AND ANIMAL LIFE. 1451 



summer to winter, as from winter to summer, 

 on account of the unprepared state of the circa* 

 lation to adapt itself to such alterations. To ob- 

 viate such evil consequences, spring and autumn 

 are given. The mild and enlivening influence of 

 spring may be said to give motion, and, at the 

 same time, security to the different fluids to dif- 

 fuse themselves, by which means animated Na- 

 ture is almost imperceptibly adapted to bear the 

 more stimulating power of summer ; and when 

 this season has performed its revolution, the ex- 

 ternal capillary circulation is modified by the in- 

 fluence of autumn, and is thus prepared by the 

 most gentle degrees to sustain the keen air of 

 winter. 



CLVII. If proofs were required to strengthen 

 this opinion, it would not be difficult to adduce 

 facts that strongly corroborate its validity. We 

 observe, in a variety of instances, when the tran- 

 sitions of seasons are abrupt, a train of conse- 

 quences that beautifully harmonizes with the 

 principles propounded. It sometimes happens, 

 while the external character of the circulation is 

 maintained by the warm days of autumn, that 

 the cold bleak winds of this season suddenly set 

 in ; and when this occurs the circulation is taken 

 ~by surprise, the blood is quickly determined to 

 the internal organs,/re?7z the enlarged surface which 

 it offers to the influence of cold, giving rise to the 

 various forms of catarrh, inflammation of 



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