318 NATURE AND LIFE. 



existence, to remove the appendage from him, and trans- 

 plant it to a young animal, which in his turn would be de- 

 prived of the ornament in the same way in his old age in 

 favor of some specimen of a new generation, and so on in 

 succession. This tail, transplanted in regular course to 

 young animals, and imbibing at each transference blood 

 full of vitality, perpetually renewed, yet ever remaining 

 the same, would thus escape death. The experiment, deli- 

 cate and difficult, as we well see, was yet undertaken by 

 Bert, but circumstances did not allow it to be prolonged 

 for any considerable time, and the fact of the perpetuity of 

 an organ, periodically rejuvenated, remains to be demon- 

 strated. 



III. 



Real death, then, is characterized by the positive ceas- 

 ing of vital properties and functions both in the organic or 

 vegetative life, and in the animal life, properly so termed. 

 When animal life disappears without any interruption oc- 

 curring in organic life, the system is in a state of seeming 

 death. In this state the body is possessed by profound 

 sleep quite similar to that of hibernating animals ; all the 

 usual expressions and all signs of internal activity have 

 disappeared, and give place to invincible torpor. The most 

 powerful chemical stimulants exert no control over the or- 

 gans, the walls of the chest are motionless ; in short, see- 

 ing the body presenting this appearance, it is impossible 

 not to think of it as dead. There are quite numerous 

 states of the organism which may thus imitate death more 

 or less closely ; the commonest one is that of fainting. In 

 this case neither sensation nor movements of circulation or 

 respiration are any longer perceptible; the warmth is 

 lowered, the skin pallid and colorless. Instances of hys- 

 teria are cited in which the attack has been prolonged for 

 several days, attended with fainting. In this strange con- 



