EKEMACAUSIS. 105 



The vis vita, or vital power, influences the delicate 

 and beautiful system of nerves; and as life (an essence 

 of the rarest and most subtile order, a diffusive influence) 

 runs through them, from the brain to the extremities of 

 the members of the body, it sets those tender threads in 

 rapid vibration, and heat is developed. By this action, 

 the circulation of the blood is effected ; the muscle is 

 maintained in an elastic condition, ready to perform the 

 tasks of the will; and through these agencies is the 

 warm and fluid blood fitted to receive its chemical 

 restoratives in the lungs, and the stomach to support 

 changes for which it is designed chemical also by 

 which more heat is liberated. Was digestion Erema- 

 causis, as the slow combustion produced by combination 

 with oxygen is called the only source of animal heat, 

 why should the injury of one filmy nerve place a member 

 of the body for ever in the condition of stony coldness ? 

 Or why, chemical action being most actively continued 

 after a violent death, by the action of the gastric juices 

 upon the animal tissues, should not animal heat be 

 maintained for a much longer period than it is found to 

 l)e after respiration has ceased ?* 



In studying the influences of caloric upon the con- 

 ditions of matter, we must regard the effects of extreme 

 heat, and also of the greatest degrees of cold which have 

 been obtained. 



There are a set of experiments by the Baron Cagniard 

 de la Tour, which appear to have a very important 



sible calculation he must have 500 pulsations a minute. Under 

 such conditions it is quite clear man could not exist. There is 

 no disputing the fact of the enormous appetites of these people ; 

 but all the food is not removed from the system as carbonic 

 acid gas. 



* An interesting paper by Dr. Davy, On the Temperature of Man, 

 will be found in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxxxvi. p. 

 319. Sir Humphry Davy, in his Consolations in Travel, or the Last 

 Days of a Philosopher, in his fourth dialogue. The Proteus, has 

 several ingenious speculators on this subject. 



