304 Dr. Edwards, De V Influence 



Moreover, this power differs in different parts of the body ; 

 so that, when experiments are made, we should always apply 

 the thermometer to the same part of the body. Among 

 twenty adult persons, Dr. Edwards found the average tem- 

 perature 36". 12: in infants from a few hours to two days 

 old, 34°.75 was the average. Thus we perceive that the 

 temperature of human infants is inferior to that of adults. 

 In infants born previous to the usual period, two or three 

 hours after birth their heat was at o2° of Reaumur's scale. 

 So far we perceive a similarity in man to the mammiferae in 

 general. 



We have next a chapter on the effects of cold upon mor- 

 tality at different ages. Tt is highly interesting to observe 

 the care of animals towards their offspring, in protecting 

 them against the effects of cold instinctively, at a period 

 before their own powers of generating heat enable them to 

 resist its baneful tendency. 



Dr. Edwards endeavours to investigate the subject of cold, 

 so as to discover its limit of action. He examined the young 

 of mammifera3 and birds, the former born with closed eyes, 

 and the latter unfledged. He exposed them separately and 

 apart to the air, so as to be independent of each other's 

 warmth, and they exhibited a temperature below their natural 

 standard at the period of birth, even when a degree of artifi- 

 cial heat was applied beyond that of adult birds. The final 

 result of these experiments was, that the application of heat 

 may be conducive to their developement, but is not indis- 

 pensable to their preservation. The author discovered, that 

 the diminution of temperature is not equally injurious at all 

 ages. The younger the animal, the less is the injury sus- 

 tained by cold, because the faculty of producing heat is less 

 powerful with the young than with the matured animal, the 

 power increasing as the animal grows, and also with the 

 increase of cold. \ 



Still, however, this subject is open to inquiry, for the 

 great variety of species, and other circumstances belonging to 

 the animal creation, so modify the phenomena as to create 

 an almost endless field of investigation. When warm- 

 blooded animals are exposed by their parents to the atmos- 

 pheric influence at an early age, they are better provided 

 against the perils of cold, being born with an abundant 

 source of heat. But, if the cold exceeds their powers of 

 generating heat, the mortality is so much readier. Hence 

 arises the danger of aniina,ls being born in the winter season. 



