STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 71 



motionless. I moistened them with water to revive 

 them, but in vain, notwithstanding that they were 

 immersed in water many hours. Their members 

 swelled to thrice the original size, but they remain- 

 ed motionless. To ascertain whether the fact was 

 accidental, I spread a portion of sand, containing 

 animals, on a glass slide, and waited until it became 

 dry in order to wet it anew. The sand was care- 

 lessly scattered on the glass, so as to be a thin cov- 

 ering on some parts, and on others in a very small 

 quantity : here the animals did not revive ; but all 

 that were ia those parts with abundance of sand re- 

 vived."* He further says that if sand be spread 

 out in considerable quantities in some places, much 

 less in others, and very little in the rest, on moist- 

 ening it the revived animals will be numerous in 

 the first, less numerous in the second, and none at 

 all in the third. 



It is not a little remarkable that observations so 

 precise as these should have for many years passed 

 unregarded, and not led to the true explanation of 

 the mystery. Perhaps an inherent love of the mar- 

 velous made men greedily accept the idea of resus- 

 citation, and indisposed them to attempt an expla- 

 nation of it. Spallanzani's own. attempt"is certainly 

 not felicitous. He supposes that the dust prevents 

 the lacerating influence of the air from irritating and 

 injuring the animals. And this explanation is ac- 

 cepted by his translator. 



* Spallanzani: Tracts ore the Natural History of Animals and 

 Vegetables: translated by Dalyell, ii., p. 120. 



