769. As evidenced from Experiments. e fuppofed, at the beginning of the xperiment, not to exceed 100 degrees. lot to mention that M. Tillet's two irls may not poffibly have been fubted to fo great a degree of heat as hat indicated by the thermometer; hich appears to us to have always emained on the shovel in contact with he hearth. It is obfervable, that none of the nimals which fuffered under M. Tilet's experiments, exhaled any disagree. de odour: M. Tillet therefore fupafes, that the dog, from whom fo great a stench proceeded, in the fet of xperiments made by Fahrenheit, la boured under fome internal diforder, and had within him fome latent prinsiple of corruption, which was, as it were, developed by the extraordinary heat. If we might venture to hazard our opinion, after thofe of Dr. Boerhaave and M. Tillet, we fhould obferve, in the first place, that, among the animals used in the experiments related by Boerhaave, the dog only ex; hibited the phænomenon in question; and that, in thofe of M. Tillet, that animal was not employed. We should think therefore, that the horrid ftench complained of, neither proceeded from any decompofition or putrefcency of the humours, effected by the extraordinary heat, co-operating with the vital action of the veffels in the fluids of the animal, as is fuppofed by Boerhaave; nor that it was caufed by any general or accidental vice of the humours, in the individual dog who was the fubject of the experiment, as is fuggefted by M. Tillet; but that it may more naturally be fuppofed to arife from the foetid humour which is known to be fecreted from the glandule odorifera feated near the anus of that animal; the fecretion of which may be fuppofed to have been increafed, as well as its natural offenfivenefs greatly heightened, by the action of the heat on the living animal. Before we quit the fubject of this memoir, we cannot, salvá conscientiâ, help interceeding with natural philofophers, in behalf of our fellow-crea-. tures of the brute creation, at whofe expence the philofophic appetite for knowledge, in matters of pure curiofity (for fuch we must efteem the prefent) is often moft unfeelingly gratified. In the prefent inftance, though Oct. 1769. 517 we have no material objection to M. Tillet's first experiments, as we see no great harm in an experimental philofopher's giving two willing girls a fweat, in his own peculiar manner; with a view to the propagation of natural knowledge; yet we cannot think fo well of thofe which follow, nor look on our ingenious academician as quite fo innocently employed, in putting to torture, and to death, the poor innocent rabbits, pullets, and finches, which were the victims of them and this merely to have the pleasure of knowing how high Monf. "Reaumur's thermometer would stand on the occafion : for we cannot be of opinion with M.Tillet, that experiments of this kind may poffibly be of use in medicine; nor are we quite clear how far they are justifiable, on that fuppofition. A curious and interefting Account of a Subftance, not before attended to, which the Bees collect and turn to Honey. IT was formerly the opinion of na turalifts, that the bees do not collect honey in the form we fee it; the liquor they collect being digefted in their ftomachs, where both its nature and confiftence are changed. But this opinion feems to be founded on erro neous principles; and it is now believed, that the bees have no other share in the making of honey than fimply collecting its becaufe the honey is, when properly diluted, fubject to vinous fermentation, a property not found in any animal fubftance. The flowers of many forts of plants afford a quantity of honey, or faccharine juice, which the bees collect and carry to their hives; but befides this liquor, the Abbe Bouffier acquaint us, that he has feen two kinds of honeydews, which the bees are equally fond of, both deriving their origin from vegetables, though in a different manner. The first kind, the only one known to husbandmen, and which paffes for a dew which falls on trees, is no other than a mild fweet juice, which, having circulated through the veffels of vegetables, is feparated in proper refervoirs in the flowers, or on the leaves, where it is properly called the honey-dew: fometimes it is depofited in the pith, as in the fugar-cane; at other times, in the juice of fummer fruits, when ripe. Such 518 An Account of a new-discovered Subftance, Such is the origin of the manna, which is collected on the ash and maple of Calabria and Briançon, where it flows in great plenty from the leaves and trunks of these trees, and thickens into the form in which it is ufually seen. "Chance, fays the abbe, afforded me an opportunity of feeing this juice and its primitive form on the leaves of the holm-oak: thefe leaves were covered with thousands of small round globules, or drops, which, without touching one another, feemed to point. out the pore from whence each of them had proceeded. My tafte informed me that they were as fweet as honey: the honey-dew on a neighbouring bramble, did not refemble the former, the drops having run to gether; owing either to the moisture of the air which had diluted them, or to the heat which had expanded them. The dew was become more viscous, and lay in large drops, covering the leaves; in this form it is ufually feen. The oak had at this time two