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I will give the details of one experiment : April 3d ; noon ; air, 68* ; 

 the axillae and groins, each 65' : a search for the pulse began, and con- 

 tinued for three hours without intermission or disturbance. The whole 

 attention was directed to this one object. In the first half hour I feltthree 

 strokes like those of an artery, in the part corresponding to the wrist. 

 Similar pulsations were noticed in the hind leg, near the foot, amounting, 

 in all, to fifteen in three hours — none were felt in other regions. When 

 a stroke occurred, two or three followed in as many minutes or less. 

 The animals were now irritated. The limb was held in my hand. 

 They puffed and raged, but no increased arteiial action was perceived. 

 Is their circulation voluntary, paroxysmal, suspensible ? Does the blood 

 flow equably, without arterial impulsion, as in the veins and capillaries ? 

 Is not the quantity of red l^lood, very small in this animal? A wound 

 w^hichl made with the lancet, was barely moistened with blood. Doctor, 

 now Professor Le Conte, of Georgia, in decapitating an Alligator, on 

 which he made some interesting experiments, recently, noticed that "not 

 more than two ounces of blood flowed from the wound. (Vide N. York 

 Jour. Med. Nov. 1845). 



With respect to certain h3bernating animals, "Spallanzani and 

 others are of opinion that the circulation of the blood is entirely stopped 

 in the remote branches of the arteries and veins, and only proceeds in 

 the trunks of the larger vessels and near the heart." 



The Digestive function of the Alligator, seems but remotely illustrated 

 by that of man. Herodotus asserts, (with great probability), that during 

 the four winter months, Crocodiles eat nothing — a postulate which St. 

 Hilaire, with all his bias for that historian, denies. From some of the 

 officers, crews, and passengers of a Bremen ship, I learned that two 

 large, healthy, Louisiana Alligators, for two months before going to sea, 

 for two months during the vovage, and for two weeks after its termina- 

 tion, ate nothing whatever. In another case, an Alligator was known 

 to have eaten nothing for forty-nine days. A physician who kept a 

 young Alligator for a consideraV)le period, never could discover that it ate, 

 though food V, as put in its mouth. Dr. Davy's experiments on poisonous 

 snakes at Ceylon, show that these animals become more and more active 

 without eating. The tic-pologna {vipera eJegans) 4^ feet long, which he 

 kept 146 days, took no food. Its poisonous bite killed some animals 

 instantly — others in a few seconds. Spallanzani kept frogs, salaman- 

 ders and snakes, in a torpid state in an ice house, for three years and a 

 half, and then readily revived them by the atmospheric warmth. Of 

 course they fasted all this tinie. x\ turtle which Dr. Daw killed at Malta 

 for experiment, had lived two months without eating, and without any 

 impairment of its activity. 



I have several times put into the mouths, posterior fauces and stomachs 

 of Alligators, flesh, bones, and the like, with cords attached ; in nearly 

 all cases, I have found these, on the following day, just where I left them, 

 and without any other alteration than that incidental to maceration. In 

 but a single instance did I find that the animal had swallowed any thing 

 left in the mouth or pharynx ; though it is difficult to believe that these 

 substances could remain a day or more without causing irritation or 

 strangulation, I tied a cord to a portion of the spine of a hog, with 

 considerable flesh adhering: This was put by force into the mouth. On 



