131S.] Inflammation of the Human Body. 12.J 



possible, considering the situation in which I was at the time, I 

 conceive the statement will add another and a curious fact to 

 animal physiology. 



During the month of January last, in consequence of walking 

 about in rainy weather in thin shoes for a considerable part of 

 the day, and afterwards sitting for several hours with wet feet, I 

 caught a violent cold, which was attended with fever; and 

 among other inflammatory symptoms, a throbbing pain took 

 place in the right groin, accompanied witli swelling of the 

 inguinal glands. To prevent this pain from proceeding to sup- 

 puration, I applied, for four days successively, and 36 times 

 each day, two cotton cloths successively wrung out of cold water 

 to the swelled part. The average temperature of the cold water 

 employed was 40°. The cloths were removed when they felt 

 hot ; and from several trials this appeared to indicate a tempera- 

 ture of about 90° ; so that each cloth, and the water which it 

 contained, was heated at an average 50°. 



The first cloth dry weighed .... 530 grains 

 The second 458 



The first when wet weighed ..1459 or 929 water + 530 cloth 

 The second 1434 or 976 + 458 



I made several experiments to determine the specific heat of 

 cotton, but found it attended with unexpected difficulty. When 

 cotton wool is employed it is so elastic and bulky that you are 

 obliged to use a much smaller weight of it than of the hot water 

 with which you mix it. This occasions great inaccuracy. When 

 cotton cloth is employed, a considerable time elapses before you 

 can mix it properly with the water, and this occasions uncer- 

 tainty. I state, tbcrefore, the results which I obtained with 

 considerable hesitation. The specific heat of cotton, by my trials, 

 is 0-53, that of water being 1. I shall therefore consider it as 

 half as great as that of water. 



We may, therefore, substitute for the two cotton cloths a 

 quantity of water equal to half the weight of each. We may 

 say, therefore, that 2399 grains of water were heated 50 degrees 

 18 times a day for four days together, making a total of 30 

 pounds troy heated 50° in the course of four clays by the inflamed 

 part. This is nearly the same quantity of heat that would have 

 been requisite to heat s.l lbs. of water from the temperature of 

 40° to that of 212°. This amounts nearly to seven wine pints. 



So that in the course of four days this small inflamed spot 

 gaye out a quantity of heat sufficient to have heated seven wine 

 pints of water from 40° to 212°; yet the temperature was not 

 sensibly less than that of the rest of the body at the end of the 



