lent friction have the fkin very delicate and tender. Some have feveral fki s one above another nearly like the different coats of an onion. The fkin of man and that of the other animals is filled with an infinity of fmall pores; it refembles a fieve or very fine net, the pores anfwering to the meshes. By thefe pores tranfude a quantity of fuperfluous humours which are thrown off by fenfible or infenfible perfpiration. The fkin of infects has likewife pores for the fame ufe, and fo fmall, that they are with difficulty feen. As fome animals change their hair and even their skin every year, experience fhews us that infects do the fame. Some throw it off but once ayear, others four times.

Infects which creep into holes, or fiffures, where they are expofed to pretty violent rubbing, have their fkin harder than others: and even fome have it fortified with fcales. It likewife ferves to defend infects from the injuries of the weather; it is of the fame ufe to them that fcales are to ferpents and fifhes, fholts to crabs or fhell fifh, feathers to birds, and hair to the most of quadrupeds. As infects in general are but fmall, the heat of the Sun would foon dry up the internal humidity of their bodies, and exhaust their animal spirits, were not they enveloped in a hard skin, which prevents that inconvenience. It is the inftrument of motion to those that want feet; by extending and contracting it alternately, they transport themielves from place to place.

Laftly, the skin of infects may be confidered as a coat of mail with which God has armed them as a protection from external danger. "Thou haft cloath

ed me with skin," fays Job, CHAP. x. ii. to exprets the means which God had employed to unite, connect, and preferve the different parts he was compofed ot. The Deity has been equally attentive to

T

infects

infects, and it is for the fame purpose that he has likewife cloathed them with a skin.

It is fo difficult to distinguish the head of fome infects that one would be almoft tempted to believe they had none. Some have it exceeding fmall in proportion to their body, others very large. It is not in all of the faine fhape; it is round, flat, oval, broad, acuminated or fquare in different infects. In fome it is fmooth, in others rough, and fome have it fet with hairs to fuit their manner of life. There is alfo great diverfity in the fituation of the head. In fome it is quite distinct, but in others it is not cafy to difcover it. Some conceal it under their back, like Tortoile, under their fhell, fo that it cannot be seen. Though moit have it ftraight forward, fome have it beat down, and fome have a triangular mark on their forehead.

ги

Winged infects which have feet are furnished with antennæ on their head, above the eyes, though fome have them feated on the roftrum, as all the Curculios. In the antennæ there are many articulations that infects may bend them with facility, and the number of the articulations varies with the neceffities of the various infects. It is rare to find caterpillars with antennæ, but there is a brown caterpillar which lives in fociety that is diftinguifhed by antennæ with three articulations. Those of the mufk beetle have four, thofe of the pediculi of the Peacock, five; thofe of the aphides of the cabbage, fix; thofe of the Ichneumons that are bred in the body of the caterpillar with 72 folds, feven; thofe of fome beetles eight. There are infects which have still , a greater number of articulations in their antennæ. Such are all the fpecies of Cerambyx which have ten; the earwig eleven; the Tipula phalanoides has fourteen; and the ichneumon that breeds in the body of the

green

green caterpillars which curl up the leaves has fix teen; the antennæ of a Phalena which feeds on the alder has forty articulations, thofe of the Phalana Euonymella fifty; and those of another bred on the willow fixty. Laftly in thofe of fome grafshoppers, there are from eighty to an hundred articulations.

Thefe articulations are not of equal fize, and fome are longer than others; fome are formed of little fpherical bodies like a ftring of beads, more or lefs diftant; these beads are bare in fome, but garnished with hairs in others; in general they are fo fmalf that they cannot be feen diftinctly but with a glafs. In fome infects they are hemifpherical, in others heartfhaped, and laftly fome are toothed like a faw.

The extremity of the antennæ in fome infects is thickest, forming a knob, the whole somewhat of the figure of a drum-ftick. That knob is fometimes cleft and divided into feveral branches. The fhaft of the antennæ is fometimes smooth, and fometimes fringed. Thefe laft are of two forts, the one having fringes only on the outfide, the other on both fides, like the feather of a bird. This is their appearance when feen with the naked eye, but if a magnifier is employed, we find that each particular filament of the fringe is itfelf a feather, having a quill and a plume like those of a bird.

The antennæ are feated on fmall tubercles yb which the infect can bend them in all directions. They are not always carried in the fame way, fome infects bearing them ftraight forwards, others bent, others turned afide, according to their manner of life.

Antennæ have been given to infects with different views and for different purposes. It appears to have

T 2

been

been the principal intention of the Creator that they fhould ferve inftead of hands, as they feel objects with them in order to judge whether they are useful or pernicious. When duft has fallen upon the eyes of fome infects it is with their antennæ that they clean them. It is the more neceffary that they fhould be provided with the means of removing this duft as they have no eye brows, and are therefore more exposed to the inconvenience. In this cafe the antennæ are of the fame ufe with our fingers. They like. wife ferve infects as the organ of fmell, and by them they difcera odours both near and at a distance. The males employ them in care fling the females. They are a fort of meafuring rod to others, with which they found the depth of the holes they mean to retire to. Laftly, as we have obferved above, the antennæ are one of the marks by which the males of many fpecies may be diftinguished from the females.

The ftructure of the eye in man and other animals demonftrates, in the moft inconteftible manner, the power and wifdom of him who made it; but, the evidence of thefe perfections, drawn from the ftructure of the eye in infects, is not lefs ftrong. It is true that fome infects are deftitute of the organ of fight, but by far the greater number are poffeft of it. The form of their eyes is very various; fome have the luftre, and almoft the roundness of pearls, fome are hemifpherical, others fpheroidal. They are not all of the fame colour. We fee many butterflies with eyes as white as fnow, thofe of fpiders are quite black, thofe of fome aphides are of the colour of amber, of jafper or vermilion; the brilliancy in the eyes of fome of the mufce is like that of gold, for which reafon they go by the ame of the golden-eyed flies; thofe of the green grafshoppers have the colour of an emerald; laftly, the eyes of fome have

as

as much fire and brilliancy as a diamond expofed to the rays of the fun : thefe colours, however, fade af. ter the death of the infect, and fometimes totally dif appear.

The eyes of infects are generally placed in the forehead, under the antennæ: but this rule is not without exceptions, for fome have them behind the antennæ. In fome they ftand only a little out from the head, as in the grasshoppers; in fome they are so much raised, that one would think them attached to the head, only by an articulation; fuch are thofe of the fmall dragon-flies.

The number of eyes in infects is not uniform; the greater part have two, but there are fome that have five. Befides the two large net-work eyes, a number of infects have three others on the forehead. Spiders have generally eight eyes, but they are nor disposed in the fame way, in all the fpecies. Thofe fpiders, however, must be excepted, which have long legs, and antennæ refembling the claws of a crab, for they have but two eyes. Thofe of fome infects resemble two hemifpheres, elevated on the two fides of the head, confifting of a vast number of small hexagons like the cells of bees. In each of these hexagons are circles like lenfes, which are fo many eyes, increafing the power of that organ, to an infinite degree. By this apparatus, thefe infects enjoy, not only the advantages of fight, but have it probably clearer and more extenfive than other animals.This was, no doubt, neceffary, on account of the rapidity of their flight, and to enable them to defcry their food, while flying.

The eyes of infects are neither defended by bones, nor furnished with eye lids to protect them from accidents but to make amends for this, the external

coat