Iv. AND REVIVED. 183 
ftroyed, fo as to leave no hope of reparation, it 
is clear that the animal not only dies, but muft 
always remain dead: if the irritability is fuch 
that it may be re-excited, either naturally or by 
art, it is indubitable that the animal will pafs 
from death to life. It will not fignify though it 
remains dead a long time, even for an age. The 
reader comprehends my idea. When wheel ani- 
mals, floths, and the eels of tiles are deprived of 
water, their irritability is evidently loft, and they 
die. Other animals, having once loft this irrita- 
bility, never recover it; but it is awakened in 
wheel animals, floths, and eels, and they return 
to their original life by humectation. 
From the fame principle, may we explain why 
in certain cafes thefe animals lofe the refurgent 
property when expofed to powerful heat or pene- 
trating odours, or when fome liquids and elec- 
tricity at upon them. Such agents injure the 
mufcular ftru€ture, as appears by the rupture of 
the body and deftrution of the irritable power 
refiding in it. ‘This perhaps is the reafon why 
frequent humectations prejudice refufcitant ani- 
mals ; for I have really feen it; and in particular 
obferved, that the members of the eels of blight- 
ed corn were injured and lacerated by repeated 
humeétation. 
We mutt conclude from the whole, that as ir- 
witability refides in the glutinous part of the 
, » Me muicle. 
