ORGASM AND IRRITABILITY 225 



I have some local inflammation like a boil or any other inflamed 

 tumour, caloric issues in extraordinary abundance from the blood of 

 the parts affected. Yet I do not see how any increase of respiration 

 can in this case have given rise to the local concentration of caloric ; 

 I should say on the other hand that the blood, being compressed 

 and concentrated in the diseased part, is liable to disturbances and 

 decompositions (as also the supple parts containing it) which involve 

 the productions of the observed caloric. 



I cannot admit that atmospheric air includes in its composition a 

 fluid, which when freed is an expansive caloric ; I have elsewhere 

 stated ray views on this matter. In point of fact, I believe that air 

 is composed of oxygen and nitrogen ; and I know that it contains 

 caloric within it, because absolute cold does not exist anywhere on 

 our earth. I am fully convinced that the component fluid which when 

 freed is changed into expansive caloric was previously a constituent 

 part of our blood ; that this fluid in combination is always being 

 partially set free and that by its liberation it produces our internal 

 heat. Evidence that this internal heat does not come from our 

 respiration is furnished by the fact that if we were not constantly 

 making good the losses in our blood by means of food, and hence of 

 a chyle always being renewed, our respiration would not restore to 

 our blood the qualities which it must possess for the maintenance 

 of our existence. 



The utility of respiration to animals is not in question; by this 

 method their blood derives a restoration which they could not do 

 without ; and the belief appears to be justified that it is by appro- 

 priating oxygen from the air that the blood derives one of its most 

 necessary restorations. But in all this there is no proof that caloric 

 comes from the air or its oxygen, rather than from the blood itself. 



The same thing may be said with regard to combustion : the air 

 in contact with burning substances may be decomposed, and its dis- 

 engaged oxygen may be fixed in the residue of combustion ; but that 

 is no proof that the caloric then produced comes from the oxygen in 

 the air rather than from the combustible substances, with which I 

 hold that it was previously combined. All the known facts are better 

 and more naturally explained on this latter assumption than on any 

 other. 



However this may be, the positive fact remains that in a great many 

 animals an expansive caloric is constantly being produced within 

 them, and that it is this invisible penetrating fluid which maintains 

 the orgasm and irritability of their supple parts ; while in other 

 animals orgasm and irritability are chiefly the result of the caloric 

 of the environment. 



