tion. Here, at the least, the maxim, that what every body says, must be true, fails completely. In Brewster's Encyclopædia it is said, that "this animal's hide is generally impenetrable to a leaden musket ball. It is, however, more vulnerable in the belly, and a bullet discharged down the throat or in the eyes, is fatal. The negroes in the river Senegal attack this huge animal either when asleep, or in shallows where its swimming is impeded, and by forcing an oxhide in its mouth, the water flows in, while heavy blows are given on the head to stun it, and it is drowned."

"In Louisiana, the natives contrive to thrust a piece of wood, pointed at both ends, into the throat, or when rushing upon the assailants, its wide mouth is met by a large stake, which is forcibly thrust down, and it is speedily destroyed. Several leaden bullets, even when they penetrate, are sometimes insufficient to kill, unless when they reach the brain, the spine, or some of the large blood vessels. Iron balls are recommended."

St. Hilaire maintains that lead will not kill! So does the Encyclopædia Americana, in which, it is said, that "the body, above and below the entire length, is covered with plates"-" impenetrable to a musket ball." Goldsmith's Natural History, (a text book in our schools), is, if possible, still more extravagant in its details : "A negro goes into the water armed with a knife, having his arm bound with a cow's hide; the animal swallows the arm most greedily; a hole is cut in the throat; the water rushes in and drowns it, bloating it as big as a tun." Examples, of a similar kind, might be multiplied, were it necessary. So much for theory, which here, as in many other cases, is stronger than the testimony of the five senses!

Now I will engage to kill an Alligator, not merely with the "bare bodkin" of which Hamlet speaks, but with a common lancet. The animal is easily killed. Dr. Lindsay, formerly a resident in the country, recently informed me, that some years since, while he and his two companions were pursuing a wounded deer, ten miles from Baton Rouge, in Louisiana, the party came on a den or army of Alligators, all of which not only appeared indifferent to their approach, but incapable of being frightened. The gentlemen dismounted, secured their horses, and divided their ammunition, which, though abundant in powder, was restricted in lead to 450 buckshot. It was determined to use only three of the latter for a charge. Each man had, therefore, fifty rounds. Each standing quite near the animals, began the work of destruction; each shot proved fatal. The animals died quickly, in from two to five minutes. They jerked, trembled, turned on one side, and held up one of their quivering hands and died. When the last shot was fired, the survivers lay quietly, unterrified, unconcerned. This spot was often visited afterwards, but no Alligators were ever seen there for years. Dr. L. estimates the number of these animals which he has killed, at different times, at five hundred! Mr. Audubon, the ornithologist, says-that a Louisiana negro will kill a dozen of large Alligators in one evening, cutting off the head with a single blow of the axe, for the purpose of obtaining the oil. (Buffon's Nat. Hist. Am. Edit.) On some occasions he holds a language somewhat dissimilar. He says, "When Alligators are about to go into winter quarters, a child may mount them as a wooden rocking

horse." Several gentlemen have informed me that in digging canals, and in making roads, they have opened the burrows of Alligators, and have been obliged to remove them out of their way: on one occasion, an Alligator had been wounded by a man who was not aware of it at the moment-the animal ran some distance with the man, who had accidentally fallen astride on its back.

I am credibly informed, that when hunters camp out in the forest, the Alligators of the neighboring waters watch for the offal of the camp, during which they are often easily noosed with the lasso, and are then dragged from the water by horses.

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The following case, which may be fully relied on, shows that Alligators do not bear herculian doses of physic: Mr. I., an educated gentleman, engaged in the study of medicine, living near Fort Pike, in Louisiana, having observed, in 1845, a recent " Alligator's wallow," and having at the same time killed a snake, he opened its abdomen, into which he inserted about three grains of strychnine, carefully enveloped in several folds of letter paper, which, being properly secured, the snake was left for the Alligator, which, the next day, was found dead, with its abdomen turned up. The snake had disappeared. The Alligator had

been poisoned.

