624 EVOLUTION OF HEAT, LIGHT, AND ELECTRICITY. 



condition. On the last day, the production of heat diminished very rapidly, 

 and the thermometer fell from hour to hour, until death supervened; the whole 

 loss on that day being about 25 Fahr., making the total depression about 29 2. 

 This depression appears, from the considerations to be presently stated, to be the 

 immediate cause of Death. On examining the amount of loss sustained by tke 

 different organs of the body, it was found that 93 per cent, of the Fat had dis- 

 appeared; being all, in fact, which could be removed; whilst the nervous centres 

 scarcely exhibited any diminution in weight ( 416). From the constant coinci- 

 dence between the entire consumption of the fat, and the depression of tempera- 

 ture joined to the fact that the duration of life under the inanitiating process 

 evidently varied (other things being equal) with the amount of fat previously 

 accumulated in the body the inference seems irresistible, that the calorifying 

 process depended chiefly, if not entirely, on the materials supplied by this sub- 

 stance. Whenever, therefore, the store of combustible matter in the system 

 was exhausted, the inanitiated animals died, by the cooling of their bodies con- 

 sequent upon the loss of calorifying power. 



658. That this is the real explanation of the fact is shown by the results of 

 a series of very remarkable experiments performed by M. Chossat, with the purpose 

 of testing the correctness of this view. When inanitiated animals whose death 

 seemed impending (in several instances death actually took place, whilst the 

 preliminary processes of weighing, the application of the thermometer, &c., were 

 being performed), were subjected to artificial heat, they were almost uniformly 

 restored from a state of insensibility and want of muscular power to a condition 

 of comparative activity ; their temperature rose, their muscular power returned, 

 they flew about the room and took food when it was presented to them ; and if 

 the artificial assistance was sufficiently prolonged, and they were not again sub- 

 jected to the starving process, most of them recovered. If they were left to 

 themselves too early, however, the digestive process was not performed, and they 

 ultimately died. Up to the time when they began to take food, their weight 

 continued to diminish; the secretions being renewed, under the influence of 

 artificial heat, sometimes to a considerable amount. It was not until digestion 

 had actually taken place (which, owing to the weakened functional power, was 

 commonly many hours subsequently to the ingestion of the food), that the 

 animal regained its power of generating heat ; so that, if the external source of 

 heat was withdrawn, the body at once cooled ; and it was not until the quantity 

 of food actually digested was sufficient to support the wants of the body, that 

 its independent power of calorification returned. It is to be remembered that, 

 in such cases, the resources of the body are on the point of being completely 

 exhausted, when the attempt at re-animation is made; consequently it has 

 nothing whatever to fall back upon ; and the leaving it to itself at any time 

 until fresh resources have been provided for it, is consequently as certain a 

 cause of death, as it would have been in the first instance. 



659. It can scarcely be questioned, from the similarity of the phenomena, 

 that Inanitiation, with its consequent depression of temperature, is the imme- 

 diate cause of death in various diseases of Exhaustion : and it seems probable 

 that there are many cases, in which the depressing cause is of a temporary 

 nature, and in which a judicious and timely application of artificial heat might 

 prolong life until it has passed off, just as artificial respiration is serviceable in 

 cases of narcotic poisoning ( 208). It is especially, perhaps, in those forms of 

 Fever, in which no decided lesion can be discovered after death, that this view 

 has the strongest claim to reception ; and the beneficial result of the adminis- 

 tration of Alcohol in such conditions, and the large amount in which it may be 

 given with impunity, may probably be accounted for on this principle. That 

 it acts as a specific stimulus to the nervous system, cannot be doubted from its 

 effects on the healthy body ; but that it serves as a fuel to keep up the calori- 



