T S
   Xr.  keau miar  w as  v~ry  fenfi le   of  the  that  te r
in- -i-.  &.  an  m s  hv   over  Oehe , as to; t   he ffing ol
I their woun   but was refolved     r the experiment on
  .. 2.1 land4^ .;E The crgtr he fii chofe for thef
  >qGAw              te' eart-or; and on cuing thefe
  £rauc aIfnder,    thoug  n_ 1an  ef  te  pieces dried,  yet he
  lindthe pleafureOf                      CDengfc ed       fo perf y    that
  the tait part, which wanted n  cny the head, but f  the
  23rgans  of  generation  of  bot  1 lxes  tw hich   in  thefe  anim als
       S~~~~~ri               i e - -n      1  M  i
     e always  both  contained  In: the ame  in)    b e n
   feen to repouce both thefe orga  and the head- and e-
   came as-perf& a worm as the whole w     Philof. Tranf.
   N>   4604.  A ppen d*g. .,A.4
   t-gzer, inm ihhyology, theEnglilli name of the ura-
   nofcopus. Seethe article URANOSCOPUS.
 ~STAa-ft~ot, thccommon name of a gelatinous fubilance often
    X    f 5i~i yirg on the furface of the earth, and called fy Come
    ftar-jel.y, and ftar-fallen.
    ~The:$ vulgar have been always of opinion, that this was
    Produced fro  that meteor which they call a falling-ftar
    others have imagined it a vegetable fubftance, and fuppofed
    it grew out of the earth: neither of thefe however appear,
    upon a clofe examination, to be the cafe, but that it is really
    the half-digefted food of 'herons, bitterns, croWs, fea-mews,
    and coddy-moddies principally when they have fed upon
    frogs or earth-worms.
    The heads of frogs have been foun whole in maffes of this
    nmatter, as have alfo parts of worms, and thefe birds, 'when
    -hot, have been found, when dying, to difgorge a fubilance
    of the fame kind.
    It is a gelatinous fublIance, refembling a thick mucilage of
    gum tragacanth, and is cold to the touch. There are often
    yellow fpecks, and fmall clots, like grumous blood, in it.
    Ret(inks like putrid flefh when kept, and is principally found
    in milty mornings, and in wet weather in autumn, winter,
    and fpring. Moreton's Northampt. p. 353.
    Mr. Boyre fays, he has feen this jelly refolved by 'digeftion
    only into a permanent liquor; and that a phyfician of his
    acquaintance extolled it as a fpecific outwardly applied, to
    wens. Works Abr. Vol. r. p. 3P0.
 STAR-ftones, aeria, in, natural hiftory, the name of a kind of
    extraneous foffil, of a very regular figure and ftrudure, and
    approaching very much to the nature of the entroclii, having
    the fame fubitance and inner 'frudfure, and being much of
    the fame fize, though different in form: and as thofe foffils
    have fragments 'of bhelly bodies, to which they are Come-
    times found affixed, and appendages like branchesi or ithe
    rudiments of fuch, growing firom them, fo there have both
    the one and the other; the firif called afteropodia, and the
    *others the appevdculr, or wires of the ajieri.
    The afteropodia, in fubftance and-inner ftrudure, agree per-
    fedtly with the (hells of the echinitse, found i'n' our chalk-
 , Pits, and with the afterie and entrtochi; thefe bodies being
    all compofeud of obliquely-atranged plates of a tabulated fpar:
    they are ufually compofed of feveral joints, but'they are
    * only very imperfed fragments of the body of the animal the
    aft eri&e have once been a part of; the feveral parts of which
    they. are compol~d Dare all convex on one fide, and concave
    -on the other, but they are of very different (hapes, being
    .i-metimes roundifh, fometimes oblong, often quadrangular,
    and not unfrequently of different numbers of angles. They
    have frequently two, fometimes more ridges running acrofs
    them,. and rometimes they have tubercles, or fmall protube-
    rances, (landing either on their upper or under fide: the
    are fometimes found fingle, but more frequently compound,
    nor arranged into fmnaller or larger parcels, being placed one
    over another in the manner of the tiles of a houfie, and
    feem truly to have been originally part of an imbricated
    ihell, or cruft of fome yet unknown fpecies of fea-fiUh.
    They are in thefe compound maffes even very evidently frag-
    ments,> and are ufually of irregularly broken figures, though
    fometimes they refemble, in fome degree, parts of the rays
    of one or other of the kinds of fltar-fifh. They are ufu-
    ally found loofe from the afterie, though lying among
    them; but fometimes the afterier are regularly fixed on them,
    jult as the entrodci on the modioli, and are plainly feen to
    have originally grown out of them.
    The encrinos of authors is one kind of afterepodium, and
    has been affirmed by fome perfedly to agree in figure with a
    ray of the magellanic.ftar-fifh. This is, however, feldom
    found in fuch a compound (late; it ufually is met with in
    fingle joints, and then is what authors call the afteropodium
    minus,3 or fmall afteropodium. Hills Hifl. of FoM p. 653
    Thefe bodies are ufually of a pale bluifh grey, or afh colour;
    fometimes they are whitilh, and Sometimes, though more
    rarely, yellowifli, or reddifh.
    Having thus far defcribed the afteropdia, which feem pro-
 * perly the bafes of the afteria, we (hall be more intelligible
    in. the account of the afteria themfelves, which are to be
    treated of merely as branches of 'them; though, from their
 *T being much more frequentfthan thefe their bafes, they are
    wchi more familiarly known, and ufually  mare regarded.
