ANIMAL HEAT. 233 



our bountiful Maker has given to us, enables us 

 to clothe all our ideas and varieties of thought and 

 feelings in equally varied tones and language. 

 Other animals have voice also, but the want of rea- 

 son confines its use to the expression of their sim- 

 plest wants. 



During a severe cold when the vocal organs are 

 inflamed and thickened, our voice is hoarse and 

 indistinct ; and if the parts are so much swollen as 

 to prevent their usual action, our voice is lost, and 

 we speak in a whisper. 



The warmth of our bodies is a very wonderful 

 circumstance. It is called animal heat, and de- 

 pends on respiration. By this heat, we are pre- 

 served at nearly the same temperature, whatever 

 the nature of the climate may be around us. This 

 is confined to the animal kingdom. 



If we examine a mineral or a vegetable, we shall 

 always find it just of the same heat as the air, 

 whilst our own body never varies more than three 

 or four degrees from 96 of the thermometer ; and 

 this, whether we are surrounded by an atmosphere 

 many degrees below the freezing point, or by one 

 nearly as hot as boiling water. 



Now this is a very remarkable fact, and shows 

 how wonderfully we are constituted, thus to resist 

 the influence of changes from heat to cold which 

 must have proved fatal to us, or confined us to a 

 particular climate like many animals, or forced us 

 to migrate at certain seasons. It is this, together 

 with the power of accommodating ourselves by 



