82 
SUSPENDED ANIMATION. 
eggs of many minute Entomostracous Crustacea (Zoology, §§ 
883, 931). It is unquestionable that many Fishes, especially 
those of fresh-water lakes, will revive on being thawed after 
having been completely frozen; and the same has been ascer¬ 
tained of certain Caterpillars. The Snail, when retiring for 
the winter, seals the orifice of its shell with an impervious 
lid; and in this cavity it may remain shut up for years, until 
re-excited to activity by warmth and moisture. Animals in 
such states of torpidity strongly resemble seeds that are pre¬ 
vented from germinating, apparently for unlimited periods, 
by being kept at a moderate temperature, and excluded 
from the influence of air and moisture, which, with adequate 
warmth, would call them into active growth, but which, at 
a lower temperature, would occasion their decomposition. 
There are no positive facts which enable us to say how long 
Animals may remain in a parallel condition; but there seems 
no reason why it might not be indefinitely prolonged. 
67. The death of the body, then, does not consist in the 
mere suspension of its vital activity; for so long as that 
activity may be renewed when the requisite conditions are 
supplied, so Jong must the organism be considered as alive , 
however death-like its condition may seem. Among warm¬ 
blooded animals, such a suspension, if complete, cannot be 
endured for more than a very brief period, without the 
extinction of life; for the substance of their tissues is so 
prone to decomposition, that it speedily passes into decay 
unless prevented from doing so either by a reduction of tem¬ 
perature, or by complete drying-up, or by entire seclusion 
from air; and although each of these methods, practised 
upon animal substances already dead, may prevent the occur¬ 
rence of decomposition for almost unlimited periods, yet 
neither can be applied to the living tissues of any of the 
higher animals, without occasioning the entire loss of their 
vitality, as we see (in regard to cold) in the loss of members by 
“ frost-bite.” Such parts die } because not only is their vital 
activity suspended, but their vital properties are annihilated. 
Their death, however, does not necessarily involve that of 
the organism as a whole; since the stoppage of their function 
may not disarrange the general train of vital operations, or 
their duty can be discharged by other organs. And among 
many of the lower animals, we find that there is a provision 
