HIBERNATION. 
795 
These results have been extended and confirmed by Marshall Sail, 1 Regnault 
and Reiset, Borvath, 2 and others. 8 
Regnault and Reiset 4 determined the respiratory exchange of several 
hibernating marmots, and found that the intake of oxygen was about 
one-thirtieth of that of an active animal, and only about two-fifths of the 
oxygen appeared in the carbon dioxide discharged. The following are two 
examples : — 
Condition of .Marmot. 
Gnus, per Kilo, and Hour. 
O2 
Intake. 
co 2 
Output. 
02 
Hibernating 
Awake 
0*48 
1-198 
0-37 
1-312 
•566 
•796 
A further proof that oxygen was stored up in the body of the hibernating 
animal was found in the increase in weight of a marmot during profound 
torpidity ; it gained as much as 5 - 9 grms. in five days. 
The output of carbon dioxide was investigated by Horvath, who found that 
the amount varied according to the animal's activity. The following is an 
example of his results : — 
Animal. 
Condition. 
Rectal 
Temperature. 
Temperature 
of Air. 
| 
Respirations 1 CO2 
per Minute. | in Gnus. 
Sisel, 5 163 
grins. 
Hibernating 
Awake 
9° 
33° -5 
9° 
5 
95 
•025 in three 
hours. 
•457 in half 
an hour. 
Similar results have been obtained in the ease of dormice and bats/' 
According to Kaissy, 7 a hedgehog can absorb all the oxygen from the 
air in which it is confined, and can even live for fifteen minutes in pure 
nitrogen, whereas a rat under similar conditions dies in less than three 
minutes. 
Circulation. — The force and frequency of the heartbeat is much reduced 
during hibernation ; in the case of the bat and dormouse to fourteen and 
sixteen per minute or even less, the rate in the active animal being above 100 
per minute. On applying a stethoscope to the chest of a hibernating bat, 
no sound of the heart-beat can be heard, whereas, Avhen the animal awakes and 
becomes active, the sounds are so loud that they can be heard by the ear placed 
one inch away from the animal (Hill and Pembrey). 
; Barkow, ' ' 
zburg, 1878, Bd. xii. 
l>ri<] i 
33£ 
1 Phil. Trans., London, 1832, pt. : 
here numerous additional references are given. 
2 Verhandl. d. phys.-med. Gesellsch. in H'v 
1880, Bd. xiv. ; 1881,' Bd. xv. 
3 Pembrey and Hale White, Journ. Physiol., Ca 
and 
Der Winterschlaf," 184,6, 
1879, Bd. xiii. ; 
London, 1895-96, vol. 
xix. p. 47). 
4 Ann. d. chim. etphys., Paris, 1849, Ser. 3, tome xxvi. p. 429. 
5 Allied to the marmots. 
6 Pembrey and Hale White, loc. cit. 
7 Dcutxchcs Arch. f. d. Physiol., Halle, 1817, Bd. iii. S. 135. 
