Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/773

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nulated body, and a hard brown head. This, however, is not a caterpillar, the utmofr. number of legs in that genus of animals being found to be fixteen, and this worm having twenty.

It is one of thofe creatures which Reaumur, from their re- femblancc to the caterpillar kinds, has called falfe or baftard- caterpillars. This creature, when the gall is young, is blue ; it afterwards becomes greenifh ; and finally, when the gall becomes red, it is white. It is in this ftate that Redi has figured and defcribed the gall, and he therefore naturally de- fcribes the worm as white. This infect feems to eat in its prifon more voracioufly than any other gall-infect whatever; for while the gall grows in fize, it becomes alfo thinner in every part ; fo that the creature, at the proper time, has but little difficulty to get out. Reawnur's Hift. Infect vol. 6.

p. 211.

Thefe sails fometimes (land fitigly on the leaves ; but more frequently there are three or four on a leaf; not unfrequently there are great numbers, and particularly on the leaves of the ozier : thefe being very narrow, the galls are beautifully ar- ranged on them, ftanding ufually in two rows, one on each fide the middle rib ; and thefe fo clofely fet together, that they referable the beads of a lady's necklace. The inner fur- face of moft other galls is fmooth, and the animal lodged in a polifhed cavern ; but that is not the cafe in thefe galls, the animal eats too fad. to eat with fo much regularity ; and, in fine, before it arrives at its full growth, it ufually eats its way through the fides of it, and feeds on the fubftance of the leaf in other parts, retiring atpleafure again into its cell. This is a very fingular thing, no other infect of this kind being known to do it. Vallifnieri is the perfon who affirms it of this, and fays, that lie has feen the fact.

When the time of the lalt change of this infect draws nigh, it leaves the tree, and defcending to the earth, makes its way into it in a proper place, and then becomes a nymph, out of which, at a proper time, iffues a four-winged fly. This is alfo the laft ftate of all the baftard-caterpillars that have yet been traced through their fevcral changes.

The obfervation of this change, however, is not fo eafy as that of feveral other fpecies, fince the creature does not under- go it in the gall, but under the earth, and there can be no certainty in expecting the infect out of the ground. Redi, who was very curious in thefe particulars, could never arrive at the fight of the winged animal. His method of at- tempting it was by putting a great number of the galls into boxes, and expecting their changes there ; but thefe creatures all died for want of the proper nidus for the chryfahs. Vallif- nieri fucceeded better, by means of putting a large quantity of a moift friable earth, of thefandy kind, into the boxes with the galls. The confequence of this was, that he foon faw fuch of the infects as were arrived at a ftate proper for their change, creep out of the galls, and bury themfelves in the

- earth at the bottom of the boxes. On tracing them farther, he found that each of them fpun itfelf a cafe of filk, like the filk-worm's web, under the cover of which it lay in the earth all the winter, and in the fpring following, about the middle of April, it came up in the form of a fmall four-winged fly, of no very fingular beauty. This is alfo obferved of all the other baftard -caterpillars, none of them producing flies of any beauty, though fome of very fingular figures. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. vol. 6. p. 213. i

The flies which are thus produced in April, copulate almoft as foon as freed from their exuviae of the' chryfalis ftate, and the females foon after lodge their, eggs in the leaves of the Wil-

\ lows. This is all done before the end of April, and the young ones hatched of thefe eggs, live but a fhort time before they pafs into the chryfalis ftate, and living flies are hatched from thefe in June. It is this brood whofe young ones pafs their chryfalis ftate in the earth, and appear not during the whole winter, till the fpring fun enlivens them again. There are, befide thefe, another kind of galls of the Willow leaves, which are of the clafs of thofe, each of which contains feveral cells ; in

. each cell of.thefe there is found a fmall white ■ maggot, the offspring of the egg of a two-twinged fly, which, after pafling the chryfalis ftate in the earth, alfo comes out in the -form of its winged parent. The cells in the galls are different in number in the feveral galls, and arc from four or five to twenty : They have no communication with one another, but each worm lives in its own cell.

Befide thefe there is alfo fometimes found in thefe galls a worm of a brownilh white colour, having two hooks in its head, and no legs at all. This has all the appearance of a carnivo- rous animal, and probably was depofited -there in the egg- ftate by its parent, not to feed on the gall, but on its defence- lefs inhabitant. This worm finally becomes a fmall bluifh beetle, and is often found alone in the cavity of the gall, often in company with its proper inhabitant, fucking its juices as it feeds on thofe of the plant. There feem to be feveral fpecies of thefe devo.urers common to thefe galls j fince. Vallifnieri obferved, in the boxes where he kept thefe galls to produce the animals from thence, many fpecies of fmall beetles, and feveral diftinct kinds of flies, which were probably the laft ftate of feveral kinds of carnivorous worms, which had preyed Suppl. Vol. II.

