A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. 2 6l 



-deceived, to say nothing of one so well acquainted with 

 optical laws as Arago. Still, the idea of first illumi- 

 nating the optical image (the so-called ' ' real image " 

 as distinguished from the virtual image of the Galilean 

 ^elescope) by the transfusion of light, and then magni- 

 fying the image so illuminated, was ingeniously devised 

 to deceive the inexperienced. " Why/' says Sir John 

 Herschel, in conversation with Sir David Brewster, 

 ^"why cannot the illuminating microscope say, the 

 oxyhydrogen be applied to render distinct, and, if 

 necessary, even to magnify, the focal object ? " The 

 idea is enthusiastically received by Brewster. In an 

 ecstasy of conviction he sprang from his seat, ex- 

 claiming, " Thou art the man ! " And starting from 

 this utterly unscientific but apparently quite plausible 

 conception, all the rest of the story follows naturally 

 enough. So, in the Australian " discovery," the idea 

 underlying the whole story is that the hibernation of 

 animals can be artificially imitated and extended, so 

 that, as certain animals lie in a state of torpor and 

 insensibility throughout the winter month's, all animals 

 may be caused to lie in such a state for an indefinite 

 length of time if only a suitable degree of cold is 

 maintained, and some special contrivance (in this con- 

 sists the wonderful discovery) adopted to prevent 

 insensibility passing into death. Precisely as the real 

 wonders of telescopic discovery are so great that 

 -scarcely anything will be believed to be impossible by 

 those unacquainted with the circumstances limiting 

 telescopic power, so the hibernation of warm-blooded 



