A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. 263 



in any mammal this process should suffice to maintain 

 life. It would seem that the material conveyed by the 

 absorbents into the circulating fluid suffices to counter- 

 balance the process of waste occasioned by the slow 

 circulation ; but of course this does not explain how 

 vitality remains under conditions which, if we judged 

 from other warm-blooded animals, we should consider 

 altogether inconsistent with life. For, so far as mere 

 waste is concerned, the imagined Australian process is 

 as effectual as hibernation. In that process of course 

 the circulation would be as completely checked as the 

 respiration; thus there would be no waste, and the 

 absorbents (which would also b.e absolutely dormant) 

 would not have to do even that slight amount of work 

 which they accomplish during hibernation. Science 

 can only say that cases of hibernation among warm- 

 blooded animals show that the vital forces may be 

 reduced much lower without destroying life than, but 

 for such cases, we should have deemed conceivable. 



The question whether the process which takes place 

 in the hibernation of certain animals can occur with 

 other animals, including man himself, is one of con- 

 siderable real interest in itself, and derives a factitious 

 interest from the strange thoughts suggested by the 

 imagined application of the " wonderful discovery " to 

 human beings. It has been supposed by some that 

 the phenomena observed during trance indicate the 

 survival in man of a power, or rather a quality, resem- 

 bling that possessed by the hibernating animals. It is 

 said that in some cases of trance the vital powers have 



