The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-02-12
SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
How Many Animals Pass the
Long Winters.
One of the Most Curious and Undeter-
mined Faculties Of the Brute Creation

Few subjects relating to the haolts
of the brute creation have excited the
curiosity and comment of naturalists
SO much as the faculty a number of
them have of going into a state of
somnolence during portion of the
year. How do they exist during this
period. What organs are suspended,
and what provision has been made to
prevent decay are questions asked.
Some declare that the migration of
birds to warmer climes at stated peri
DDS bears resemblance to the hiber-
nation of certain mammals. That
Information occurs among animals in
warm climates has been discovered by
South American travellers. There are
boas and turtles in the region of the
Orinoco, both land and water turtles,
and many species of small serpents
which lie torpid and motionless in the
hardened ground throughout the hot
and dry season. Then the Indians
hunt them for food, and, knocking off
the dry cakes of mud, revivify, cock
and eat them with a relish. The
learned German savant Alexander
Won Humboldt relates that on one oc-
casion a huge crocodile decided to
wake up in the inclosure where his
party were encamped, and shaking off
the mud in which he was incased,
crawled away life-like and natural.
M. Dumeril, French naturalist, has
seen a couple of mud fishes Of the
Gambia gointo their summer sleep. or
prolonged siesta. For several days
they began secreting from the general
surface of their bodies a thick viscid
mucus, and soon after they buried
themselves in the soft mud at the
| bottom of the tank. In a short time
the mud became hard and cracked, and
the moisture disappeared, leaving them
in their dry case of earth. In seventy
days they were taken OUT alive. Each
was surrounded by cocoon formed of
the hardened mucus secreted by their
skin, and serving as a protection
against the too great evaporation OF
moisture from the surface of their
bodies. AS they entered the mud they
left behind them tubular trail OF
mucus which formed communica-
tion between the sack inclosing the
fish and the outer air. During the
greater portion of their retirement nc
water can reach their gills. TheiI
swim -bladders. however, receive blood
by Especial arrangement from the gills
and thus act like true lungs. which in
deed they are. Thus there is fish
which for a portion of the year is ;
-breather, and for another periot
an air -breather.
Bats, which are by some allied t.
birds, retire to the roofs of caves 0
edges of rocks, or to old chimneys O
uninhabited buildings, where they pas
the entire winter in gloomy retire
ment. The hedgehog wraps himsel
up in leaves and lies undisturbed unde
the hedge which in summer has shelf
cred him from the rays of the sun
The jumping-morse of Canada ha
been found securely Wrapped in bal
; of mud which had hardened, and
workman's spade breaking it, disclose
the retreat. Snals seek a quiet crev
! ice or nook. and wholly drawin
themselves in their tiny shells draw
sort of curtain over the opening, an
no matter what the temperature il
dulge in prolonged sleep. The tol
: pidity of bees is well known. Th
habit is also peculiar to crickets an
spiders. Some of the infusory animal
cules have been found to have Sus
l pended their vital functions when the
have been dried. In the cutters {
housetopS and in MOSES are frequentl
l discovered lifele $ substances which
warm rain at oEce iivens. MoistuI
l has been known to revive animalcult
after torpidity of twenty-seve
= years. Sir John Franklin froze fish $
stiff that their entrails could be take
out entire, yet when they were thawe
a out by the fire they recovered their al
s imation. Toads and frogs have bee
!. found imbedded in blocks of Sandston
and coal, and even in trees. There
/ record of toad that was found in
4 bedded in an oak where it had lai
e for eighty years. John Murray d
@ clares in the Magazine Of Natural HI
1 tory that he has toad in his posse.
n sion, preserved in spirits of turpentin
4 taken from a cavity of solid rock VI
!" wards of two hundred feet deep. II
a space was quite sufficient to contai
9 the body of the animal, and the ge,
: tleman who presented it to him saw
Y alive forty-eight hours after its
: tachment from the rocks. A live tof
5 was liberated from piece of shole
/ the Pendarran Works, Glamorganshir
r 1t was of a large size, but weak.
d had no vision or feeling in its eyes, ar
g over its mouth was a membral
which prevented food being given
t Its spine was crooked in consequent
g of the confined space where it h;
+ lived. How it had continued to liz
Q was a marvel Cincinnati Enquire
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