26 



the influence of a temperature of 59 to 72 or 73 F., (15 to 22 

 or 23 Cs.) rarely more, and sometimes less. Therefore these 

 animals are exposed to a temperature sufficiently low to render 

 them torpid, for that temperature may produce that effect on 

 the hybernating animals of cold countries. 



From these facts I believe it is right to conclude that torpidity 

 is induced in the tenrec, in the same way as in the other hyber- 

 nating mammals, and therefore it is not necessary to suppose 

 that warmth and dryness produce torpidity. 



VIII ON THE INFLUENCE OF POISONS UPON ANIMAL HEAT AS A 



CAUSE OF DEATH. 



Provost and Chossat, and after them, M. Magendie, have 

 ascertained that death occurs quickly in mammals when their 

 temperature is notably diminished. My experiments confirm 

 the correctness of that statement. The diminution of animal 

 heat in mammals, is so dangerous that, in one case, I have seen 

 death take place in a rabbit after a diminution of only 22 F. 

 (12 Cs.) I have never observed any animal continuing to live 

 when I had diminished its temperature more than 44 F. (24.5 

 Cs.) I have found the law established by Chossat perfectly correct, 

 according to which the diminution of animal heat necessary for 

 killing is less and less, in proportion to the rapidity with which 

 that diminution takes place. 



It is very probable that in all the cases where, in consequence 

 either of disease, or of a wound, or of poison, the tem- 

 perature of man is diminished many degrees, his life is in 

 danger from the very fact of that diminution. It is thus in 

 cholera, in sclerema, in certain cases of palsy, in cases of great 

 disturbance of the respiration, in fractures and luxations of the 

 vertebral column, in the cervical, and even in the dorsal regions, 

 in cases of profuse haemorrhage, and in many cases of poisoning 

 when death is not rapidly produced. 



It has been long known that temperature is diminished in 

 poisoned persons ; and there are but few cases of poisoning on 

 record in which it is not said that the patient was cold. Chos- 

 sat has found that a dog, into whose veins he had injected 

 opium, had its temperature diminished from 105 to 62.6 F. 

 (40.3 to 17 Cs.), 22 hours after the injection. Brodie has 



