AND ANIMAL LIFE. 139 



mediate reduction cannot be denied to originate 

 from the determination of blood to the thoracic 

 and abdominal organs, and as the power which 

 occasioned this alteration is still applied to the 

 surface of the body, its depressing energy is still 

 great, because it has to act on the capillary vessels, 

 already enfeebled by their previous loss, but more 

 enfeebled by the deteriorated action of the heart 

 and lungs, whose office it is to supply them with 

 blood calculated from its properties to stimulate 

 the external circulation, and thereby to render 

 it superior to the influence of the cold ; but this 

 state of the economy being absent, the refrige- 

 rating power continues to operate, and as this 

 proceeds, unless reaction takes place, the effects 

 progressively increase to 40, 50, or 60. 



CXLVIII. The explanation of this and the 

 preceding phenomena does not require the con- 

 sideration of that unknown and much magnified 

 power, the vital principle. The path we have 

 pursued has been simple and straight-forward, 

 and the elucidation of the principles, if allowed 

 to be correct, is immediately brought to bear on 

 the purposes of life, while those views that have 

 been hitherto entertained on this subject have 

 little or no application to recommend them. 



CXLIX. From the preceding observations 

 it is evident, that the plan which Dr EDWARDS 

 has employed to estimate the faculty which an 

 animal possesses, at different ages, of generating 



