378 Dr. Miram on the Vitality of Intestinal Worms* 



resembling death ; toads inclosed in blocks of granite^ where 

 they neither receive air or nutriment *, have lain torpid for an 

 indefinite time, but again become animated as soon as they were 

 exposed to the atmosphere. This death-like state might be 

 termed torpidity, as it were a prolonged winter sleep, for life 

 has not totally quitted the body, and even this has remained 

 unaltered or at furthest only somewhat shrunk up. 



The Evertebrate animals appear, with respect to the strength 

 of the vital principle, to stand on a far higher scale. If they are 

 deprived of water, which is necessary to their life, they shrivel 

 up and become perfectly dry, but may again be restored to life 

 when after a shorter or longer period they are exposed to favour- 

 able influences. Who has not been struck by the remark- 

 able experiments of Spallanzani on this subject? From him 

 we know that Furcularia rediviva, a species of Vibrio, and 

 the of late much spoken-of Macrobiotus Hufelandii t belong- 

 ing to the Crustacea, after having passed years in a perfectly 

 dry state, might be restored to life by a drop of water, — a slight 

 moistening is sufficient to call them again into existence. 



Some intestinal worms are also remarkable from having a 

 similar peculiar tenacity of life. Rudolphi { mentions a re- 

 markable example of Ascaris spiculigera. He received from 

 M. Peterson of Kiel three sea crows [Pelecanus Carbo) which 

 were shot there on the third of May and immediately placed 

 in alcohol and forwarded to Berlin. On the 14th of May, 

 therefore after 1 1 days, Rudolphi opened the alimentary canal 

 and the stomach of one of these birds, which was highly 

 impregnated with alcohol, and found some specimens of the 

 above-mentioned worm, which however seemed to have been 

 killed by this treatment, and had become already hard and 

 brittle in the spirits. In order to soften and restore them to 



* We should not consider the degree of assurance upon this subject to be 

 at all so strong as that which the writer seems to entertain, especially as 

 regards granite. — Ed. 



t This microscopic crab is not, as stated by Schulze {Macrobiotus Hufe- 

 landii, animal e crustaceorum classe novum, reviviscendi post diuturnam 

 asphyxiam et ariditatem potens, descriptus a Aug. Sigismundo Schulze, Be- 

 rolini, 1834), anew animal, but Spallanzani's Tardigrade, Midler's Acarus 

 urselluSf Schrank's Arctiscon tardigradum, and Ehrenberg's Trionychium 

 ursinum. — Wiegmann. 



X Entozoorum Synopsis, Berolini, 1819, p. 290. 



