210 Jlssociation of Geologists and JYaturalists. [Oct., 



The aligator, when about to hibernate, takes a pine or cypress 

 knot in his mouth, completely closing it; it then retires into holes 

 under water, where it remains until the warm weather in the 

 spring comes on. A water rat was ploughed up in England, in 

 the year 1769, completely enclosed in a hibernaculum. A mouse 

 was dug up in 1798, enclosed in a ball of clay about the size of 

 a goose egg; when brought into a warm room, it revived and es- 

 caped. Twenty or thirty frogs were once taken in a torpid state 

 from a depth of twenty feet in the earth, where they must have 

 remained a hundred years or more. The snail, when about to hi- 

 bernate, retires into its shell, closing its operculum with a parti- 

 tion of a silky membrane, and a deposite of carbonate of lime. 

 Sometimes, as many as six membraneous partitions are formed 

 between the operculum and the recess of the shell. In this state 

 it remains for months, and the only evidence of life, is a suscepti- 

 bility to muscular sensation. It lives without food, without air, 

 and exercising none of the animal generative functions. It does 

 not subsist upon the modicum of air remaining in the shell, as this 

 has been examined and found capable of supporting combustion, 

 this fact showing that it had not been breathed. 



Torpidity is neither life nor death, but an intermediate state, 

 neither is it sleep in the ordinary sense of the word. 



The circulation of hibernating animals is suspended in a state 

 of profound torpidity. 



The digestion also is arrested, and all food is declined. A 

 hedge-hog kept in a room without fire, ate of its food regularly up 

 to December when it refused it, went into a torpid state and re- 

 mained so during the winter, never eating food laid before it. A 

 land tortoise kept for forty years, ate voraciously in summer, but 

 refused all food in winter when hibernating. Absorption goes on, 

 but this is an entirely different process from digestion. The se- 

 cretions are also arrested. The organs of relation are paralyzed. 

 A torpid dormouse cannot be roused by a shock of electricity; 

 bats do not feel wounds or hurts, and can be aroused only by heat 

 and currents of air. 



In the anatomical structure and physiology of hibernating ani- 

 mals a similarity is observed especially in the construction of the 

 thymus gland. Some naturalists are of the opinion, that fat or 

 the omentum is provided as a covering from the cold or for con- 

 sumption, while others look upon it as purely an accidental cir- 

 cumstance. But Mr. Browne is of the opinion that I'at is not an 

 accidental circumstance, but has to do with hibernation. It 

 remains in a fluid state during hibernation. 



Mr. Browne is of opinion that the fibrine and albumen which 

 was deficient in the blood of hibernating animals was converted 

 into fat; in consequence of which the blood was preserved from 



