THE I0BI0I8E, 



at liberty, and it groped its way freely aboub wherever it 

 pleased, as if it had not been injured. Bedi makes use of the 

 term "groping," because, he says, that when the tortoise was 

 deprived of its brain it closed its eyes, which it never again 

 opened. The wound which was left open skinned over in three 

 days, and the tortoise, continuing to go about and execute 

 other movements, lived to the middle of May. On a post-mor- 

 tem examination the cavity which the brain had occupied was 

 found empty and clean, wibh the exception of a small dry and 

 black clot of blood. He repeated this experiment upon many 

 other land-tortoises in the months of November, January, Feb- 

 ruary, and March, with this difference, that some were locomo- 

 tive at their pleasure, whilst others, though they made other 

 motions, did not move about : he found the same results when 

 he treated fresh- water tortoises in the same manner, but they 

 did not live so long as the terrestrial species. He states his 

 belief that the marine tortoises would live a , long time with- 

 out their brain, for he received a turtle which he treated in 

 the same way, and though it was much spent and faint from 

 having been long out of the sea, it hved six days. In Novem- 

 ber he deprived a large tortoise of its head, without which it 

 continued to live twenty-three days : it did not move about as 

 those did whose brain had been taken out, but when its fore or 

 hind legs were pricked or poked, it drew them up with great 

 strength, and executed many other movements. To assure 

 himself beyond all doubt that life, such as it was, continued in 

 such cases, he cut off the heads of four other tortoises, and on 

 opening two, twelve days afterwards, he saw the heart beat 

 and the blood enter and leave it. 



The common tortoise, at least that most common to us, is a 

 native of almost all the countries bordering on the Mediterra- 

 nean sea, and is more fr^uent in Greece than elsewhere. It 

 is found in the scattered islands of the Archipelago, and in 

 Corsica, and Sardinia; it occurs likewise in Africa. The 

 general length of the shell of this species is from six to eight 

 inches long ; and the weight of the full-grown animal about 

 four or five pounds. The shell is of an oval form, extremely 

 convex on the upper part, and composed of thirteen middle 

 pieces, and about twenty -five marginal ones. The middle pieces 

 or those constituting the disc of the shield, are mostly of an 

 obloHg-square form, and of a dark-brown colour, varied by a 

 broad yeUow, or citron band running along one side of each, 

 and continued about half-way along the upper part ; there is 



