254 LEAVES FROM THE 



under sucli circumstances, Recli cut off the heads of four 

 other tortoises. Twelve days after decapitation he opened 

 two of them, when he beheld the heart beating, and saw 

 the blood enter and leave it. 



These were E-edi's experiments : for them he is an- 

 swerable. But it is only just to remark, that in this 

 frightful state of life in death there may be more of irri- 

 tability than sensation. The restoration of mutilated 

 organs in the reptiles is wonderful to the uninitiated. 

 Look at the eye : a subject for Newton. I remember to 

 have seen in a large glass bowl a number of aquatic 

 lizards, which were undergoing the curative and repro- 

 ductive process, which kind Nature had initiated — ay, and 

 carried out completely — after they had been deprived of 

 an anterior extremity or an eye. In both cases the organs 

 were reproduced. The anterior extremity is nothing 

 when compared to the organ of vision ; but, after all, the 

 cornea, through which we see such glorious sights, is 

 nothing but a modification of the skin, and the rest of 

 that wonderful orb in a low grade of animal nature may 

 be easily supplied. It may occur to some that the clot 

 in the cranium of Redi's brainless tortoise was an attempt 

 to restore the great centre of the nervous system ; but the 

 probability is, that nature was endeavouring to repair the 

 injury, and to secure as much of life as was to be retained 

 under the shocking circumstances. 



The length of time during which Redi's headless tor- 

 toise lingered will not surprise those who have seen how 

 much life remains, and for how long, in a turtle, after all 

 its wasting by the unhealthy voyage. We have been 

 taught, and truly with respect to the higher grade of 

 animals, that in the blood is the life. But in the case of 

 the testudinate, which is to furnish forth the soup, the 

 calipee, the steaks, the currie, for which and upon which 

 aldermen live, any one who wishes to descend into the 

 abysses from which that ambrosial feast is furnished 



