402 NUTRITION. 



heart, through the vessels in the neck, without opening the 

 chest. These experiments were made upon a horse, and the 

 right heart was always found considerably warmer than the 

 left. Hering introduced a thermometer into the cavities 

 of the heart in a living calf affected with cardiac ectopia. 

 The temperature of the right side was 102'74, and the left 

 side, IGI'79 . 1 Georg von Liebig illustrated one of the 

 sources of error in all examinations made after opening the 

 chest, by filling the cavities of the heart of a dog with warm 

 water, placing the organ in a water-bath, and bringing the 

 two sides to precisely the same temperature. After five 

 minutes' exposure to the air, the temperature in the right 

 ventricle was sensibly lower than in the left, which was un- 

 doubtedly due to the difference in the thickness of the walls. 3 

 The observations by Bernard himself upon dogs and sheep 

 are very conclusive, as far as these animals are concerned. 

 In dogs he found a difference of from 0*1 to 0*2, always 

 in favor of the right side ; and the results in sheep were 

 nearly the same. 3 



A series of experiments recently instituted by Colin 

 shows pretty conclusively that there are other conditions 

 that may account, in a measure, for the opposite results of 

 observations on the temperature of the two sides of the 

 heart, besides exposure of the parts to the air. In one hun- 

 dred and two experiments, he found the blood warmer in 

 the right side in thirty-one ; in fifty-one, it was warmer on 

 the left side ; and in twenty-one, there was no difference. 4 

 He finds that in animals covered with a thick fleece, like 

 sheep, where there is but little loss of temperature by the 

 general surface, the blood in the right heart is generally 



1 BERNARD (op. cit., p. 106, et seq.) gives a full account of this very interest- 

 ing observation. 



2 BERNARD, op. cit., p. 65. 



3 Op. cit., pp. 11Q, 116. 



4 COLIN, Experiences sur la chaleur animale, in the report by LONGET. Comp- 

 tcs rendus, Paris, 1867, tome Ixiv., p. 464. The error in the figures quoted is 

 in the original report. . 



