HIBERNATION 
the happy hours away.” Squirrels and dormice frequently 
do so, as also some of the species of bats ; the warmth of 
the day causing a few insects to put in an appearance, 
upon which the bats feed for an hour or two, and again 
quietly hide up before the temperature lowers sufficiently 
to produce numbness. These, like the dormice and other 
rodents, when in a torpid state, are, to the touch, if taken 
into the hand, perfectly cold, and are quite motionless, and 
to all appearance dead ; but upon the temperature being 
raised, they become in a short time lively and active. 
Were it necessary to enlarge by additional facts to show 
that in a large number of cases temperature is sufficient 
to account for the lethargy, a better case cannot be selected 
than the common dormouse ; nothing more is required 
to rouse this little pet from his slumber than to increase 
the warmth of the apartment ; the animal will without 
injury wake up and feed as often during the winter as is 
thought proper ; endless experiments have been success- 
fully tried to prove this. Let it, however, be borne in 
mind that these animals to be experimented upon must be 
perfectly healthy, and in the excessively fat state natural 
to them before the winter sets in, otherwise they will not 
live during the cold weather. Another important matter 
is not to change the temperature too rapidly, for few 
animals can live or continue in good health if the tempera- 
ture is suddenly and frequently changed by many degrees. 
There can be no question that the animals that hibernate 
are always excessively fat previous to retiring to sleep, for 
if otherwise, they would die from the effects of the cold 
and exhaustion ; it is equally certain that during the period 
of hibernation this store of fat is being consumed by ab- 
sorption, for at the termination of the winter those animals 
that have slept all the cold season wake up quite thin and 
hungry. 
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