Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-01-29

J AIRY 20, 1874.
When the tongue, is sufficiently pliable
and long, he practices turning it over
back yard, and closing with the point
of it the opening of the throat. At
the same time every sopening Of the
body is carefully stopped up with wax
and cotton, and tie lungs and the
stomach are completely filed with air.
There are a number OF minor exer-
cises which the faisir goes through ev-
cry day in order to become perfect in
his art. The chief aim is to learn to
do without food and drink for long
time, and further to learn to live on a
small supply Of air, and finally to re-
tain all the air chat can be inhaled by
stopping the orifice of the throat with
the point OF the tongue, and closing up
the other apertures by means Of wax
and cotton. TO do this it is necessary
to attain an uncommon force of will,
and this is reached by practising daily a
number of seif-torturing exercises.
When the fakir is buried ho is in a
state of lethargy resembling greatly
the winter sleep of mammals. The in
ternal consumption of matter is com
pletely suspended, and III certain parts
Of the body tliore is no circulation OF
the blood. This is all that can he
gathered from the accounts Of the
British officers.
1t would seem that this strange &C
complishment Of the fakirs ought to be
in Festigsted. At the root of it may
lie an important physiological fact
which humanity ought not to be lgno-
rant Of. 1t may be possible that we
may obtain from it an insight in the
conditions Of lite and death never
dreamed of before. Man, the most
important living being Of the universe,
has never been scientifically submitted
to the experiments that have been mads,
with animals, which, aftsr having been
dead Tor years, have been restored to
life. 1t Is known that certain animals
which die merely from the effects Of ex
cessive heat or cold may return to life
any time, however long afterward,
when the conditions Of temperature ia
vorable to their existence have com
piled with It is therefore reasonable
to suppose that many q human being
who has ceased to breathe, but was
otherwise perfectly sound at the time
Of death, might be reviyified again, if
it were known what oondition..neces
for his existence had suddenly remained
unfulilled. There is no reason to be
lieve that the laws of the existence of
human being are more mysterious
than those of dumb animals.
Leeuwenhock, Dutch savant Of the
preceding century, published in 1919
series Of letters to the .3octstatea,e Re
gja3a 1A2sgljcaBs, in which ne described
several interesting experiments which
he had made with some infusoria, es
pecially radiolata. These animals he
discovered in the rain water that had
gathered on the roof Of his house: and
when the water had evaporated, he
took the dry resi- Que and preserved it,
After a lapse Of nearly six months he
poured rain water on it, and found to
his great surprise that the infusoria re
yived aud confined to live az if thei,
animate existence had never been in
terrupted. He repeated bis exper1-
ments quite often, and always obtained
the same result no matter how long
these animals had remained inanimate,
no matter how hot and dry they had
been kept, they revived within half an
hour or an hour on being moistened.
These ale The first attempts at revivfi-
cation known. Leeuwenhock concluded
that the species which he
succeeded In restoring to life were en-
closed iii 81 uncoinmonly thick mem
braneoas substance, which enabled
them to retain s8mo moisture internally
however great he heat to which they
were exposed. This, however, is not
the correct explanation of the remark
able phenomenon. Many species adj
nit OF the same experiment without
possessing such skin, AID it is found
that the animals contract to such a .it.
gree that they lose their torn entirely.
Put under the microscope their seem.
ing particles Of dust, WHICH only a
practised eye can distinguish from real
dust, are seen to revive whenever their
extrenities are moistened.
Tuberyill Needhan, an Englishmau.
seems to have been second to make
discoveries Of the kind He observed
in 1743 small rolls of ecl-lke forms en>
tirely motionless in q heap Of spoiled
wheat. He thought they were fibres OF
the wheat but on moistening them he
saw them become animate and move
away. He kept these animalcule (a,s-
guillasld ta'itici) perfectly dry for nearly
two years, and was nevertheless after
ward able to revive at will with a little