Alligators commit errors of diet. The following is a fatal instance: A gentleman of the State of Mississippi informed me, that having been, with others, on a hunting excursion, one of the party finding that the whiskey bottle, which he had been carrying, was now empty, he threw it to an Alligator which was swimming near, in a lagoon. The animal suddenly seized and crushed it. On returning to the same place in a few days after, the animal was found dead, with its abdomen greatly distended and turned upward. A physician being present, it was determined to make a post mortem examination. Broken fragments of the bottle, with putrid fish, were found in the stomach and bowels. These organs were, in many places, quite mortified, and emitted a fœtor, so horrible, that my informant was nauseated, and which, in his opinion, caused the doctor's sickness and death-occurrences which took place soon after the post mortem examination.

I have examined several wounds which Alligators had received during the conflict in which they were captured. The following is a good example of Crocodilian hyperemia or inflammation: A torn and con

tused wound, of two or three inches in length, between the fingers, was tumefied, but without redness. Granulations appeared, coated over with a dense transparent exudation, not flakey, but resembling half coagulated albumen. On touching these, the animal expressed great pain, withdrawing its limb and blowing loudly. Another foot which had been bruised and swollen, without any breach of the skin, presented extensive exfoliations of the cuticle, leaving the true skin white. Some recent bruises on the muzzle and in the mouth, together with an incision which I made in the back with the lancet, discharged a little thin, pale, scarlet colored blood. The general hue incidental to inflammation in man, did not occur. It was white-analagous types of which do sometimes happen in ordinary practice, as in white swelling, phlegmasia dolens, and in some fatal cases of glottidian and laryngeal hyperæmia, in which the submucous tissue is white, though swelled and infiltrated with lym.

phy, serous, and purulent matter. I have found the epiglottis a mere sack, containing pus, though blanched. Hence, the necessity of changing the technology of pathological anatomy. Inflammation is, to some extent, a theoretical word, implying redness and so forth, which may not be essential to its physical history, an evil which may be greatly lessened by using words designating physical changes only, as cohesion, softening, brittleness, induration, size, figure, vascularity, injection, collapse, infiltration, and the like. In medicine, words, [prescriptions], are things, which blacken the body with leeches, blanch it with venesections, or modify its organization with the concentrated preparations of medical chemistry.

The Crocodilian Respiration is very irregular; I might say, sometimes altogether suspended for indefinite, or at least, very long periods, when the animal is not disturbed. The method I have adopted to prove this, is as perfect as could be desired. For several days, two large Alligators were so placed in their cages, that the water covered the mouth and nostrils completely. They lay perfectly still. There was no movement of the walls of the trunk. The least movement must have agitated the water. Every steamboat or dray that came near, caused slight undulations or waves-the Alligators none, when left unmolested, which, however, seldom happened, as persons frequently came near. On several occasions no interruptions occurred for half an hour, or even an hour. When they are annoyed, and wish to scold or frighten their enemies, they make deep inspirations, inflating their bodies very largely-this air they discharge in low bass notes, or rather with a bellows hissing sound, several times in a minute. There can scarcely be a doubt that one inspiration supplies a stock of air for hours, if not for days. Herodotus was right in considering this animal as a true amphibium, and, of course, St. Hilaire is wrong in denying it, as is Mr. Kirby, in his Bridgewater treatise on Animals, wherein, he asserts, that "the Crocodile cannot remain more than ten minutes under water," (p. 418). Some illustrative facts might be produced. "Tortoises have lived more than a month with their jaws closely tied, and their nostrils stopped with wax.' (Ed. Ency.) "The hedge-hog, according to Professor Mongili, respires from five to seven times in a minute; but in a room, at 54°, it becomes torpid respiration is then periodical, being suspended for fifteen minutes at a time, and this, too, in April and May, after it had naturally revived from its winter lethargy." The same author noticed in the dormcuse intervals of suspended respiration for sixteen minutes. By maltreating the Alligator, its inspirations and expirations may be produced at pleasure, but contrary to the chemical doctrine of pulmonary combustion, animal heat is not thereby augmented, as will be shown in the experiments on the temperature of this saurian.

The Circulation in this animal, after all my attempts to investigate it, appeared to me, at least, a perfect enigma. On several occasions I explored different regions, wherein I expected to find arterial pulsations, but without much success. This seemed the more surprising, as the axillæ, flanks and limbs were sufficiently soft and flexible, to induce the belief that the pulse might readily be detected. The muscles of the limbs are small, cord-like, and pliable. Either from policy or politeness, the animals allowed the fullest examinations without resistance.