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upon the proper inhabitant of the galls. Vallifnieri, Dialog. des Infect.

Willow Herb, in botany, the Englifh name of the lyfimachia. Seethe article Lysimachia.

WIMBREL, in zoology, the Englifh name of a bird of the curlew-kind, and known among authors by the name of ar- qmta minor, or the letter curlew, and called in the Venetian markets taraniola.

It is very much of the fhnpe of the common curlew, but is not more than half its fize. Its beak is about three fingers breadth long. Its feet are greenifh, and its wings fpotted with large femicircular fpots ; and its general colour is a dufky brown.

WINCRANTUM, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Eaft Indies to a foflile fubftance refembling, in fome degree, the plated lead ores of Europe, but containing veiy little of that metal ; it is properly a fpecies of blende, or mock lead, of a talcy appearance ; it is considerably hard, and is ufualy found in other ftones. It is given in medicine in the Indies as a provocative to venery, being firft calcined and beat to powder.

WIND (Cyd.)— Wind has been, by many authors, made the ban's of many different difeafes : among others, Dr. Reyn has given it as his opinion, in a treatife on the gout, that flatufes, or Wind inclofed between the periofteum and the bone, are the true caufe of that difeafe ; and accordingly, that all the method of cure ought to tend to the expelling that ll r ind. He fuppofes this Wind to be of a dry, cold, and malignant na- ture, conveyed by the arteries to the place affected, where forcibly feparating that fenfible membrane the periofteum, and diftending it, the pain muft needs be very great. He is alfo of opinion, that head-achs, palpitations of the heart, tooth-ach, pleurify, convuliions, colics, and many other difeafes, are originally owing to the fame caufe, and only differ in regard to the place affected, and to the various motions and determinations of the Wind. The moveablenefs of the pain in gouty pcrfons from one part to another, he looks on as a proof of this, and thinks that the curing the gout by burning moxa, or the cotton of the mugwort leaves, upon it, is owing to its giving way to the Wind in the part to eva- porate itfelf.

That thae Winds are cold, appears from the fhivering fits which generally precede a paroxyfm of the gout, and the fhiverings in the beginnings of fevers, and before all fits of agues, arc owing to the fame caufe, is fuppofed by this author a natural conclufion from the former obfervations. The Winds, according to this author and Fienu% are a fort of halituous fphits, raifed by the improper degree of our na- tive heat, or out of our meat and drink ; or, finally, out of an abundance of black choler.

Their differences, he fays, principally proceed from the va- rious ferments producing in us a variety of humours ; which acting upon one another, do in their effervefcences creat« Winds of various effects, and denominate difeafes from the places which are the fcenes of their action. It is on this ac- count that the acupunctura, or pricking with long needles, among the Chincfe, is of ufe. The Japonefe, and other neighbouring nations, having no other cure for moft difeafes than the pricking with the needle, and the burning the moxa on the part. Reyn de Arthritid.

The hufbandman often fuffers extremely by high Winds, in many different refpects. Plantations of trees at a fmall diftance from the barns and houfes, are the beft fafeguard againft their fuffering by Winds ; but they muft not be planted fo near as that their fall, if it mould happen, would endanger them. Yews grow very flowly, otherwife they are the beft of all trees for this defenfive plantation. Trees fuffer by Winds, be- ing either broken or blown down by them ; but this may be in a great meafure prevented by cutting off great parf of the heads and branches of them, in places where they ftand moft expofed.

Hops are the moft fubjedt to be injured by JVinds of any crop ; but this may be in a great meafure prevented by a high pale, or very thick thorn hedge ; this will both keep off the fpring Wind, which nips the young buds, and be a great fafeguard againft other Winds that would tear -the plants from their poles. The poles fhould always be very firm in the ground ; and the beft fecurity to be added to this, 'is a row of tall trees all round the ground.

Winds, attended with rain, do vaft injury to the corn, by lay- ing it flat to the ground. The beft method of preventing this, ■ is to keep up good enclofures; and if the accident happens, the corn mould be cut immediately, for it never grows at all j afterwards. It fhould be left on the ground, in this cafe, fome time after the cutting, to harden the grain in the eaf. Mortimer's Husbandry, p. 302. Large Wind, in the fea-language ; to fail with a large Wind,

is the fame as with a fair Wind. Quarter Wind, at fca. See the article Quarter. Tropis Winds, i See the article Tropic, Side Wind, at fea, that which blows on the fide of the fhip_. - Wind, in the manege. A Horfe that carries in the Wind, is one that tofles his nofe as high as his ears, and does not" carry handfomelv.

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