322 Mr Murray on the Torpidity of the Tortoise, fyc. 



took food. One of them had a singular expedient when the 

 liquid was too low in the basin. It dipped its brushy tail 

 (somewhat resembling that of a fox,) into the dish, and car- 

 ried the milk in this manner to its mouth. When the dor- 

 mice are torpid, they may be tossed up into the air like a ball, 

 (they are rolled up like one,) without discovering any index 

 of motion or change. By keeping the dormouse in a proper 

 temperature during the winter, its brumal torpidity may be 

 entirely prevented ; but in this case it will not outlive the fol- 

 lowing year. The dormouse is fat and in good condition 

 when it enters into torpidity, and it issues from this state mi- 

 serably lean. My dormice were extremely timid, yet they may 

 be so tamed as to run about the table and lick the hand that 

 feeds them. As to their sense of hearing, I found them pe- 

 culiarly affected by the higher notes, or shrill tones. The 

 eyes were like those of albinos, and injured by strong light 

 and exposure to day. 



Dr Davy gives us the following details of temperature, 

 which approach that of the dormouse, as stated : — 



Dr Davy, I think, justly infers that the temperature of the 

 human species increases in passing from a cold, or even a tem- 

 perate climate, into one that is warm ; and I think, too, that 

 I am warranted, from my own immediate observations and ex- 

 periments on myself, to add, that the temperature of man 

 rises with increase of elevation. On the summit of the Simp- 

 Ion, with the ball of the instrument below the tongue, the 

 temperature was 100°.5 ; on Mount Cenis, 101° ; and on the 

 Great St Bernard, 102° nearly. The temperature of animals 

 will, no doubt, be modified by, or have some determinate re- 

 lation to peculiarities in physiological character. 



