INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. XXXIK 



-analogous ; but whether poireffing the fame pre- 

 rogative I have not yet been able to afcertain. 

 Of the fourth, I fpeak with diffidence ; for, with- 

 out long inveftigation, we mufl hefitate in afcribing 

 animality to a being whofe length does not equal 

 the thicknefs of a human hair, which fcarccly 

 ever exhibits perceptible motion, and is not once 

 tQ be found in a thoufand obfervationso 



Whether an animal may-a£i:ually die, and af- 

 terwards be revived, has been the fubjed of much 

 controverfy ; equally fo as the fymptoms pre- 

 ceding and attending death. Putrefaction is, by 

 common confent, regarded as the mofl infallible 

 iign of diiTolution, though it will fometimes com- 

 mence during life. But many animals dry up, 

 and wither, and become as hard as wood without 

 putrefaction ever appearing in the ilighteil degreco 

 ..Next to this, the want of irritability .is confidered 

 certain evidence of deaths Yet the abfence of it 

 will not always prove an animal dead ; for life 

 often remains w^hen there is no fenfible irritability ; 

 -and one ftimulant will awaken vitality, while the 

 ufe of ail others is vain. — In ihe fame manner as 

 particular ftimulantsare incapable of awakening 

 dormant animation, neither can methods deftruc- 

 "tive of it, in its utmoft vigour, in one indance, af- 

 -fecl it at all in another. Undoubtedly we fnould 

 fuppofe the mod efficacious methods of deftroying 

 animals, are depriving them of nutriment, orde- 

 fi 4 priving 



