EVOLUTION OF HEAT. 541 



calorification returned. It is to be remembered that, in such cases, the re- 

 sources of the body are on the point of being completely exhausted, when 

 the a-tteinpt at reanimation is made ; consequently, it has nothing whatever 

 to fall back upon ; and the leaving it to itself at (in;/ time until fresh resources 

 have been provided for it, is consequently as certain a cause of death, as it 

 would have been in the first instance. 



433. It can scarcely be questioned, from the similiarity of the phenomena, 

 that Inanition, with its consequent depression of temperature, is the immediate 

 cause of death in various Diseases of Exhaustion ; and it seems probable that 

 there are many cases in which the depressing cause is of a temporary nature, 

 and in which a judicious and timely application of artificial heat might pro- 

 long life until it has passed off, just as artificial respiration is serviceable in 

 cases of narcotic poisoning ( 221). It is especially, perhaps, in those forms 

 of Fever, in which no decided lesion can be discovered after death, that this 

 view has the strongest claim to reception ; and the beneficial result of the ad- 

 ministration of Alcohol in such conditions, and the large amount in which 

 it may be given with impunity, may probably be accounted for on this prin- 

 ciple. That it acts as a specific stimulus to the Nervous system, cannot be 

 doubted from its effects on the healthy body ; but that it serves as a fuel to 

 keep up the calorifying process, appears equally certain. 1 Its great efficacy 

 in such cases seems to depend upon the readiness with which it will be taken 

 into the circulation, by a simple act of eudosmotic imbibition, when the 

 special Absorbent process, dependent upon the peculiar powers of the cells 

 of the villi ( 135), is in abeyance. There is no other combustible fluid, 

 whose miscibility and whose density, relatively to that of the Blood, will 

 permit of its rapid absorption by the simple physical process adverted to. 2 



434. That the oxidation of certain components of the food or of the tissues 

 is the fundamental source of Animal Heat, is further indicated by the close 

 conformity which we everywhere find between the activity of the Respiratory 

 process and the amount of Heat which is generated ; and this is not merely 

 when we compare different tribes of animals with each other, but also when 

 we compare the amount of oxygen absorbed and of carbonic acid exhaled by 

 the same individuals under different degrees of external temperature ( 311, l). 

 For we find that the system possesses within itself a regulating power, by which 

 the combustive process is augmented in activity when the cooling influence 

 of the surrounding medium is considerable, so that this influence is resisted ; 

 whilst the internal fire (so to speak) is slackened, whenever the temperature 

 of the outer air rises so much as to render the same generation of heat no 

 longer requisite. The appetite for food, and especially for those particular 

 forms of it which best afford the combustive pabulum, varies in the same 

 degree; and thus, when supplied with appropriate nutriment, Man is able to 

 brave the severest cold, without suffering any considerable depression in his 

 bodily temperature. It would seem that the Cutaneous Respiration ( 313), 

 small as its amount is, promotes those molecular changes on which the main- 

 tenance of Animal Heat depends; for it was found by MM. Becquerel and 

 Breschet, 3 and Socoloff,* that when the hair of Rabbits was shaved off, and 

 a composition of glue, suet, and resin (forming a coating impermeable to the 

 air) was applied to the whole surface, the temperature rapidly fell, notwith- 



1 See the articles written by M. Baudot in L'Union Medicale for Nov. 18'>3. 



2 The Author has stated the very striking results of observations which he has had 

 the opportunity of making upon this point, in his Essay on the Physiology of Tem- 

 perance and Total Abstinence, \ '2\3. 



3 Cumptes Kendus, October, 1841. These experiments were repeated and confirmed 

 by Magendie (Gazette Medicale, Dec. 6th, 1843). 



4 Centralblatt, 1872, No. 44. 



