REPTILES. 



f(-'w months. Inftrudled by thcfe failures, I proceeded to 

 operat.- in a different way on a fourth animal, in May 

 1784. I firft divided the cornea, to let out the lens and 

 other humours, and then cut away the remaining empty 

 and collapfed coats, leaving a fmall portion of the com- 

 mon coverings of tlie bulb, which, from a careful exa- 

 mination in water with a glafs of the parts removed, I 

 judge to have been fcarcely equal to one-fifth of the whole 

 globe. In the following months the wliole orbit feemed 

 clofed by the approximated eye-lids, which, iiowever, began 

 to feparate in the fixth month after the operation, and 

 thus difclofed a new little bulb fpringing up from the bot- 

 tom of the orbit. This new globe was Hill much fmaller 

 than the other in April 1785, when the animal died acci- 

 dentally, tliough in other refpefts it was mod perfedt, ex- 

 hibiting the golden iris with its regular pupillar aperture 

 behind the cornea, all which points are clearly diilinguilh- 

 able in the preparation which I preferve." Specimen, 



" On comparing," fays the author lad quoted, " the 

 fafts juft detailed with the very limited and much lefs per- 

 feft reproduftion obfervuljle in warm-blooded animals, we 

 (hall become fenfible of the wide difference between them 

 and the amphibia. I am daily more and more convinced, 

 that no parts are reproduced in man and the other mam- 

 malia, except fuch as are compofed merely of cellular fub- 

 ftance. 



which covered the opemi.g of the fkuli, and in this ftate 

 the animal lived till May. Spallan/.ani deprived four frogs 

 of the brain ; two lived till the fifth day. He alfo deprived 

 three newts of the brain ; they fudered violent convulfions ; 

 their eyes clofed, they hardly moved from one place to 

 another ; and expired about the middle of the third day. 

 He cut the heart out of three newts ; they took to flight, 

 leapt, fwam, and executed the fame funftions as before ; 

 however, all died in forty-eight hours. Four frogs, deprived 

 of the heart, kept their eyes open, and prtfervcd the ufe of 

 tiieir limbs. They furvived thirty-fix hours. Spallanzani's 

 Trafts, Introduftion, p. 45. 



Captain Cook met with a turtle, in which there was a 

 wooden harpoon about fifteen inches long, and barbed, 

 between the (houlders. The opening by which it had en- 

 tered was quite healed. 



Redi and Boyle faw fome figns of life in ferpents after 

 they had been twenty-four hours in vacuo. And they will 

 live more than four hours in fpirits of wine. See Daudin, 

 V. 6. p. 100; and v. i. p. 270. 



In our account of the phyfiology of the digeftive organs, 

 we have already noticed the fingular power which reptile* 

 poflefs of remaining for fuch long periods without food. 

 They are equally remarkable for being able to bear, perma- 

 nently, confiderable degrees of heat and cold. Not only 

 are moft of the Clafs inhabitants of the warmed regions, but 

 fome of them, like fome fidies, are knovirn to live in warm 



and enjoy no other kind of vital power except 

 common contrattility ; and I cannot find fufficient proof fprings, inhabiting them fpontzneoudy, and appearing to be 

 that the irritable mufcular fibre, the fenfible nervous me- healthy. (SeeCocchi in Spallanzani, Opufcoli di fifica ani- 



duUa, or thofe parenchymata which are endowed with a 

 peculiar modification of vitality, have ever been truly re- 

 produced in a warm-blooded animal." Ibid. p. 32. 



Tenacity of Life. — This fubjeft is fo far analogous to that 

 which we have jud confidered, that we pafs naturally from 

 the view of the faftsj in which the furprifing reproduftive 

 powers of the clafs is evidenced, to the no Tefs adonidiing 

 examples of their very hardy vitality ; of the energy and 

 permanence of tlieir vital forces, both in indivi-dual parts, 

 and in the body at large. 



