Notices respecting New Books. 459 



tfiat the t»eat of the arterial blood, and of the parts best supplied 

 with this fluid, is greatest, l)ecause they lie deepest and abound 

 most in the principle of lite or vital ar/tion. This explanation 

 wa?. suggested to me bv my brother hn II. Davy. There are 

 some facA.s wliich I ha-v'e oliscrved agreeable So it, but not more 

 so than to the hvpothosls of Dr. Elack. I have found the sto- 

 mach ot' the ox, the pyloric conipartnient, of a higher tempera- 

 ture than tlie le*t ventricle itself : tlnis, when the latter imme- 

 dialf'Iy after death was 103, the former full of food was 104-5. 

 I hav'c also found the temperature of young- animals, in whom 

 all the vital actions are most energetic, higher than that of ani- 

 mals arrived at maturity. I m ly mention he-e, in illustration of 

 this statement, a few observations made on infants, as I am not 

 acquainted mth any yet published. In one instance I found the 

 heat uiider the axilla of a child just born 98*5; after twelve hours 

 99, and after three days, the same ; during tlie whole of which 

 time it appeaied in pt • feet health. On five other cliildren of 

 the same age, similar observations were made. In two instances 

 of weak infants, the temperature, one hour after birth, w'as 

 found not to exceed 9(5, which is two degrees be!ow the stan- 

 dard heat of man in a state of health ; but tlicir respiration was 

 still languid, and the next day the heat of the axilla had risen 

 in one to 98-5, and in the other to 99*. 



To conclude : As in each hypothesis examined, difficulties are 

 found to exist from facts or the results of experiusents of an un- 

 bending nature, we must at present either suspend theory alto- 

 gether and search for experimenta cnicU, or adopt that hypo- 

 thesis whicli is conformable to the greater number of facts. 

 The first measure is certainly most philosophical ; but to the 

 latter we are naturally most inclined ; and if I were questioned 

 which view is preferable, I should make no hesitation in select- 

 ing Dr. Black's, which to me appears both most simple and most 

 satisfactory. 



LXXIII. Notices respecting New Books. 



1 HE Second Volume of the Geological Transactions has made 

 its appearance, and the following are its contents : 



1 . On certain Products obtained in the Distillation of Wood, 



with 



* The opinion of JIallcr, I am well aware, is contrary toth(?sc results, as 

 is expressed in the foliowino pniajirapli : '' X'iri teKiinis caliiiimes rluriori 

 iiempc 'unt fulnica, cDiit.a p'.ieri ali<]uanto minus calt-iU (|uatn adulli ho- 

 mines, ut inodo natus p-.ior vix calorprn conf-ervot, nisi sollicitc ct (-Diiioso 

 vestibus tcxtis.'' — liiem. I'iivs. ii. p. 2^7. As this great pljjsiologist tccnis 



io 



