274 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



full equipment of organs. The fifth contingent includes the snails and 

 slugs that often spend the winter in holes and burrows, relapsing 

 into a very dead-alive state. A well-known snail sleeper awoke after 

 many years to find itself in a museum case and provided with a 

 label. Those who are fond of snails should eat them in the autumn, 

 when they have stored their body with reserves, which sustain them 

 during the winter's fast. 



The si.\th contingent includes the cold-blooded lower vertebrates, 

 such as fishes that sleep through the dry season buried in the earth, 

 the frogs that may be frozen stiff without dying, many tortoises 

 that bury themselves alive for the winter, and crocodiles that while 

 away the summer's heat ensconced in the hard-baked mud. Our 

 British adder is a familiar instance of a reptile that lies very low 

 throughout the winter. 



The last contingent of the "seven sleepers" is that of the true 

 liibernators, like hedgehog and hamster, dormouse and bat. This 

 is a contingent by itself, including only a few imperfectly warm- 

 blooded mammals; and the state of hibernation is neither cold- 

 coma nor sleep. It is an interesting question whether men may 

 remain for a long time in a state of suspended animation. Some 

 regard the evidence as conclusively proving the possibility of a 

 prolonged trance in which there is no trace of a pulse or heart- 

 movement, and no dimming of a mirror with breath. The pro- 

 longed suspended animation of Indian fakirs has often been 

 described by travellers, and there have been a few careful studies. 

 The data are very puzzling. One cannot cite the case of the Master 

 of Ballantrae as evidence of the possibility of coming alive again 

 after being buried for a week ; but what can one make of the case of 

 Colonel Townsend? "He could die or expire when he pleased, and 

 yet, by an effort or somehow, he could come to life again!" 



In watching the sower flinging his seed, one may well feel a sort 

 of catch in the breath — of wonder; since at once sentimental and 

 scientific is this sudden awareness of a life-mystery. The life of these 

 potential plants— these seeds of common cereals — what a strange 

 state it is in! Even their living matter, apart from husk and store, 

 is hard and brittle. There is no sign of life (unless it be an electrical 

 reaction) ; and yet the seeds are not dead. Paul Becquerel subjected 

 naked seeds of lucerne, mustard, and wheat for three weeks to the 

 temperature of liquid air; then for seveniy-seven hours to that of 

 liquid hydrogen (250° below zero F.) ; and then put them into a 

 vacuum for a year. The protoplasm lost its characteristic colloidal 

 condition. Yet many of the hardly used seeds germinated after all! 

 What is this strange state of latent life, without water, without air, 

 without gaseous exchanges, without colloid molecules in suspension 

 in a hquid? For all the living matter we ordinarily know has its 

 physical basis in fluid condition. How does the vital current flow 



