1825.] New Scientific Books. 471 



4. Quantity of Blood in Animals. 



Those who have not considered the subject, must be sur- 



Erised at the quantity of blood which passes through the 

 eart of any moderately sized animal in the course of 24 

 hours. In man, the quantity of blood existing in the body at 

 any given moment is probably from 30 to 40 pints. Of these, 

 an ounce and a half, or about three table spoonfuls, are sent out 

 at every stroke ; which multiplied into 75 (the average rate of 

 the pulse), give 1125 ounces, or seven pints, in a minute; i. e. 

 420 pints, or 25*5 gallons, in an hour; and 1260 gallons, i. e. 

 nearly 24 hogsheads, in a day. Now, if we recollect that the 

 whale is said to send out from its heart at each stroke 15 

 gallons, the imagination is overwhelmed with the aggregate of 

 the quantity that must pass through the heart of that animal in 

 24 hours. It is a general law, that the pulse of the larger 

 animals is slower than that of the smaller; but even if we put 

 the pulse of the whale so low as 20 in the minute, the quantity 

 circulated through the heart, calculated at 15 gallons for each 

 pulsation, will be 432,000 gallons, equal to 8000 hogsheads in 

 24 hours. The consideration of this amazing quantity is, how- 

 ever, a subject of mere empty wonder, if not accompanied 

 with the reflection, that, in order to produce the aggregate 

 amount, the heart is kept in constant motion ; and that, in fact, 

 it is incessantly beating, as it is termed, or throwing out the 

 blood into the arteries, from the first period of our existence to 

 the moment of our death, without any sensation of fatigue, 

 or even without our consciousness, excepting under occasional 

 corporeal or mental agitation. — (Dr. Kidd, Edin. Phil. Journ.) 



Article XII. 

 NEW SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. 



Mathematical Tables. By W. Galbraith. 



Flora Fossilis, or a Description of the Fossil Vegetable Remains 

 found in the Coal Districts of Durham and Northumberland, witii a 



{)articular Account of the concomitant Stratification. By J. B. Tay- 

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Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, with some Account of the 

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A Complete History of the Cistus or Rock Rose. By Mr. Sweet. 



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'"' t)endrologia Britannica, or Trees and Shrubs that will live in the 

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