plied in the fame manner to both, being 1.26. I alfo admitted part of this air to lime water, and obferved that it did not make it in the smallest degree turbid. Willing to give more time to this experiment, that the opportunity of this perspiration phlogifticating the air might be the greater, I once more faftened the bladder about my foot, juft before I went to bed, and flept with it all ght, keeping myfelf fufficiently warm, from eleven to half paft fix in the morning, when the bladder was quite dry. However, carefully moistening it, and efpe. cially where it was faftened to my ankle, I withdrew my foot, without changing the air, and immediately examined it. The quantity contained in the bladder was 40 ounce measures. It did not affect lime water, and with refpect to purity was of the fame standard with common air; the measures of the test with the nitrous air I happened to make ufe of, being in both cafes 1.3. I cannot therefore but fee reafon to conclude, as I did before, that it is only refpiration, and not the perfpiration of the body, that injures common air. impregnated with fixed air, and with nitrous air, on fishes put into it. I have fince repeated all thefe experiments with an attention to more circumstances; and they both confirm and extend my former general conclufions. Having at hand fome water from the Hot-well at Brittol, which I had found to contain air in a state of great purity, I completely filled a large phial with it, and I put into it a few very fmall fishes, which I had provided for the purpose of these and other experiments. They were minows, and other fmall fishes, about two inches in length. In this water they were confined, without any accefs of common air, till they died. After this I took equal quantities of the water in which the fishes had died, and of that out of which it had been taken, when they were confined in it; and I expelled from both all the air which they would yield. That from the water in which o fishes had been put, exceeded in quantity that from the water in which they had been confined in the proportion of three to two; and examining the quality of both thefe quantities of air, by the teft of nitrous air, the former exceeded Of the Refpiration of Fishes; from the latter in a ftill greater propor tion. The air from the water, in which no fishes had been confined, was about the standard of coinmon air, but that which had been contaminated by the refpiration, as I may fay of the fiches, though not thoroughly phlogisticated, was fomething worse than air in which a candle juft goes out. I fhould probably have found it ftill worfe than this, if I had expelled and E 4 examined examined the air immediately; but the water remained in an open veffel all night before I made the experiment upon it. From this experiment it may be concluded with certainty, that air contained in water, in an unelaftic ftate, is as neceffary to the life of fifhes, as air in an elaftic ftate is to that of land animals. It is not properly water that receives the phlogifton discharged from the fishes, but the air that is incorporated with it. And this may poffibly be the reafon of the attraction which, in many of my experiments, there appears to be between phlogifton and water; whereas it has been an opinion univerfally received among chemifts, that water has no affinity whatever with phlogiston. From this experiment I had no doubt, but that putting fishes into water impregnated with air that was thoroughly phlogifticated, would be injurious, if not fatal to them, as much as the fame kind of air, in an elastic state, is to land animals; and this was verified by the following experiments; from which, however, it appears that fishes, like infects, and some other exanguious animals, can live a confiderable time without any thing equivalent to refpiration. What limits that time has, may in fome, measure appear from thefe obfervations. ed, and they lived in it between three and four hours. This experiment resembles the putting of frogs and ferpents into a vacuum, only that there was no expansion of air contained in them to swell their bodies in this cafe. Taking the fame water, which, as I obferved, contained little or no air, I made it imbibe as much as I could of a quantity that had been phlogifticated with iron filings and brimstone, fix months before. Of this, however, the water would take but very little. Into a pint of this water, thus imperfectly impregnated, I put two of the fishes, and they lived in it near an hour. The refult was the fame when I impregnated an equal quantity of the fame water with inflammable air. For in this cafe alfo the two fifhes lived about an hour. This experiment resembled the putting of mice, and other land animals, into phlogisticated or inflammable air, which is known to be fatal to them, but more fuddenly than this water was to the fifhes, owing, I fuppofe, to