kinds of leaves; the old, which were strong and firm, and the new, which were tender, and newly come forth. The honey-dew was found only on the old leaves, though these were covered by the new ones, and by that means sheltered from any moisture that could. fall from above. I obferved the fame on the old leaves of the bramble, while the new leaves were quite free from it. Another proof that this dew proceeds from the leaves is, that other neighbouring trees, not furnished with a juice of this kind, had no moisture on them; and particularly the mulberry, which is a very particular circumftance, for this juice is a deadly poifon to filk-worms. If this juice fell in the form of a dew, mift, or fog, it would wet all the leaves without ditinction, and every part of the leaves, under as well as upper. Heat may have fome thare in its production: for though the common heat promotes only the transpiration of the more voJatile and fluid juices, a fultry heat, especially if reflected by clouds, may fo far dilate the vefiel, as to produce a more viscous juice, fuch as the honey dew. origin to a small infect called a vinefretter: the excrement ejected with fome force by this infect makes a part of the most delicate honey known in nature. Thefe vine-fretters reft during fox veral months on the barks of particu ar trees, and extract their food by piercing that bark, without hurting or deforming the tree. These infects alfo caufe the leaves of some trees to curl up, and produce galls upon others. They fettle on branches that are a year old. The juice, at firft perhaps hard and crabbed, becomes, in the bowels of this infect, equal in sweetness to the honey obtained from the flowers and leaves of vegetables; excepting that the flowers may communicate fome of their effential oil to the honey, and this may give it a peculiar flavour, as happened to myfelf by planting a hedge of rosemary near my bees at Sauvages the honey has tafted of it ever fince, that fhrub continuing long in flower. I have obferved two fpecies of vine. fretters, which live unsheltered on the bark of young branches: they have a fmooth fkin, and those without wings feem to be the females, which compofe the greater bulk of the fwarm; or perhaps the young in their caterpillar ftate, before they are changed. into flies; for each fwarm has, in its train, two or three males with wings: thefe live on the labour of the females, at least I always faw them hopping carelessly on the backs of the females, without going to the bark to feek for food. Both fpecies live in clusters, on different parts of the fame tree, entirely covering the bark; and it is remarka ble that they there take a pofition which to us appears to be very uneasy; for they adhere to the branch with their head downwards, and their bel ly upwards. The leffer fpecies is of the colour of the bark upon which it feeds, generally green. It is chiefly distinguishe ed by two horns, or ftraight, immoveable, Alefhy fubftances, which rife per pendicularly from the lower fides of the belly, one on each fide. This is the fpecies which live on the young branches of brambles and elder. The former of thefe fpecies is double the fize of the latter, and is that which 769: From which Bees extract their Honey. which I have now more particularly a view, because it is that from which he honey proceeds. Thefe infects re blackish; and instead of the kind f horns which diftinguish the other, ave, in the fame part of the skin, a mall button, black and shining like The buzzing of bees in a tuft of Holm-oak, made me fufpect that fome hing very interefting brought so many of them thither. I knew that it was not the feafon for expecting honeydew, nor was it the place where it is ufually found, and was furprized to find the tuft of leaves and branches covered with drops which the bees collected with a humming noise. The form of the drops drew my attention, and led me to the following difcovery. Inftead of being round like drops which had fallen, each formed a small longish oval. I foon perceived from whence they proceeded. The leaves covered with these drops of honey were fituated beneath a swarm of the larger black vine-fretters; and on obferving these infects, I perceived them, from time to time, raise their bellies, at the extremity of which there then appeared a small drop of an amber colour, which they inftantly ejected from them to the diffance of fome inches. I found, by tafting fome of thefe drops which I bad catched on my hand, that it had the fame flavour with what had before fallen on the leaves. I afterwards faw the fmaller fpecies of vine-fretters eject their drops in the fame manner. This ejection is fo far from being a matter of indifference to these infects themselves, that it seems to have been wifely inftituted to procure cleanlinefs in each individual, as well as to preferve the whole. (warm from deftruction; for preffing as they do one upon another, they would otherwife foon be glued together, and rendered incapable of stirring. We may now with fome probability account for the feeming odd fituation in which they reft. Their belly is about twenty times larger than their bead and breast. If the infect was placed in a contrary direction, it could not, without extreme difficulty, raife its heavy belly, fo as to project it far enough outward to difcharge the drop over its