liv INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS, 



From obfervations made by myfelf, I have 

 great reafon to fuppofe fome fpecies of fnaiis 

 are refufcitant, and that feveral infufion ani- 

 malcula enjoy the fame privilege. — Plants arc 

 undoubtedly a kind of organifed beings, whofe 

 life and propagation bear the neareft refem- 

 blance to thofe of animals, in a late experi- 

 ment, the v/ater lentil revived thirty-three months 

 after it was dried. MofTes, it is faid, have reviv- 

 ed after an hundred years deficcation, and feeds 

 preferved their vegetative faculty two hundred 

 years. 



Thofe who have been unfuccefsful in re- 

 viving refurgent animals, have either negle<Eted- 

 the neceflary conditions, in the fame manner as 

 the ufe of one ftimulant will excite vitality, 

 while the want of it, or employment of an 

 other, will allow fufpended animation to termi- 

 nate in adual death ; or they have not attend- 

 ed to the proper fpecies of animals. But we are 

 fafe to conclude, that the vital funftions may be 

 fufpended incredibly long, and the animal flill 

 revive, and that there are animals which may 

 exift years in complete deliccation, without the 

 principle of life being loft. Ail this is only fuf- 

 pended animation j it is not death. May there 

 be fuch a thing as a fecond creation of life r 

 If the life cf the impregnated germ is created, 

 perhaps the fame creation, if fuch an idea can 



be 



