On the Torpidity of Monkeys andotlier Animals, 245 



tion to this hypothesis, it will by no means account for 

 such a phaenomenon as appeared at Sienna in 1 794, when 

 stones descendt'd, not from a moving meteor, but from alu- 

 minous cloud. Other philosophers, ascribing to these stones 

 an origin still more extraordinary, suppose them to be pro- 

 jected from the moon. Admitting that bodies can be pro- 

 jected beyond the sphere of the moon's attraction, they must 

 move round the earth in one of the conic sections, and all 

 the difficulties attending the preceding hypothesis em- 

 barrass this. The sul)ject must be acknowledged to be in- 

 volved in much obscurity, and the phaenomenon, till we 

 are possessed of more facts and better observations, must be 

 considered inexplicable. 



L. Memoir upon the Torpidity of Monkeys and other Ani^ 

 mals. Translated from t/ie Italian of' M. M^ngali, 

 Frofessor of Natural History at Pavia^. 



Une of the phjenomena most worthy the attention of na- 

 turalists, is the profound sleep called lethargy, to which a 

 great number of cold-blooded animals are subject during 

 winter, and several warm-blooded animals also, such as 

 monkeys, bats, dormice, hedgehogs, Sec. 



Several authors, both aniient and modern, have treated on 

 this subject ; but as they have not made proper observations 

 and experiments, their writings leave us in much uncer- 

 tainty. The National Institute of France has therefore in- 

 vited the learned of Europe to examine carefully, 1st, the 

 phaenomena presented in winter by the lethargy of animals ; 

 Sdly, the cause of this lethargy ; Sdly, why it is peculiar to 

 these animals. 



Without pretending to give a complete solution of a 

 problem, which, as it is announced, appears to me to be 

 attended with difficulty, a:ul particularly the latter part of 

 it, I shall detail what I have remarked respecting several of 

 the animals in question. 



• From Annales (lu Mustum d'Histoke Naturelle, tome ix. p. 106. 



g 3 " I flatter 