companions; whereas, when the head is lowest, much less effort is 519 neceffary to incline it forward; and even in this fituation the infect seems by its flutterings to collect all its strength. When the winter's cold and rains come on, thefe vine fretters place themselves wherever they are leaft expofed; and as they then take but little nourishment, and but feldom emit their drop, they feem not to mind whether the head or tail be uppermoft. The drops thus fpurted out fall upon the ground, if not intercepted by leaves or branches; and the spots they make on ftones remain some time, unlefs washed off by rain. This is the only honey-dew that falls; and this never falls from a greater height than a branch where thefe infects can cluster. It is now easy to account for a phonomenon which formerly puzzled me greatly. Walking under a lime-tree in the king's garden at Paris, I felt my hand wetted with little drops, which I at first took for fmall rain. The tree indeed fhould have theltered me from the rain, but I escaped it by going from under the tree. A feat placed near the tree fhone with these drops. And being then unacquainted with any thing of this kind, except the honey-dew found on the leaves of fome particular trees, I was at a lofs to conceive how so glutinous a fubftance could fall from the leaves in fuch fmall drops; for I knew that rain could not overcome its natural attraction to the leaves, till it became pretty large drops; but I have fince found that the lime-tree is very fubject to these vine-fretters. Bees are not the only infects that feat on this honey, ants are equally fond of it. Led into this opinion by what naturalifts have faid, I at firit believed that the horns, in the lefler fpecies of thefe vine-fretters, had at their extremity a liquor which the ants went in fearch of: "but I foon difcovered, that what drew the ants after them came from elsewhere, both in the larger and the lefler fpecies, and that no liquor is difcharged the horns. There are two fpecies of ants which fearch for these infects. The large black ants follow thofe which live on the oaks and chefnut: the lefler ants attend thofe on the elder. But as the ants are not like the bees provided with the means of fucking up fluids, UNU2 they they place themselves near the vine- moft inhuman letter to the duke of fretters, in order to feize the drop the, I have read with astonishmen moment they fee it appear upon the anus and as the drop remains fome time on the fmall vine-fretters, before they can cast it off, the ants have leifure to catch it, and thereby prevent the bees from having any fhare: but the vine-fretters of the oak and chef nut being stronger, and perhaps more plentifully fupplied with juice, dart the drop inftantly, fo that the larger ants get very little of it. The vine-fretters finding the greateft plenty of juice in trees about the middle of fummer, afford alfo, at that time, the greateft quantity of honey; and this leflens as the feafon advances, fo that, in the autumn, the bees prefer it to the flowers then in feafon. Though thefe infects pierce the tree to the fap in a thousand places, yet the trees do not feem to fuffer at all from them, nor do the leaves lofe the leaft of their verdure. The husbandman therefore acts injudiciously when he destroys them." A Word at parting to Junius. SIR, Clifton, Oct. 2. As you have not favoured me with either of the explanations demanded of you, I can have nothing more to fay to you on my own account. Your mercy to me, or tenderness for yourself, has been very great. The public will judge of your motives. If your excefs of modefty forbids you to produce either the proofs or yourfelf, I will excufe it. Take courage, I have not the temper of Tiberius, any more than the rank or power. You, indeed, are a tyrant of another fort, and, upon your political bed of torture, can excruciate any fubject, from a first minifter down to fuch a grub or butterfly as my felf. Like another detefted tyrant of antiquity can make the wretched fufferer fit the bed, if the bed will not fit the fufferer, by disjointing or tearing the trembling limbs until they are ftretched to its extremity. But courage, conftancy, and patience, under torments, have fometimes caufed the most hardened monsters to relent, and forgive the object of their cruelty. You, fir, are determined to try all that human nature can endure, until the expires; elfe was it poffible that you could be the author of that and horror? Where, fir, where were the feelings of your own heart, when you could upbraid a most affectionate father with the lofs of his only and moft amiable fon? Read over again thofe cruel lines of yours, and let them ring your very foul! Cannot political questions be difcuffed without defcending to the most odious perfonalities? Muft you go wantonly out of your way to torment declining age, becaufe the duke of may have quarrelled with thofe whose cause and politics you efpoufe? For fhame! for thame! As you have fpoke daggers to him, you may justly dread the ufe of them against your own breaft, did a want of courage, or of noble fentiments, stimulate him to fuch mean revenge. He is above it, he is brave. Do you fancy that your own bafe arts have infected our whole ifland? But your own reflections, your own confcience, muft and will, if you have any spark of humanity remaining, give him most