AND ANIMAL LIFE. 369 



ing as they contribute to the support of the 

 whole system. The lungs, the heart, and the 

 blood-vessels exhibit these two conditions to 

 a greater extent than any other of the constitu- 

 tion. 



CCCCXLIV. Physiologists are continually di- 

 lating on the wonderful properties of the vital 

 principle, in resisting great heat or cold ; in ex- 

 erting itself, on extraordinary occasions, as if en- 

 dowed with consciousness, or fully aware of the 

 necessities which are present. But these indivi- 

 duals do not state, nor even endeavour to ex- 

 plain its nature, while they at the same time en- 

 tirely neglect to consider the physical conditions 

 of the system, whose changes will be found, from 

 the following observations, amply sufficient to 

 solve many of the seeming difficulties connected 

 with the subject. 



CCCCXLV. Many experiments were per- 

 formed by HUNTER which tended, according to 

 his reasoning, to prove, that the phenomena he 

 observed were to be attributed to a vital prin- 

 ciple, exempt from the conditions of matter ; and 

 the same experiments are brought forward by 

 other writers to enforce the same opinion. 



A dead penis, and one of a living person, both 

 of the temperature 92, were immersed in the 

 same vessel with water at 50.* He remarked, 



* Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy. 

 By JOHN HUNTER, p. 108. 



A a 



