HYBERNATION. 109 



CHAPTER V. 



HYBERNATION. 



Besides the ordinary oft-recurring sleep, so 

 essential to mental refreshment, and to the har- 

 monious performance of our animal functions, 

 many mammalia, and all reptiles, undergo 

 annually a long duration of sleep, extending for 

 many weeks, or even months, and which is 

 necessary to their very existence. We allude 

 to that -winter sleep, termed Hybernation, 

 from hyberno, to take up winter-quarters. 



Hybernation is by some called Torjior, but 

 we may state at once, that this torpor, if we 

 admit the use of the word, is not that kind of 

 torpor which results from the influence of 

 excessive cold. Torpidity from cold is a 

 morbid condition — it is, in fact, a suspension of 

 animation, a reduction of the vital energy, con- 

 tinuing until death closes the conflict between 

 the vital principle and the overpowering nar- 

 cotic. But the long sleep which we call hyber- 

 nation, is intended as a preservative of life ; 

 extreme cold will destroy an hybernating 

 animal ; at the same time, a moderately low 



