36 CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS IN RELATION 



REGULAR AND IRREGULAR MOTIONS, 



If now the organism engender a certain amount of force in a given time, the 

 motions will be regular, if the force proceed from the spinal cord ; irregular, if one 

 apparatus have more force than another. If subsequently the motions of the blood 

 and respiration be accelerated, the consequence will be weakness in the limbs, or a 

 disturbance of the digestive functions. The extra force which the heart receives 

 in the acceleration of its action, cannot be applied to the other apparatus of 

 motion. 



After establishing the connection between the spinal cord and the effects of 

 motion, the relations of the latter to the phenomena of animal heat must next be 

 discussed. 



RELATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF ANIMAL HEAT TO THOSE 



OF MOTION. 



Observations show that the irregularity of the phenomena of motion is accom- 

 panied by a change in the phenomena of heat ; in many cases the subjective and 

 objective phenomena of heat rise and fall with the acceleration or retardation of 

 the indication of motion ; in other cases, again, both do not recur simultaneously in 

 the same relations. But the phenomena of motion become more regular by the 

 equalization of the indications of heat ; and, if the former are restored to a normal 

 state, the latter will show a proportionate degree of irregularity. If, now, it can 

 be shown that the effect of motion (speed) does not call forth heat, (as, for instance, 

 by friction,) it naturally follows, that heat and the phenomena of motion stand in 

 no nearer connection with each other, than the storm with the abnormal rise and 

 fall of the mercury in the barometer ; and that, consequently, the causes which 

 have influenced the one series of phenomena are simultaneous conditions of the 

 other series. If the amount of evolved heat, in a given time, stand in a definite rela- 

 tion to the number of blood corpuscles which have passed through the capillaries 

 in the same time, the source of heat must be sought in certain states of the blood- 

 corpuscles, or of the blood and the capillaries. 



RELATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF HEAT TO THE OXYGEN OF 



THE AIR. 



Since it is proved, by investigation, that the condition of the blood, by which it 

 may become a source of heat, consists in its power of taking up oxygen, and 

 since the oxygen thus taken up in a given time stands in a definite relation to the 

 number of inspirations within the same period, irregular effects of heat must be 

 dependent upon the respiratory motions, the contractions of the heart, and one 

 external cause and this is, the chemical action of oxygen. As the relation of 

 these three factors to each other is altered, the phenomena of heat must in like 

 manner change ; and when in certain parts of the organism the capacity of enter- 

 ing into combination with the oxygen increases from any superadded cause, more 

 heat will be evolved in that one part than in others. When, in accordance with 

 this, the motion of the circulation and respiration is accelerated, then will also the 

 amount of oxygen and liberated heat be increased, which is in accordance with 

 the beautiful law established by Vierordt. If the respiratory and circulatory 

 motions are accelerated in unequal relations, the subjective, or objective feeling of 

 warmth is changed. When all these relations are examined and obtained, we shall 

 not only be able to explain the individual symptoms of the fever, and, conse- 

 quently, the disease itself, but we shall then also be enabled to trace all to a filial 

 and sole cause (the cause of disease). This is the course of natural inquiry. 



