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DIY Insects: Andrew Crosse: Creator Of Living Mites?

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Anonymous

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Have you ever looked at those insects that Andrew Crosse was supposed to have created? Do you think they resemble any real insects?
 
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andrew crosse

Hi xanatic,

The animals found by Andrew Crosse were mites, not insects (mites, or Acari, are more closely related to spiders and they
have eight legs through most of their lifecycle). He named them Acarus crossii and left some drawings of what he saw. Saying
that I'm assuming he named and drew them - it may have been somebody else because I'm going from memory here! The
drawings look like typical mites from the order Astigmata - there have been attempts to identify the species and the best bet is
that they were Glycyphagus domesticus (the furniture mite) which are common in house dust and in old-fashioned horse-hair
stuffing.

As to whether they spontaneously appeared in his apparatus - I can't say. I've seen G. domesticus lay eggs, the eggs hatch and
the progeny develop into adults. Of course, I've never seen where the first one came from ;) The thing is mites are very small -
less than half a millimeter long, and blow around in the air. You can see that they're there with the naked eye but can't make out
any details of body structure or whatever. It's always been part of the Crosse story that puzzled me - the accounts claim that he
saw these things developing structure but to have done so he'd have had to have been looking at the crystals with a hand lens
THROUGH the bell jar so I'm not sure what was going on.
 
Aha, also the way he claims they grew also seems odd. Instead of being born as babies and growing bigger, they pretty much started at the head and grow a body from there.
 
Xanatic said:
Aha, also the way he claims they grew also seems odd. Instead of being born as babies and growing bigger, they pretty much started at the head and grow a body from there.

That pretty much puts the lid on it, really...
 
Andrew Crosse was called mad by his neighbours but seems to
have been a sane man who reported what he had observed.

The fact that he observed living creatures emerging out of volcanic
rock by electrolysis was disturbing to the natural order. But
others replicated the results. Now where has Tubal Cain got to? He
knows all about Crosse. :confused:
 
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anybody got any carbonate of potassa about their person?

ACARUS CROSSII:

Andrew Crosse, an English country gentleman, in 1837 made the following experiment, which excited much publicity: he mixed two ounces of powdered flint with six ounces carbonate of potassa, fused them with heat, reduced the compound to powder and dissolved it in boiling water, obtaining silicate of potassa.

This he diluted in boiling water, slowly saturating with hydrochloric acid. This he then subjected to "a long-continued electric action, through the intervention of a porous stone" (?) in an effort to form crystals of silica.

This did not happen, but on the fourteenth day of the experiment, he observed a few minute whitish lumps on the middle of the electrified stone.

By the eighteenth day, these had grown and stuck out seven or eight filaments. On the twenty-sixth day, they had become perfect insects, standing erect on a few bristles, which were their tails. On the twenty-eighth day they moved their legs, detached themselves from the stone, and began to move about.

Perhaps a hundred insects were thus generated, the smaller having six legs and the larger eight; they were pronounced as belonging to the genus Acarus.

Mr Crosse repeated his experiment many times with the same result, as did others, creating countless acari which came unerringly to life, fed, multiplied, and died only (but that without exception) upon exposure to frost.

The insects were called Acarus Crossii.
 
They were dust mites and his science was condemned by all and sundry. He never even claimed to have "created" them. He merely reported his finding. He was correct, creatures appeared.
His lab conditions were not sterile and dust mites will appear anywhere really.

This was in fortean a while back.
 
thanks for that. Didnt see the FT issue.

damn. Another fine plan goes west
 
but hang about.

dust mites surviving boiling water, acid and electric current?

maybe they were genetically linked to New York cockroaches?
 
So Ethels plan for an inexhaustable supply of highly trained commando cockroaches to support the waffen cat divisions comes to naught. It must be soul destroying being a megalomaniac and having to suffer all these setbacks :D
 
Andrew Crosse: Abiogenesis of Acari

Introduction:
In 1837, Andrew Crosse reported to the London electrical Society concerning the accidental spontaneous generation of life in the form of Acurus genus insects while he was conducting experiments on the formation of artificial crystals by means of prolonged exposure to weak electric current. Throughout numerous strict experiments under a wide variety of conditions utterly inimical to life as we know it, the insects continued to manifest. The great Michael Faraday also reported to the Royal Institute that he had replicated the experiment. Soon afterwards, all notice of this phenomenon ceased to be reported, and the matter has not been resolved since then.

http://www.rexresearch.com/crosse/crosse.htm
 
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Crosse, Weeks and Faraday probably were infested with Acari mites back in those far off unhygenic days, and contaminated their samples themselves. In some ways it is a good thing that those experiments fail nowadays; it implies that hygiene has improved.
 
