and its Effects on Man and Animals. 219 



rots fall as if inebriated in the midst of the field, without the 

 power of ever rising again. Wild-dogs and deer, which are 

 equally fond of maize, but which only come to feed upon it in 

 the night, sometimes experience the same fate : in the morning 

 they are found in the thickets about the plantation, and the 

 flight of the gamurros points out the place where they have 

 crept to die. 



After what has been said above, could it be believed that a 

 substance capable of causing death so suddenly could in a short 

 time lose its deleterious qualities, and become susceptible of be- 

 ing used as food ? Yet this is what seems to be proved by a 

 concurrence of disinterested testimonies. Many credible per- 

 sons have assured the author, that when the Mais peladero 

 has passed the Paramos, high mountains covered with perpetual 

 snow, it is found destitute of all noxious quality. This at least 

 is certain, that it is frequently carried to the villages of the Cor- 

 dillera, situated on the opposite declivity, and is there purchased 

 by men who are ignorant of the danger which it would have 

 caused them in the place where it grew. 



Might not this fact account, in a certain degree, for the diffe- 

 rences which are observed in the action of infected rye, when it 

 is employed as a medicine ? It would be interesting to deter- 

 mine, whether the grain, which is found to be without efficacy, 

 may not have been exposed in some magazines not well secured 

 against the colds of winter ; while that which still acts with 

 energy may have been kept in a place the temperature of which 

 is subject to little variation, in a cellar, or in an apartment con- 

 stantly heated. 



On Hibernation, and the Action of Cold v/pon Animals. 



On the 15th June 1828, M. Flourens read to the French 

 Academy of Sciences, a Memoir On some Effects of the Action 

 of Cold tvpon Animals*. The author commenced with general 

 remarks on the influence of the unequal distribution of heat up- 

 on the economy of the world. It is it that determines the dif- 



" The Memoir, of which the above is a condensed view, is not yet pub- 

 lit* hed. 



