584 GENERAL REVIEW OF THE NUTRITIVE FUNCTIONS. 



secretions being renewed, under the influence of artificial heat, sometimes to 

 a considerable amount. It is not until Digestion has* actually taken place 

 (which, owing to the weakened functional power, is commonly many hours 

 subsequently to the ingestion of the food), that the animal regains its power of 

 generating heat ; so that, if the external source of heat is withdrawn, the body 

 at once cools : and it is not until the quantity of food actually digested is suffi- 

 cient to support the wants of the body, that its independent power of Calorifica- 

 tion returns. 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 pro- 

 vided for it, is consequently as certain a cause of death as it would have been 

 in the first instance. It can scarcely be questioned, from the similarity of the 

 phenomena, that Inanitiation, with its consequent depression of temperature, 

 is the immediate 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 artifi- 

 cial Heat might prolong life until it has passed off, just as artificial Respira- 

 tion is serviceable in cases of Narcotic Poisoning ( 74). It is especially, 

 perhaps, in those forms of Febrile disease, in which no decided lesion can be 

 discovered after death, that this view has the strongest claim to reception ; but 

 many other cases will occur to the intelligent Practitioner.* 



731. Having thus considered the means, by which the degree of Heat 

 necessary for the performance of the functions of the Human system is gene- 

 rated, we have to inquire how its temperature is prevented from being raised 

 too high ; in other words, what Frigorifying means there are, to counter- 

 balance the influence of causes, which in excess would otherwise be fatal, by 

 raising the heat of the body to an undue degree. How is it, for example, that 

 when a person enters a room whose atmosphere is heated to one or two hundred 

 degrees above his body, the latter does not partake of the elevation, even though 

 exposed to the heat for some time ? Or, since the inhabitants of a climate 

 where the thermometer averages 100 for many weeks together, are continu- 

 ally generating additional heat in their own bodies, how is it that this does not 

 accumulate, and raise them to an undue elevation ? The means provided by 

 Nature for cooling the body when necessary, are of the simplest possible cha- 

 racter. From the whole of its soft moist surface, simple Evaporation will take 

 place at all times, as from an inorganic body in the same circumstances ; and 

 the amount of this will be regulated merely by the condition of the atmosphere, 

 as to warmth and dryness. The more readily watery vapour can be dissolved 

 in atmospheric air, the more will be lost from the surface of the body in this 

 manner. In cold weather, very little is thus carried off, even though the air 

 be dry ; and a warm atmosphere, already charged with dampness, will be 

 nearly as ineffectual. But simple evaporation is not the chief means by which 

 the temperature of the body is regulated. The Skin, as already mentioned 

 ( 699), contains a large number of glandulse, the office of which is to secrete 

 an aqueous fluid ; and the amount of this Exhalation appears to depend solely 



* The beneficial result of the administration 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 is 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 Calorify- 

 ing process, appears equally certain. Now its great efficacy in such cases seems to 

 depend upon the readiness with which it will be taken into the Circulation, by a simple 

 act of Endosmotic Imbibition, when the special Absorbent process, dependent upon the 

 peculiar powers of the cells of the villi ( 462), are in abeyance. There is no other 

 combustible fluid, whose density, relatively to that of the Blood, will permit of its rapid 

 Absorption by the simple physical process adverted to. 



