82 SUSPENDED ANIMATION. 



eggs of many minute Entomostracous Crustacea (ZOOLOGY, 

 883, 931). It is unquestionable that many Fishes, especially 

 those of fresh- water lakes, will revive on being thawed after 

 having been completely frozen ; and the same has been ascer- 

 tained of certain Caterpillars. The Snail, when retiring for 

 the winter, seals the orifice of its shell with an impervious 

 lid ; and in this cavity it may remain shut up for years, until 

 re-excited to activity by warmth and moisture. Animals in 

 such states of torpidity strongly resemble seeds that are pre- 

 vented from germinating, apparently for unlimited periods, 

 by being kept at a moderate temperature, and excluded 

 from the influence of air and moisture, which, with adequate 

 warmth, would call them into active growth, but which, at 

 a lower temperature, would occasion their decomposition. 

 There are no positive facts which enable us to say how long 

 Animals may remain in a parallel condition ; but there seems 

 no reason why it might not be indefinitely prolonged. 



67. The death of the body, then, does not consist in the 

 mere suspension of its vital activity; for so long as that 

 activity may be renewed when the requisite conditions are 

 supplied, so long must the organism be considered as alive, 

 however death-like its condition may seem. Among warm- 

 blooded animals, such a suspension, if complete, cannot be 

 endured for more than a very brief period, without the 

 extinction of life ; for the substance of_ their tissues is so 

 prone to decomposition, that it speedily passes into decay 

 unless prevented from doing so either by a reduction of tem- 

 perature, or by complete drying -up, or by entire seclusion 

 from air; and although each of these methods, practised 

 upon animal substances already dead, may prevent the occur- 

 rence of decomposition for almost unlimited periods, yet 

 neither can be applied to the living tissues of any of the 

 higher animals, without occasioning the entire loss of their 

 vitality, as we see (in regard to cold) in the loss of members by 

 " frost-bite." Such parts die, because not only is their vital 

 activity suspended, but their vital properties are annihilated. 

 Their death, however, does not necessarily involve that of 

 the organism as a whole ; since the stoppage of their function 

 may not disarrange the general train of vital operations, or 

 their duty can be discharged by other organs. And among 

 many of the lower animals, we find that there is a provision 



