258 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 17 16. 



water, which began to have a gentle motion on its surface, that continued for 2 

 days without any other appearance. I found then several small maggots, fig. 9, 

 to move in it, which grew for the space of 6 days; after which they laid them- 

 selves up in their bags. Thus they remained for '2 days more without motion, 

 and then came forth in the shape of flies, as fig. JO. The water at that time 

 was all gone, and there remained no more of the fruit than the seeds, the 

 vessels which composed the tunics of the ovaries, the outward rind, and the ex- 

 crement of the maggots ; all which together weighed about an ounce. So 

 that there was lost of the first weight of the fruit when it was cut, above 20 

 ounces. 



We may judge from this, and other cases of the like nature, how much 

 vegetable life is dependent on fermentation, and animal life on putrefaction. 



The Art of Living under Water : or, a Discourse concerning the Means of 

 furnishing Air at the Bottom of the Sea, at any ordinary Depths. By Edm. 

 Halley, LL. D. Secretary to the Royal Society. N° 349, p. 492. 



Many methods have been proposed, and engines contrived, for enabling men 

 to remain a competent time under water : and the respiring fresh air being 

 found to be absolutely necessary to maintain life in all that breathe, several ways 

 have been thought of, for carrying this pabulum vitae down to the diver, who 

 must, without being supplied with it, return very soon, or perish. 



The divers for sponges in the Archipelago help themselves, by carrying down 

 sponges dipped in oil in their mouths : but considering how small a quantity of 

 air can be supposed to be contained in the pores or interstices of a sponge, and 

 how much that little will be contracted by the pressure of the incumbent water, 

 it cannot be believed that a supply obtained by this means, can long subsist a 

 diver: since by experiment it is found that a gallon of air, included in a bladder 

 and by a pipe, reciprocally inspired and expired by the lungs of a man, will be- 

 come unfit for any further respiration, in little more than one minute of time ; 

 and though its elasticity be but little altered, yet in passing the lungs, it loses 

 its vivifying spirit, and is rendered effete, not unlike the medium found in 

 damps, which is present death to those that breathe it ; and which in an instant 

 extinguishes the brightest flame, or the shining of glowing coals or red-hot 

 iron, if put into it. I shall not go about to show what it is the air loses by 

 being taken into the lungs, and shall only conclude from the aforesaid experi- 

 ment, that a naked diver, without a sponge, may not be above a couple of 

 minutes inclosed in water, nor much longer with a sponge, without suffocating; 

 and not near so long without great use and practice: ordinary persons generally 

 beginning to stifle in about half a minute of time. Besides, if the depth be 



