THEORY OF RESPIRATION. 275 



as before, to the heart and intestines the power 

 necessary for their functions. This power they will 

 receive from the muscular system, while, as no 

 change of matter takes place in the latter, the 

 supply must soon fail. As no change of matter 

 occurs, no lifeless compounds are separated, neither 

 bile nor urine can be formed ; and the temperature 

 of the body must sink. 



This state of matters soon puts a stop to the 

 process of nutrition, and, sooner or later, death must 

 follow, but unaccompanied by febrile symptoms, 

 which, in this case, is a very important fact. 



This example has been selected in order to shew 

 the importance and probable advantage of an exa- 

 mination of the blood in analogous diseased condi- 

 tions. It cannot be, in the slightest degree, doubtful 

 that the function ascribed to the blood globules 

 may be considered as fully explained and cleared 

 up, if, in such morbid conditions, we shall discover 

 a change in their form, structure, or chemical cha- 

 racters, a change which must be recognizable by the 

 use of appropriate re-agents. 



If we consider the force which determines the 

 vital phenomena as a property of certain substances, 

 this view leads of itself to a new and more rigorous 

 consideration of certain singular phenomena, which 

 these very substances exhibit, in circumstances in 

 which they no longer make a part of living or- 

 ganisms. 



