604 
MISCELLANEA. 
found its weight gradually diminishing. During the above period 
it lost from twenty-five to thirty grains. I cannot be exact, as I 
am writing from memory; but of the fact of loss of weight I am 
certain, and am now surprised to find the assertion, that animals, 
during hybernation, not only increase in bulk, but fatten. Prunelle 
found that bats lost 1-32 of their weight between the 19th of 
February and the 12th of March. It is generally known, that 
during hybernation a part of the fat formed in the autumn is con- 
sumed to nourish the body. I found, likewise, that defecation 
went on slowly, but regularly, during the winter. 
I cannot look upon hybernation as sleep, in the usual acceptation 
of the term. I regard it as a very different phenomenon, and one 
sui generis. Some organs in animals may be said to hybernate ; 
that is, their principal function is inactive during winter, whilst, in 
other creatures, the whole system puts on this peculiar condition. 
I am, Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
J. W. Moses, M.D. 
St. Asaph, Feb. 2, 1850. 
Age of Horse-shoes. 
To the Editor of the “ Monthly Magazine.” 
Sir, — A s the following query will occupy but a small space in 
your Magazine, I trust to your goodness to insert it : — 
Were horse-shoes in use before the time of Pliny, the natu- 
ralist 1 If they were not, when were they first adopted 1 
Yours, &c., 
Veterinarius. 
Oct. 17, 1804. 
Answer to the above. 
Sir, — I am totally unacquainted with any writer previous to 
Pliny the naturalist, by whom horse-shoes may be mentioned. 
But Suetonius, his contemporary, relates an anecdote in the 
twenty-third section of the “ Life of Vespasian,” that is not en- 
tirely foreign to your correspondent’s query. He says, that Ves- 
pasian, being one day upon a journey, suspected his muleteer of 
dismounting to shoe his mules, only that he might afford delay to 
some one who sought the emperor "on legal business. Vespasian 
immediately asked the cost of shoeing, and (in the words of one of 
our old translations) articled for half. “ Mulionem in itinere quo- 
dam suspicatus ad calceandas mulas desilisse, ut adeunti litigatori 
spatium moramque prseberet; interrogavit, quanti calceasset, pac- 
t usque est lucri partem.” 
Your’s, &c., 
Attic us. 
