84 Prof. J. Le Conte on the Freezing of Vegetables. 
Art. X.—Observations on the Freezing of Vegetables, and on 
the Causes which enable some Plants to endure the action of 
extreme Cold ; by Joan Le Conve, M.D., Professor of Natit 
ral Philosophy and Chemistry in the University of Georgia.* 
. a 
In the years 1775 and 1777, John Hunter communicated 10 
the Royal Society two series of experiments on the “ Heat of 
Animals and Vegetables,” from which he drew the inference, 
“that an animal must be deprived of life before it can be frozen,’ 
and “ that plaiits when in a state of actual vegetation, or evenl 
such a state as to be capable of vegetating under certain cireulh 
stances, must be deprived of their principle of vegetation before 
they can be frozen.”+ Again he says, “ But the question 3s, 8 
every tree dead that is frozen? I can only say, that in all the 
experiments I ever made upon trees and shrubs, whether in the 
growing or active state, or in the passive, that whole or patl 
which was frozen, was dead when thawed.’”’¢ : 
With respect to animals, Hunter concluded from his expert 
ments, that when the whole was frozen the actions of life could 
never be restored ; but that the ears of rabbits and the combs of 
cocks were frozen without injury to the parts.§ More recell 
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ted to freeze again after being thawed, they never recover 
He found spiders and grubs in a like frozen condition, with the 
same powers of revivification on exposure to a warm atmosphere| 
The larve of insects are equally tenacious of vitality. Lister, » 
net and others, have found caterpillars so frozen that when drop" 
us oie 
3 
* Read before the “ Physical Section” of the “American Association for the se 
vancement of Science” at the Albany meeting, August 19th, 1851. 
Phil. Trans. for 1775, pp. 452 and 454, t Phil. Trans. for 1778, P- = : 
Vide Hearne’s Journey from Prince Wales’ Fort, Hudson’s Bay to the N othe? : 
