HIBERNATION 337 



rises rapidly, and much more rapidly during the second 

 half of the process than at the beginning ; for instance, 

 in the experiment which is given in detail it rose 

 in the first hour and forty-five minutes only about 

 6-6 C., and in the following fifty minutes about 17. This 

 remarkably rapid increase of body-heat took place, more- 

 over, without any vigorous movements, which might 

 otherwise have been supposed to cause it even the 

 rapidity of breathing showed no increase corresponding 

 to the rise of temperature." 



In relation to our general thesis that " Life is rhythmic, 

 and that it is punctuated by the seasons and other external 

 periodicities/' Horvath's results are of much interest. 

 Much more requires to be done, but they seem to suggest 

 that an internal periodicity has been definitely established, 

 which now runs its course with some degree of autonomy, 

 apart from external stimuli. The sleeper may awaken 

 constitutionally, whether the Spring be warm or cold, just 

 as Q man may awaken after his usual amount of sleep 

 whether the morning be light or dark. But more facts 

 are required. 



It may be, as Semper pointed out, that the problem 

 is complicated by the nutritive condition of the hibernator. 

 Thus Dr. August Forel, famous for his studies on ants, 

 believed that influences determined by food were more 

 important than those of temperature. " A dormouse 

 that he kept went to sleep even at a high temperature of 

 the air, in August and September, and slept as soundly as 

 in a true winter sleep, while its body temperature was 

 never more than a few degrees higher than the air." 



There is much that is obscure in the physiology of 

 hibernation, but several general facts stand out clearly. 

 It is a very effective life-saving expedient, an abandon- 

 ment of the struggle to make ends meet, a banking up 



