PECULIAR SECRETIONS. 385 



ly slow. In Mr BUDDIE'S experiments, in which respira- 

 tion was kept up by artificial means, after the animal (a 

 rabbit) had been killed, he found the heat of the body to 

 diminish as rapidly as in a dead animal of the same kind, 

 in which no attempts were made to keep up the respiration. 

 Yet, in the animal in which artificial respiration was carried 

 on the heart continued to beat for nearly two hours ; the 

 blood circulated, and was changed from arterial into venous 

 blood in the capillary vessels ; it was aerated in the lungs, 

 and carbon given off equal in quantity to that which is 

 evolved in a natural state ; and the aerated blood had the 

 usual florid colour *. 



The changes which take place in the temperature of the 

 body, in consequence of morbid states of the organs, are 

 calculated to throw some light on this mysterious secretion. 

 Where the nerves leading to particular members are com- 

 pressed or injured, these soon become cold, in comparison 

 with the rest of the body, although the circulation of the 

 blood (the only means by which any heat is communicated to 

 them) continues as usual. This is frequently exhibited in the 

 case of paralytic limbs. In a gentleman who was seized with 

 an apoplectic fit, HUNTER says, that " while he lay in- 

 sensible in bed, and covered with blankets, I found that 

 his whole body would, in an instant, become extremely 

 cold in every part ; continue so for some time ; and, in as 

 short a time, he would become extremely hot. While this 

 was going on for several hours alternately, there was no 

 sensible alteration in his pulse )-." Dr CURHIE states an 

 equally remarkable case : " I have seen a young woman, 

 once of the greatest delicacy of frame, struck with madness, 

 lie all night on a cold floor, with hardly the covering that 

 decency requires, when the water was frozen on the table 

 by her, and the milk that she was to feed on was a mass 



Phil. Trans. 1812, p. 378. f Ibid. 177.5, p. 158. 



Bb 



