ANIMALS. 389 



need of all things, without the power of procuring 

 any. The lower races of animals, upon being 

 produced, are active, vigorous, and capable of 

 self-support ; but the infant is obliged to wait in 

 helpless expectation, and its cries are its only aid 

 to procure subsistence. 



An infant just born may be said to come from 

 one element into another ; for, from the watery 

 fluid in which it was surrounded, it now emerges 

 into air; and its first cries seem to imply how 

 greatly it regrets the change. How much longer 

 it could have continued in a state of almost total 

 insensibility in the womb, is impossible to tell ; 

 but it is very probable that it could remain there 

 some hours more. In order to throw some light 

 upon this subject, M. Buffon so placed a pregnant 

 bitch as that her puppies were brought forth in 

 warm water, in which he kept them above half an 

 hour at a time. However, he saw no change in 

 the animals thus newly brought forth ; they con- 

 tinued the whole time vigorous ; and, during the 

 whole time, it is very probable that the blood cir- 

 culated through the same channels through which 

 it passed while they continued in the womb. 



Almost all animals have their eyes closed* for 

 some days after being brought into the world. 

 The infant opens them the instant of its birth. 

 However, it seems to keep them fixed and idle ; 

 they want that lustre which they acquire by de- 

 grees ; and if they happen to move, it is rather an 

 accidental gaze than an exertion of the act of 



* Buffon, voL iv. p. 173. 



