The blood of our fathers, the milk of our mothers, the arms of our sons, and the cheeks of our daughters, all sprung collaterally from those vegetables, which, having their roots in the soil, and drawing sustenance therefrom, prove the truth of that doctrine, which teaches, that man came from "the dust." CHAPTER IX. THE duration of life appears far more arbitrary, than the duration of unconscious bodies.-Some plants rise from seed in the spring, flower in the summer, shed their seeds and die in autumn or in winter, Some last two years; and others three: but the principal portion are perennial: as violets and all manner of shrubs, and trees. Some blossom only for one day; others only for one night. The chrysanthemum putescens bears flowers for the greatest part of the year; the thuyan of China keeps in full leaf in winter and in summer: while the amaranth and the rose of Jericho may be preserved for several years. Most plants live independent of the loss of either leaves or flowers; but the death of a blade of the papyrus involves that of the bud and root attached to it. Some flowers, kept in cold water till they droop, may be restored to life and freshness, by being placed in hot water. Then if the coddled stems be cut off, and put into cold water again, they may be preserved even to a third stage of existence. Italian cypresses live two hundred years: there is a linden tree at Basle two hundred and fifty years old: the oak is one hundred years in arriving at perfection, and lives to the age of three hundred. Date-trees in Spain attain a similar age. Many plantains in India are one thousand years old; and the cedars on Mount Lebanon have an age of not less than two thousand years. In respect to insects, some have their duration in proportion to the duration of a leaf; some to that of a flower; and others to that of a plant. Earth worms live three years; crickets ten years; bees seven; scorpions from seven to twelve; and toads have been known to arrive even to thirty.-Wasps and spiders, on the other hand, live but one year :an ephemeron, in a flying state, only one day.-But naturalists speak incorrectly when, after the authorities of Cicero and Aristotle, they say that those which die at nine in the morning expire in their youth; those at noon in their manhood; and those at sunset in their age. For, previous to their winged state, they had existed for two if not for three years. The flying state is merely a transition, which Nature has decreed to them for the greater facility of ensuring a succession. In respect to fishes, crayfish live twenty years; pikes have frequently attained ninety; the carp one hundred and fifty; and the amphibious tortoise three hundred. Hens will live ten years; nightingales sixteen; geese fifty; parrots sixty; ravens ninety; cockatoos one hundred and two years; falcons two hundred; and swans two hundred and ninety. Squirrels live seven years; hares eight; cows fourteen; cats eighteen; fallow deer twenty; stags forty; the ass from thirty to fifty; the lion to seventy; the one-horned rhinoceros to eighty; and elephants to two hundred years.' 3 weeks...4, 5, 6, to 8.* 5 or 6 months. 5 or 6 months. 30 days. .... .4, 5, to 8. 9 or 10 months. 9 or 10 do..... 63 do....... 3, 4, 5, 6. Weasel, 1 year..... Polecat ...... } Dromedary Camel.. 4 years....... 4 years....... about 1 year. 1. Man .... 14 do......... 12 do......... 9 months. Rhinoceros 16 do......... 16 do........ 1, sometimes 2, rarely 3.* 1. between 3 * I knew a lady, who had twins three times; and once three children at a birth. The wife of the celebrated Dr. Rigby, of Norwich, had five children at one birth; and the father was upwards of eighty years old. II. Many plants, insects, fishes, birds, and even quadrupeds, are peculiarly sensible of injury; others as strikingly vivacious. Some animals will live, after the spleen has been taken from them. Dr. Hook even hung a dog; then cut away its ribs, its diaphragram, its pericardium, and also the top of its windpipe; and yet restored it to life for some time, by infusing air into its lungs. The sloth will even live for some time after the extraction of its heart and bowels.' Worms also are difficult to destroy. Thus by a strange paradox, as an eminent Naturalist has remarked, the most useless of lives are of all others the most difficult to destroy. Tortoises, serpents, moles, and bats, are able to live for some time without continuing to breathe. This faculty they derive from the circumstance of the lungs having been left out in the circulation of the blood. The possum of Brazil is so difficult to kill, that when it has been broken or crushed, it will still creep away.-And 1 Mr. Brodie in recording some highly interesting experiments in regard to the suspension of the active principle, instances the case of a frog, which lived and crawled a full hour after its heart had been taken out. “In general,” says Mr. Brodie, "we see life combined with action, and living beings present an endless multitude of phenomena in perpetual and rapid succession.-Life, however, may exist independent of any action, which is evident to the senses.-A leech, which was immersed in a cold mixture, was instantly frozen into a hard solid substance ;-at the end of a few minutes the animal was gradually thawed ; -the leech revived, and continued to live for thirty-six hours after the experiment." when the breast of a frog is opened, and its heart and intestine parts taken out, it will yet leap as if it had sustained no injury; while land tortoises, and the whole tribe of lizards, will even continue to live, not only when deprived of their brains, but of their heads. Some animals will exist even in vacuo. This will best be proved, by leaving some tenebrions in an air pump for several days. Caterpillars will live in an exhausted receiver; and though for several days they will appear dead, exhibiting no motion, yet upon being let again into the air, they will revive and recover their wonted activity. But Nature affords phenomena still more wonderful even than these. Living shell-fish are sometimes found in solid stones in the harbour of Toulon, where they are called Dactyli; and are of exquisite flavour: shell-fish, called Solenes, are also found in stones near Ancona in Italy. Fulgosus relates, that a live worm was once found in a flint; and Alexander Tassoni relates, that some workmen of Tivoli, having cleft a large mass of stone, found a cray-fish in the middle of it, which they boiled and ate. Toads have been found in flints. M. Seigne saw one in the body of an oak near Nantes. Bacon and Plott mention similar instances. Mons. Hubert found one in the trunk of an elm near Caen': and a live beetle was not long since found in the heart of a tree near Carlisle. The eggs these animals must have accidentally been insinuated into the trees, when young; where, as Hubert conjectures, they must have grown with the tree; 1 Mém. Acad. Sciences, 1719. of |