Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/432

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manner, though at other times they are capable of digeft ing more folid matters ; as doubtlefs was alfo the cafe with the beetle, when in its own natural ftate. This is an ftance of a creature's fubfifting without vifible food, longer than we have any other account of any kind ; but it is pof- fible, that though the larger animals cannot long fubfift without fupplies of folid food, yet many infects may find nourilhment enough for their tender bodies in the particles floating in the air, though we want obfervations for proof of

While kept under the glafs it did not walk about much, but ufually placed its note clofe againft one edge of it for the benefit of the air. It was of an agreeable aromatic fmell, and when touched communicated its fcent to the fingers, which did not go off" in a long time. Its fmell is ftronger in winter than in fummer. This creature not only bears the plunging in fpirit of wine much longer than any other animal, but it bears the exhaufted receiver of an air pump without any injury or uneafinefs. It has been kept under it half an hour, and would walk about without any con- cern ; only when the air was let in it appeared ftai tied, and drew up its legs for about a minute.

We know that the Egyptians had a very high veneration for the beetle ; this appears not only by the account hiftori- ans give of its being one of their deities, but by the many images of it we find among their antiquities. As thefe were a wife and learned people, we cannot fuppofe they would, without fome reafon, pay fo much regard to fo contempti- ble an animal as this appears to be ; and it is very polhble they might have difcovered this property of its living in this manner without food, and thence efteem it a fymbul of the deity. It is not known how long Mr. Baker's beetle would have lived in this manner with him, for it at length got away, while a carelefs fervant took up the glafs to wipe it. Philof. Tranf. N" 457. p. 447. Sc ar abjeus vorax, the cankervjorm. This laft term is ufed in the tranflation of our Bibles to flgnify a very deftruflive infect, of the nature of the locuft, and ufually mentioned as its compa- nion. The feptuagint gives it the name Bjsj;«, bruchas, a name fignifying an animal which makes a great noife, as this infedt does both in eating and in flying. We generally underftand by this word a reptile, but it certainly means no other than that fort of beetle, which we call the eock- chaffer, or dor ; a flying infect, very remarkable for the humming noife it makes with its wings when in motion, and which, when it is found in fwarms fitting upon the hedges, makes a continual noife in eating, like the fawing of wood. This creature deferves very well to be placed with the locuft, as a deftroyer of the fruits of the earth. Our own experience in Norfolk has given a very late proof of this ; and the hiftories of Ireland (hew that this creature has, in that kingdom, devoured every green leaf from the trees, for whole tracks of land at a time. That we have a wrong tranflation of the word bruchits in cankerworm, is evident even from the fcriptures themfelves ; for the prophet Nathan ex- prefsly fays that it is a fly, and has wings, which cannot agree with any thing of the nature of what we underftand by the word worm, which always fignifies with us a reptile, or a creeping animal. This prophet has indeed defcribed them fo well, that it is wonderful that fo obvious a thing fhould not have been obferved by the commentators. He fays they fpoil, and then flee away ; they camp in the hedges in the day, and when the fun arifeth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. That is, they then retire again to the hedges, and hide themfelves among the trees, where they lie quiet and concealed till the fun fets again. It is plain, by comparing thefe words with the com- mon animal here mentioned, that the bruchus of the Old Teftament is the fame with our cockchafer, and that the pro- phet has given us the natural hiftory of the animal he de- scribes in this fhort account.

In another part of the Old Teftament, the fame word bru- chus is tranllated haft, or beetle ; and this explains the ra- tionale of that odd claufe in the Jewifh law, where Mofes tells the Ifraelites, thefe may ye eat of: every flying creep- ing thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth ; even thefe of them ye may eat : the locuft after his kind, and the bald locuft after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grafhop- per after his kind.

It has appeared very ftrange to many, that here among the pure and clean foods, the beetle, and fuch other dry and nafty reptiles, fhould be recommended as wholefome food for man ; but there appears reafon on the fide of this when thoroughly confidered. It is very evident that neither the Jews, nor any other people, would eat fuch infects as thefe, while any thing better was to be had ; but as they lived in a country often vifited by locufts and thefe cockchafers, which might at fome time eat up all the fruits of the earth, then in the want of thefe the prophet tells them they might eat up the devourers themfelves, and yet be clean. So alfo it appears that we are to underftand what we are told of St. John the Baptift, that he fed on locufts and wild ho- ney ; for it was in the defect that he eat thefe, where no other food was to be had.

