APPENDIX. 287 



his splendid researches on Hydatina senta, and demon- 

 strated that this near ally of the Rotifers possessed a 

 most unexpected complication of organs, some doubts 

 began to arise. It was then asked, whether desiccation 

 had been thorough and complete in the individuals ex- 

 perimented upon by Spallanzani, Baker, and their cotem- 

 poraries. A naturalist who had been led by his previous 

 researches to direct his attention to this question, pursued 

 the inquiry with the rigour which characterises modern 

 investigations.* Mosses filled with the different species 

 of which we have spoken were desiccated under the 

 receiver of the air-pump. They were left there for a 

 week, being placed by the side of vessels filled with 

 sulphuric acid, which would absorb every trace of 

 humidity. On being removed, the mosses were placed 

 in a stove, the temperature of which was raised as high 

 as 267 Fahr., and yet, when they were again immersed 

 in water, I am able to testify conjointly with MM. 

 Dumas, Edwards and De Jussieu, that a certain number 

 of individuals had resisted all these trials, and became 

 as lively as if nothing had happened. Not a doubt, 

 therefore, remained in our minds as to the exactness 

 of the facts announced by Spallanzani. 



In order to conform to the expressions in common use I 

 adopt the words death and resuscitation, but a false idea 

 would be formed of my meaning were these words to be 

 taken in their rigorous and strict signification. When a 

 Rotifer is dried, withered, and loses its power of motion, and 

 when it thus assumes the appearance of a shapeless grain 

 of dust, there is no actual death ; life is only suspended 



* M. Doyere has published, in the Annales des Sciences Nat., 

 1841, an anatomical work of the highest interest on the anatomy 

 of the Tardigrades. His experiments on the revivification of the 

 Rotifers, Paste-eels, and Tardigrades, appeared in the same peri- 

 dical in 1842. 