The amputated tails of water newts, and the divided 

 fragments of the blind-worm (anguis fragilis), exhibit very 

 lively motions for ten hours and more. The heart of a 

 frog or ferpent continues to palpitate on irritation many 

 hours after its feparation from the body ; and the limbs 

 of frogs are excitable by the Galvanic influence for a long 

 time. Some reptiles, as the ferpents and teftudines, can 

 open and fliut the mouth long after the head has been fe- 

 vered from the trunk. General Gage informed Blumen- 

 bach that he had feen the amputated head of a rattlefnake 

 bite long after its feparation : and another Britidi officer 

 Hated to him that when he put a dick between the jaws of 

 an American turtle, the fecond day after decapitation, it 

 was firmly held. 



The fame energy of the vital force in the parts, and the 

 independence of one clafs of funttions on another, in the 

 amphibia, are further evinced by many well known fafts ; 

 the limbs of turtles have moved for eleven days, nay, on 

 the thirteenth day after decapitation (Giildendaedt, The- 

 oria virium corp. hum. primitivarum, p. 74.) ; and a rat- 

 tlefnake lived ibme days after the (Icin had been removed, 

 and moit of the vifcera taken away. Tyfon, in Philofo- 

 phical Tranfatlions, N° 144. 



In the beginning of November, Redi opened the ilcull 

 of a land tortoife, and removed the whole brain. The 

 animal did not feein to fuffer, it moved about as before, but 

 groping its way ; for the eyes foon fliut after lofing the 

 brain, and never opened 3gain, a fleihy integument formed, 



male e vegetabile, v. i. p. 46.) They live in the warm 

 fprings of Pifa, which rife to 37° of Reaumur, 115== of 

 Fahr. 



" Befides a hod of fufpicious narratives," fays Blumen- 

 bach, " of newts, and other amphibia, which have lived for 

 a confiderable time in the human body, there are many un- 

 exceptionable and indubitable examples of this remarkable 

 phenomenon." See the narrative of Th. Reinefius, a moft 

 refpeclable authority, concerning a girl of Altcnburg, in 

 Bartholin, Aft. Havnienf. v. 2. p. no; Harder, Apiar. ob- 

 fervat. p. 89 ; I. R. Zwinger in Aft. Heivet. v. i. p. 22 ; 

 Hid. de I'Acad. des Sciences de Berlin, 1770, p. 40 ; a 

 mafs of citations in Jacobaeus de ranis et lacertis, p. 12; 

 P.uilini de Bufone, p. 38 ; I. Helwig Obferv. p. 249 and 

 272 ; Kundmann Promptuarium, p. io8 ; alfo Aft. Natur. 

 Curiof. ; CoUeftan. Vratiflavienf. ct Commerc. Llterar. No- 

 ric. &c. Thefe fafts are not fo remarkable on account of 

 the degree of heat to which the animal is expofed, as from 

 the other concomitant circumftances. We mud obierve, 

 however, that thefe animals inhabited the domach fo long 

 as they continued alive, while the individuals troubled by 

 thefe uniifual gueils were led, by their fuffering, to drink 

 copioufly of water, and thus in a manner fupplied the newts 

 with their natural element. 



" Reptiles have the power of bearing intenfe col J as well as 

 great heat. I one morning found a tree-frog, which I had 

 kept for fome time, in conk'quence of a frod fuddenly fet 

 in the preceding ni^ht fo as to reduce the thermometer to 

 30° Fahr., completely inclofed in a cake of ice, like infefts 

 in amber ; of courfe it was inotionlefs, the eye-hds ftiut, &c. 

 As the ice melted, the animal recovered, fird moving its 

 hind legs, when they were difengaged ; the head and trunk 

 dill being mod firmly detained ; when the folution was com. 

 plete, the whole animal was rellored, feemed as well as be- 

 fore, and furvived a long time. Du Fay atteds the- fame 

 circumdance concerning water newts ; Mem. de I'Acad. dc9 

 Sciences de Paris, 1729, p. 144. The amphibia are ex- 

 pofed to be frozen in their winter fleep ; but we are the lefs 

 5 A 2 furprifed 



