ON BODY TEMPERATURE 497 



of the mean temperature. The other great means, viz. 

 the process of respiration, of allowing the escape or dis- 

 charge of caloric, and of regulating body temperature, 

 might be described a little in detail. The air passages of 

 the human body, and of those of the mammalia generally, 

 comprise the nasal passages, including the pneumatic spaces 

 of the face and head, the mouth, the pharynx, the larynx, 

 the trachea, the bronchial tubes, and the pulmonary 

 vesicles surely a list of anatomical spaces of great 

 variety and complexity, and comprising at once a series 

 of pneumatic tubes and chemical chambers, where, besides 

 facilities for gaseous diffusion and chemical reactions, a 

 caloric adjustment apparatus is provided, which, acting 

 synchronously, and in concert with the other means of 

 adjustment, plays an important part, perhaps only second 

 to the skin, in the maintenance of the standard of body 

 temperature. Here, in the " regions of calm," amid the 

 air spaces of the face and head and throughout the narrow 

 but wide expanse of the minute bronchial and vesicular 

 spaces of the pulmonary organs, unaffected by the exigen- 

 cies of respiratory effort, where the residual air "lingers" 

 we have an ample theatre adapted, the means provided, 

 and every facility afforded by which, besides chemical 

 interchange, the great function of caloric disposal and 

 regulation can be effected with exactitude and safety. 



The maintenance of a mean, or standard, body tem- 

 perature by the disposal of surplus caloric, and the equal 

 distribution of cerebro-spinal lymph or fluid being accom- 

 plished by the synchronous and duplex working of the 

 same machinery, acting in its double capacity of caloric 

 discharger and lymph circulator, the proper adjustment 

 and working of this machinery, therefore, become a matter 

 of the greatest importance in disease. 



Force and matter, in their inter-dependent relations to 

 each other within the living body, circulate through the 

 same channels, work by the same mechanisms, and when 

 kept within normal limits, yield the highest results, and 

 perform the best work for their respective and combined 

 materio-dynamic expenditures. 



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