General Principles of Physiology. 95 
It is vulgarly supposed, and there is good reason to believe, 
that both the nails and hair continue to grow after death. The 
experiment just referred to, at the same time that it shews the 
continuance of the function of secretion after the sensorial 
power has ceased to operate, shews, more than any experiment 
on the living animal could do, how quickly the secretion of 
gastric fluid is destroyed by interrupting the influence of the 
brain. 
It is remarkable, that the division of the eighth pair of nerves 
in the neck, immediately after death, almost always produces 
the same appearance of dark-coloured patches in the lungs, 
though usually in a less degree observed when the operation 
has been performed during the life of the animal. These 
patches now and then appear in the lungs of an animal whose 
nerves are entire, after it has lain dead for some time ; but 
much less frequently, and to a much less degree, than when the 
nerves have been divided immediately after death*. 
In considering the result of the experiment just referred to, 
the question arises, what occasions any supply of fluids to se- 
creting surfaces, after the circulation has ceased, and thus 
enables the remaining nervous influence to produce any secreted 
fluid after death? A ready answer to this question is afforded 
by experiments made on the newly dead animal t, from which 
it appears that the blood continues to be carried on in the capil- 
laries of a full grown rabbit for at least an hour and a half, 
probably much longer, after death. That part of the circulation 
which is performed by the capillaries appears to continue, par- 
ticularly in internal parts, which lose their temperature slowly 
as long as any considerable supply of blood can be obtained f. 
Hence it seems to be, that the larger arteries of animals which 
have been dead for some time, are generally found empty. How 
readily the continued action of the smaller arteries must empty 
them will be evident, when we recollect that at every division 
* Inquiry, Exper. 61. + Inquiry, Exper. 62, 63. 
¢ Haller has shewn, that the motion of the blood continues in the capil- 
laries, when they are no longer influenced by the power of the larger 
arteries. 
