names? Or is it a distinction erroneously established by grammarians and lexicographers, who of one word slightly varied have made two different words? Whatever may be the fact, the consideration of it is foreign to our present purpose, and will engage our attention at another opportunity. We confine ourselves at present to collecting the facts of the language as we derive them from the critical examination of the texts, without anticipating the consequences which may be deduced from them.
From what has been said we draw the following conclusions:
1st, That in the most learned ancient authors, and in those who have treated ex professo of agriculture, natural history and geography, the word Ips has never been employed except to denote the larva of an insect very injurious to the vine.
2nd, That in Homer, St. John Chrysostom, and lexicographers and grammarians of the period of the decline of literature, the word Ips is exclusively employed to denote the larva of an insect preying upon horn.
3rd, That the word Iks, whether it be considered as a different word from Ips, or the same in another dialect, is employed by Alcman, and the lexicographers and grammarians of the lower ages, to designate exclusively a variegated insect, which injures the vine, and preys upon its buds.
VII. Spondyle or Sphondyle.—Aristotle in his Natural History of Animals[1], after describing the mode of coition of flies and beetles, adds that the Spondyle (or Sphondyle), the Phalangium, and other insects agree with them in this respect.
I say Spondyle or Sphondyle, because the editors and translators of Aristotle's work are divided upon this point. In the Greek text of Schneider the word is Sphondyldaī, in that of Camus Sphondyldaī: they each represent that it is an insect, because in this passage the meaning is evident; but in another passage of the same work[2], speaking of the diseases of the horse, Aristotle mentions cases in which that animal draws up the hip and drags the foot, and says, "the same thing occurs if he devours the Staphylinus. The Staphylinus is of the same size and appearance as the Sphondyle."
M. Camus, in his translation, writes Sphondyle, and agrees with Hesychius, who represents the Staphylinus, and consequently the Spondyle, as an animal. M. Schneider, on the contrary, who this time also writes Sphondyle, considers this word to be entirely different from Spondyle, the name of an animal in the first passage which I have quoted. M. Schneider, adopting the opinion of Scaliger, regards the Staphylinus,
