PHYSIOLOGY. 



of life in its early stages, the intemper- 

 ance of manhood, the power of disease 

 and of accident, exert such destructive 

 effects on the human race, that out of 

 one thousand children born into the 

 world, not more than seventy-eight die 

 as \ve have now described, without dis- 

 ease ; yet on comparing the longevity of 

 man w'itli that of other mammalia, under 

 nearly similar circumstances, we shall be 

 immediately convinced, that, of all the 

 querulous declamations concerning the 

 wretchedness of human life, none is more 

 unjust than the complaint of its short- 

 ness. 



Putrefaction. As soon as life abandons 

 the organs, they become totally influenc- 

 ed by physical laws ; and their compo- 

 nent parts have a tendency to separate 

 from each other ; which is stronger in 

 proportion to the multiplicity of their 

 elements. The entire cessation of life is 

 necessary to this change, for life and pu- 

 trefaction are two ideas absolutely con- 

 tradictory of eacli other. A mild tempe- 

 rature, humidity, and the presence of air, 

 are necessary to putrefaction. Icy cold- 

 ness, or great heat, prevent it : the for- 

 mer by condensing the parts, the latter 

 by depriving them of moisture. Air 

 is not essential, as bodies will decay in 

 vacuo. 



AH animal substances exhale at first a 

 musty or cadaverous odour, soften, in- 

 crease in size, become heated, change 

 their colour, turn green, blue, and, lastly, 

 a blackish brown. Several gaseous mat- 

 ters are at the same time disengaged, 

 among which the ammoniacal is the prin- 

 cipal, both on account of its quantity, and 

 because animal matter begins to furnish 

 it, from the instant its alteration commen- 

 ces to the period of its complete dissolu- 

 tion. Carbonic acid gas is also disengag- 

 ed, and forms with the ammoniacal air a 

 fixed salt. Hydrogen, united with phos- 

 phorus, sulphur, azote, and carbon, and 

 all things that can result from their re- 

 spective combinations, are likewise pro- 

 duced. 



Putrefaction, considered in a philosophi- 

 cal point of view, is only the method em- 

 ployed by nature to return our organs, 

 that are deprived of life, to a more simple 

 composition, in order that their elements 

 may be employed tor new creations. ( Cir- 

 culus uetenii motus.) Nothing is, there- 

 fore, better proved than the metempsy- 

 chosis of matter; whence we may con- 

 clude, that this doctrine, like most of the 

 tenets and fabulous conceptions of anti- 

 quity, is only a mysterious veil, dextrous- 



ly interposed between nature and the vul- 

 gar by the hand of philosophy. 



PHYSSOPHORA, in natural history, a 

 genus of the Vermes Mollusca class and 

 order. Generic character : body gelati- 

 nous, pendant from the aerial vesicle, with 

 gelatinous sessile members at the sides, 

 and numerous tentacula beneath. There 

 are three species, viz. the hydrostatica, 

 which is of an oval shape ; the rosacea, 

 which is orbicular; and the filitbrmes, 

 which is lateral, filiform, and pendent. 

 This genus is nearly allied to the MEDU- 

 SA tribe, which see. 



PHYTEUMA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Campanacex. Campa- 

 nulaceze, Jussieu. Essential character : 

 corolla wheel-shaped, with linear seg- 

 ments, five-parted ; stigma bifid or trifid ; 

 capsule two or three-celled, inferior. 

 There are sixteen species. The Euro- 

 pean sorts of phyteuma have the flowers 

 in a close terminating head ; those from 

 the East have them scattered ; in all there 

 is a little bracte to each flower. They 

 are all natives of the South of Europe. 



PHYTOLACCA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Deeandria Decagynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Miscellanex. Atripli- 

 ces, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 

 none ; petals five, calycine ; berry supe- 

 rior, ten-celled, ten-seeded. There are 

 six species. 



PHYTOLOGY, a discourse concerning 

 the kinds and virtues of plants. 



PHYTOTOMA, the plant-cutter, in na- 

 tural history, a genus of birds of the order 

 Passeres. Generic character : bill conic, 

 straight, and serrated on the edges ; nos- 

 trils oval ; tongue obtuse and short. There 

 are two species. 



P. rara v or the plant-cutter of Chili, in- 

 habits that country in great plenty, and is 

 about the size of a quail, and feeds on ve- 

 getables. These birds take considerable 

 pains to saw off the vegetable as near as 

 possible to the ground, and are extremely 

 injurious in the cultivated lands of the 

 districts which it frequents, and are con- 

 sequently particularly disliked by the in- 

 habitants. They build in high trees and 

 sequestered situations. They are distin- 

 guished by having four toes, from the fol- 

 lowing species, which has only three : P. 

 tridactyla, the Abyssinian plant-cutter. 

 This is of the size of a gros-beak, delights 

 in solitude, and abounds in the wiids or 

 Abyssinia, where it subsists much on the 

 kernels of the almond, breaking the shell 

 with particular ease and dexterity. 



P1C/E, in natural history, the second 



