Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-02-21
SLEEPING ALL WINTER.
Problem of Information in the
Animal Kingdom.
subsisting for Months without Food or
Air-Curious Instances of Suspen-
sion of Natures FunctIons-The
Explanation.


Explanation.
We are apt to forget how large {
part of the animal creation goes Il
sleep for the whole winter. The dead
season of the year is obviously an ap
propriate name so far as regards the
trees and plants, but it is just as cor
rect a term for numerous species o
living creatures. Nearly all the in.
Sects. crustaceans, worms, snails anC
the like, 60 into winter quarters; frogs
and all the reptile kind, bury them
selves in the mud, or under stones
and even a few animals of mans OWL
class spend several months of the year
in state of unbroken sleep. This is
the problem of hibernatiOn-a great
deal more debated in former times
than now. Aristotle began the specu-
lations about it, and extended his in
quiry TO certain of the fishes of the
Egean Sea. Hardly any naturalist OF
note missed writing about it towards
=
early part of the present one. The
curiosity has always been greatest in
reference TO those few of the higher
animals who have the faculty of coiling
themselves up in hole in the ground,
and going to sleep for months together.
The water vOle is one of these:
Down into his burrow he cozily creeps,
And quietly through the long winter time
sleeps
Gilbert White was told by farmer
in the parish of Selborne that his pillow
had turned up vOle's winter nest in a
field some hundred yards from the
water, with a gallon of potatoes stored
at one end of it. Our other common
winter sleepers are the hedgehog, the
dormouse and the bat. Offers, badgers
and squirrels seem to have the faculty
of lying perdu for days at time in a
very hard season; but they do not count
among the winter-sleepers proper. In
Alpine countries the various species of
marmots are well-known hibernators;
in Russia and Siberia there are several
many the most familiar instance is a
curious animal, called the hamster,
something between a large rat and a
rabbit. In Canada an interesting OBJ
servation was made by General Davies
on the profound winter sleep of the
jumping mouse, and published, with a
picture in the "Linnaan Transactions"
for 1897. The little animal, which was
a curiosity in the summer time for its
flying leaps through the long grass,
was lost sight of about the month of
October, and was not seen again until
the month of May. General Davies
solved the problem of what became of
it all these months. A laborer, digging
the foundations of garden-house near
Quebec in the spring, turned up with
his spade lump of clay like cricket
ball; on breaking the clod he found
nicely-molded round space inside, with
in which lay a jumping-mOuse, with its
- ag hind legs folded against its breast
and its head sunk deeply between
them. 1t was placed in a chip box in
a warm room until it should awake;
but the change of atmosphere was too
abrupt for it. and it never awoke. The
The jumping mouse cozily sleeping in
a smooth nest of clay two feet below
the ground brings us face to face with
the whole problem of winter sleep.
The animal had neither food nor air
for some six months of the year, and
yet it was alive. and would resume all
its old agility with the warmth OF sum-
mer.
1t is clear that winter-sleepers sub
sist for months without food, but it is
not so easy to understand how they can
do without air. There is, however,
no doubt about the fact; their breath
ing becomes gradually slower during
the first week Or two of their hiberna-
ton, and soon ceases altogether.
Nearly all their manifold functions
come to rest. Taking no food, they
have nothing to digest; their senses are
lost for the time, and they are insensi-
BILE to pricks or pinching of the skin.
A sleeping marmot has been trundled
along the ground like an inauimate
ball. The only organ that keeps
working all the time without a mo-
ment's rest is the heart. and even the
heart is brought down to less than half
of its usual waking force. All these
facts have been confirmed. il is need
less to say, by the most minute observ-
ations- Learned Germans, Italians
and others have kept bats, hedgehogs,
marmots and hamsters in their bed
rooms and back kitchens, and have
watched and investigated the creatures
in all sorts os ways. There is no doubt
at all that. unless when they are IN
usually distubed, they do not breathe,
do not feel, do not exercise any of the
ordinary functions of their waking
state, except the great and indispensa-
able function of the heart. Their in
ternal heat is kept a little higher than
the temperature of the air. 1t is far
below the ordinary blood heat. but it is
just high enough to prevent their being
frozen. The water Of their tissues is
mostly dried up, and even the blood is
thicker than usual. Their muscles,