The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-01-25
VITALITY OLA ANIMALS.
Under Certain Conditions 1t Can Be Sus
pended for Long Time.

| Under Certain Conditions 1t Can Be Sus
pended for Long Time.
Familiar instances of suspended vital
ity, or rather latent vitality, are af
forded by seeds, which may be kept 70
| years without showing action, but arr
| yet capable of being recalled to the ex
ercise of the functions of life. Other in
stances are afforded by the lower organ
isms, which will remain dry and sterile
! for indefinite periods, to be brought int
full activity at any time by supplying
the due degree of moisture and warmth
| Coming up to higher forms of life, the
same phenomena are usually manifested
in insects, one of the normal conditions
of whose life-the nymphG or chrySdH
state-is characterized by the exhibition
of the external appearance of death
During this stage the vital processes arr
tempered down till only enough are il
effect to maintain merely vegetativ,
existence; yet the insect is capable O
slight motions when subjected to shocl
or pressure. The duration of this APP
parent death varies according to thu
| species and to external conditions
There are species that require two year!
of incubation before going through theil
metamorphosis. Others pass to the per
feet state in few days. Butterflies de
mand certain degree of heat, below
which they will not issue. The opening
of the chrysalis takes place naturally
when these atmospheric conditions are
realized. If the season is late, the
Catching is also late. Hence we car
prolong the duration of the chrysalis
state indefinitely by properly adjust
ing the temperature, delaying to thai
extent the metamorphosis of the i'm
prisoned mummy into the free and
winged insect. Reaumur, by putting
chrYsalides in an ice-box, was able tc
keep them alive and retard their devel.
opment several years. Going higher ur
in the animal series-eggs, which are
analogous to the seeds of plants, present
remarkable example of retarded life.
One of the most interesting features
about them is the independence of theiI
vitality, which persists even when the
individual that has produced them, and
within whose organism they are still
contained, has ceased to live. This fact
has been recognized in pisciculture.
whore artificial formulation has been
successful with eggs taken from dead
fish. The persistence of life in frogs is
very long. Spallanzani preserved some
frogs in mass of snow for two years.
They became dry, stiff, and almost fra.
BILE, but a gradual heat brought them
back to life. loads have been shut ur
in blocks of plaster and then, having
been deprived of all air except what
may penetrate through the material,
and of all sources of food, resuscitated
several years afterward. This question
presents one of the most curious prob,
lens that biological science has been
called on toexplain. The longevity and
vital resistance of toads are surprising.
Besides the experiments we have cited.
nature sometimes presents some already
made, and vastly more astonishing.
Toads are said to have been found in
rocks. Such cases are rare, but il
would be as unreasonable to doubt
them as to believe in some of the
miraculous explanations that have been
made of the matter. The phenomenon
lis marvellous, it is true, but it is sup
ported by evidence that we are not able
to contest; and skepticism, which is in
compatible with science, will have to
disappear if rigorous observation shall
confirm it. The toad was observed, in
one case, in the stone itself, and before
recovering from it's long lethargy it had
not made any motion. One of these toads
was presented to an academy, with the
stone which had served it as a coffin OF
habitation, and it was ascertained that
the cavity seemed to correspond exactly
with the dimensions and form of the an
imal. 1t is remarkable that these toad
stones are very hard and not at all por-
BUS, and show no signs of assure. The
mind, completely baffied in the presence
of the fact, is equally embarrassed to
explain how the toad could live in its
singular prison and how it became shut
up there. NJ. Charles Richet had occa-
sion to study this question some months
ago, and came to the conclusion that the
TACT was real, observing that even if, in
the actual condition of science, certain
phenomena were still inexplicable, we
were not warranted in denying their ex-
lstence, for new discoveries might at any
time furnish an explanation of them.
''The true may sometimes not be proba-
ble." But science takes accounting of
the truth, not of the probability
Translated for Popular Science Monthly
from La Monde dc Ia Science ct de l.