120 



z of Absti 



erating animal heat, and also for the nutrition of the more impor- 

 tant organs worn out even by this feeble life. In many other hy- 

 bernating animals, all the functions are suspended— even life itself 

 is frozen up. These, of course, undergo no change. This every 

 body knows happens to insects. It is also well known that many 

 kinds offish may be frozen, and that upon being cautiously thawed, 

 they leap, as it were, into life again, when the vital principle is re- 

 leased from its icy fetters. 



If the explanation above offered be admissible, we can readily 

 account for the prolongation of life in the case referred to. The 

 principal channels of waste in the human body are, the pulmonary 



dthe 



3, the discharges from the bowels were 



so few and so small, as scarcely to deserve to be taken into con- 

 sideration ; and we may safely say, that the quantity of water ta- 

 ken was at least equal to the quantity of urine discharged. The 

 cutaneous and pulmonary exhalations, therefore, are almost the 

 only sources of waste to be accounted for. The quantity of carbon, 

 discharged in respiration does not much exceed half a pound in 

 twenty-four hours, even in a state of vigorous health ; and in a fee- 

 ble condition of the system, doubtless falls much short of that 

 quantity.* The pulmonary exhalation, and the cutaneous transpi- 

 ration, owing to the diminished temperature of the system, must 

 also have been smaller than in health. It is therefore probable 

 that the system lost no more than six or eight ounces of its weight 

 in a day. But even if we allow that it lost a pound every day, 

 which must exceed the actual loss, we can still find no difficulty in 



b riodoffifty- 

 eign aliment be- 



ing that life could have been prolonged to tl 

 three days by its own resources, without any £ 

 yond air and water. There are many remarkab 

 in which life has been protracted much longer 

 Mr. Kelsey without any nourishment ; but in a__ 

 cm recollect, life was much more feeble than in him. All the 

 more destructive functions were in a great measure suspended ; 

 while in his case the muscular and vascular systems were compar- 

 atively active, consequently the body wasted fester, and life was 

 sooner extinguished. 



