THE VULTURE. 
47 
tugging with might and main at the dim and faded 
eyes in some decaying portrait of the immortal 
Doctor Franklin. 
The absurdity of all this must be evident to every 
body. 
I, in my turn, hope to prove satisfactorily, by 
infe7^e7ice, that which the American philosophers 
have failed to demonstrate by experiments. I state 
that effluvium from putrid matter, being lighter 
than common air, necessarily ascends in the atmo- 
sphere, unless artificially impeded (as probably was 
the case in the first experiment of the American 
philosophers), or prevented from mounting by super- 
incumbent humidity. Now, the organ of scent, 
which is strongly developed in the vulture, coming 
in contact with this effluvium, when it is allowed to 
float in the atmosphere, enables the bird to trace 
the carrion down to its source. Hence I infer, that 
vultures can find their food through the medium of 
their olfactory nerves ; and, this being the case, I 
am of opinion that there ought to be no great mys- 
tery attached to the act of the vulture's finding 
putrid bodies, when those bodies are out of sight, 
either on account of distance, or of interfering 
objects. 
When the American philosophers shall have 
proved to me, that effluvium from putrid substances 
does not ascend in the air, and that the organisation 
of the vulture's nose is imperfect, then I will con- 
sider myself vanquished : ^' efficaci do manus scien- 
tiae." After those gentlemen shall have accom- 
