accordingly rolled a number of them in a ball of snow, 

 and let them remain in that situation for twelve hours, 

 after which I examined and found them in a state of 

 torpor. They were exposed for a few minutes to the 

 gentle stimulus of warm air — soon recovered, and be- 

 came very active. 



I wished then to know what effect freezing would 

 have upon them. As the last winter was remarkably 

 mild, I was obliged to have recourse to a frigorifick 

 mixture.* — I put two worms into a glass tube, herme- 

 tically sealed at one extremity ; it was introduced into 

 the mixture, where it remained ten minutes — ^removed 

 it, and examined the animals, and found them dead, 

 without any appearance of disorganization. 



If we suppose the weather should set in cold, so as 

 to freeze the ground four inches deep, and the worms 

 lie two inches below the frost, in a torpid state ; should 

 then the weather increase so much in severity as to 

 freeze the ground ten inches, the animals must then 

 be necessarily frozen, consequently there would be a 

 possibility of their entire destruction. May they not 

 be reanimated by the heat which is given out during 

 the process of freezing, and thereby be enabled to de- 

 scend into the earth and keep below the frost ?f We 



* Composed of equal parts of nitre and salt, mixed with snow, 

 f In the beginning' of March, when the ground was frozen from 

 four to six inches, early in the morning I dug into the earth, and 



C 