ample vengeance. Not all the power of words, with which you are fo graced, will ever wash out, or even palliate this foul blot in your charac ter. I have not time at present to diffect your letter fo minutely as I could with, but I will be bold enough to fay, that it is (as to reafon and argument) the most extraordinary piece of florid impotence that was ever imposed upon the eyes and ears of the too credulous and deluded mob. It accuses the duke of of high treafon. Upon what foundation? You tell us, "that the duke's pecuniary character makes it more than probable, that he could not have made fuch facrifices at the peace, without fome private compensations ; that his conduct carried with it an interior evidence, beyond all the legal proofs of a court of justice." My academical education, fir, bids me tell you, that it is neceffary to ef tablish the truth of your first propofi tion, before you prefume to draw inferences from it. First prove the ava rice, before you make the rath, hafty, and most wicked conclufion. This father, Junius, whom you call avari. cious, allowed that fon eight thoufand pounds a year. Upon his moft unfor. tunate death, which your ufual goodnature took care to remind him of In Defence of the D— of B—. 769 greatly encreafed the jointure of the Acted lady, his widow. Is this avace? Is this doing good by fealth? is upon record, If exact order, method, and true conomy as a mafter of a family; if lendour and juft magnificence, withat wild waste and thoughtless extra agance, may conftitute the character an avaricious man; the duke is guil. But for a moment let us admit at an ambassador may love money o much; what proof do you give at he has taken any to betray his ountry? Is it hearfay; or the evidence letters, or ocular; or the evidence those concerned in this black affair? roduce your authorities to the pubc. It is a moft impudent kind of for ery to attempt to blind us with the moke, without convincing us that the re has exifted. You firft brand him with a vice that he is free from, to render im odious and fufpected. Sufpicion is The foul weapon with which you make your chief attacks, with that you tab. But fhall one of the firft fubjects of he realm be ruined in his fame; fhall ven his life be in conftant danger from charge built upon fuch fandy founlations? Muft his houfe be befieged by awless ruffians, his journies impeded, nd even the afylum of an altar be inecure, from affertions fo bafe and alfe? Potent as he is, the duke is amenable to justice; if guilty, punish able. The parliament is the high and olemn tribunal for matters of fuch great moment. To that be they fubmitted. But I hope alfo that fome notice will be taken of, and fome punishment inflicted upon, falfe accufers, wilfully flip. Lucy Juni I will agace even with Junius; will agree with him, that it is highly unbecoming the dignity of peers to tamper with boroughs. Ariftocracy is as fatal as democracy. Our conftitution admits of neither. It loves a king, lords, and commons, really chofen by the unbought fuffrages of a free people. But if corruption only fhifts hands; if the wealthy commoner gives the bribe, inftead of the potent peer, is the ftate better ferved by this exchange? Is the tal emancipation of the borough efted, because new parchment bonds May poffibly fuperfede the old? To fay 521 the truth, wherever such practices prevail, they are equally criminal to, and deftructive of, our freedom. The rest of your declamation is fcarce worth confidering, excepting for the elegance of the language. Like Hamlet in the play, you produce two pictures; you tell us, that one is not like the duke of then you bring a moft hideous caricatura, and tell us of the refemblance; but multum abludit imago. All your long tedious accounts of the minifterial quarrels, and the intrigue of the cabinet, are reducible to a few short lines; and, to convince you, fir, that I do not mean to flatter any minifter, either paft or prefent, thefe are my thoughts; they seem to have acted like lovers or children; have pouted, quarrelled, cried, kiffed, and been friends again, as the objects of defire, the minifterial rattles, have been put into their hands. But fuch proceedings are very unworthy of the gravity and dignity of a great nation. We do not want men of abilities; but we have wanted teadiness; we want unanimity; your letters, Junius, will not contribute thereto. You may one day expire by a flame of your own kindling. But it is my humble opinion, that lenity and moderation, pardon and oblivion, will disappoint the efforts of all the feditious in the land, and extinguifh their wide-fpreading fires, I have lived with this sen, timent, with this I fhall die, W. D. Junius's Reply to the foregoing. SIR, F Sir William be a bed of torture, me Draper's bid for hind felf. I fhall never interrupt his repofe Having changed the fubject, there are parts of his laft letter not undeferving of a reply. Leaving his private character and conduct out of the question, I fhall confider him merely in the capacity of an author, whofe labours certainly do no difcredit to a news-paper. We fay, in common difcourfe, that a man may be his own enemy, and the frequency of the fact makes the expreffion intelligible. But that a man fhould be the bitterest enemy of his friends, implies a contradiction of a peculiar nature. There is fomething |