HIBERNATION AND ALLIED STATES IN ANIMALS 8*7 



the conclusion that this exposure is injurious to a 

 hibernating animal, and that it had something to do 

 with the poor condition in which my specimen was 

 found in the spring of the year in which he died. 



Before discussing the true nature of the phenomena 

 of the winter sleep, I call attention to certain cases of 

 allied nature. & 



Such frequent references as we find to the hibernation 

 of swallows deserve some consideration. 



It is also stated that in Scotland sheep have been 

 found alive after being buried for weeks beneath the 

 snow ; and Dr Frank Miller of Burlington, Vt., reported, 

 when a student, to the Society for the Study of Com- 

 parative Psychology at Montreal, that hogs had been 

 found alive after being accidentally imprisoned below 

 the surface for several weeks longer than it seemed 

 possible for them to survive under ordinary circum- 

 stances, so that it would appear they had been in a 

 condition of hibernation or some such state. 



Turning to the human subject : We have all read of 

 instances in man of " suspended animation," or " trance." 

 The case of Fakirs in India having been buried alive, 

 exhumed, and resuscitated after months, is attested by 

 such evidence as it is difficult to set aside, however 

 hard to credit. 



Mr D. W. Eoss, a student in medicine of M'Gill 

 University, has gathered the facts of a peculiar case in 

 so far as they are now obtainable. The individual in 

 question was known as "Sleepy Joe," a farmer by 

 occupation. He was married and had several children, 

 one of whom, a girl, had the same drowsy appearance 

 as her father. This man would sleep almost constantly 

 for several weeks, awakening, however, to attend to 

 Nature's calls and to take food. He would at times 

 awake more fully and then set to work, whether it was 

 day or night, and almost incessantly labour as if to 



