AFRICAN TORTOISE. 
away without seeming to have received the 
smallest injury; except that, indeed, the ani- 
mal shut it*s eyes, and never — he finds it ne- 
cessary to add — again opened them ! The hole 
was soon afterwards seen to close ; and, in 
three days, there was a compleat skin covering 
the wound. In this manner, for six months, 
the Tortoise lived without any brain ; walking 
about with apparent unconpern, and moving 
it*s limbs as before the cruel operation. But 
the Italian philosopher had the barbarity to 
push still farther his experiments. In short, he 
cut off the head ; which, for more than a quar- 
ter of an hour, continued to rattle the jaws 
like a pair of castanets, and the animal, even 
then, survived twenty-three days. Of it's 
sufferings, what conception can be formed, 
when we consider that they were sufficient to 
destroy a creature capable of bearing so 
much ! 
Such is the longevity of the Tortoise, that 
it is known commonly to live more than eighty 
years ; and there was one kept in the garden 
of the archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth, 
which was remembered above a hundred and 
seventy. 
