DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0143
animals pound in solid substances.
ies
brushed their wings with their hind-feet, and soon after
began to fly, finding themselves in old England without
knowing how they came thither. The third continued
lifeless till sun-set, when, losing all hopes of him, he was
thrown away.
I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent a
method of embalming drowned persons, in such a man-
ner that they might be recalled to life at any period how-
ever distant; for, having a very ardent desire to see and
observe the state of America an hundred years hence, I
should prefer to an ordinary death, the being immersed
in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that
time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of
my dear country. But since, in all probability, we live
in an age too early, and too near the infancy of science,
to hope to see such an art in our time brought to perfec-
tion, I must, for the present, content myself with the treat
which you are so kind as to promise me of the resurrec-
tion of a fowl or a turkey-cock. I am, dear Sir,
Your sincere friend,
Benjamin Franklin.
To substantiate the doctor’s opinion, the following will
be found well worth preserving.
In 1683, Blondel reported to the academy at Paris
that there were frequently found at Toulon, stones in
which were oysters, good to eat,
In 16'85, Cassini mentioned a fact of a similar nature,
upon the authority of M. Duraffe, who had been sent am-
bassador to Constantinople, and who had assured him
that he had found very hard stones in which were in-
closed little fish, called dactyls or razor-fish; but the
following appear to be at the least as surprizing, and are
jnuch more recent.
Some workmen in the quarries of Bourswic, in Gothia,
having detached a block of stone, one of them broke it,
B 2 and
ies
brushed their wings with their hind-feet, and soon after
began to fly, finding themselves in old England without
knowing how they came thither. The third continued
lifeless till sun-set, when, losing all hopes of him, he was
thrown away.
I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent a
method of embalming drowned persons, in such a man-
ner that they might be recalled to life at any period how-
ever distant; for, having a very ardent desire to see and
observe the state of America an hundred years hence, I
should prefer to an ordinary death, the being immersed
in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that
time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of
my dear country. But since, in all probability, we live
in an age too early, and too near the infancy of science,
to hope to see such an art in our time brought to perfec-
tion, I must, for the present, content myself with the treat
which you are so kind as to promise me of the resurrec-
tion of a fowl or a turkey-cock. I am, dear Sir,
Your sincere friend,
Benjamin Franklin.
To substantiate the doctor’s opinion, the following will
be found well worth preserving.
In 1683, Blondel reported to the academy at Paris
that there were frequently found at Toulon, stones in
which were oysters, good to eat,
In 16'85, Cassini mentioned a fact of a similar nature,
upon the authority of M. Duraffe, who had been sent am-
bassador to Constantinople, and who had assured him
that he had found very hard stones in which were in-
closed little fish, called dactyls or razor-fish; but the
following appear to be at the least as surprizing, and are
jnuch more recent.
Some workmen in the quarries of Bourswic, in Gothia,
having detached a block of stone, one of them broke it,
B 2 and