It is also certain, that it was the portion of the trees that were in sap in the hard frost of 1709, which instead of coming to perfection, and converting itself into wood, became more faulty. Besides, it is more natural to suppose, that the faulty part must suffer more from sharp frosts than sound wood: because it is not only at the external part of the tree, and therefore more exposed to the weather, but also because the fibres are more tender and delicate than the wood. All this at first appears to wear but little difficulty, yet the objections related in the history of the Academy of Sciences, 1710, might be here adduced; by these objections it appears that in 1709, the young trees endured the hard frost much better than old. But as these facts are certain, there must be some difference between the organic parts, the vessels, the fibres, &c. of the sappy part of the old trees and that of the young; they perhaps will be more supple, so that a power which will be capable of causing the one to break, will only dilate the other. But as these are conjectures with which the mind remains but little satisfied, we shall pass slightly over them, and content ourselves with the particulars we have well observed. That this sappy part suffered greatly from the frost is an incontestible fact, but has it been entirely disorganized? This might happen without the death of the tree ensuing, provided the bark remained sound; and even vegetation might continue. Willows and limes frequently subsist only by their bark, and the same thing has been seen at the nursery of Roule in an orange tree. But we do not think that the false sap is dead, because it always appeared to us in quite a different state from the sap found in trees, which had a portion of dead wood included in the sound; besides, if it had been disorganized, as it extends over the whole circumference, it would have interrupted the lateral motion of the sap, and the wood of the centre, not being able to vegetate, would have also perished and altered, which was not the case, and which I could confirm by a number of experiments; however, it is not easily conceivable how this sappy part of wood has been changed so far as not to become wood, and that far from being dead, it was even in a state of supplying the ligneous coats with sap, which are formed from above in a state of perfection, and which may be compared to the wood of trees that have suffered no accident. This must nevertheless have been done by the hard winter, which caused an incurable malady to this part of the tree; for if it were dead, as well as the bark which cloathed it, there can be no doubt that the tree would have entirely perished, which happened in 1709 to many trees whose bark was detached from them, and which by the remaining sap in their trunk, shot forth their buds in spring, but died through weakness before autumn, for want of receiving sufficient nutriment to subsist on.