612 CALORIC THE PRIMARY CAUSE 



Nerv. System, p. 70, Lancet, February, 1835, p. 

 686.) It would be useless to attempt a formal re- 

 futation of a theory that contradicts itself, and 

 which is in fact unanswerable because unintelli- 

 gible. For if it be true, that in the functions of 

 the spinal marrow, there is no sensation, nor con- 

 sciousness, how can it be the seat of the appetites 

 and passions ? Or if respiration and the action of 

 the sphincters be not subject to the voluntary 

 power of the brain ; why is it that during apo- 

 plexy, coma, and typhus, or concussion of the 

 brain, respiration is nearly suspended, and the 

 sphincters so far relaxed that the discharges 

 are involuntary ? 



Whenever the temperature of warm blooded 

 animals is reduced 20 or 30 below the natural 

 standard, by surrounding them with ice-cold 

 water, the blood loses its florid hue, the surface 

 becomes purple or livid, the action of the heart 

 languid, the secretions are arrested, the brain 

 refuses to perform its office, and the voluntary 

 muscles are seized with spasms, or become para- 

 lytic, without the loss of oxygen, electricity, or 

 any other agent, except caloric ; and if kept long 

 in this situation, the heart ceases to beat, the 

 crimson tide of life to run, and all the powers of 

 motion are at an end. The graceful form of the 

 rounded limbs is exchanged for sharp or pro- 

 minent angles, the cheeks become pale and 

 shrunken, the lustre of the speaking eye is gone, 



