cxxvi SURGEON'S REPORT. 



are antagonized by the power of vitality (or that we may not lead our readers to sup- 

 pose there is any want of harmony in the code of laws by which Divine Providence at 

 once governs the animate and inanimate, we will not say antagonized, but nicely 

 balanced), this indeed has long puzzled, and will still puzzle, philosophers the most 

 acute. There are, however, some facts upon which we can reason with interest and 

 advantage to future navigators ; and we have a theory fairly grounded on those facts, 

 which has now withstood the test of nearly half a century, and which has been indeed 

 modified by the careful process of induction from experiments,* but which has never 

 been altogether refuted. To this I deem it my indispensable duty to direct the atten- 

 tion of any of my medical brethren, who may hereafter chance to visit these regions ; for 

 what is notoriously said of air in all parts of the world, may here also be said of heat, 

 " we must have it or we die." 



To the physiologist, and the general philosopher, my remarks, perhaps, appear 

 commonplace, and certainly not original, but let him bear in mind that they are re- 

 corded only as a means of directing my successors to the importance of this subject, and 

 to the necessity of adapting the victus ratio accordingly. To proceed then, there are 

 three modes by which heat is probably generated within the body — by the chemical 

 decomposition which takes place in respiration, by the influence of the brain and 

 nervous system, in some degree perhaps analogous to its development by galvanic 

 mfluence, and by the process of digestion and nutrition. 



If it be acknowledged that combustion goes on more rapidly in cold weather, and 

 that this is wisely pre-ordained, the same remark applies to respiration, in which the 

 imaginative poet and the cold philosopher alike recognise the resemblance. The heat 

 generated will partly depend on the rapidity of the union of the impurities of the blood 

 and the consequent liberation of caloric. 



But it will partly depend on the quantity of carbon and hydrogen contained, and 

 taken in with the food. On this ground alone, I expect the patience of my readers; 

 for it will follow, if this be admitted, that such provisions should be selected for these 

 expeditions as may have been found to contain these elements in the largest possible 



* Vide Crawford's Experiments, Spalding on the Diving Bell, and the more recent experiments of 

 Brodie, Phillip, and Le Gallois. 



