VOL. XLII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 6ll 



I seem perhaps to wander too much from the point first- mentioned; but as I 

 am only offering loose hints, and such wild conjectures as come in my way, 

 hope to be excused, though I yet hazard another observation, which is, that 

 what appears chiefly to be new in the subject of this memoir, is, that the ani- 

 mal or animals live and do well after their separation, and that they are capable 

 of re-producing such parts as the head and the tail, which seemed essentially 

 wanting. 



I say, that the animal's living and doing well again, is what is chiefly new; 

 for that an animal, after separation of some of the principal parts, seems for 

 some time to retain life in each part, must have been observed by every body;* 

 and though people generally say, from their prejudice in favour of some of the 

 principles above hinted at, that to be sure only one of the parts, though they 

 know not always which, feels and has the sensation of pain; yet have all that 

 I have ever talked with on the subject, as freely acknowledged, that the phe- 

 nomena appeared on the other side. 



A chicken, or a pigeon, whose head is suddenly struck off^, shows in both 

 parts, if no preconceived opinion led us to think otherwise, strong signs of 

 pain and suffering, and the very same signs, that the respective parts of the 

 animal show of that sensation, while it is surely living and entire; and I have 

 been told by some, who have seen the heads of malefactors suddenly severed 

 from their bodies, that the same observation holds also in our own species. 

 But we have all seen .it hold much stronger in the more imperfect animals, as 

 they are commonly called, such as worms, where, on the separation of the body 



• The ancients have taken notice of this, and some even seem to have had no doubt, that life 

 continued some time in the parts of a divided insect. Aristotle observes in the 4th book of his His- 

 tory of Animals, that almost all insects live some time when pulled asunder, wasps particularly; and 

 that those live longest, when so separated, which have a long body, and many feet; so that the sco- 

 lopendra being cut asunder, one part moves on forwards, and the other backwards. But a passage of 

 St. Austin is so remarkable on this head, that I cannot help transcribing it. Me revocat quod his 



hausi oculis Cum enim nuper in agro essemus Liguriae, nostri illi adolescentes, qui tunc rae- 



cum erant studiorum suorum gratia, animadverterunt humi jacentes in opaco loco reptantem bestiolara 

 multipedem, longum dico quemdam vermiculum ; vulgo notus est ; hoc tamen quod dicam nunquam 

 in eoexpertus eram; verso namque stylo, quem forte habebat unus illorum, animal medium percussit: 

 turn ambae partes corporis ab illo vulnere in contraria discesserunt, tanta pedum celeritate, ac nihilo 

 imbecilliore nisu, quam si duo hujuscemodi animantia forent. Quo miraculo exterriti, caussatque 

 curiosi, ad nos, ubi simul ego et Alypius considebamus, alacriter viventia ilia frusta detulerunt. Ne- 

 que nos parum commoti, ea currere in tabula quaquaversum poterant, cernebamus; atque unum ipso- 

 rum, stylo tactum, contorquebat se ad doloris locum, nihil senliente alio, ac suos alibi motus pera- 

 gente. Quid plura ? tentavimus quatenus id valeretj atque vermiculum, imo jam vermiculos, in 

 multas partes concidimus ; ita omnes movebantur, ut nisi a nobis illud factum esset, et compiirercnt 

 vulnera recentia, totidem illos separatim natos, ac sibi quenquam vixi.sse crederemus. Aug. Lib. do 

 Quantitate Animse. — Orig. 



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