Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/231

221 OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENERALLY PREVAILING DOCTRINES OF LIFE AND DEATH.

TO THE SAME.

OUR obſervations on the cauſes of death, and the experiments which you propoſe for recalling to life thoſe who appear to be killed by lightning, demonſtrate equally your ſagacity and humanity. It appears that the doctrines of life and death, in general, are yet but little underſtood. A toad buried in ſand will live, it is ſaid, until the ſand becomes petrified; and then, being incloſed in the ſtone, it may ſtill live for we know not how many ages. The facts which are cited in ſupport of this opinion, are too numerous and too circumſtantial not to deſerve a certain degree of credit. As we are accuſtomed to ſee all the animals with which we are acquainted eat and drink, it appears to us difficult to conceive how a toad can be ſupported in ſuch a dungeon. But if we reflect, that the neceſſity of nouriſhment, which animals experience in their ordinary ſtate, proceeds from the continual waſte of their ſubſtance by perſpiration; it will appear leſs incredible, that ſome animals in a torpid ſtate, perſpiring leſs becauſe they uſe no exerciſe, ſhould have leſs need of aliment; and that others, which are covered with ſcales or ſhells, which ſtop perſpiration, ſuch as land and ſea turtles, ſerpents, and ſome ſpecies of fiſh, ſhould be able to ſubſiſt a conſiderable time