EXPERIMENTS OF MAGENDIE. 1015 



tions of opium, arsenic, and even hydrocyanic 

 acid, have been injected into the veins, with the 

 view of curing hydrophobia. In his Lectures on 

 the Blood, Magendie states, that by injecting 

 simple water or the serum of blood into the veins 

 of dogs, he produced difficult breathing, stupor, 

 apoplexy of the lungs, a dissolved condition of 

 the blood, convulsions, and death ; yet he informs 

 us that he treated a case of hydrophobia by in- 

 jecting two litres of tepid water into the veins. 

 (Lancet, December, 1838.) And he observes in 

 another place, that " so great is our ignorance of 

 those physiological derangements called diseases, 

 that it would, perhaps, be better to do nothing, 

 and resign the complaints we are called on to 

 treat to the resources of nature, than to act as we 

 are frequently compelled to do, without knowing 

 the why and wherefore of our conduct, and at the 

 obvious risk of hastening the end of the patient/' 

 I would add, that when the attainment of certain 

 knowledge is possible, it is an act of criminal 

 ignorance, next to manslaughter, to practise on 

 the lives of our fellow beings, without knowing 

 the why and wherefore of our conduct. 



4. When the temperature of the body is reduced 

 several degrees below the natural standard, as during 

 the cold stage of intermittent fever, there is a con- 

 stricted state of the skin, chattering of the teeth, 

 trembling of the limbs, and a spasmodic state of 

 the whole system, as when exposed to a very cold 



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