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almond13 said:
Andrew Crosse: Abiogenesis of Acari

Introduction:
In 1837, Andrew Crosse reported to the London electrical Society concerning the accidental spontaneous generation of life in the form of Acurus genus insects while he was conducting experiments on the formation of artificial crystals by means of prolonged exposure to weak electric current. Throughout numerous strict experiments under a wide variety of conditions utterly inimical to life as we know it, the insects continued to manifest. The great Michael Faraday also reported to the Royal Institute that he had replicated the experiment. Soon afterwards, all notice of this phenomenon ceased to be reported, and the matter has not been resolved since then. http://www.rexresearch.com/crosse/crosse.htm

I collect 'Frankensteinia' and can recommend The Man Who Was Frankenstein by Peter Hanning. Basically, a great (the only?) biography of Crosse and his work with some related short stories at the back.

It's a great little book, but am unsure whether it's still in print. I've been fascinated by him for a long time.
 
jefflovestone
I collect 'Frankensteinia' and can recommend The Man Who Was Frankenstein by Peter Hanning. Basically, a great (the only?) biography of Crosse and his work with some related short stories at the back.

It's a great little book, but am unsure whether it's still in print. I've been fascinated by him for a long time.

Thanks for the tip, it sounds interesting and I’ll do a search on Abe.
BTW sorry for the delay in answering.
 
Letters of scientist who inspired Frankenstein go on public display
Letters describing a series of early 19th century experiments by a scientist who is said to have inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein have gone on display.

By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 6:02PM GMT 08 Dec 2008

Andrew Crosse was known by neighbours as "the thunder and lightening man" for his endeavours at his isolated manor house in the Quantock Hills in Somerset.

They included attracting lightening to strike a network of copper cables during electrical storms.

His experiments - which often resulted in loud bangs – caused alarm with locals, who nicknamed his home Fyne Court in Broomfield as 'Wizard Crosse'.

But they also caught the attention of Shelley, who attended a lecture he gave in London in 1814, two years before she wrote Frankenstein.

It is thought that Shelley, whose most famous novel told of a scientist's quest to create artificial life, knew Crosse through a mutual friend, the poet Robert Southey

Now two letters detailing Crosse's experiments with electricity have been bought at auction for £400 by Somerset County Council. They are to be held at Somerset records office and made available for public view.

Their subject matter ranges from the relatively mundane - such as progress in making electro-voltaic batteries - to the bizarre.

In one he expressed his wish to "see the experiments on animal magnetism". In the other he talked of experiments that saw "some products formed in a new manner".

That might have been a reference to an experiment he undertook which he believed resulted in the creation of new life.

During the procedure Crosse accidentally dropped some solution on to a piece of volcanic stone.

Two weeks later he found mite-like creatures had appeared on the rock. He sent samples off to the Natural History Museum but their scientists could not relate them to any living creatures. When Crosse made his findings public he was accused of blasphemy, which left him devastated.

The letters have now been catalogued and will be added to the holdings of the Somerset records office, alongside other material already held relating to Crosse.

Dr Janet Tall, head of the council's archives, said that while the letters dated from 1836, it was known that Shelley attended one of his lectures in 1814.

She said: "Mary Shelley attended a lecture that he gave in London that was two years before she wrote Frankenstein."

The letters were addressed to Professor Wheatston of King's College, London, whom Dr Tall said invented the telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandte ... splay.html
 
a collosal untapped energy resource

Andrew Crosse, famed for the alleged spontaneous generation of acarii in his sealed jars, set up a system of wires on poles around his country estate in the Quantocks. Locals were said to have been terrified by the sight of "spirits" dancing on the wires! :oops:

Wikipedia Article on Crosse Here.

