ANIMAL AND SO-CALLED HUMAN HIBERNATION.
THE following case of the jerboa, or jumping mouse, recorded last
century by Major-General Thomas Davies, F.R.S., in the “Transactions
of the Linnæan Society,”[3] will show how far a torpid mammal may be
removed from the opportunity of breathing, and how imperceptibly, to
the eyes of an observer, its torpid life passed into actual death:--
“With respect to the figure given of it in its dormant state (plate
viii., fig. 6), I have to observe that the specimen was found by some
workmen in digging the foundation for a summer house in a gentleman’s
garden, about two miles from Quebec, in the latter end of May, 1787.
It was discovered enclosed in a ball of clay, about the size of a
cricket ball, nearly an inch in thickness, perfectly smooth within, and
about twenty inches under ground. The man who first discovered it, not
knowing what it was, struck the ball with his spade, by which means it
was broken to pieces, or the ball also would have been presented to
me. The drawing will perfectly show how the animal is laid during its
dormant state [a tawny mouse, with long hind legs and long tail, coiled
up into a perfect ovoid, of which the two poles are the crown of the
head and the rump.] How long it had been under ground it is impossible
to say; but as I never could observe these animals in any parts of
the country after the beginning of September, I conceive that they
lay themselves up some time in that month, or beginning of October,
when the frost becomes sharp; nor did I ever see them again before the
last week of May, or beginning of June. From their being enveloped in
balls of clay, without any appearance of food, I conceive they sleep
during the winter, and remain for that time without sustenance. As
soon as I conveyed this specimen to my house, I deposited it, as it
was, in a small chip box, in some cotton, waiting with great anxiety
for its waking; but that not taking place at the season they generally
appear, I kept it until I found it began to smell: I then stuffed it,
and preserved it in its torpid position. I am led to believe its not
recovering from that state arose from the heat of my room during the
time it was in the box, a fire having been constantly burning in the
stove, and which in all probability was too great for respiration....”
[INSTANCES OF ANIMAL HIBERNATION.]
Mr. Braid, after citing facts as to higher animals, proceeds:--“There
are other creatures which have not the power of migrating from climes
too intensely hot for the normal exercise of their physical functions,
and the lives of these animals are preserved through a state of torpor
superinduced by the want of sufficient moisture, their bodies being
dried up from excessive heat. This is the case with snails, which are
said to have been revived by a little cold water being thrown on them,
after having remained in a dry and torpid state for fifteen years. The
_vibrio tritici_ has also been restored, after perfect torpidity and
apparent death for five years and eight months, by merely soaking it
in water. Some small, microscopic animals have been apparently killed
and revived again a dozen times by drying and then applying moisture to
them. This is remarkably verified in the case of the wheel-animalcule.
And Spallanzani states that some animalcules have been recovered by
moisture after a torpor of twenty-seven years. According to Humboldt,
again, some large animals are thrown into a similar state from want
of moisture. Such he states to be the case with the alligator and
boa-constrictor during the dry season in the plains of Venezuela, and
with other animals elsewhere.”--_On Trance and Human Hibernation, p.
47._
Dr. Moore Russell Fletcher, in his treatise on “Suspended Animation,”
pp. 7, 8, observes:--“Snakes and toads live for a long time without air
or food. The following experiment was made by a Mr. Tower, of Gardiner
(Maine). An adder, upwards of two feet in length, was got into a glass
jar, which was tightly sealed. He was kept there for sixteen months
without any apparent change, and when let out, looked as well as when
put in, and crawled away.
“The common pond trout, when thrown into snow, will soon freeze, remain
so for days, and when put into cold water to remove the frost become
lively as ever.
“When residing in New Brunswick, in 1842, we went to a lake to secure
some trout, which were frozen in the snow and kept for use. While there
we saw men with long wooden tongs catching frost fish from the salt
water at the entrance of a brook. The fish were thrown upon the ice in
great quantities. We had a barrel of them put up with snow and kept
frozen, and in a cool place. For six or seven weeks they were taken
out and used as wanted, and might be kept frozen for an indefinite
time, and be alive when thawed in cold water. The two pieces of a fish,
cut in two when frozen, would move and try to swim when thawed in cold
water.”
SO-CALLED HUMAN HIBERNATION.
Dr. George Moore observes that “A state of the body is certainly
sometimes produced (in man) which is nearly analogous to the torpor of
the lower animals--_a condition utterly inexplicable to any principle
taught in the schools_. Who, for instance, can inform us how it happens
that certain fishes may be suddenly frozen in the Polar Sea, and so
remain during the long winter and yet be requickened into full activity
by returning summer?”--_Use of the Body in Relation to the Mind, p. 31._
[UNCERTAINTY OF DEATH.]
Hufeland, in his “Uncertainty of Death,” 1824, p. 12, observes that
it is easier for mankind to fall into a state of trance than the
lower creatures, on account of their complicated anatomy. It is a
transitory state between life and death, into which anyone may pass and
return from. Trance was common among the Greeks and Romans, who, just
before cremation, had the custom of cutting off a finger-joint, most
probably to discover if there was any trace of life. Death does not
come suddenly; it is a gradual process from actual life into apparent
death, and from that to actual death. It is a mistake to take outward
appearances for inner death.
