44 



s" : v ;_: * 



'* OV. BIOLOGY 



psychic influences. Already in olden times it was said that many 

 persons possessed the faculty voluntarily to reduce their vital 

 activity short of total cessation, to lapse into a state of torpor from 

 which they would re-awaken after a longer or shorter period. 

 The best known illustration is offered by the Indian fakirs and 

 Egyptian dervishes who, it is said, even cause themselves to be 

 buried in the earth, and rise from their graves after having been 

 buried for weeks and even months. 



However, as often as such ' miracles ' have been thoroughly 

 investigated they have usually been found to be clever deceptions. 

 Nevertheless, it would be unwise to dispute the possibility of 

 such phenomena. We know that as a result of illness persons 



not unfrequently fall 

 into a state of such 

 complete debility that 

 a superficial exami- 

 nation is unable to 

 find even a ves- 

 tige of vital activity. 

 Cases of apparent 

 death or suspended 

 animation are known 

 which lasted for 

 several days. The 

 only miraculous part 



in the action of fakirs and dervishes is, therefore, that they 

 are seemingly able to place themselves into a state of hidden life 

 voluntarily, and for considerable periods. But though we cannot 

 explain these things they may be true, nevertheless. Even to-day 

 " there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt 

 of in our philosophy." Let us only remember the strange 

 phenomena of hypnosis which are still awaiting a satisfactory 

 explanation ; here, too, vital functions may be so reduced as to 

 lead to a state of complete catalepsy. 



In the animal kingdom we observe similar phenomena due 

 to hypnotic influences. Many will here recall the celebrated 

 11 experimentum mirabile de imaginatione gallince," described in 

 1646 by Athanasius Kircher in his " Ars magna lucis et umbra" 

 If we firmly grasp a fowl and carefully put it on its back it 



PIG. 12. FOWL IN A STATE OF CATAPLEXY. 



