564 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 682-3. 



membranous vesiculae or cells. Our rattle-snake, and all that family, though 

 they have but one lobe of lungs, yet in that they comprise the two former sorts; 

 the forepart being filled with numerous vesiculae ; the latter an entire large bladder. 



In the land tortoise there are two lobes, one, on each side; but these are sub- 

 divided into several others, according to the partitions of the ribs that are fixed 

 to the shell ; and they lie chiefly in the belly, that is, the lower part of the 

 body. But what I would remark is, that where the bronchia first enter these 

 subdivisions it is reticular; then they form a large cavity : so that in these ani- 

 mals, where the nixus of respiration is not so frequent, nature provides a suffi- 

 cient store-house for this (so necessary a pabulum vitae) in these larger bladders, 

 whence it is dispensed according to the exigency of the oeconomia animalis. 

 For the tortoise viper, rattle-snake, frogs, toads, &c. which sleep a great part 

 of the year ; as before they betake themselves to this repose, they take in their 

 store of food; so perhaps that of air too, a more constantly requisite supply of 

 life. For when thus stupidly asleep, and sometimes to all appearance dead; it 

 may be questioned whether they have any motion of those parts, which is re- 

 quired for drawing in fresh air in inspiration. But since their life here is so im- 

 perceptible and small ; this stock may be sufficient, the decay being so little* 

 So the salamandra aquatica, that lives under water, for lungs has two large 

 bladders, not unlikely for this reason; that it might not be forced so often to 

 raise itself out of the water to breathe in fresh air when the former is spent and 

 decayed. 



In a viper I lately dissected, which remained alive some days after the skin 

 and most part of the viscera were separated, I observed the lungs all this while 

 not rising and falling, as in inspiration and expiration, but constant, equally 

 distended with air; that as soon as it died, it expired, and they fell. But the 

 stomach was empty, and I doubt not was so some considerable time before ; as 

 was the rattle-snakes,* which for 4 months at least had eaten nothing : so that 

 although they can live so long w^ithout food, yet nature is mighty provident in 

 supplying them with air, in bestowing on them such large receptacles for 

 receiving it. 



We shall now take notice of those parts that are for receiving the food ; and 

 first of the oesophagus, or gula, which serves for the transmitting it into the 

 stomach ; and indeed this seems the only use of this part in most other animals ; 

 but here nature may be thought to intend it for something more, and to make 

 use of it upon occasion as a stomach, or stomachs too; for upon blowing 

 up this part, I observed two large swellings as represented in fig. 1. d, f ; 



* Narrant multij qui eum serpentem domi alere solent atque educare, annum integrum durare 

 absque cibo ullo potuque. Nieremberg. Hist. Nat. 1. 12, cap. 1. — Orig. 



