38 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



spectability and talents of this gentleman attach 

 consequence to his physiological investigations; 

 but his contributions connected with the pre- 

 sent subject are far from being satisfactory. He 

 has the credit of having presented a number of 

 facts, new, interesting, andimportantto the profes- 

 sion ; but, in the endeavour to explain these, he 

 has unfortunately overlooked obvious causes, 

 and has attempted to ascend to others of a myste- 

 rious or indefinite character. 



After relating several experiments on rabbits, 

 all of which were inflated, and having observed 

 that those which were killed by poison, or which 

 had the spinal cord destroyed, for the purpose of 

 depriving the animal of all sensorial influence, 

 cooled more rapidly than others in which the 

 nervous system was uninjured, he remarks : 

 " The facts now, as well as those formerly ad- 

 duced, go far towards proving that the tempe- 

 rature of warm-blooded animals is considerably 

 under the influence of the nervous system." 



L. For a considerable period, I have devot- 

 ed my time almost exclusively to one subject of 

 experimental physiology, viz. that of animal 

 heat ; and having performed a great number of 

 experiments, modified in almost every pos- 

 sible way, I shall select a few for the examina- 

 tion of those interested in the subject. Before 

 I bring them forward, it is necessary to state 

 that, having an objection to the employment of 



