ANIMAL HEAT. 125 



carbon with oxygen gas, arid their conversion 

 into carbonic acid ? Neither of these problems 

 do I undertake to solve ; my object being, as I 

 have observed elsewhere, not to advance opinions, 

 but simply to state some facts which I met with 

 in the course of my physiological investigations. 

 I venture, however, to offer the following sug- 

 gestions : 



It has been shown by Mr. Grove * that there is 

 great reason to believe that the physical forces 

 to which we refer the ever varying phenomena of 

 inorganic nature, such as light, heat, motion, 

 magnetism, and chemical affinity, are in a state 

 of mutual relation ; so that under certain cir- 

 cumstances one of these forces is capable of pro- 

 ducing, or being converted into, another. And 

 Mr. Grove has further suggested that the prin- 

 ciples and mode of reasoning on which his " ob- 

 servations are founded, may be applied to the 

 organic as well as the inorganic world, and that 

 muscular force, animal and vegetable heat, &c., 

 may, and sometimes will be shown to have, 

 similar definite correlations." Supposing these 

 views to be correct, may it not be that the union 

 of carbon with oxygen gas, which, under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, is immediately followed by 

 the evolution of heat, is, in the living body, pro- 

 ductive of a different result, (such as the inainte- 



* The Correlation of Physical Forces, by W. R. Grove, 

 M. A., F. R. S., 2nd edition, 1850. See also Dr. Carpen- 

 ter's Memoir " On the mutual Relations of the Vital and 

 Physical Forces," in the Philosophical Transactions, 1850. 



