PSYCHIC ADAPTATION 105 



"Kamon y Cajal resolves these complicated 

 questions. He recalls that the lizard is a 

 hibernating animal, and this reminder makes the 

 matter clear to him. 



" The thick, rarefied neurofibriles which Sefior 

 Tello discovered, and which he thinks are character- 

 istic of the lizard, are not so, from this point of 

 view. They characterise only his winter state ; 

 things correspond to the state of somnolence, 

 inertia, sleep, and reflect the state which the lizard 

 assumes during the cold of winter. But no sooner 

 does spring come, together with the heat and 

 excitement that it produces, than these thick and 

 scanty neurofibriles disappear, to make room for 

 others finer and more numerous. 



" One could not wait for spring, which was still 

 far off, to know whether the facts would justify 

 the hypothesis. An artificial spring, therefore, 

 was arranged ; the lizards were placed in a stove 

 of 37 Cent, and left for a few days. This sufficed 

 to reanimate and excite them. They were killed, 

 and their marrow examined by Cajal's method 

 and system. The hypothesis was immediately 

 verified ; in fact, everywhere the neurofibriles, 

 endlessly interlaced, were very delicate and some- 

 what granular ; innumerable secondary filaments 

 in uniting them crossed the vast desert spaces 

 during the winter state. Besides, the cells them- 



