generation, from the fernen! of the male, without the: a'ffiftance
of the female egg $ hut in the mean time, it is in this reaffe; as
in many other branches of the ftudy of nature, in which one may
with à certainty affert what â thing is not, though, at (the fame
time, J one cannot pofitively fey what it’ is. I remember to have
heard,’, though .only by report, arid that not the beft warranted,
that iit France, from the like fhells, yet hanging, to their necks,
have been feen feveral fmall Worms crawling into life and liherty.
Georgius Marcgravius feems to have been of this opinion j and in
his Hiftoria Naturalis Brafiliæ, Lib;iv:cap! xxii. p, 188, Lays of
the feme Sea-worms or Infedfcs .growing on trees, what herè follow^
Reri; apiya Brafilienfibus, vulgo Longmeck, Hydrum vo-
cari pofle puto. Oriuntur a pice navali, fob ter- mavem immediate
adhærentes.tabulis innuméra çoipia. .’Corpus,-au tem eft nhum
aut duos 'digitos' loiigum, teres, æqualiter eraffumf craffitie’ !du-
pla, pennæ anferinæ. Huic annata eft „conch'ula figuræ -.ovaljs,
Magnitudine oliyæ, ’major aut minor, • conffotque ; (pinque.-par.tL
bus, albi tecdôris , fed ' ubi partes - coaliseront .crocei. :P dura
fed • molliufcula eft conchula. In îÿrio; latere rimam Kabètyqaer
quam capitulum foum exferit, coriftans'muïtis. elegàntibus quafi
tornafes-ifilamentis, lunatis, femi-digitum longis., 'Cplomgorporis
eft fufcus feu mgrigaits^ait^ .filamenta capitis^ -Immediate
autem pici-adhærent, quafi. corpus abfcUTum effet, aggl-uti-
natum abfciffa parte, ifec ünqûàm amm’ fe pofliint Tolyere,. nifi
vi abftrahuntur : Malta millia læpe'uni jnayi adhærent, præfer-
tim proram verfos inferius, ôcin^yis curfom retardare, ^dpfoîur.
Vivant multas horas detraâi extra' aqpam. * £ What K -have' to
obferve on this is, that though Marcgrayxus^does not.» allow this
creature to be a young. !Duck, but 'properly a Water-worm,
yet he ismiftaken to -fey, Priunture pice navali rather better in
pice .- it is only becàufe the Worm.perhaps finds a betteropportu-
nity to Rick his eggs there.!, Giir .Bergenfbippers fey, -that when
they come home from a long voyage frorfi. Spain, or ! the ^Mediterranean,
and have their Ihips ' clean’d, : they find a great
many of thefe créât ures hanging in bunches all upder tlh^'bdt-
toms : that the pitch does not breed thefe worms is Sufficiently
feen ; for at any time, by fearching for thèm, they are to be found
on bulwarks and piles, which are never pitched-; npt tö mention
thöfe which I have of the feme kind, hanging upon branches
of thofe deep growing fea-trees, as has already been feid. To
confirm the truth öf this, more will be feid in the following
chapter, and will be found in the article of Ducks. I fhall further
quote O. Wormius’s words, in Mufeoy p. 257. De harum avium
generatiçne
générations variant autores. Quidam more aliarum avium per
Coitum vptopagari putant, quidam ex ligno putri nafci volunt,
alii ex corruptis l^jpis^eujufdamppmis, alii ex conchis. : Quorum
fententias!& rationes’-expendere hoc 1’oco, noftri non eft inftituti.
Ut nihil de iis diçairr, qui ftatuunt, diverfes efle aves, quæ ex
conphi^provefounti ab iis*, quæ ex putrfdis lignis aut pomis or-
tum trahunt. Immo non défont, qui ex quovis ligno nafci poflè
adftruant, dummodo in mari ÔC undis juxta Hebrides putredinem
concipiarit. , .Juft-as doubtful writes Jul. Cæf Scaliger abodt this
Infeâ, -Exercit.-59. Se<â. 2. and feysf t h a t p i f sco^ft
they arè called Craba’n. It is' a pity that Dq£t. Grôthahfen s Examination
pf this Infe£fc ,ist*npt çome'to light ; .on which are Hr.
Frid. Chrjft.Xefler’s words, in his Teftaeeo Thcologico, P. i. X. i.
^Éfejtb ï 1 a'> p. 442,' thus: Anno 17.32, the .following writing
was . promifed : Specimen Anatomico-f hyficum, ■ quo genuiiia
magis & accurâtior hiftoria conchas Photadis pfeudocheneæ, vulgo
anatiforæ. dicbe, quæ anili fabulæ, quod anfcrum quoddain genas
in arboribus crefcat, anfem dedit, fatiónè *& experientia ftabilitur,
8C figuris æpeis, ad viv,um incifis, dlluftratur, ad demonftrandam
fummi N uiiimis exiftentiam contra Atheos & Cóncelèbra'nda rniri-
fica ejhs opera & infinite ftupenda, in lucem editiim a T. W.
Gröthaus.'M. D. I wrote,on that account Anno I740, to a friend
ifoCopenhagen, who, on the 20th of December, advifcd, it was
not publifhed. The late learned Grothaufeii had undertaken, according
tp account, to write a Natural Hiftory of all the king’s
dominions ; but-tha,t good man’s death at St. .Thomas’s, in the
Weft Indies, fruftrated our . hopes 5 he was otherwife qualified
for the undertaking, preferable to me, and perhaps any other.
C H A P .