AND ANIMAL LIFE. 371 



113. The heat of the parts was raised to 

 but could not be raised higher.* In another 

 experiment " the living and dead parts were 

 both immersed in water, gradually made warmer 

 and warmer, from 100 to 118, and continu- 

 ed in that heat for some minutes ; the dead 

 parts raised the thermometer to 114, while the 

 living raised it no higher than 102?. 



When the living parts were immersed in wa- 

 ter fourteen or fifteen degrees above the temper- 

 ature of the system, the heat which they, or more 

 correctly the blood, acquired, was quickly car- 

 ried into the system by the veins. The arterial 

 fluid subjected to this warm medium continual- 

 ly acquires additional heat, but this is imme- 

 diately transmitted by the veins ; and it is on 

 this account, and not from the existence of a pecu- 

 liar vital principle, that the living parts cannot be 

 heated beyond a few degrees. 



When cold was employed in the first experi- 

 ment the capillaries of the penis were powerful- 

 ly affected, because the return and transmission of 

 the blood were impeded ; but, in the present case, 

 the warm water facilitates both the return and 

 transmission of the blood, and therefore tends to pre- 

 serve the living parts from an inordinate rise of 

 temperature. There is a circumstance connected 

 with the present experiment, which beautifully 



* Ibid. p. 109. t Ibid. p. 110, 



A a 2 



