SEVEN-YEAR SLEEPERS 70 



slide of a microscope ; and yet, the moment a drop of water 

 is placed on top of it, it bej^ins to move and live again 

 exactly as before. This sort of thorough-going suspended 

 animation is the kind we ought to expect from any well- 

 constituted and proper-minded toad-in-a-hole. Whether 

 anything like it ever really occurs in the higher ranks of 

 animal life, however, is a different question ; but there can 

 be no doubt that to some slight extent a body to all intents 

 and purposes quite dead (physically speaking) by long 

 immersion in water — a drowned man, for example — may 

 really be resuscitated by heat and stimulants, applied 

 immediately, provided no part of the working organism has 

 been seriously injured or decomposed. Such people may 

 be said to be yro tcm. functionally, though not structurally, 

 dead. The heart has practically ceased to beat, the lungs 

 have ceased to breathe, and physical life in the body is 

 temporarily extinct. The fire, in short, has gone out. But 

 if only it can be lighted again before any serious change in 

 the system takes place, all may still go on precisely as of 

 old. 



Many animals, however, find it convenient to assume a 

 state of less comple>:e suspended animation during certain 

 special periods of the year, according to the circumstances 

 of their peculiar climate and mode of life. Among the 

 very highest animals, the most familiar example of this 

 sort of semi- torpidity is to be found among the bears and 

 the dormice. The common European brown bear is a 

 carnivore by descent, who has become a vegetarian in 

 practice, though whether from conscientious scruples or 

 mere practical considerations of expediency, does not ap- 

 pear. He feeds chiefly on roots, berries, fruits, vegetables 

 and honey, all of which he finds it comparatively difficult 

 to procure during winter weather. Accordingly, as every- 

 one knows, he eats immoderately in the summer season, till 



