258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wine shipped to Europe, became lively as soon as they were ex- 

 posed to the air. Frozen caterpillars are sometimes revived when 

 thawed out. That May-bugs can be restored to life after they 

 have been drowned has been proved by Prof. Balbiani, of the Col- 

 lege de France, in conclusive experiments. He restored many by 

 drying them in the sun after he had kept them immersed for 

 twenty-four hours, two days, and even five days. In another 

 experiment a stag-beetle, put under alcohol for a half -hour and 

 then dried, was still in motion after three days. 



Going higher up in the animal series eggs, which are analo- 

 gous to the seeds of plants, present a remarkable example of re- 

 tarded life. One of the most interesting features about them is 

 the independence of their vitality, which persists even when the 

 individual that has produced them, and within whose organism 

 they are still contained, has ceased to live. This fact has been 

 recognized in pisciculture, where artificial fecundation has been 

 successful with eggs taken from dead fish. 



The persistence of life in frogs is very long. Spallanzani pre- 

 served some frogs in a mass of snow for two years. They became 

 dry, stiff, and almost friable, but a gradual heat brought them 

 back to life. Vulpian observed a return of life in frogs and 

 salamanders that had been poisoned with curare and nicotine. In 

 both cases the animals in question had been for several days in 

 the condition of cadavers. Toads have been shut up in blocks of 

 plaster, and then, having been deprived of all air except what 

 may penetrate through the material, and of all sources of food, 

 resuscitated several years afterward. This question presents one 

 of the most curious problems that biological science has been 

 called on to explain. The longevity and vital resistance of toads 

 are surprising. Besides the experiments we have cited, Nature 

 sometimes presents some already made, and vastly more astonish- 

 ing. Toads are said to have been found in rocks. Such cases 

 are rare, but it would be as unreasonable to doubt them as to be- 

 lieve in some of the miraculous explanations that have been made 

 of the matter. The phenomenon is marvelous, it is true, but it 

 is supported by evidence that we are not able to contest ; and 

 skepticism, which is incompatible with science, will have to dis- 

 appear if rigorous observation shall confirm it. The toad was 

 observed, in one case, in the stone itself, and before, recovering 

 from its long lethargy, it had made any motion. One of these 

 toads was presented to an academy, with the stone which had 

 served it as a coffin or habitation, and it was ascertained that the 

 cavity seemed to correspond exactly with the dimensions and 

 form of the animal. It is remarkable that these toad-stones are 

 very hard and not at all porous, and show no signs of fissure. 

 The mind, completely baffled in the presence of the fact, is equally 



