546 AMPHIBIALA. 



took a land tortoise, and made a large opening in its skull, and 

 drew out all the brain, washing the cavity, so as to leave not ihe 

 smallest part remaining, and then, leaving the hole open, set the 

 animal at liberty. Notwithstanding this treatment, the tortoise 

 marched away, without seeming to have received the smallest in- 

 jury: it however closed its eyes, and never opened them after- 

 wards. In a short space the* hole of the skull was seen to close, 

 and in about three days there was a complete skin covering the 

 wound ; and in this manner the animal lived, without the brain, 

 for six months, walking about, and moving its limbs as before. 

 Redi also cut off the head of a tortoise, which lived twenty-three 

 days afterwards ; and the head itself continued to snap the jaws for 

 more than a quarter of an hour after its separation from the body. 

 He repeated the experiment of taking out the brain upon several 

 other tortoises, both of land and fresh water ; all of which lived 

 for a considerable space without the brain. He observed also, that 

 having cut off the heads of some, and opening the bodies twelve days 

 afterwards, the motion of the heart was still perceptible; so slowly 

 is the vital principle discharged from these inactive animals. 



[Gmelin. Sham, 



SECTION II. 



Crocodile. 

 Lacerta crocodilus. Link* 



The lacerta or lizard kind is a very numerous division ; and 

 comprises animals, possessing indeed much of the same general 

 structure, but remarkably different in size and power : for to thi3 

 division belong equally the crocodile and alligator ; lizards of all 

 sorts ; the salamander, and chameleon, the newt and eft. 



The crocodile, so remarkable for its size and powers of destruc- 

 tion, has in all ages been regarded as one of the most formidable 

 animals of the warmer regions. It is a native of Asia and Africa, 

 but seems to be most common in the latter ; inhabiting large rivers, 

 as the Nile, the Niger, &c. and preying principally on fish, but 

 occasionally seizing on almost every animal which happens to be 

 exposed to its rapacity. The size to which the crocodile sometimes 

 arrives is prodigious; specimens being frequently seen of twenty 

 feet in length, and instances are commemorated of some which 



