gness, so that the bodies they are laid in being, as
it were, half their mothers, we shall not wonder that it should have such
an active power to change their forms. We find by relations how much the
_Negro_ Women do besmeer the of-spring of the _Spaniard_, bringing forth
neither white-skinn'd nor black, but tawny hided _Mulattos_.

Now, though I propound this as probable, I have not yet been so farr
certify'd by Observations as to conclude any thing, either positively or
negatively, concerning it. Perhaps, some more lucky diligence may please
the curious Inquirer with the discovery of this, to be a truth, which I now
conjecture, and may thereby give him a satisfactory account of the cause of
those creatures, whose original seems yet to obscure, and may give him
cause to believe, that many other animate beings, that seem also to be the
mere product of putrifaction, may be innobled with a Pedigree as ancient as
the first creation, and farr exceed the greatest beings in their numerous
Genealogies. But on the other side, if it should be found that these, or
any other animate body, have no immediate similar Parent, I have in another
place set down a conjectural _Hypothesis_ whereby those _Phaenomena_ may
likely enough be solv'd, wherein the infinite wisdom and providence of the
Creator is no less rare and wonderfull.

* * * * *

Observ. LI. _Of the _Crab-like_ Insect._

Reading one day in _Septemb._ I chanced to observe a very smal creature
creep over the Book I was reading, very slowly; having a _Microscope_ by
me, I observ'd it to be a creature of a very unusual form, and that not
less notable; such as is describ'd in the second _Figure_ of the 33.
_Scheme_. It was about the bigness of a large Mite, or somewhat longer, it
had ten legs, eight of which, AAAA, were topt with very sharp claws, and
were those upon which he walk'd, seeming shap'd much like those of a Crab,
which in many other things also this little creature resembled; for the two
other claws, BB, which were the formost of all the ten, and seem'd to grow
out of his head, like the horns of other Animals, were exactly form'd in
the manner of Crabs or Lobsters claws, for they were shap'd and jointed
much like those represented in the _Scheme_ and the ends of them were
furnish'd with a pair of claws or pincers, CC, which this little animal did
open and shut at pleasure: It seem'd to make use of those two horns or
claws both for fe