The functions of this vegetative life are slackened and troubled no doubt, but still they are feebly exercised. I have the proof of this in that action of the viscera which takes place normally and at intervals in the weevils during the first week of that deep slumber, which will never be broken, and yet which is not death. It only ceases when the intestine is empty, as is shown by autopsy. But the faint rays of life which the creature manifests do not stop there; and though sensation appears annihilated for ever, I have succeeded in reawakening some vestige of them. Having placed weevils, recently exhumed and absolutely motionless, in a bottle with sawdust moistened with benzine, I was not a little surprised to see a quarter of an hour later moving antennæ and feet. For a moment I thought I could recall them to life. Vain hope! these movements, last trace of a sensitiveness about to cease, soon stopped, and could not be excited a second time. I have repeated this experiment from some hours to several days after the murder, and always with the same success; only movement is tardy in appearing in proportion as the date of the victim’s death is distant. The movements are always from the forepart backward. First, the antennæ move, then the front tarsi tremble and share in the oscillations; next, the second pair do the same; and finally, the third. Once movement is excited, all these members oscillate without any order until all become again motionless, as they do sooner or later. Unless death has been quite recent, movement does not go beyond the tarsi, and the legs remain motionless. Ten days after the murder I could not obtain the least sign of irritability by the proceeding described, and I had recourse to the Voltaic battery. This is more effective, and provokes muscular contractions where the vapour of benzine fails. One or two elements of Bunsen suffice, which are armed with the rheophores of slender needles. Plunging the point of the one under the furthest ring of the abdomen, and the point of the other under the neck, you obtain each time that the current is established, not only the quivering of the tarsi, but a strong flexion of the feet, which fold themselves under the body, and relax when the current is interrupted. These movements, very energetic during the first days, gradually lose intensity, and after a certain time appear no more. On the tenth day I have still been able to obtain visible motions, but on the fifteenth the pile was unable to provoke them, notwithstanding the suppleness of the limbs and freshness of the viscera. I have submitted also to the action of the pile Coleoptera really dead, Blaps, Saperda, Lamia, asphyxiated by benzine or sulphureous gas, and two hours later it was impossible to provoke the movements obtained so easily from weevils lying already for several days in the singular state, intermediate between life and death, into which their redoubtable enemy plunges them.