ANIMAL MATTER. 



177 



account, too, the heat of the human body remains 

 the same when exposed to the most extreme degrees 

 of temperature ; in fact, cold at first rather elevates, 

 and extreme heat rather depresses the temperature 

 of the human body. Fordyce and Blagden endured 

 the temperature of an oven heated almost to redness, 

 and two girls in France entered a baker's oven heat- 

 ed to 269 Fahr., in which fruits were soon dried 

 up, and water boiled. A Spaniard, Francisco Mar- 

 tinez by name, exhibited himself, a short time since, 

 at Paris, in a stove heated to 279 of Fahr., and 

 threw himself, immediately after into cold water. 

 Blagden was exposed in an oven to a heat of 257, 

 in which water boiled, though covered with oil. 

 There is also a remarkable instance of a similar 

 endurance of heat, by the convulsionnaires, as they 

 "were called, upon the grave of St Medardus, in 

 France. A certificate signed by several eye-wit- 

 nesses, among whom were Armand, Arouet, the 

 brother of Voltaire, and a Protestant nobleman 

 from Perth, states that a woman named la Sonet, 

 surnamed the salamander, lay upon a fire nine min- 

 utes at a time, which was repeated four times within 

 two hours, making, in all, thirty-six minutes, during 

 which time fifteen sticks of wood were consumed 

 The correctness of the fact stated is allowed even 

 by those opposed to the abuses in which it originat- 

 ed. The flames sometimes united over the woman, 

 who seemed to sleep ; and the whole miracle is to 

 be attributed to the insensibility of the skin and 

 nerves, occasioned by a fit of religious insanity. 

 These facts are the results of a law of all living 

 substances, viz., that the temperature of the living 

 body cannot be raised above certain limits, which 

 iir-iture lias fixed. There is also an increased flow 

 of perspiration, by means of which the heat of the 

 body is carried off. The extreme degrees of cold 

 which are constantly endured by the human frame 

 without injury are well known, and are to be ex- 

 plained only by this power in the living body to 

 generate and preserve its own heat. The greater 

 the irritability of individuals, whether from age, sex, 

 or peculiarity of constitution, the greater the warmth 

 of the body : it seems also to depend, in part, upon 

 the quickness of the circulation of the blood : thus 

 children and small animals, whose circulation is 

 lively, feel the cold least. The heat and the power 

 of preserving it differ also in the different parts of 

 the body ; those appearing to be warmest in which 

 there is the most copious supply of blood, as the 

 brain, the head and neck, the lung's and central 

 parts of the body. We see, also, that when the 

 irritability of the body, or of any part of it, is par- 

 ticularly increased, the heat of the part undergoes a 

 similar change. Increased activity and motion of the 

 body, as in walking, running, &c., and diseases of in- 

 creased excitement, as fever and inflammation, pro- 

 duce a similar increase in the temperature of the body. 

 All this justifies Hie conclusion, that animal heat 

 depends chiefly upon the irritability of the body, 

 and is thus most intimately connected with the state 

 of the nervous system. This view is confirmed by 

 the late experiments of Brodie, who ascribed this 

 power of the living body to the influence of the 

 brain. He destroyed the brain of a rabbit, and 

 kept up the respiration by artificial means ; but the 

 heat of the animal regularly diminished. 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM See Magnetism. 



ANIMAL MATTER is the protection, the residence, 

 and the visible form of animal life. The simple 

 elementary substances are combined by the powers 

 of life, according to the objects for which it was 

 destined, into various animal substances, falling na- 

 turally under certain divisions, which all, however, in 

 some respects, comprehend each other. These divi- 



sions are as follow: a. FLUIDS. These have no distinct 

 form or organization, and yet possess properties, by 

 means of which, when acted upon by the vital powers, 

 they are capable of forming all the various organs of 

 the body ; and it is surely a most unnatural view of 

 them to regard them as destitute of life. In the fol- 

 lowing list of animal fluids, which, in the processes 

 of life, pass constantly the one into the other, we find 

 all the fluid parts or kinds of animal matter : they 

 are chyme, chyle, lymph, venous and arterial blood, 

 and the various secreted and excreted fluids. 

 b. SOLIDS. These comprehend all the solid parts 

 of the animal frame, both hard and soft, and 

 are of nearly the same essential structure in all 

 animals, although variously arranged, according to 

 their species. A minute description of all these be- 

 longs to anatomy ; we shall merely enumerate them. 

 They appear in the form of, 1, bones, constituting 

 the basis the frame of the animal, and found in all 

 animals till we come to shell-fish (whose shells may 

 be even regarded as external bones), and to still in- 

 ferior animals, possessing no substitute for bones ; 2, 

 ligaments and fibrous membranes, connecting and 

 covering them ; 3, muscles, which move them, and 

 place the body and its limbs at the command of the 

 animal ; 4, fat and marrow, which soften and lubri- 

 cate all the various parts of the body ; 5, nervous or 

 medullary matter, constituting the brain and nerves 

 in which the vital power seems more particularly to 

 reside ; 6, the cellular substance, or membrane, 

 which pervades all parts of the frame, and serves to 

 connect them, and to furnish with the fat, which fills 

 its cells, a soft bed for the vessels, nerves, &c ; 7, the 

 mucous membranes, lining the whole body, from the 

 nose and mouth to the parts at which all evacuations 

 take place, and thus coating the.mouth, throat, lungs, 

 stomach, and bowels, in which the important func- 

 tions of digestion and respiration are performed ; 8, 

 the serous membranes, which line all the large cavi- 

 ties, and which, by the soft fluid that always mois- 

 tens their surface, render easy the motion of all the 

 internal organs upon each other ; 9, the vascular 

 system, or vessels of all descriptions, conveying the 

 blood to all the organs of the body, and returning it 

 from them to the heart and lungs ; and, 10, the glan- 

 dular system, by means of which various fluids impor- 

 tant to life are separated from the blood, or rather 

 formed from it by a new composition of its original ele- 

 ments. These various classes of animal matter compre- 

 hend all the various forms, in which it appears in all 

 animals of all kinds ; the heart of a frog and of a phi- 

 losopher being composed of similar muscular fibres, 

 and their brains of similar nervous matter. These 

 obvious component parts of animals are, however ; 

 separable by the art of the chemist into more simple 

 and ultimate elements. The following are all that 

 are at present known to exist, and of these some are 

 peculiar to animals, while others enter, more or less, 

 into the composition of all parts of the creation. 

 They are, 1, iron, which is found chiefly in the blood, 

 in the state of an oxyde ; 2. lime, which enters 

 largely into the composition of bones, shells, &c. ; 3, 

 silex, in the enamel of the teeth; 4, water, which 

 gives their liquid character to all the animal fluids ; 5, 

 air is found, mixed with watery vnpour, in the various 

 cavities of the body ; 6, soda, united with various 

 acids, in all the various fluids of the body ; 7, am- 

 monia, in the sweet urine, &c. ; 8, sulphur ; 9, phos- 

 phorus, in the bones, &c. ; 10, carbon ; 11, various 

 acids, as the phosphoric, muriatic, uric, lactic, for- 

 mic, &c., which are found, variously combined, in 

 most of the solid and fluid parts of the body ; 12, 

 gelatin, or glue ; 13, albumen, constituting the chief 

 part of the transparent and colourless membranes, 

 and the fluids which moisten them ; 14, fibrine, con- 



