C 54 ] 
before, came up in abundance into bis mouth : he was 
fuffocated all at once beyond recovery. 
To the fame trials I put feveral frogs fucceflively, 
juft caught on the borders of the lake. In three or 
four minutes they were all ftupefied, and remained 
almoft without motion : but altho’ I left them in that 
condition above a quarter of an hour, they foon re- 
covered upon being removed into the open air. 
Large flies, a beetle of that tribe called fcarabai 
fiercorarii , and fome butterflies, which I treated in 
the fame manner, were longer without giving any 
figns of their fuffering, and they came to life after a 
fyncope of longer duration. 
By thefe two laft experiments I found, that rep- 
tiles and infedts hold out againft the effects of the va- 
pour longer than other animals. I contented myfelf 
with having obferved this twice; becaufe Father La 
Torre *, who aflifted me in making thefe experi- 
ments, allured me, that he had fully convinced him- 
felf of the fa<ft, by a feries of experiments, which 
he had made the preceding year with M. Taitbout, 
our conful at Naples. And indeed, M. de Reaumur 
having been pleafed, after my return, to give me the 
refult of thole fame experiments, which had been 
put into his hands, I faw, that a toad refilled near 
half an hour ; that a lizard was not dead at the end 
of an hour and a quarter, and that a large grafs- 
hopper ftirr’d in the vapour, after being more than 
two hours in it. 
Wherefore 
* A Somafchian frier, profeflor of philofophy, and corrcfpondent 
ef the academy of fciences. 