“It often happens a person is buried in a trance knowing all the
preparations for the interment, and this affects him so much that it
prolongs the trance by its depressing influence. How long can a man
exist in a state of trance? Is there no sign by which the remaining
spark of life may be recognised? Do no means exist to prevent awakening
in the grave? Nothing can be said as to its duration; but we do know
that differences in the cause and circumstances will cause a difference
in duration. The amount of strength of the person would have great
effect in this. Weak persons, broken down by excesses, would die sooner
than the strong. The nature of the disease would make a difference. Old
age is less liable to trance than the young. Long sickness destroys
the sources of life, and shortens the process of death. Sorrow and
trouble, and numerous diseases, seem to bring on death; yet ofttimes
the source of life in them exists to its full extent, and what seems
in them to be death may be only a fainting fit, or cramp, which
temporarily interrupts the action of life. Women are more liable to
trance than men: most cases have happened in them. Trance may exist in
the new-born; give them time, and many of them revive. The smell of the
earth is at times sufficient to wake up a case of trance. Six or seven
days, or longer, are often required to restore such cases.” (Extracted
from pp. 10-24.)
[SELF-INDUCED HIBERNATION.]
Mr. Chunder Sen, municipal secretary to the Maharajah of Jeypore,
introduced the author, during his visit to India, March 8, 1896, to
a venerable and learned fakir, who was seated on a couch Buddhist
fashion, the feet turned towards the stomach, in the attitude of
meditation, in a small but comfortable house near the entrance to
the beautiful public gardens of that city. The fakir possesses the
power of self-induced trance, which really amounts to a suspension of
life, being indistinguishable from death. In the month of December,
1895, he passed into and remained in this condition for twenty days.
On several occasions the experiment has been conducted under test
conditions. In 1889, Dr. Hem Chunder Sen, of Delhi, and his brother,
Mr. Chunder Sen, had the opportunity of examining the fakir while
passing into a state of hibernation, and found that the pulse beat
slower and slower until it ceased to beat at all. The stethoscope was
applied to the heart by the doctor, who failed to detect the slightest
motion. The fakir, covered with a white shroud, was placed in a small
subterraneous cell built of masonry, measuring about six feet by six
feet, of rotund structure. The door was closed and locked, and the
lock sealed with Dr. Sen’s private seal and with that of Mr. Dhanna
Tal, the magistrate of the city; the flap door leading to the vault
was also carefully fastened. At the expiration of thirty-three days
the cell was opened, and the fakir was found just where he was placed,
but with a death-like appearance, the limbs having become stiff as in
_rigor mortis_. He was brought from the vault, and the mouth was rubbed
with honey and milk, and the body and joints massaged with oil. In the
evening, manifestations of life were exhibited, and the fakir was fed
with a spoonful of milk. The next day he was given a little juice of
pulses known as _dal_, and in three days he was able to eat bread and
milk, his normal diet. These cases are well known both at Delhi and
at Jeypore, and the facts have never been disputed. The fakir is a
Sanscrit scholar, and is said to be endowed with much wisdom, and is
consulted by those who are interested in Hindu learning and religion.
He has never received money from visitors, and the mention of it
distresses him.
The _Medical Times_ of May 11, 1850, contains a communication from Mr.
Braid, who says he has “lost no opportunity of accumulating evidence
on this subject, and that while many alleged feats of this kind are
probably of a deceptive character, still there are others which admit
of no such explanation; and that it becomes the duty of scientific men
fairly to admit the difficulty.” He then refers to two documents by
eye-witnesses of these feats, and which, he says, “with the previous
evidence on the subject, must set the point at rest for ever, as to
the fact of the feats referred to being genuine phenomena, deception
being impossible.” In one of these instances, the fakir was buried in
the ground for six weeks, and was, consequently, deprived not only of
food and drink, but also of light and air; when he was disinterred,
his legs and arms were shrivelled and stiff, but his face was full;
no pulse could be discovered in the heart, temples, or arms. “About
three years since I spent some time with a General C----, a highly
respectable and intelligent man, who had been a long time in the Indian
service, and who was himself an eye-witness of one of these feats. A
fakir was buried several feet in the earth, under vigilant inspection,
and a watch was set, so that no one could communicate with him; and to
make the matter doubly sure, corn was sown upon the grave, and during
the time the man was buried, it vegetated and grew to the height of
several inches. He lay there forty-two days. The gentleman referred to
passed the place many times during his burial, saw the growing corn,
was also present at his disinterment, and when he questioned the man,
and intimated to him that he thought deception had been practised, the
fakir offered, for a sum of money, to be buried again, for the same
length of time, by the General himself, and in his own garden. This
challenge, of course, closed the argument.”
[CASES REPORTED BY MR. BRAID.]
