Mr. Mangili, an Italian naturalist, made some curious experiments upon
the _dormouse_. He kept one in the cupboard in his study. When the
thermometer was 8 deg. above the freezing point, the little animal curled
himself up among a heap of papers, and went to sleep. It was
ascertained that the animal breathed, and suspended his respiration, at
regular intervals, sometimes every four minutes. Within ten days from
his beginning to sleep, the dormouse awoke, and ate a little. He then
went to sleep again, and continued through the winter to sleep some
days and then to awaken; but as the weather became colder, the
intervals of perfect repose, when no breathing could be perceived, were
much longer--sometimes more than twenty minutes.