LECTURE I. 31 



Mr. Ellis, who with such great industry 

 and intelligence has collated all the scat- 

 tered evidences relative to the production 

 of heat in living bodies, and added so 

 much to the collected knowledge, seems to 

 think that all the phaenomena of the vari- 

 ations of temperature in them, may be ac- 

 counted for by known chemical processes. 

 Here, however, I must observe, that Mr. 

 Hunter's opinion of life having the power 

 of regulating temperature was deduced, not 

 only from his experiments related in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, but also from 

 observing, that in certain affections of the 

 stomach, the heat of the body is subject to 

 great vicissitudes, whilst respiration and 

 circulation remain unaltered ; and also that 

 parts of the body are subject to similar 

 variations, which appear inexplicable upon 

 any other supposition than that of local 

 nervous excitement or torpor, or some 

 similar affections of the vital powers of the 

 part which undergoes such transitions. His 

 views with respect to this subject are con- 

 firmed by the late experiments of Mr. 



