98 



ON THE GENERAL ANALOGY OF 



its having been respired at 300° ; the Royal Academy asserts at 307°, or 130° 

 Reaumur, in an oven, for the space of ten minutes ;* and Morantin gives a 

 case at 325° Fahr., and that for a space of five minutes. Even in the denser 

 medium of water, animals of various kinds, and especially fishes, have been 

 occasionally traced alive and in health in veryhig-h temperatures. Thus Dr. 

 Clarke asserts, that in one of the tepid springs of Bonarbashy, situated near 

 the Scamander, or Mender, as it is now called, notwithstanding- the thermo- 

 meter was raised to 62° Fahr., fishes were seen sporting in the reservoir.f 



So in the thermal springs of Bahia in Brazil many small fishes are seen 

 swimming in a rivulet that raises the thermometer to 88°, the temperature of 

 the air being only 77^°. Sonnerat, however, found fishes existing in a hot 

 spring at the Manillas at 158° Fahr. :% and M. Humboldt and M. Bonpiand, 

 in travelling through the province of Quito in South America, perceived other 

 fishes thrown up alive, and apparently in health, from the bottom of a volcano, 

 in the course of its explosions, along with water and heated vapour that 

 raised the thermometer to 210°, being only two degrees short of the boiling 

 point.^ 



In reality, without wandering from our own country, we may at times meet 

 with a variety of other phenomena perfectly consonant in their nature, and 

 altogether as extraordinary, if we only attend to them as they rise before us. 

 Thus the eggs of the musca vomitoria, our common flesh-fly, or blow-fly, are 

 often deposited in the heat of summer upon putrescent meat, and broiled with 

 such meat over a gridiron in the form of steaks, in a heat not merely of 212°, 

 but of three or four times 212°; and yet, instead of being hereby destroyed, 

 we sometimes find them quickened by this very exposure into their larve or 

 grub state. And although I am ready to allow that, in the simple form of 

 seeds or eggs, plants or animals may be expected to sustain a far higher de- 

 gree of heat or cold with impunity, than in their subsequent and more perfect 

 state, yet it cannot appear more extraordinary that in such perfect state they 

 should be able to resist a heat of 210° or 212°, than that m the state of seeds 

 or eggs they should be able to exist in, and to derive benefit from, a heat three 

 or four times as excessive. 



In the vegetable world we meet with other peculiarities quite as singular, 

 and which gives them an approach to the mineral kingdom: we have already 

 observed that some of them, and especially among the algse and the mosses, 

 are nearly or altogether incombustible, as the byssus asbestos, which, on being 

 thrown into the fire, instead of burning, is converted into glass ; and the fon- 

 tinaiis antipyretica, a plant indigenous to the Highlands, but more frequent in 

 Scandinavia, where from its difficulty of combustion it is used by the poor as 

 a lining for their chimneys, to prevent them from catching fire. 



Animals are often contemplated under the three divisions of terrestrial, 

 aquatic, and aerial. Plants may be contemplated in the same manner. 

 Among animals it is probable that the largest number consists of the first 

 division; yet from the great variety of submarine genera that are known, and 

 from nearly an equal variety, perhaps, that are not known, this is uncertain; 

 Among vegetables, however, it is highly probable that the largest number 

 belongs to the submarine section, if we may judge from the almost countless 

 species of fuci and other equally prolific tribes of an aqueous and subaqueous 

 origin, and the incalculable individuals that appertain to each species ; and 

 more especially if we take into consideration the greater equality of tempe- 

 rature which must necessarily exist in the submarine hills and valleys. 



Many animals are amphibious, or capable of preserving life in either ele- 

 ment ; the vegetable world is not without instances of a similar power. 

 The algae, and especially in the ulva and fucus tribes, offer us a multitude of 

 examples. The j uncus, or rush, in many of its species, is an amphibious 

 plant; so, too, is the oryza or rice-plant. In other words, all these will 



* Hist, de l»Acad. Royale des Sciences, 1764, p. 186, h. 16. 



t Travels, part II. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, p. Ill, 4to. ed. 



i He graduates by Reaumur's thermometer, and calculates the heat upon this at 69°. 



$ Recueil d'Observations de Zoologie et d'Anatomie compar6e. 



