10 ON THE INFLUENCE 



teries and veins was seen to have its usual 

 colour. 



In this therefore, as in the preceding experi- 

 ments, the heat of the animal fell rapidly, 

 notwithstanding the continuance of the respira- 

 tion. In order to ascertain whether any heat at 

 all was generated by this process, I made the 

 following comparative experiment. The tem- 

 perature of the room being the same, I killed 

 the smaller rabbit by dividing the spinal chord 

 between the occiput and atlas. In consequence 

 of the difference of size, cceteris paribus, the heat 

 in this rabbit ought to dimmish more rapidly 

 than in the other ; and I therefore examined its 

 temperature at the end of 52 minutes, consider- 

 ing that this would be at least equivalent to ex- 

 amining that of the larger rabbit at the end of an 

 hour. At 52 minutes from the time of the smaller 

 rabbit being killed, the temperature among the 

 viscera of the abdomen was 92, and between 

 the lobes of the right lung it was 91. From 

 this experiment, therefore, it appeared not only 

 that no heat was generated in the rabbit, in 

 which the circulation was maintained by arti- 

 ficial respiration, but that it even cooled more 

 rapidly than the dead animal. 



At the suggestion of Professor Davy, who 

 took much interest in the enquiry, I repeated the 

 foregoing experiment on two animals, taking pains 

 to procure them more nearly of the same size 

 and colour. 



