Pikes and salamanders have at different epochs been revived before the
eyes of Maupertuis and Constant Dumeril (members of the Academy of
Sciences) after being frozen stiff. Auguste Dumeril, son of Constant,
and who was the reporter of the committee relative to the Blois toad in
1851, published a curious memoir the following year in which he narrates
how he interrupted life through congelation of the liquids and solids of
the organism. Some frogs, whose internal temperature had been reduced to
-2 deg. in an atmosphere of -12 deg., returned to life before his eyes, and he
observed their tissues regain their usual elasticity and their heart
pass from absolute immobility to its normal motion.
There is therefore no reason for doubting the assertions of travelers
who tell us that the inhabitants of North America and Russia transport
fish that are frozen stiff, and bring them to life again by dipping them
into water of ordinary temperature ten or fifteen days afterward. But I
think too much reliance should not be put in the process devised by
the great English physiologist, Hunter, for prolonging the life of man
indefinitely by successive freezings. It has been allowed to no one but
a romancer, Mr.
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