For, if an animal free from
disease is subjected to the action of some chemical and physical
agencies which have the property of reducing to the extreme limit
the motor forces and nervous stimulus, the body of even a warm-
blooded animal may be brought down to a condition so closely
resembling death that the most careful examination may fail to
detect any signs of life. The heart will continue working
regularly at low tension, supplying muscles and other parts with
sufficient blood to sustain molecular life, and the stomach would
naturally react to artificial stimulus. At any time before
decomposition of tissue has set in, the heart might be made to
resume its work and life come back.
"Phelps had travelled extensively. In Siberia he must undoubtedly
have heard of the Buriats, a tribe of natives who hibernate,
almost like the animals, during the winters, succumbing to a long
sleep known as the 'leshka.' He must have heard of the experiments
of Professor Bakhmetieff, who studied the Buriats and found that
they subsisted on foods rich in glycogen, a substance in the liver
which science has discovered makes possible life during suspended
animation.
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