HIBERNATION. 
This remarkable habit of adaptation possessed by some 
animals has been from time immemorial a kind of 
mystery, and notwithstanding all that has been written 
upon this subject, there still appears but little really 
known or understood about it. In a very elaborate 
treatise published in the Cyclo 2 ocedia of Anatomy and 
Physiology , by Dr. Marshall Hall, many facts well known to 
the practical naturalist are altogether omitted, and state- 
ments made that are certainly unsupported by careful 
well-conducted experiments. 
It is, for instance, stated at page 7 65, “ The direct effect 
of cold on the animal frame is, as I shall shortly have 
occasion to state particularly, totally different from hiber- 
nation. Hibernation is a physiological condition ; the 
direct effect of cold or torpor is, on the contrary, a patho- 
logical and generally a fatal one.” 
Now the above does not appear to be a correct view of 
the subject,' for it cannot be denied that the temperature 
alone has more influence upon hibernating animals than 
any other cause, unless we refer to the mud flsh of Africa 
{Lepidosioxn), that hibernate all the dry season ; but this 
is a totally different state of hibernation, to which we 
shall again refer. Again at page 767, ''To walk over the 
floor, to touch the table, is sufficient, in many instances, 
to reproduce respiration and to frustrate the experiment.” 
It is quite evident from the above that the animals 
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