134 ANIMALS KILLED TV. 
ufe and motion of the members are loft. But 
this mutt be inveftigated more profoundly, fince 
it prefents the moft paradoxical truth to be found. 
in the hiftory of any animal ; and we cannot be 
too diffident and’ fufpicious, of fuch faés. Let 
us, therefore, inquire, if it is not poflible that the 
animals, to all appearance dead, may pre- 
ferve fome fpark of life. And here let us recur 
to the analogies between large and. {mall animals.. 
Cold, fo injurious to infects, renders thofe le-- 
thargic during winter which it does not de- 
{troy : their torpor is fuch, that they feem dead 
to the fight and the touch: their limbs: are ftift 
and contracted ; their wings depreffed,.and their 
bodies emaciated.. ‘This we daily fee in hundreds: 
of infeéts which we cafually find on the coldeft 
days of winter, in. the earth, the clefts of trees, 
or the holes of walls. In this manner does cold. 
operate on animals poffefling the higheft. rank in: 
the animal fcale. In the midft of winter, we have. 
found marmots fo lethargic, that the flame of a 
candle burning their limbs could not awaken 
them, or recall the fenfations of life(1). Ter- 
reftrial and amphibious animals kept long in wa~ 
ter exhibit the fame appearances. Redi having 
«mmerfed flies in water an hour and a half, found. 
them with all the appearance of death. Reau- 
mur 
(1) Buffon Hiftoire Naturelle. f f 
