VOL. II.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IQ\ 



the lungs the use of refrigeration ; which he pretends to have asserted himself 

 by most evident experiments and uncontrolable reasons. 



To represent distinctly what he undertakes to make out in this tract, we 

 may take notice of these particulars : 



1. He takes pains to refute the doctrine of attraction, and to substitute in its 

 place the doctrine of pulsion or intrusion of air into the lungs. 



2. He endeavours to assert that the lungs do not fall down, but are by the 

 breast contracted. 



3. He affirms to have clearly shown what is the proper function and work 

 of the diaphragm and other muscles serving for respiration. 



4. He pretends to have experimentally evinced the genuine use of respira- 

 tion, and the benefit thence resulting to the animal life. 



In short, he makes respiration to be a motion of the thorax and lungs, 

 whereby the air is sometimes impelled by the nose, mouth, and wind-pipe into 

 the lungs, and thence again expelled, farther to elaborate the blood, by re- 

 frigerating it and by separating its fuliginous steams, and to raise it to its ulti- 

 mate and highest perfection for the conservation of the life of animals.* 



III. Observations faites sur un Grand Poisson et un Lion, disseques dans la 

 Bibliotheque du Roy a Paris, Juin 1667. Observations made upon a large 

 Fish and a Lion, dissected in the King's Library at Paris, in June .1667. 



The large fish dissected at Paris as above-mentioned, was a vulpecula marina 

 or sea-fox ;-|~ concerning which it was observed: 



1 . The length of his tail equalled very near the whole length of the rest of 

 his body, (the whole fish being 8^ feet long) and fashioned after the manner 

 of a scythe, bowed and turned up toward the belly. 



2. That his mouth was armed with two sorts of teeth ; one sort in the upper 

 jaw, being pointed, hard and firm, and of one only bone in the manner of a 

 saw : the other sort found in the rest of the upper and in the whole under jaw 

 were moveable, and fastened by fleshy membranes. 



3. That his tongue did altogether adhere to the lower jaw, and its skin was 

 hard and covered with little shining points, which rendered it very rough and 

 scabrous one way. The points, viewed with a microscope, appeared transparent 

 like crystal. 



4. That his throat was very large, and the oesophagus as large as his maw ; 

 concerning which authors say, that he has the dexterity of disengaging himself 



* The process of respiration is better understood in these days, as we shall have an opportunity of 

 noticing in a future volume, 

 f Chimaera monstrosa, Linn. 



