HIBERNATION

the state of quiescence or torpor in which many organisms tide over natural conditions unfavorable to their active life. The state of h. has much resemblance to a deep and prolonged sleep, and indeed sleep is: often the starting-point which leads to h.; but there are great differences between the ‘two types of unconsciousne . In h. the functions of the body are so reduced that the animal becomes practically inanimate, nutrition ceases, respiration is almost stopped, and, most strange of all, the body term per at ure, which may ‘have been anything from 35° to 40° C. ‘in mammals, falls almost to that of the surrounding air, with the fluctuations of which it now fluctuates. Almost the first moment of awaking, however, re- ‘stores the lowered temperature to its normal pitch.