    The   feria are (hort, and commonly fomewbat crooked an-
    .glar columns,, compofed of feveral joints, each refemblingj
                  I'.
                  tatl -fiar with a   t gat  or  at
                     W~ ~   ~~t o1 ,'     'M
h~er o# rAys in th diferen Cpe .es: they are ually found
off abot ar inch in 1Inh, and o the thicke(b o a
  quill. SoXe of therh  e five ange  or
only four, and in famethie angles are quidan  wh e in
oter they ar irrslal La; ifXA ibe al    the  are fh*brLt*jW_'w
and bl~ut, white 1X others they are long, narrow  ad
pointed   n    o have their angles hi very (hort and ob-
tu4e, that at firf flit they might baken for   eo-
        ft   The feveraljoints in the fme peimen are ufu-
ally all ´of the- fme thicinefs; this however is not always
the caf  but in fome they are larger at one end, and in
others at the mniddle, than in any othe? part of the bd;
and fome fpecies have one of the rays bifid, fo as to emulate
the appearance of a fix-rayed kind.
All the afterie are naturally fulcated between the angles,
but'this in a very different degree; fonie are very little to,
while others are cut fo deeply, that the fingle joints of them
refemble the rowels of a fpur. Oi~e end of the columni is
frequently found finely engraved along'the edges of the an-
gles, or rays, while the other end is fmooth, or nearly fo;
and the fame is often the cafe alfo in the  ng  ints. Not
unfrequently, alfo, one end of a column is in ented, and
the other has five Briarm, running from a hollow center to the
fulci between the rays.
They are found of various bigneffes and colours; the longeft
feldorn arrive, however, at two inches,+ and 'they are found
of all the intermediate bignefs from this down to the Ien'th
of a barley-corn: they are not unfrequently found, agfo,
comprefled and flatted, as is common to the foffils that have
been formed in animal moulds.
They are ufually found bedded in the firata of clay, though
not unfrequently in thofe of a lax fort of quarry-ftone, and
fometimes in a harder, but that lefs frequently. They ufu-
ally have fea-fhells, and other marine remains, lying about
them; and fometimes thefe (hells adhere to the afterie, and
when feparated from them do no injury to the afteriae, but
themfelves (hew a mark of the figure of the body, or part
of the column, when a part has been always wanting in the
(hell. Had there (hells been (luck into the bodies of the afte-
riae, it would have been a proof that thefe (hells were the
bodies firft formed, and that the matter of the afterhe had
been formed, or had gathered about them afterwards; but
as it is, we have by it abundant proof on the other fide of
the queftion, and may plainly difcover that thefe afterie are
really of marine origin; and that however they may be al-
tered in their matter or flru&ure, fince they were depofited
in the earth, yet that they were really exifting in this their
proper form in thofe feas, when the (hells that are found
adhering to them acquired their growth.
From the columns of the afteriae there are Sometimes pro-
pagated certain fmall branches, like thofe of' the entrochi;
thefe are called by authors appendiulhe afteriarum, or the
wires of the afterie.,
They are compofed of reveral fhort cylindric joints, Iwith
obliquely-truncated ends, and each hollowed to the middle,
where there (lands a fmall tubercle. Thefe branches are
fometimes two inches long, and the largeft or thickeft joint
always adheres to the afteria, all the fucceeding ones grow-
ing fmaller, and the branch taperer toward the end. In
their natural fituation on the afteria, they "land in regular
circles at different diftances, one above another: there is
always one wire in each of the fulci, or channels of the
body, and thefe fland evenly againft'one' another.
Thefe wires, or appendieude, are very feldom, however,
found in this their native Rlate, or fixed to the bodies of the
afteria; they are commonly found broken off, and lying
loofe among them, and the rudiments only of them remain-
ing on the afterie, and' very rarely even thefe. The wires
themfelves are more frequently found wholly feparate from
them, and either in fragments of different lengths, or in
fingle joints, immerfed in ftone, or lying among the ftrata
of clay. Hill's Hifl. of Foff. p. 654.
The afteria is alfo denominated aftrites, aftroites, aftrobalus,
and afterticus; by Gefner fphragis afteros, ]igillum ftella, in
Englifhthe efiarry-fioen.
The aft eriec may be reduced to two kinds; the firfl, thore
whofe whole bodies make the form of a ftar; the fecond,
thofe which in the whole are irregular, but which are adorn-
ed, as it were, with conltellations in the parts.
Dr. Lifter, for diflindion's fake, only gives the name afteria
to the former fort, diftinguifhing the latter by the appella-
tion of 'afiroites; the other naturalills generally ufe the two
indiscriminately '. The afteria, fpoken of by the antients,
appears to be this latter kind g..[b Plott, Nat. Hift. Ox-
fordih. cap. 5. fedt. i6. feq. S Mercat. Metalloth. arm. 9.
cap. Io,]
Some antient writers indeed fpeak of another more extraor-
dinary fpecies of 'aria or ajirites, which the fun's rays
would fet on fire, ' and which on that account came into ufe
for the compofition of philtres for kindling love. Bail.
Did. Crit. in voc. Efope, n. (A).
The quality of moving in vinegar, as if animated, is fearce
perceivable in the aytraites, but is fiknal in the aftsria.
                                                     The