CHAP.it. §.V. NOT DUE TO THEEMO-ELECTEIO ACTIONS. 49 



contain a cation — to be alkaline — to account for the 

 catalytic action, or if not in an alkaline state, still in 

 such a state as to combine readily with the oxygen 

 of the atmosphere. Now this latter state we are 

 necessarily driven to entertain, when supposing, 

 which no physiologist will deny, that the blood, 

 during secretion, undergoes a change similar to that 

 of decomposition". 



Secondly, as to Thermo-electric actions. Beg-. 

 QUEEEL" and Beeschet, as is well known, have shewn 

 that different parts of a living animal are of different 

 temperatures ; but it must be borne in mind, that 

 their experiments were intended to elucidate thermo- 

 electric actions, and might not, therefore, be re- 

 garded as comparable with the present. Although 

 it would be ' considered rather a stretch of the 

 imagination to suppose that the effects can be 

 referred to thermo-electric actions, since no effect 

 was obtained when the electrodes were inserted into 

 the vena porta and hepatic veins, as in former 

 experiments, or even in the experiments of Mdllee, 

 between the corresponding arteries and veins, still, 

 it is for physiologists to shew that the effects cannot 

 be referred entirely to these actions. To assist in 

 deciding this question, the following experiments 

 were undertaken. 



A porcelain jar, 3 inches and a half in diameter 



■ It is not necessary to point out in what manner, whether 

 by parent-cells or seoreting-cells. 



o Traitfi de rBleotricit^, torn. yii. p. 20. 

 E 