"Among his experiments Crosse erected "an extensive apparatus for examining the electricity of the atmosphere," incorporating at one point an insulated wire some 1.25 miles (2.01 km) long, later shortened to 1,800 feet (550 m), suspended from poles and trees. Using this wire he was able to determine the polarity of the atmosphere under various weather conditions. His results were published by his friend George Singer in 1814, as part of Singer's Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry."
 
They were dust mites and his science was condemned by all and sundry. He never even claimed to have "created" them. ...
His lab conditions were not sterile and dust mites will appear anywhere really.
This was in fortean a while back.
thanks for that. Didnt see the FT issue. ...

The FT article cited above was once available on the Fortean Times website. It is now accessible only via the Wayback Machine. Here's the text from the MIA article.
THE LICE FANTASTIC
by Sarah Bakewell
FT 139 Oct 2000

Andrew Crosse (1784-1855) (left) is often portrayed as the archetypal “mad scientist” on whom Victor Frankenstein was modelled, despite the fact that his supposed creation of life did not occur until almost two decades after Frankenstein was written. He was, indeed, something of a romantic figure, living in isolation in a country house with its own private laboratory, into which ran wires attached to lightning conductors, and out of which came the regular snap, crackle and pop of electrical experimentation. Yet in truth, Crosse scrupulously struggled to adhere to proper scientific method, and to be cautious in drawing conclusions. The fact that his careful “discoveries” turned out to be the stuff of bizarre fantasy is attributable less to undisciplined thinking than to the perils of the DIY laboratory.

What happened was this. Having experimented on electrical phenomena for years, Crosse one day in 1836 looked into a dish of chemicals through which he had been passing an electrical current in an attempt to influence crystal formation. Instead of crystals, he saw in the dish “a perfect insect, standing erect on a few bristles which formed its tail” ... .It resembled “a microscopic porcupine.”Other insects joined it, and two days later the creatures moved their legs, then detached themselves and “moved about at pleasure” in the dish. “I must say I was not a little astonished,” remarked Crosse. A hundred or more of the creatures appeared over the next few weeks. “As they successively burst into life, the whole table on which the apparatus stood was at last covered with similar insects, which hid themselves wherever they could find a shelter. [..] They were plainly perceptible to the naked eye as they nimbly crawled from one spot to another.” Crosse identified them as the genus Acarus, but was not sure whether they were a known species or a new one.

At first he mentioned the event only to a handful of people, but word got around, and before long a local newspaper caught on to the story. Under the headline “Extraordinary Experiment,” its editor sensationalised the discovery, naming the creature Acarus galvanicus. The tale “flew over England, and indeed Europe, satisfying at once the credulity of those who love the marvellous, and raising up a host of bitter and equally unreasoning assailants.” The idea of electrically-generated insects upset many people on religious grounds, for Crosse appeared to be trying to usurp God’s role of Creator, and the reaction to him was extreme. He received threats of violence; local agriculturalists blamed him for a blight on the wheat crop, and an exorcism was carried out on nearby hills.

Most writers now agree that, in reality, the insects were probably either dust- or cheese-mites which had somehow got into the liquid. Crosse tried to be careful, but he was not working under controlled conditions, and contamination can happen very easily.
The tale of Andrew Crosse quickly became the stuff of melodramatic horror yarns. Indeed, it is more true to say that Frankenstein influenced the public response to Crosse’s insects than to say that Crosse influenced Frankenstein. A story called The Electric Vampire depicted the Acarus as an enormous, hideous spider, with owl-like, unblinking eyes. “It vindicates Crosse absolutely,” says the doctor who created it. “Don’t you think it is superb?” The creature lives by sucking the blood from mice, but then graduates to human victims, beginning – of course – with the doctor himself. In Death of a Professor by Michael Hervey (“If you’re nervy don’t read Hervey!” was his catchphrase), the tiny Acari consume their victim’s bones from inside the body. This time their progenitor is discovered as an empty, boneless bag of skin on the floor – and the Acari are nowhere to be seen, having escaped into the world.

FULL ARTICLE (This Text Plus Footnotes, References, & Recommended Resources):
No longer available on the Fortean Times website, but accessible via the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060108214228/http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/139_lice.shtml
 
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