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The poor people of Ireland have taught us, that the prophet advifed his people to a wholefome food in this text ; for fome years ago, when the county of Gallway, and other neighbouring parts, were fo infefted with this vermin, that the whole face of the country was deftroyed by them, and the trees ftripped of their leaves and fruits, as much as in the depth of winter; the poor people wanting other food, eat the vermin themfelves that had done the mifchief; and the cockchaffers, which are doubtlefs what is meant by Mofes under the name of the beetle, as they are truly of the beetle kind, were found to be a very good and wholefome food. It is very probable alfo that this kind of beetle, fo famous for devouring the fruits of the earth, is that kind to which the Egyptians paid divine honours, and for which they had fuch high veneration, that they frequently engraved its fi- gure on their obelifks ; though the antiquaries give a very different account of it, fuppofing that the beetle was held facred by them, as being an hieroglyphical reprefentation of the fun. This feems a very forced conjecture ; whereas nothing can be fuppofed more natural, than that a nation, addicted to polytheifm, as the ./Egyptians were, and in a country frequently fuffering great mifchief and fcarcity from fwarms of devouring infects, fhould, from a ftrong fenfe and fear of evil to come, give facred worfhip to the vifible authors of their fufferings, in hopes to render them more propitious for the future. The fame Egyptians, we very- well know, worshipped the other great deftroyer of their country, the crocodile; and the Romans, a much more ci- vilized people, built a temple to the difcafe which raged moft among them, the fever.

The ignorant people among the Irifh, when the vaft fwarms of thefe beetles firft appeared among them, were of the fame turn, and rather reverenced than deftroyed them, fay- ing that they were the ghofts or their dead friends killed at the battle of Agrhim, who were come in this form to pefter and annoy their heretical enemies, the Englifh proteftants. They even thought that the Engliih families fuffcred more by them than the Irifh ; but this was only becaufe the grounds of the former were better improved, and the crea- tures found plenty of better food there. Philof. Tranfact, N° 234. SCARBOROUGH water. The water of this medicinal fpring has been the fubject of great contefts and difputcs among the phyfical people ; all allowing it confiderable virtues, but fome attributing them to one ingredient, others to another. Dr. Witty alledges that its material principles are alum, nitre, and vitriol of iron ; but though this author declares, that thefe principles are all to be feparated out of it, Dr. Tonftall, on the other hand, affirms that it has no vitriol of iron in it, but a ftone powder and a clay, leaving fand at the bottom of the veilel ; and therefore that it is apt to breed the ftone, and is bad in the gout, jaundice, and all other difeafes where indurations of the parts, or ftony con- cretions in the body, are the caufe ; and this author feems to fpeak very experimentally, when he alledges that he ne- ver had any fymptoms of the ftone til! he drank the Scar- borough water, but acquired that difeafe during the courfe of it.

Alum ftone dilTolved in water is always found to yield a purple tiniture with galls, and therefore the colouring an infufion of this or other vegetable fubftances by the Scar- borough water, which is by all allowed to contain this ftone, is no proof of any vitriol of iron being contained in it ; other than fuch a fmall portion of it, as is always found in this alum ftone. All waters^ which have diflolved iron, will yield vitriol as a fait from that metal on evaporation. The cliffs about Scarborough yield abundance of fait in fhoots and effervefcences, plainly owing to the waters of the fpring ; yet all thefe are nitro-aluminous, none of them at all vitri- olic. If the Scarborough water is fet by for fome days, after it is taken frefh from the fpring, it precipitates afediment; which being examined, is found not to be of a ferrugine- ous nature, but a mere glebe of alum. Upon the whole, the virtues of alum and vitriol are fo far different, that it muft be eafy to fee which of the two falts the water partakes moft of, by vs virtues; but as to the ftonv matter, which the one of thefe difputan's calls an in- fipid clay, and the other a fandy ftone, it is no other than fpar, which is contained in all water ; and which has been in general fo far from being accufed of breeding the ftone in U)e bladder, that the general confent of mankind has feemed to efteem it a cure for that diforder. The fpar, in the form of the lapis judaicus and oftracites, and the very waters which are fo impregnated with it, as to encruft every thing with it that is put into them, are given for the cure of this difeafe. Philof. Tranf. N° 85. SCARFED, in the fea carpenters language, is the fame as pierced, or faftened or joined in : thus they fay the ftem of a fhip is fcarfed into her keel. They alfo imply by it, that the two pieces are fhaped away flanting, fo as to join with one another clofe and even ; which they call wood and wood. SCARIFICATION of the eye. See the article Eye.

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