The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-04-20

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 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,
both the voluntary and the involuntary.
are in a state of rigid contraction-all
except the heart, of course; and even
the hearts action becomes of the slow
and massive kind, as in the muscles of
snail or of cold-blooded vertebrate.
1t is certainly very marvellous adap-
tation TO the animals circumstances.
All its fires burn lower; there is a sur
prising economy of the living fuel, and,
consequently, little or no waste. Its
establishment" is reduced, its scale OF
living contracted, its expenditure
made to suit its income, or rather its
want Of income. The astonishing thing
is that an animal, with all the organs
and functions of mans own class, can
do this and still keep alive and ready
to begin its active summer existence,
none the worse for its long, death-like
trance.
The explanation is that the winter
sleepers have resources within them
selves. The stores that some of them,
like the vole and the hamster. lay up
in their holes underground are not in
tended as food during the winter; nor
is it probable that the honey stored by
bees is ordinarily so intended. In
those cases where an external store is
provided it seems rather to serve as a
supply for the first days or weeks
after waking. when the creatures would
not have the strength, even If they had
the opportunity Of going in search of
their food. The real winter store is
within them. A winter-sleeper, such as
the bat, or the dormouse, or the marmot
feeds upon itself. The case is not the
same as in sheep buried in a snow
drift, or as in the famous case of Mar
tells fat pig. These animals also feed
upon themselves. but their life goes on
at full blast, their breathing and their
other functions being hardly less active
than usual. The hibernator makes
fewer calls upon its husbanded re.
sources. The great and necessarily
active muscle Of the heart is the only
tissue that needs to be supplied with
force-producing material, although all
the muscles get share of the MUSCLE
food that is in the blood, and are in a
peculiarly overcharged or irritable
state in consequence OF having nothing
to spend their force upon. The grand
resource of the winter-sleeper is its
store of fat. 1t accumulates quite
unusual amount of fat in the summer
and autumn, and disposes it mostly in
certain interior deposits. which are
abundantly provided with blood YES
sells. Now, in ordinary circumstances,
fat is of no use for living force and
heat unless there be plenty of fresh
oxygen constantly carried to it by the
blood to burn it; it is like the combus-
ton of a candle, which can not go on
except in the presence of air. But the
sleeper does not breathe; the blood
carries no fresh oxygen from the air to
the fat or to any other tissue. We
require another kind of process
to convert the fat into force. or
into muscle-food for the heart. The
explanation of this is found in the veg
etable kingdom. Many seeds, and in
a less degree, some bulbs and tubers,
have their winter store partly in the
form of oil or fat; when they begin to
sprout in spring, the first change in
order to make the fat available for the
materials of growth is to have it con-
verted into sugar and starch. That is
done by means of a fermentation, or
change of state. the ferments being va
rious. The same subtle transforms
ton takes place in the winter-sleeper's
store of fat; if it depended upon burn
ing its fat in the usual way, by con-
slant supplies of fresh oxygen. il
would be in the fatal position of hav-
ing abundant assets, but no means OF
realizing them. The liquidation of its
resources is effected by a subtle fer
ment action, which not only requires
no oxygen, but is actually most effect
i've when oxygen is excluded.
And now comes the strangest thing
in the whole problem Of winter sleep.
The animal goes into winter quarters
with great store Of fat and comes out
with its fat tissues all wasted, shriveled
and used up. On the other hand il
comes out of its sleep having lost little