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a proper opportunity of adhering to the place from which they are 

 fufpended ; they fometimes, therefore, are in contact, and often at 

 confiderable dtftances, but always fix themfelves by both their feet. 



Martial fays of the dormoufe, that it is fatter during its ftate 

 of torpidity than when it revives °. I therefore begged to know 

 from Mr. Cornifh, whether this was the cafe with Bats during 

 the winter, who informs me that the fad does not hold with 

 regard to the one or the other, and that bats mute p, whilft they 

 are thus fufpended. Both dormice and bats lofe from five to feven 

 grains in weight during a fortnight, whilft in a ftate of torpidity. 



Bats on the whole fare better during a hard than a mild 

 winter, for warm weather not only awakens them, but pro- 

 motes their power of digeftion, whilft at the fame time they 

 cannot procure the food of which they are in fearch. This holds 

 likewife with regard to bees, which are better preferved in a 

 dark room than if expofed to the air whilft torpid, becaufe 

 fometimes they are awakened by the mild temperature of the 

 weather, when there are no flowers for their fupport. 



As Bats mute whilft torpid, there is alfo a circulation of the 

 blood, for Mr. Cornifh having applied a thermometer to the 

 body of one perfectly afleep, which ftood at 36, the heart beat 



0 Tota mihi (fc. gliri) dormitur hyems, & pinguior illo 

 Tempore fum, quo me nil nifi fomnus alit. 

 As the Romans confidered dormice as a delicacy for their tables, and 

 Varro hath made them an article of the farmer's attention, I thought 

 this obfervation of the poet might have been relied upon. 



p This evacuation, however, becomes lefs and lefs- the longer the 

 animal fleeps ; and as the inteftinal tube empties, the fasces become 

 harder and harder. The guts alfo are very weak after a torpidity of 

 fome continuance, nor can they be extracted without breaking. ' The 

 blood is vivid and black, in proportion to the continuance of the animal 

 in a fleeping ftate. A correfpondent of Gefher's informed him, that he 

 had feen fuch a quantity of bats dung in Mifnia, that carts would have 

 been neceffary to have carried it off. 



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