PHYSIOLOGY OF ORGANIC LIFE. 125 



iinited power of both, it is preserved in a state 

 fitted to answer the ends for which it is de- 

 signed ; instead, however, of supposing that 

 the lungs act upon the air, it is supposed that 

 it is the air which acts upon the lungs, and, 

 like the action of the food upon the stomach, 

 that it is a chemical, not a living act. 



Instead of separating the function of respira- 

 tion in general, as it ought to" be, into inspiration 

 by which air is received into the lungs into 

 digestion, by which particular portions of it are 

 separated from the rest, and received into the 

 blood for its melioration and support ; and, 

 finally, into expiration, by which the residuary 

 and feculent parts are expelled from the sys- 

 tem: the process of respiration, on the con- 

 trary, is confined to inspiration and expiration 

 only. I shall not dwell upon the multitude of 

 cruel experiments, which have been made on 

 cats and dogs, in order to ascertain the quality 

 of the different materials which are received 

 and expelled : in spite of all the means which 

 bave been employed, these chemical physiolo- 

 gists continue at variance, and have not yet 

 settled whether oxygen air, or caloric, is ob- 

 sorbed. The late experiments made, without 

 the aid of torture, by two eminent chemists, 

 MESSRS. ALLEN and PEPYS, upon this subject, 

 would seem to disprove all the experiments 

 that have been made before : they go to show 