its imperfect impregnation. When I impregnated water with nitrous air on a former occafion; I obferved that fishes put into it were immediately seized with convulfions, and died prefently; juft as they did in water impregnated with fixed air. But though at that time I took all the care I I began with water that con- could to prevent the decompofition tained, as far as we are able to dif- of the nitrous air, that remained afcover, no air at all. For it was ter the operation, filling the phial rain water, that had been recently in which the procefs was made boiled a confiderable time. The with fresh water, by means of a veffel contained about three pints funnel, &c. ftill a decompofition of it; and into this, without ad- of fome fmall part of it would nemitting any air at all, I put nine ceffarily be made, before I could of the fmall fishes above mention- poffible flip the funnel into the neck neck of the phial. To prevent this, I now introduced the fishes into the veffel in which I had impregnated the water while it remained inverted in the bason, the remainder of the nitrous air not imbibed by the water ftill refting upon it. The phial I used contained fomething more than a pint, and the nitrous air occupied about one fourth of it. Into this veffel, thus prepared, I introduced two of my fmall fishes, and they continued very quiet, without being seized with any convulfions, ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, before they died. The cause of the convulfions, therefore, in the former experiment, must have been, not the nitrous air, properly speaking, but the nitrous acid, though in fo very fmall a quantity, diffused in the water, and acting like the fixed air (which is only another kind of acid) in the water impregnated with it. Whereas in this experiment the fishes were no otherwise affected than they were in the water impregnated with phlogisticated or inflammable air, except that the water imbibed much more of the nitrous air, and on that account was fooner fatal to them. Of the Rein-Deer; from Barring ton's Mifcellanies. T hath been a generally receiv- will not live for any time fouth of Lapland, or that part of North America which, though of a more fouthern latitude, equals Lapland in the rigour of its climate. Queen Chriftina of Sweden had procured five-and-twenty of these quadrupeds, which the proposed to fend to Oliver Cromwell, and which might long fince have proved the contrary, had they reached this country. Whitelock was then ambaffador from England at that court, and endeavoured to prevail upon four Laplanders who brought the reins as far as Stockholm, to attend them to England, which they refufed to do, but faid they would take care of them during the winter. The Laplanders, however, were very negligent in their charge, for foon afterwards fifteen were killed by the wolves, and the remaining ten did not long furvive, the climate of Stockholm being confidered as too warm. Buffon (who is one of the latest naturalifts that hath defcribed the rein-deer) mentions, that three or four were not long fince carried to Dantzic, where they foon died, as the temperature of the air was too mild for them; and in another part of the fame article, he regrets the impoffibility of feeing this quadruped alive in France, on which account he only engraves the skeleton, having procured a drawing from a fpecimen in the Museum of the Royal Society. Pontoppidan alfo fays, that it will always be a vain attempt to naturalize this animal in other countries, as no nourishment can be found any where else which will keep them alive, fo that they have Notwithstanding, however, this moft prevailing opinion, it is contradicted, by the fact of a buck rein-deer having lived near three years at Homerton (not far from Hackney), Hackney), in the clofe of Mr. Heyde, a merchant, and which died only in 1773, very fuddenly, having been the preceding day in perfect health. He was fent to England from Norway with a doe, which did not live more than a year; and Mr. Heyde hath this autumn [1773] received a male and female, which were in November laft very healthy. Lee. mius obferves, that in Finmark they are fubject to the epilepfy. Every written voyage to the higher northern latitudes makes mention of this very useful quadruped, whilft Scheffer, Buffon, Hoff berg, and Leemius, have given us its natural history. Leemius is the last of these, who published at Copenhagen his account of Finmark Lapland in 1767, and refided in that country more than ten years; he is therefore more to be depended upon than any of the others, who it is believed, never faw the animal alive; at least the upper antlers, as engraved by Hoffberg, more refemble thofe of the elk than of the rein-deer. There is, Lowever, a very good reprefentation of the rein deer in Pennant's Synopfis of Quadrupeds. As Leemius's work hath fearcely found its way yet into the