76 Mayow 



also the animal soon expires for want of nitro-aerial 

 particles. 



But the reason why an animal can live for some 

 time after the extinction of the lamp seems to be this. 

 It is only by a continuous and moreover an abundant 

 and rapid stream of nitro-aerial particles that a lamp 

 is sustained. Consequently if the succession of nitro- 

 aerial particles be but for a moment interrupted, or if 

 they are not supplied in due abundance, the flame will 

 immediately sink down and expire. Hence as soon as 

 the nitro-aerial particles begin to come but sparsely 

 and slowly to the flame it presently goes out. But a 

 smaller ration of aerial nourishment and that intro- 

 duced at intervals will suffice for animals ; so that an 

 animal can be sustained by the aerial particles remain- 

 ing after the extinction of the flame. It supports this 

 view that the movement of the subsiding lungs con- 

 duces not a little to draw in the aerial particles if any 

 remain in the said glass and to carry them into the 

 blood of the breathing animal. Hence it results that 

 the animal does not die until the aerial particles have 

 been entirely exhausted. And hence it is that the air 

 in which an animal is suffocated is contracted in 

 volume by more than twice as much as that in which 

 a lamp goes out, as was formerly pointed out. 



Further, having suspended combustible matter in a 

 glass vessel beside an animal, I tried to ignite it by 

 means of a burning-glass after the animal was suffo- 

 cated, and that that might if possible succeed, I pro- 

 tected from the breath of the animal the side of the 

 glass through which the solar rays were to be 

 transmitted, by means of a piece of paper fixed to it 

 as already described. But the experiment did not 

 succeed. I shall not, however, make any certain pro- 

 nouncement in regard to this, because wintry weather 



