ON TORPIDITY IN ANIMALS. l6Q 



from a viscid substance that obstructed them : a few spoon- 

 fuls of brandy were then administered ; after the second she 

 was heard to groan, after the third she opened her eyes, 

 and so came at length to herself by degrees (History of 

 Stafford shire, chap, viii, sect. 36). The same author has 

 also preserved another instance of a sleeper in the circle of 

 his own acquaintance. This is the history of Mary Foster, 

 of Admaston ; but her singular case is too imperfectly- 

 stated, to ascertain any thing more than the fact aud cause 

 of it- She remained in a profound sleep for fourteen days 

 and nights, after an equal period of fear and anxiety, occa- 

 sioned by the woman falling casually into a well ; and the 

 accident seems to have produced in her a disposition to tor- 

 por : for two years afterwards she slept two nights and a day 

 at Uttoxeter, but the reason of this relapse is omitted. The 

 annals of medicine furnish without doubt many more exam- 

 ples of a like nature ; but the few which I have specified 

 appear sufficient to prove, that torpidity is a mere habit, and 

 not a constitutional principle of the animal economy. 



Supplementary remarks* 



I was unacquainted, at the date of the preceding essay, An experiment 

 with an experiment made by Mr. Pallas, and mentioned by bv M - Pallas. 

 Mr. Cox, in his Travels through Russia. This celebrated 

 Russian naturalist conquered the torpid habit in a marmot, 

 by confining it through winter to a warm stove, and giving 

 it a plentiful supply ol food. If my recollection be correct, 

 the species of Mr. Pallas' s marmot is overlooked by Mr. Cox, 

 but the omission is of little moment, seeing the fact has 

 been ascertained by a philosopher of high reputation. 



The natural history of the earless marmot, arclomys cit'd- 

 lus, also establishes the general proposition, viz. that tor- 

 pidity is a habit, and not a necessary propensity. These 

 animals imitate the manners of the hearth cricket; for those 

 that burrow in the fields fall asleep about the end of Sep- 

 tember, and appear again with the first symptoms of spring; 

 but when the same quadruped finds its way into a granary, 

 it remains active all winter. 



The preceding observations agree very well with the sub- General re- 

 stance of the present essay, and my last on the same sub- mark. 



ject: 



