Page 298 - Third Book of Reading Lessons
P. 298
291
having lost the brain, and even the head, by decapi tation, and that r a very considerable time. The connexion with the nervous system is also much less necessary to the contraction of their bres; and their eah, after having been separated om the rest of the body, preserves its irritability much longer than in the classes already named. Their heart will beat r several hours after it has been plucked out, and its loss does not hinder the body om moving for a long time. In many of them it has been observed, that the cerebellum is remarkably small, which per ctly accords with their little propensity to motion. The smallness of the pulmonary vessels permits rep tiles to suspend their respiration without arresting the course of the blood; accordingly, they dive more easily, and r a longer time, than mammifera or birds: the cellules of their lungs are also much wider. Reptiles are provided with a trachea or larynx, though the culty of an audible voice is not accorded to them all. Not possessing warm blood, they have no occasion for teguments capable of re taining the heat, and they are covered with scales, or simply with a naked skin.
READING LESSONS,
LESSON X .
GUADALOUPE.
MAP, n., a tablet, picture, or delineation of the world, or of any part of it, showing the relative situations of places on the arth. F. mappe, om mappa, L., a tablecloth,-whence the application of the term to a geographical delineation, on account of its resem blance in size, texture, &c.
Hos'PITAL, n., a place r the reception and entertainment of strangers a place built r the reception of the sick or support of the poor. F. ho ital; L. ho itium, from hospes, a host, a guest.
Cuv R.