[ i8 3 1 
of the animal, with an intention of throw¬ 
ing it into contraction. 
Strong convulfions were excited, but 
he could not obferve any change in the 
level of the water. 
Borelli had before this remarked, that 
the water of a bath in which a man was 
placed by his directions, preferved the 
fame height when he put his mufcles into 
very ftrong contraction. 
Swammerdam, Goddard, and Gliffon, 
made experiments likewifc with the fame 
view, the former with the heart of the 
frog, and the two latter with the arm of 
a man; but thefe elfays were too imper- 
feCt and equivocal to admit of accurate 
conclufions being drawn from them. 
The power of the living contraction, 
or, in other words, of the mufcular irrita¬ 
bility, is aftonifhing and incredible. 
It is much more conliderable in infeCts 
than in large animals, as there are inftances 
.N 4 among 