Cases of this kind might be multiplied on evidence which cannot be
doubted, and, in Mr. Braid’s book, entitled “Human Hibernation,” there
are cases fully stated. Sir Claude Wade, who was an eye-witness of
these feats when acting as political agent at the Court of Runjeet
Singh, at Lahore, and from whom Mr. Braid derived his information,
makes the following observations:--“I share entirely in the apparent
incredibility of the fact of a man being buried alive and surviving the
trial for various periods of duration; but however incompatible with
our knowledge of physiology, in the absence of any visible proof to the
contrary, I am bound to declare my belief in the facts which I have
represented, however impossible their existence may appear to others.”
Upon this Mr. Braid observes:--“Such then is the narrative of Sir C.
M. Wade, and when we consider the high character of the author as a
gentleman of honour, talents, and attainments of the highest order,
and the searching, painstaking efforts displayed by him throughout the
whole investigation, and his close proximity to the body of the fakir,
and opportunity of observing minutely every point for himself, as well
as the facilities, by his personal intercourse with Runjeet Singh and
the whole of his Court, of gaining the most accurate information on
every point, I conceive it is impossible to have had a more valuable
or conclusive document for determining the fact that no collusion or
deception existed.”
A case of this kind was exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium in the
autumn of 1895, which was carefully watched and tested by medical
experts, without detection of any appearance of fraud or simulation.
The hypnotised man, Walter Johnson, an ex-soldier, twenty-nine years of
age, was in a trance which lasted thirty days, during which time he was
absolutely unconscious, as shown by the various experiments to which he
was subjected.
A case of induced trance and experimental burial, not unlike that
of the Indian fakirs referred to, was reported in the London _Daily
Chronicle_, March 14, 1896. The experiment was carried out under test
conditions.
“‘BURIED ALIVE’ AT THE ROYAL AQUARIUM.
“After being entombed for six days in a hypnotic trance, Alfred
Wootton was dug up and awakened at the Royal Aquarium (Westminster),
on Saturday night in the presence of a crowd of interested spectators.
Wootton was hypnotised on Monday by Professor Fricker, and consigned
to his voluntary grave, nine feet deep, in view of the audience, who
sealed the stout casket or coffin in which the subject was immured.
Seven or eight feet of earth were then shovelled upon the body, a
shaft being left open for the necessary respiration, and in order
that the public might be able to see the man’s face during the week.
The experiment was a novel one in this country, and was intended to
illustrate the extraordinary effect produced by the Indian fakirs,
and to demonstrate the connection between hypnotism and psychology,
while also showing the value of the former art as a curative agent.
Wootton is a man thirty-eight years of age; he is a lead-worker,
and on Monday weighed 10st. 2-1/2 lbs. He had previously been in a
trance for a week in Glasgow, under Professor Fricker’s experienced
hands, so was not altogether new to the business; but he is the
first to be ‘buried alive’ by way of amusement. To the uninitiated
the whole thing was gruesome in the extreme, and this particular form
of entertainment certainly cannot be commended. Before being covered
in, Wootton’s nose and ears were stopped with wax, which was removed
before he was revived on Saturday. The theory of the burial is to
secure an equable temperature day and night--which is impossible when
the subject is above ground in the ordinary way--and therefore to
induce a deeper trance. Of course, too, the patient was out of reach
of the operator, and no suspicion of continuous hypnotising could rest
upon the professor. No nourishment could be supplied for the same
reason, though the man’s lips were occasionally moistened by means of
a damp sponge on the end of a rod, and no record of temperature or
respiration could be kept. A good many people witnessed the digging
up process, and the awakening took place in the concert room, whither
the casket and its burden were conveyed. The professor was not long
in arousing his subject, after electric and other tests had been
applied to convince the audience that the man was perfectly insensible
to pain and everything else. Indeed, a large needle was run through
the flesh on the back of the hand without any effect whatever. The
first thing on regaining consciousness that Wootton said was that he
could not see, and then he asked for drink--milk, and subsequently
a little brandy, being supplied. As soon as possible the patient
was lifted out of his box, and with help was quickly able to walk
about the platform. He complained of considerable stiffness of the
limbs, and was undoubtedly weak, but otherwise seemed none the worse
for his remarkable retirement from active life, and abstention from
food for nearly a week. He was swathed in flannel, and soon found
the heat of the room very oppressive, though at first he appeared to
be particularly anxious to have his overcoat and his boots. It is
anticipated that in a day or two at most Wootton will have regained
his usual vigorous health.”
[EXPERIMENTAL BURIAL.]
Dr. Hartmann in “Premature Burial,” page 23, relates an account of a
similar experiment with a fakir, differing from the above, however,
in so far as it was made by some English residents, who did not put
the coffin into the earth, but hung it up in the air, so as to protect
it from the danger of being eaten up by white ants. There seems to be
hardly any limitation in regard to the time during which such a body
may be preserved and become reanimated again, provided that it is well
protected, although modern ignorance may smile at this statement.
Those of our readers who wish to pursue this subject will find ample
material in “Observations on Trance or Human Hibernation,” 1850, by
James Braid, M.R.C.S.; Dr. Kuhn’s report of his investigations of the
Indian fakirs to the Anthropological Society of Munich, in 1895; the
researches of Dr. J. M. Honigberger, a German physician long resident
in India; and in the _India Journal of Medical and Physical Science_,
1836, vol. i., p. 389, etc.