148 NATURE AND LIFE. 



which he has just published the results. This physiologist 

 used a pine box, divided into two parts by a grating, on 

 which the animal subjected to the experiment is placed. 

 The box rests on a cast-iron plate, and the whole is ar- 

 ranged on a furnace which warms the air of the apparatus 

 more or less. A window, placed in the side of the box, 

 allows the head of the animal to be fixed outside of it at 

 will. Examining animals, subjected under these conditions 

 to the influence of air more or less warm, Bernard verified 

 the first observations of Berger and Delaroche, and made 

 new and more important ones. Boerhaave had given as 

 the cause of death the application of hot air to the lungs, 

 preventing the cooling of the blood. Bernard showed by 

 experiments that hot air, acting on the skin, creates a rise 

 of temperature more rapidly fatal than when this fluid is 

 merely introduced into the pulmonary vessels. He proved 

 also that, when the hot air is damp, the phenomena take a 

 more rapid course, and death occurs much more quickly 

 and at a lower temperature, than in dry air. This difference 

 must result from the fact that dampness promotes a rise in 

 temperature. 



When an animal is subjected to the poisoning effects 

 of heat, it presents a series of uniform and characteristic 

 phenomena. It is at first a little disturbed, then panting, 

 its movements of respiration and circulation accelerate, it 

 grows slowly hotter through the circulation, which, carrying 

 the blood continually from the surface to the centre, bears 

 heat also along with it, then at a given moment it falls into 

 convulsions, the beating of its heart ceases, and it dies 

 uttering a cry. By means of the thermometer it is noted 

 that the temperature of the animal, in every case, is higher 

 by four or five degrees (cent.) than the figure which repre- 

 sents the normal warmth. Thus at first the animal is ex- 

 cited, its functions seem to be performed with fresh vigor, 

 very much as, in the first rays of April sunshine, the pul- 



