66 



of the ancients, though the reason of it they did not 

 understand, (oleo /V///0, insect a omnia exanimantur, 

 Plin.), which was nothing but the interceding of 

 the air ; for, though you put oil upon them, if you 

 put it not upon or obstruct those orifices therewith,, 

 whereby they draw the air, they suffer nothing *." 

 Mayhow observes, that if the oil be applied only on 

 some of these orifices, the neighbouring parts im- 

 mediately become paralytic, by being deprived of 

 the nitro-aerial particles of the air, while the other 

 parts, in the meanwhile, continue sound f. Mr Der- 

 ham found, that wasps, bees, hornets, and grasshop- 

 pers, seemed dead in two minutes, when placed 

 under the exhausted receiver ; but revived in two 

 or three hours on being restored to the air, even 

 though they had remained in vacuo twenty-four 

 hours J. Of the vcrmes class, snails survive several 

 hours in the exhausted receiver : efts, or slow worms, 

 two or three days ; and leeches, five or six ((. 



.j(2. The same necessity of fresh air in the water 

 in which they live, is required by aquatic animals. 

 Zoophytes, according to Mr Davy, require the pre- 

 sence of air in the water in which they grow, and 

 they act upon it like fishes . The animalcules in 

 pepper water remained in vacuo twenty-four hours : 

 and, being afterwards exposed a day or two to the 



* Wisdom of God in the Creation, p. 82. 



f Tractat. Quartus, cap. iv. p. 39. 



J Physfco-Thedlogy, p. 8. 7th Edition. 



J| Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary, article Air Pump, 



Bcddocs's Contributions to Science, p. 138. 



