DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0336
310 DESCRIPTION OF THE DEATH-WATCH.
would fall as regular, but withal quicker, which, upon a
strict inquiry, was found to be nothing but a little beetle
or spider in the wood of the box. Sometimes they are
found in the plastering of a wall, and at other times in a
rotten post, or in some old chest or trunk, and the noise
is made by beating its head on the subject that it finds
fit for sound.” The little animal that I found in August,
]695, says Mr. Benjamin Allen, was about two lines and
a half long, calling a line the eighth part of an inch ; the
colour was a dark brown, with spots, some lighter, irre-
gularly placed, which could not easily be rubbed off,
which the gentleman above named observed, with its
whole composure and shape, by a microscope, and sent
the whole relation of it to the publisher of the Philoso-
phical Transactions of the Royal Society. Some people,
governed by common reports, have fancied this petit
animal a spirit, sent to admonish them of their deaths;
and, to uphold the fancy, tell you of other strange moni-
tors altogether as ridiculous; for, though I do not deny
but that, in some particular cases, God Almighty may
employ unusual methods to warn us of our approaching
ends, yet ordinarily such common and unaccountable
talk is nonsense, and depends more upon the fancy, kept
up by a delight in telling strange things than any thing
else. It is all one to a good man, whether he has a
summons or not, for he is always ready either with or
without it.
TO THE EDITOR OF KIRBY’s SCIENTIFIC MUSEUM.
Sir,
Reading a very remarkable trial that took place in the King’s Bench, page
247, of your second volume, respecting Mr. Robert Booty, at Stromboli,
though so very singular, is not the only occurrence that happened at
that place. I here send you a well-authenticated history of a circum-
stance, respecting a Mr. Gresham, a Merchant, of London, who
touched ■
would fall as regular, but withal quicker, which, upon a
strict inquiry, was found to be nothing but a little beetle
or spider in the wood of the box. Sometimes they are
found in the plastering of a wall, and at other times in a
rotten post, or in some old chest or trunk, and the noise
is made by beating its head on the subject that it finds
fit for sound.” The little animal that I found in August,
]695, says Mr. Benjamin Allen, was about two lines and
a half long, calling a line the eighth part of an inch ; the
colour was a dark brown, with spots, some lighter, irre-
gularly placed, which could not easily be rubbed off,
which the gentleman above named observed, with its
whole composure and shape, by a microscope, and sent
the whole relation of it to the publisher of the Philoso-
phical Transactions of the Royal Society. Some people,
governed by common reports, have fancied this petit
animal a spirit, sent to admonish them of their deaths;
and, to uphold the fancy, tell you of other strange moni-
tors altogether as ridiculous; for, though I do not deny
but that, in some particular cases, God Almighty may
employ unusual methods to warn us of our approaching
ends, yet ordinarily such common and unaccountable
talk is nonsense, and depends more upon the fancy, kept
up by a delight in telling strange things than any thing
else. It is all one to a good man, whether he has a
summons or not, for he is always ready either with or
without it.
TO THE EDITOR OF KIRBY’s SCIENTIFIC MUSEUM.
Sir,
Reading a very remarkable trial that took place in the King’s Bench, page
247, of your second volume, respecting Mr. Robert Booty, at Stromboli,
though so very singular, is not the only occurrence that happened at
that place. I here send you a well-authenticated history of a circum-
stance, respecting a Mr. Gresham, a Merchant, of London, who
touched ■