Bis THE PHILOSOPHY 



many of them, in tlie fourth part of this time, were a^luaU)* 

 dead, and that neither heat, nor the appHcation of abforbenft 

 powders, could reftore them to Hfe. Analogical reafoning 

 is often deceitful, but it frequently leads to ufeful truthsi 

 As flies of ail kinds, after immerfion in water, and exhibit- 

 ing every mark of actual death, can be reftored to life by- 

 covering their bodies with any abforbent fubftance, without 

 the affiftance of a heat fuperior to that of the common at- 

 mofphere, might not the ordinary methods employed for 

 the recovery of drowned perfons be affifted by the applica- 

 tion of warm aflies or chalk ? The ftrudlure of a fly and 

 that of a man, it is allowed, are very different. But, in def- 

 perate cafes, when every other method fails, no faft fliould 

 be overlooked, and no analogy defpifed. 



Plants differ as much in the periods of their exiftence as 

 animals. Many plants perifli yearly *, others are biennial, 

 triennial, &-c. But the longevity and magnitude of particular 

 trees are prodigious. We are informed by Mr. Evelyn, 

 that, in the bodies of fome Englifli oaks, when cut tranfverfe- 

 ly, three, and even four, hundred rings of wood have been 

 diftinguiflied. A ring of wood is added annually to the 

 trunks of trees ; and, by counting the rings, the age of any 

 tree may be pretty exa6lly afcertained*. With regard to 

 the magnitude of oaks, fome of them are huge maffes. Dr. 

 Hunter, in his Notes upon Eveyln's Sylva, remarks, that 

 none * of the oaks mentioned by Mr. Evelyn bear any pro- 

 « portion to one now growing at Cowthorpe, near Wether- 

 * by, upon an eftate belonging to the Right Hon. Lady 



< Stourton. The dimenfions are almofl: incredible. With- 



< in three feet of the furface, it meafures fixteen yards, and, 



< clofe by the ground, twenty -fix yards. Its height, in its 



< prefent and ruinous ftate, (1776,) is about eighty-five feet, 

 and its principle limb extends fixteen yards from the boje. 



* See Evelyn's Sylva, page 50J. 



