at its apex. As these animals, therefore, are true infects, it is reasonable to conclude, that the rest of the clafs are likewise provided with fimilar organs, in the fame places.] 4. That they appear alfo, to be endowed with the paffions, especially with that of love, fear and anger. 5. That they exhibit traces of memory, and a certain degree of intelligence. 6. That each has its peculiar induftry, artifice, manner of attack, defence, and method of attending to its own prefervation. 7. That a diverfity of characters is obfervable among them. Some are bold, timid, active, flothful, patient, headlong, ftrong, weak, focial, folitary, neat, fluttish, temperate, voracious. In a word, hardly any thing is to be feen in the organs, difpofitions, manner of living, and acting in the larger animals, of which we may not find traces in infects; fo that it cannot be denied, but that their analogies with these animals, are incomparably more real, and more distinct, than those with plants.

PAGE 39, 1. 18,

Approach to the nature of vegetables. Although among inLects,

Pp

fects, the greater number feem to be as little allied to the vegetable kingdom, as other animals, it must, however, be confeffed, that there are fome, which, in external appearance, or in fome other refpect, appear to have a nearer relation to it. Such, for instance, are the lea anemones (actinia) which have rather the figure of a fungus, than of an animal, and which ftir fo little from the ftone they adhere to, that one would think they were rooted in it. Not that they are incapable of progreffive motion; but, it is fo flow, as to be almoft imperceptible, and they hardly move over a fpace of half an inch in a quarter of an hour.

Such, likewife, is the female of thofe animals, called by Reaumur, gall-infects, and which have always been taken in Europe, for real galls. When the female of this infect is with young, the becomes incapable of changing place, the lofes the figure of an animal, and affumes that of thofe excrefcences, commonly called by the name of galls.

Such, likewife, is that fpecies of tænia, or flat and articulated worm of the human body, whofe head has not been obferved, and which, it is faid, is incapable of motion.Laftly, fuch is that animal, common in ditches, the form of which, has fome refemblance to the feed of the dandelion, (Hydra.polypus.)

It is generally fixed by its extremity, to fome other body, without changing place, except very rarely. It has not the appearance of an animated being: if it is cut in two, and even into three parts, each part recovers, and affumes the figure of the whole, and thus, there are two or three ani mals made out of one. The young iffue from its fides, by a fort of flow and infenfible vegetation, and having grown in this manner, for a certain time, like branches, and having, even themfelves, pufhed out young in the fame way, they are detached from the mother, and live apart. By the greater part of these circumftances, one could fcarcely hefitate to rank it among common vegetables; but, when it is more narrowly examined, we perceive, that, when the water around it is agitated, it contracts and draws itself in; then expands itself again, fo that we begin to think it ought to be claffed above ordinary vegetables, and to be considered as á fenfitive plant. But, upon ftill narrower inspection, from time to time, when we find, that it is capable of voluntary motion, and that it does not always continue in the Tame ipot, but that it tranfports itfelf from one place to a

nother,

nother, by a motion, which, though very flow, is evident, that it even endeavours to get towards the places which are most enlightened, that the beards which are placed round its anterior extremity, furnifh it, by their vifcidity, with the means of catching the fmall water infects that come in its way, that these beards ferve it for arms to carry the infects to its mouth, and that afterwards it fwallows them; we are fenfible, that it is not enongh to place it with the sensitive plants, but that it must be acknowledged as a true animal. Befides, the vegetable and animal kingdoms approach each other fo nearly, by means of this equivocal being, that M.Trembley, a very attentive obferver, and who had verified the facts I have just mentioned. before me, was not able, till after a diligent obfervation of it, for many months, to determine, that it was actually an animal.

PAGE 39, 1. 21.

They are not furnished with bones. This obfervation of the author, that infects are deftitute of bones, appears to me pretty juft: I even believe, that one of the beft characters for diftinguishing infects from other animals, would be their want of an internal fkeleton. It cannot be denied, however, that, if infects have not bones, many of them have parts that answer the purpose of bones. The fnail, for inftance, has, within its body, according to Swammerdam, a ftony tubercle, in which many of the nerves of that animal terminate. Caterpillars, and many other creeping infects have their head defended by a hard fhell-like covering, and often too, a fimilar part above their first ring or fegment, many of the larvæ that change into beetles, and even the beetles themselves, the fea eggs, lobfters, crabs, &c. are all armed with a fhell. Lepidopterous infects and all flies have the thorax hard enough to refift moderate preffure. The ichneumons in general, have it very hard; I have feen fome of thefe, whofe thorax was fo hard, that it bent very ftrong pins I wanted to pierce them with. These parts, however, differ from true bones. 1. By being rather shelllike, ftony or cruftaceous, than offeous. 2. By being placed, (except in the flug) on the outside of the body, and not in the infide. 3. By being formed in many, if not in all infects, not by a fap which circulates in thefe fhells, but by a fimple appotition of particles, which transpire from the body of the animal, and afterwards grow hard. 4. By thefe fhells

