_Donors names_ and their
_Beneficence_ recorded, and the things preserved for After-ages, (probably
much better and safer, than in their own private Cabinets;) and in progress
of Time will be employed for considerable Philosophical and Usefull
purposes; of which perhaps more largely in another place.

* * * * *

_A Relation of a kind of _Worms_ that eat out Stones._

This is taken out of a Letter, written by one _M. de la Voye_ to _M.
Auzout_, to be found in the 32. _Journal des Scavans_; as follows.

In a great and very ancient Wall of Free-Stone in the _Benedictins Abby_ at
_Caen_ in _Normandy_, facing Southward, there are to be found many Stones
so eaten by Worms, that one may run his hand into most of the Cavities
which are variously fashion'd, like the Stones, which I have seen wrought
with so much Art in the _Louvre_: In these cavities there is abundance of
live-Worms, their excrement, and of that Stone-dust, they eat. Between many
of the Cavities there remain but leaves, as it were, of Stone, very thin,
which part them. I have taken some of these living Worms, which I found in
the eaten Stone, and put them into a Box with several bits of the Stone;
leaving them there together for the space of eight days; and then opening
the Box, the Stone seem'd to me eaten so sensibly, that I could no longer
doubt of it, I send you the Box and the Stones in it, together with the
living Worms: and to satisfie your Curiosity, I shall relate to you, what I
have observed of them both _with_ and _without_ a _Microscope_. {322}

These Worms are inclosed in a Shell, which is grayish and of the bigness of
a Barly-corn, sharper at one end, than the other. By the means of an
excellent _Microscope_ I have observ'd, that 'tis all overspread with
little Stones and little greenish Eggs; and that there is at the sharpest
end a little hole by which these Creatures cast out their excrement, and at
the other end, a somewhat bigger hole, through which they put out their
heads and fasten themselves to the Stones, they gnaw. They are not so shut
up, but that sometimes they come out, and walk abroad. They are all black,
about two _Lines_ of an inch long and three quarters of a _Line_ large.
Their Body is distinguish't into several plyes, and near their head they
have three feet on each side, which have but two Joynts resembling those of
a Lowse. When they move, their Body is commonly upwards, with their mouth