PvEVERY, AHB TRANCE. 



279 



even involuntary brealhing^ was stopped : while sensation with its con- 

 sequences, as thinking and acting, with the will, were perfect, and, all the 

 voluntary actions were as strong as before." 



In the whole history of man 1 do not know of a more extraordinary case. 

 The functions of the soul were perfect, while the most important functions 

 of the body, those upon which the life depends abs^olutely, in all ordinary 

 cases, were dead for nearly an hour. Why (^id not the soul separate from 

 the body ? and why did not the body itself commence that change, that 

 subjection to the laws of chemical affinity, which it evinces in every ordi- 

 nary case of the death or inaction of the vital organs ? Because in the 

 present instance, as in every instance of suspended animation from hang- 

 ing or drowning, the vital principle, whatever it consists in, had not ceased, 

 or deserted the corporeal frame. It continued visible in its effect, though 

 invisible in its essence and mode of operation. 



Let us apply this remark to the subject immediately before us : it will 

 serve as a ready clue to its intricacies. In many animals, then, and in 

 most vegetables, the living principle often continues in the same manner 

 to reside in, and to actuate the organic frame ; while the vital functions, 

 as they are called, and in conjunction with these, all the other functions of 

 the system, remain inactive, not for an hour only, but for months and 

 sometimes for years. It does so in the seeds of plants, and the eggs of 

 animals, so long as they are capable of germinatmg or pullulating. It 

 " does so in most animals, and perhaps in all vegetables, that sleep or be- 

 come torpid during the winter-season ; for though in a few hybernating ^ 

 animals, as the hedge-hog and Alpine marmot, we trace a small degree of 

 I corporeal action from their appearing thinner or returning to activity in 

 the spring, the greater number, like dormice and squirrels, exhibit no 

 diminution whatever. It does so, in a more extraordinary manner, in the 

 ears of blighted corn ; which, though incapable of filling and fattening, 

 and seemingly lifeless and effete, still contain a seed that may be rendered 

 productive of a sound and healthy increase. It-does so in various species 

 of the moss ; in various species of the snail, in one or two of the snake, 

 in the wheel-polype, sloth, and tile-eel, and a variety of other animals and 

 animalcules, that, like many of the preceding, have been kept apparently 

 dead and in the form of dried preparations, totally destitute of irritability, 

 altogether withered, and in substance as hard as a board for months and 

 years, — in some instances as long as twenty years, ~ and have afterward 

 been restored to life and activity upon the application of warmth, moisture, 

 or some other appropriate stimulus.* 



These are extraordinary facts, and may be difficult to be comprehended : 

 but they are facts nevertheless, and may be provf^d at any time and by 

 any person. But there is a fact still more extraordi lary, and of infinitely 

 higher moment ; and one in which we are all infinitely more interested — 

 a fact to which these remarks naturally lead, and which they may serve in 

 some degree to illustrate ; it is the tern^ination of the sleep of death, the 

 resurrection of the body from the grave. 



* Snails revived after being dried fifteen years and more.— Pbil. Trans. 1774. p. 432. 



See also Mr. Baner's Croonian Lecture "On the Suspension of the Muscular Powers of 

 the Vibrio Tritici." — Phil. Trans. 1823. Art. 1. He has revived this curious worm after per- 

 fect torpitude and apparent death for five years and eight months, merely by soaking it m 

 water. 



