UESPIRATION, AND ANiMALl2;ATiaN. 



double consent of action in these two organs, and giving us some insight 

 into the mode by which insects and worms, which are totally destitute of 

 lungs, are capable of employing the skin as, a substitute for lungs, by 

 breathing through the spiracles existing in the skm for this purpose, or 

 merely through the common pores of the skin, without any such additional 

 mechanism. It is by this mode, alsOj that respiration takes place through 

 the whole vegetable world, offering us another instance of resemblance to 

 many parts of the animal ; in consequence of which, insects, worms, and 

 the leaves of vegetables, equally perish by being smeared over with oil, or 

 any other viscous fluid that obstructs their cutaneous orifices. 



But to complete the great circle of universal action, and to preserve the 

 important balance of nature in a state of equipoise, it is necessary, also, 

 to inquire by what means animal, matter is reconverted into vegetable, so 

 as to afford to plants the same basis of nutriment which plants have pre- 

 viously afforded to animals ? 



Now, this is for the most part obtained by the process of putefaction^ 

 or a return of the constituent principles of animal matter to their original 

 affinities, from which they have been inflicted by the superior control of 

 the vital principle, so long as it inhabited the animal frame^ and coerced 

 into other combinations and productions.* Putrefaction is, therefore, to 

 be regarded as a very important luik in the great chain of universal hfe and 

 harmony. 



The constituent principles of animal matter we have already enume- 

 rated : they are most of them compound substances, and fall back into 

 their respective primordia as the putrefactive process sets them at libertyo 

 This process commences among the constituent gases ; and it is only 

 necessary to notice the respective changes that take place in this quarter^ 

 as every other change is an induced result. 



Of these gases I have already observed, that azote or nitrogene is by 

 far the largest in respect of quantity, and it appears also to be by far the 

 most active. Hence, on the cessation of the vital principle, the azotic 

 corpuscles very speedily make an advance towards those of oxygene, and 

 generally in the softer and more fluid parts of the system ; the control of 

 the vital principle being here looser and less powerfully exerted. An 

 union readily takes place between the two, and thus combined they fly off 

 in the form of nitric acid ; while at the same time another portion of azote 

 combines with some portion of hydrogene, and escapes in the form of 

 ammonia or volatile alkali, A spontaneous decomposition having thus 

 commenced, all the other component parts of the Hfeless machine are set at 

 liberty, and fly off either separately, or in different combinations ; during 

 which series of actions, from the union of hydrogene and carbone, and es- 

 pecially if conjoined at the same time with some portion of phosphorus or 

 sulphur^ is thrown forth that offensive aura which is the peculiar charac- 

 teristic of the putrefactive process, and which, according to the particular 

 mode in which the different elementary substances combine, constitutes 

 the fetor that escapes from putrid fishes, rotten eggs, or any other decom- 

 posing animal substances. 



In this manner, then, by simple, binary, or ternary attractions and com- 

 binations, the whole of the substance constituting the animal system, wher» 



* It should hence appear, that putrefaction is the only positire criterion of deatli, Or the 

 -total cessation of the principle of life. Galvanism has, indeed, been advanced as a decisive 

 proof of the same by Behreuds andCreye ; butHoffiboWt has suiHciently shows its inseciuitv 

 «s an infallible test. 