more fouthern parts of Europe, I fhall make fome extracts from it, with regard to this animal, with which he had fo frequent opportunities of being thoroughly acquainted. It is agreed by all naturalifts to be peculiar to the female rein-deer, that they should have horns as well as the male: Leemius how ever remarks, that this is not always the fact, fome having none at all, as likewife that they lofe them entirely after parturition. The projecting brow antler alfo is not obferved in any other species of deer, the ufe of which I fhould conceive to be a proper defence against that arch enemy the wolf; and Leemius accordingly mentions an inftance of one rein having drove away two of these maroders. When the reins, however, use their antlers against their own fpecies in the rutting time, the horns are frequently fo entangled, that they cannot be separated but by the affiftance of the rein herd. If it be afked, why every species of deer hath not the fame protection? the answer seems to be, that the swiftness of the other kinds enables them to escape their purfuer. Though the northern naturalifts fpeak of the expedition also, with which the rein-deer will draw the traineau; yet I beg leave to fay, from having feen three of thefe animals, that they are rather of a make calculated for the collar, than for extraordinary fwiftnefs; and I have little doubt but that they are the floweft of their whole genus, except the elk, whose antlers are alfo of a moft peculiar form, as well as ftrength. I should conceive likewise, that the elk makes use of these extraordinary horns to remove the thick underwood and briars in which this quadruped lives, not being fo fleet as the reft of its genus are: the antlers therefore are excesfively wide, as well as fhallow, and the fagged terminations feem not improper to perform the office of a faw. I know well that fome natural ifts, not being able to find out the ufe of particular parts in feveral animals, have rather ridiculed the attempt to discover for what purpose they are defigned: I am perfuaded, however, that this arifes from ignorance of the habits of the animal (which is the interefting part of natural history); nor is it less true, because it hath been often advanced, that nature does nothing in vain. Buffon makes but one article of the rein and elk; he also observes, that when the latitude begins to be too warm for the former, the elks are first to be difcovered. North America furnishes, however, an exception to this obfervation, becaufe reins are found in Newfoundland, 50° N. lat. and the Hudfon's-bay company have a noble fpecimen of elk's horns in their hall, which was fent them from their forts, fome of which are nine degrees to the northward; at the fame time that the situation is fo much more inland, and confequently from that circumftance alfo the temperature more cold than might be expected, merely from the fort's being nine degrees nearer to the pole. On the other hand brand Ides met with a great many reins not far from Nezzinfkoi, which is only in N. lat. 50. at no great distance from the Eaftern Ocean. I fhall now mention two or three particulars from Leemius, with regard to the rein, which have not been noticed by other naturalifts. They are extravagantly fond of human urine, and lick up the fnow with the greatest avidity when the upper part hath been stained by it; poffibly, however, the opening the way to their favourite lichen may be in part the occafion of their immediately finding out fuch spots. We have the fame authority for their killing a vast number of mice, which are called in the Lapland language Godde Saepaw, and Lemæner in the Norwegian. As their make, however, is not described, and as I can find no names which bear the least affinity in the Fauna Suecica, it is impoffible to fettle the fpecies. Poffibly alfo the reins only use this food when they can procure no other; it is for the fame reafon that the Lapland gulls are faid likewife to feed on mice, and the crows to tear the linen which is hung to dry. Leemius, in other parts of his work, mentions, that they devour the heads of thefe mice only, with the greatest avidity; which alfo may arife from want of other food, as it is believed that no other quadruped (which chews the cud) deftroys animals for the purpose of fubfiftence. All defcribers of the rein have taken notice of the cracking noise which they make when they move their legs, which coffberg attributes to the animals feparating and afterwards bringing together the divifions of their hoof; but he does not affign the caufe of the reins fo doing, which I conceive to be the following: The rein inhabits a country which is covered with fnow for great part of the year; the hoof therefore of this quadruped is most adinirably adapted to the furface which it is moft com. monly to tread. The under part is entirely covered with hair, in the fame man. ner |