66*8 THEORY OF SECRETION. 



the natural termination of the hot stage of fever : 

 2. That in cows, goats, and other domestic ani- 

 mals, the secretion of milk is more abundant 

 during summer than winter, especially in cold 

 climates, and that the growth of all young ani- 

 mals is greatly retarded by cold weather, unless 

 they be protected by suitable shelter: 3. That 

 the menstrual secretion, like that of the skin, is 

 checked by exposure to cold damp air, getting the 

 feet wet, by wearing too thin garments, and by 

 whatever causes the abstraction* of vital heat 

 from the system more rapidly than it is obtained 

 by respiration ; or whenever the latter process is 

 diminished by the depressing emotions of grief, 

 fear, and anxiety, which are attended with cold 

 extremities, languid circulation, and a general loss 

 of vital energy : 4. That as the quantity of secre- 

 tion throughout the vegetable world is always in 

 proportion to the heating influence of the sun, 

 and wholly arrested during winter so are all the 

 secretions of animals during health, in proportion 

 to the amount of caloric they derive from the at- 



* The menstrual secretion also diminishes from the tropical re- 

 gions, where it amounts to twenty-four ounces, and sometimes 

 more or less, to the warm climate of Greece, where, according to 

 Hippocrates, the average is twenty ounces ; whereas in the middle 

 latitudes of Europe and America, it does not exceed six or eight 

 ounces, and not above three or four iri the Polar regions. As 

 might be inferred from this difference, the women are said to be 

 more amative in warm than in temperate, and least so in frozen 

 climates, where sensibility is at zero. 



