»82 ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS. 
¢ anfwer, where they acknowledged themfelves 
* convinced that it was a phyfical truth, which, 
© mifled by ill made experiments, they confidered 
© a prodigy not well afcertained. 
‘TI fhould not have thought of decapitating 
* more of thefe reptiles, had not the progrefs of 
© reproduction in feveral, and in the order of va- 
“ rious parts, feemed ftrange, and this induced 
© me to inveftigate the principles on which fuch 
“ varieties depend. The conftancy preferved, as 
* I know, from comparing my experiments with 
* thofe of your Reverence, M. Bonnet and Se- 
* nebier, convinced me that they were not /ufus 
* nature, but depending on fixed and invariable 
‘laws. But were thefe laws regulated by the 
* fite of the cut, or by its greater or lefs obliqui- 
‘ty? This is one of the queftions which occurs 
* in your Prodromo, . 
‘In the end of laft February, I decapitated 
‘twelve of the fame {nails as before: but there 
¢ was a. confiderable difference in the nature of 
‘the cut. In one half, it was vertical, but a 
‘little farther from the large horns than for- 
¢ merly ; in the other half of the number, it was 
¢ made more or lefs oblique, leaving one large 
‘ horn of fome untouched. All were then con- 
$ fined in a veffel. Having examined them in a 
¢ month, I’ found five dead; however, the other 
« feven had formed their operculum. On thefe, 
A ¢ therefore, 
