2^6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



I muft here obferve, that the cruel experiments 

 every day made on brutes, in the vievv of difco- 

 vcring thefe fecret correfpondencies of Nature, 

 ferve only to fpread a thicker veil over them ; for 

 their mufcles, contraded by terror and pain, de- 

 range the courfe of the animal fpirits, accelerate 

 the velocity of the blood, put the nerves into a 

 ftate of convulfion, and tend much rather to un- 

 hinge the animal economy, than to unfold it. 

 Thefe barbarous means, employed by our modern 

 Phyfics, have an influence flill more fatal on the 

 morals of thofe who pradife them ; for, together 

 with falfe information, they infpire them with the 

 mofl atrocious of all vices, which is cruelty. 



If Man may prefume to put queflions to Na- 

 ture refpecling the operations which flie is pleafed 

 to conceal, I fliould prefer the road of pleafure to 



ment to which he belonged ; but I have not loft the recolle(5lion 

 of his virtuous conduft, which was reported to me on undoubt- 

 ed authority. When the accident above related fent him to the 

 Invalids, he remembered that, in his capacity of ferjeant, he 

 had inveigled, at the inftigation of his captain, in a country 

 village, a young fellow to enlift, who was the only fon of a poor 

 widow, and who was killed three months afterward in an en- 

 gagement. The ferjeant recolleéling this a£V of cruelty and in- 

 juftice, formed the refolution of abftaining from wine. He fold 

 his allowance as a penfioner in the Hofpital of the Invalids, and 

 remitted the amount every fix months tp the mother whom he 

 had robbed of her fon 



that 



