INTRODUCTION. xlvii 
of health than at that period. I alfo never 
fo much abftained from ftrong liquors ; 
whereas, if the Englifh, who eat more ani- 
mal food than the other nations of Europe, 
can make upon it two me^Js a day, it is be- 
caufe they drink in the interval, tea, punch, 
and other beverages of the fame tendency, 
which accelerate its digeition. 
Befides the experiments I profecuted as to 
the power, more or lefs extenfive, that cer- 
tain animals have of fubfiftlng without food, 
I engaged in others as to the impaffibility, fo 
to exprefs myfelf, of certain kinds of infe£ts, 
an impaffibility by means of w^hich beings, 
the term of w^hofe exiftence is fix months, or 
even lefs, appear to have received from na- 
ture the gift of being indeftrudible through the 
medium of thofe fenfations commonly called 
painful, which are ordinarily deftrudive of 
every thing that has life, 
I took 
