648 



ANIMAL HEAT. 



ferior animals, Mammalia, as well as birds, 

 reptiles, and fishes.* 



States of the blood in the heart after death. 

 What appears to be the natural state of the 

 contents of the heart after death is as follows. 

 The right auricle contains a coagulum of dark 

 blood, and the right ventricle contains a similar 

 one, of less size ; a very small quantity of coa- 

 gulum or of fluid blood is found in the left 

 cavities, and it is not uncommon to find a coa- 

 gulum extending into the aorta ; white coagula 

 are often found in these cavities. Sometimes 

 these coagula, especially at the right side, 

 adhere closely to the wall of the cavity in which 

 they are situated, and appear as it were 

 moulded upon it, sinking into the interstices 

 between the fleshy columns, so as to render it 

 difficult to remove them. The modification 

 which we most frequently meet with in this 

 state of the heart's contents, is that in cases of 

 asphyxia; affording, however, merely an in- 

 stance of aggravation, if I may so speak, of the 

 natural state ; the right cavities and the vessels 

 leading to and from them are gorged with dark 

 blood, liquid or coagulated, while the left cavi- 

 ties are nearly empty. Such states of the 

 heart's cavities, it is obvious, are formed in 

 articulo mortis. Fibrinous masses, either mixed 

 with or deprived of the colouring matter of the 

 blood, have been many times found, which it 

 cannot be doubted were formed in the heart some 

 time prior to death, and probably gave rise to 

 symptoms of a serious nature; these are the 

 true polypous concretions of the heart. The 

 manner in which Mr. Allan Burns, one of our 

 earliest British writers on the heart, explains 

 the formation of some of these concretions, is 

 deserving of attention. " If," he says, " we 

 strictly scrutinize all the reputed cases of poly- 

 pus in the heart, we shall reduce the real ex- 

 amples of this affection to a very limited num- 

 ber indeed. Still we shall leave a few, where 

 there is reason to believe that the concretion 

 had been formed a very considerable time be- 

 fore death : but it must be understood, that 

 these concretions are seldom found except in 

 hearts otherwise diseased. In health, the blood 

 does not tarry for any length of time in either 

 the heart or vessels; it is incessantly in motion, 

 circulating with greater or less rapidity, accord- 

 ing to the state of the heart and arteries. The 

 blood never in health remains so long in con- 

 tact with the surfaces of the heart, as to allow 

 of its being changed by their action. In some 

 diseases of this organ, irregular actions are ex- 

 cited by very trifling causes ; the blood stag- 

 nates longer in the heart than it usually does or 

 ought to do, while here it undergoes changes 

 by the reciprocal action of the blood on the 

 heart and the heart on the blood ; new organized 

 matter is deposited, and adheres to the parietes 

 of the cavity in which it is lodged. This con- 

 cretion slowly increases, the first particle acting 

 as the exciting cause for the deposition of the 

 second, and so on." 



The strongest evidence of the formation of 



* For a list of the references to such cases, see 

 South's edit, of Otto, Path. Anat. p. 293. 



such coagula some time before death consists 

 in their being organised : in a case recorded by 

 the v\riter from whom the preceding passage 

 was quoted, a large and fully organised polypus 

 was found in the right auricle; its attachment 

 was by a rough surface to the musculi pectinati, 

 and its body hung down into the right ventricle. 

 It very much resembled a nasal polypus, and 

 it was so firmly fixed to the heart, that it allow- 

 ed the whole mass of the heart and a consider- 

 able portion of the lungs to be suspended by it, 

 without showing any tendency to separate. It 

 was pendulous and tapered from below up- 

 ward ; its structure was dense and lamellated, 

 and not a single red globule entered into its 

 composition." In this case, as in other similar 

 ones quoted by Andral, the adhesion of the po- 

 lypus seemed due to an inflammation of the 

 endocardium, either excited by the contact, or 

 before the formation of the coagulum. That 

 such coagula may be permeated by bloodves- 

 sels is proved by the cases of Bouillaud and 

 Rigacci, quoted by Andral: in the latter cases, 

 these reddish filaments passed from thecolumnae 

 carneae and entered the substance of the poly- 

 pous mass : they had all the appearance of 

 bloodvessels, and when injected with mercury 

 were found to divide into a number of small 

 branches that ramified through the substance of 

 the polypus. By careful dissection it was as- 

 certained that the tumour was formed altogether 

 of a mass of fibrine, such as is found in the sac 

 of arterial aneurisms Pus is occasionally found 

 in the centre of these fibrinous concretions, but 

 whether carried to the heart in the blood, and 

 accidentally enclosed in the coagulum during 

 its solidification, or formed in the coagulum by 

 some action within it, it is impossible to decide. 

 Osseous and cartilaginous deposits too have been 

 found in them, as in the case from Burns, in 

 which one of these polypi was ossified in several 

 points, and so perfectly organized that on inflat- 

 ing the coronary vein, a number of minute ves- 

 sels on the surface and in the substance of the 

 tumour became distended with air. 



( R. B. Todd.) 



HEAT, ANIMAL. Judging merely by 

 our sensations, we should infallibly conclude 

 that our bodies undergo very considerable 

 changes of temperature. This belief was in- 

 deed necessarily entertained previously to the 

 time when natural philosophy had discovered 

 a means of ascertaining the true state of the 

 matter. The application of the thermometer 

 has dissipated the error. But then error of an 

 opposite kind was run into, and the results of 

 a very limited number of observations led men 

 to conclude that the temperature of the human 

 body was invariable or nearly so. Still the 

 measures of temperature given by different ob- 

 servers did not perfectly accord, though each 

 presented his conclusions as the temperature 

 of the race. It was but reasonable to imagine 

 that these discrepancies arose not from any want 

 of accuracy in observation, but from diversities 

 inherent in the subjects observed. This is 

 now known to be the case. But though proofs 

 of this truth have been greatly multiplied, the 



