67 



open air, Mr Derham found some of them dead and 

 some alive *. Mr Ray remarked, that fishes cannot 

 live in water without air : they will live in a vessel 

 of water with a narrow mouth for months or years ; 

 but if the vessel be stopped, so as wholly to exclude 

 the air, or interrupt its communication with the wa- 

 ter, they will be suddenly suffocated f. Dr Priest- 

 ley confined several small fishes in a vessel, contain^ 

 ing three pints of rain water, that had been previously 

 well boiled to deprive it of its air, and they lived 

 only between three and four hours J. Mr Davy 

 introduced a large thornback into a jar containing 

 three cubic inches of water, which had been depri- 

 ved of its air by distillation through mercury : he 

 was very quiet for four minutes and a half, but 

 then began to move about, and, in seven minutes, 

 had fallen on his back, but still continued to move 

 his gills. In eleven minutes, he was motionless, and 

 when taken out, after thirteen minutes, he did not 

 recover ||. Amphibious animals, likewise, cannot 

 live without air, but its deprivation is not imme- 

 diately fatal to them. Frogs and toads bear the 

 pump for two or three hours, and a frog recovered 

 on exposure to the air, after remaining in vacua 

 seemingly dead for eleven hours . Hence we see, 

 that, to all these animals, whether inhabiting the air 



* Physico-Theology, p. 8. 



f Wisdom of God in the Creation, p. 81. 



1 Observations on Air, vol. v. p. 139. 



j| Researches concerning Nitrous Oxide, p. 367> 



$ Physico-Theology, loc. cit. 



E 2 



