PECULIAR SECRETIONS. 385 
ly slow. In Mr Bropre’s experiments, in which respira- 
tion was kept up by artificial means, after the animal (a 
rabbit) had been killed, he found the heat of the body to 
diminish as rapidly as in a dead animal of the same kind, 
in which no attempts were made to keep up the respiration. 
Yet, in the animal in which artificial respiration was carried 
on the heart continued to beat for nearly two hours; the 
blood circuiated, and was changed from arterial into venous 
blood in the capillary vessels ; it was aérated in the lungs, 
and carbon given off equal in quantity to that whiclt is 
evolved in a natural state; and the aérated blood had the 
usual florid colour *. 
The changes which take place m the temperature of the 
body, in consequence of morbid states of the organs, are 
calculated to throw some light on this mysterious secretion. 
Where the nerves leading to particular members are com- 
pressed or injured, these soon become cold, in comparison 
with the rest of the body, although the circulation of the 
blood (the only means by which any heat is communicated to 
them) continues as usual. This is frequently exhibited in the 
case of paralytic limbs. Ina gentleman who was seized with 
an apoplectic fit, Hunrer says, that “ while he lay in- 
sensible in bed, and covered with blankets, I found that 
his whole body would, in an instant, become extremely 
cold in every part; continue so for some time ; and, in as 
short a time, he would become extremely hot. While this 
was going on for several hours alternately, there was no 
sensible alteration in his pulse +.” Dr Currte states an 
equally remarkable case: ‘‘ I have seen a young woman, 
once of the greatest delicacy of frame, struck with madness, 
lie all night on a cold floor, with hardly the covering that 
decency requires, when the water was frozen on the table 
by her, and the milk that she was to feed on was a mass 

* Phil. Trans. 1812, p. 378. + Ibid. 1775, p. 458. 
Bb 