fhells being apparently given for a covering or defence.And 5. By their being fo little effential to the internal construction of the body of infects, that it is in a manner demonstrated, that the covers of fhell fish are loofened, whenever their enlargement requires that the muscles they are attached by change their place; it is alfo certain, that many often caft their shells, and that a great number of those that are best armed, exist and act all the time which has preceded their ultimate transformation, without having had any thing of the kind on their body. It would feem, therefore, that the name of bone, cannot be given, with propriety, to those shells or cruftaceous coverings. Indeed, this matter is liable to fome difficulty, in the case of the flug. Its ftony part has been bestowed on it, neither for a covering nor a defence. It feems to exift within the body, merely as a fixed point for the muscles to reft on, and to perform the function of a bone. However, when we confider on one fide, that this mafs has leís the form and fubstance of a bone, than it has of something lapideous; that befides, it is fingle in the body of the flug, and only occupies there, a very small space, while the bones, in every animal poffeffed of them, are found in great numbers, and form, almost always, a skeleton of connected pieces, which fupport, internally, the whole mafs of the body, it does not appear, that this fingularity, which takes place in the flug, is fufficient to make it an exception to the rule. I make the fame obfervation, with refpect to thofe cartilaginous parts, which are found internally attached to the calcareous covers of lobsters, and which they quit, when they caft their fhells; being nothing but cartilages, and by no means true bones.

I know, that fome curious obfervers, when tearing away from the leg of a flea, the hard part, which covers the articulation next the body, have thought they perceived a bone, in the place which the removal of the hard part had left bare; but I know likewife, that the leg of a flea is an object too fmall, to allow us to affirm, even with the aid of a microscope, that what we there fee, is a bone, and not a nerve, or rather, a part of the very fubftance of the leg. If there was a bone in the leg of a flea, we should much rather expect to find it in the leg of fome larger infect, especially among thofe whofe legs refemble thofe of the flea, as the grasshopper; but nobody has hitherto discovered any

thing like one in it. Add to this, that the legs of a flea being armed with hard fhells, it is not eafy to conceive, of what ufe bones would be to them, thefe fhells being alone more than fufficient for fupporting the action of the nerves and muscles, and for preventing their limbs from folding between two articulations.

But if, after all, experiment, fuperior to any reasoning, fhould enable us to difcover true bones in an infect, this fingularity, which would approximate the ftructure of it to that of other animals, would not be fufficient to remove it from the clafs of infects; but, as it seems established in nature, that in every kind of created beings, whofe extremities approach each other, there are always limits which feparate them, and that one of the chief, and most conftant of thofe limits between infects and other animals, feems to be the internal skeleton given to the one, and not to the others, it would feem, that we cannot, without confounding the claffes of beings really diftinct, rank among infects, any animal, poffeffed internally of a skeleton formed by a contiguity of bones. I conclude, therefore, that this contiguity alone, is fufficient to exclude every animal in which it is found, from the number of infects.

PAGE 39, 1. 27.

Whofe fubftance is not flesh. What the author remarks here in paffing, to wit, that the fubftance of infects, properly fpeaking, is not flesh, may furnish a second mark for diftinguishing infects from other animals, that is, that if we find an animal, whofe fubftance does not resemble flesh, we may conclude, that it is an infect. But we must not carry this too far; we would fall into mistakes, were we to conclude, that an animal is not an infect, because it has a fubftance fimilar to flesh; for crabs, lobfters, and fome other animals of the fame order have actually flesh, though they are undoubtedly infects. Befides, as the question is, how infects are to be diftinguifhed from all other animals, and confequently alfo, from fifhes, it is evident, that the expreffions, flesh and bones, made ufe of by us, must be then in a very extended fenfe, in order to comprehend the subftance and bones of fishes.

PAGE 39, 1. 30.

Infects are deftitute of blood. The blood of infects is not

red,