IXX INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



fual degree of furprife and diftruft arofe. When 

 the head was fevered from the body, either inten- 

 tionally or by accident, every known animal was 

 deftroyed. Therefore, the affertion that a new head 

 would grow in place of the old one, naturally met 

 with difcredit. Intelligent perfons reafoned from 

 what had happened, and not from what might 

 enfue. Certainly we can hardly call their hefita- 

 tion culpable : and it has tended to one good con- 

 fequence, namely, the eftablifhment of the faft 

 without difpute. But, in the profecution of thefe 

 experiments, diflruft will gradually wear away : 

 when we fee the fins, fiefh, bones, claws, feet, 

 eyes, and jaws of an animal regenerated, and 

 behold an animal furvive after being divided in 

 pieces, it is not fo repugnant to think that it may 

 reproduce the head. 



If there is any reafon why certain animals en- 

 joy this fmgular prerogative in its full extent, it 

 is yet unknown. Thofe hardy philofophers, who 

 are irrefiilibly impelled to account for every phe- 

 nomenon they behold, are continually deceived ; 

 and in nothing is it more eminent than their ar- 

 guments, once efteemed plaufible, for the repro- 

 dudion of loft parts. Here there is an immenfe 

 fource of information to be laid open to phyfio- 

 logifts, both with regard to the regeneration of 



important 



