ome stercoraceous, some
urinous, and so on. But all these hells are covered over, that those vapors
may not escape from them. For when they are opened a very little, which
happens when novitiate devils enter, they excite vomiting and cause
headache, and such as are also poisonous induce fainting. The very dust
there is also of the same nature, wherefore it is there called damned
dust. From this it is evident that there are such noxious insects wherever
there are such stenches, because the two correspond.

342. It now becomes a matter of inquiry whether such things spring from
eggs conveyed to the spot by means of air, or rain, or water oozing
through the soil, or whether they spring from the damp and stenches
themselves. That these noxious animalcules and insects mentioned above
are hatched from eggs which have been carried to the spot, or which have
lain hidden everywhere in the ground since creation, is opposed to all
observation. For worms spring forth in minute seeds, in the kernels of
nuts, in wood, in stones, and even from leaves, and upon plants and in
plants there are lice and grubs which are accordant with them. Of flying
insects, too, there are such as appear in houses, fields, and woods, which
arise in like manner in summer, with no oviform matters sufficient to
account for them; also such as devour meadows and lawns, and in some hot
localities fill and infest the air; besides those that swim and fly unseen
in filthy waters, wines becoming sour, and pestilential air. These facts
of observation support those who say that the odors, effluvia, and
exhalations emitted from plants, earths, and ponds, are what give the
initiative to such things. That when they have come forth, they are
afterwards propagated either by eggs or offshoots, does not disprove their
immediate generation; since every living creature, along with its minute
viscera, receives organs of generation and means of propagation (see below,
n. 347). In agreement with these phenomena is the fact heretofore unknown
that there are like things also in the hells.

343. That the hells mentioned above have not only communication but
conjunction with such things in the earths may be concluded from this,
that the hells are not distant from men, but are about them, yea, are
within those who are evil; thus they are contiguous to the earth; for man,
in regard to his affections and lusts, and consequent thoughts, and in
regard to his actions springing from these,