XXXVm INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



their native element is a fiuid, and they are natu- 

 rally moid ; but deprive them of this element, or 

 allow them to dry, they become motionlefs, they 

 contra£b, wither, and die. Thus may the animals 

 remain one year or ten ; then let moiilure and 

 the other requifites be fupplied, their members 

 fwell, hfe returns, and the animals become as 

 lively and vigorous as ever. 



It is reafonable to expect that fo remarkable a 

 deviation from the courfe of nature fliould be li- 

 mited, and the privileged animals uncommon- 

 ly few. Still they are not fo rare as to prevent 

 the truth of the phenomenon from being amply 

 eftablilhed. Hitherto none of the lars:er animals 

 have been found which are endov/ed with this 

 lingular property. — Nature, as if to veil that 

 which is fo fondly cherimed in idea by mankind, 

 feems to have bellowed it only on the mod mi- 

 nute of her creatures. — -The v^^heel animal, vari- 

 ous micrcfcopic eels, and the lloth, may all die 

 and be revived. The exceffive fcarcity of the lall 

 has prevented naturalifls from inveftigating the 

 utmod limits of its refurgent faculties. No one, ex- 

 cept Spailanzani, fo far as I know, has ever been 

 able to difcover it. In this remote kingdom, 

 where the fludy of animated exiflence is yet in 

 infancy, I have found three, perhaps four valie- 

 ties of the lloth, all evidently belonging to the 

 fame genus of this wonderful animal, or of a race 



analogous j 



