t II2 ] 
ciety the following fhort account of fome of thefe expe- 
riments, and of the views with which they were underta- 
ken; for the particulars of which I am obliged to Dr. 
FORDYCE himfelf. 
DR. CULLEN long ago fuggefted many arguments to 
fliew, that life itfelf had a power of generating heat, in- 
dependent of any common chemical or mechanical 
■yneans ; for, before his time, the received opinions were, 
that the heat of animals arofe either from fridtion or fer- 
mentation w. Governor ellis in the year 1758 ob- 
fervedr^;, that a man can live in air of a greater heat than 
that of his body ; and that the body, in this fituation, con- 
tinues its own cold. The Abbe chappe d’auteroche 
informs us, that the Ruffians ufe their baths heated to 
of REAUMUR’S thermometer, about 160 of Fah- 
renheit’s, without taking notice, however, of the heat 
of their bodies when bathing. With a view to add 
further evidence to thefe extraordinary fa61s, and to af- 
certain the real effedls of fuch great degrees of heat on 
(h) To do furttier juft ice to the philofophy of this moft ingenious and refpec- 
table profeffor, I muft here declare, that during my ftay in Edinburgh, from 
the year 1765 to 1769, the idea of a power in animals of generating cold (that was 
the expreffion) when the heat of the atmofphere exceeded the .proper temperature 
of their bodies, was pretty generally received among the ftudents of phyfic, from 
Dr. Cullen’s arguments ; in confequence of which I applied a thermometer, in 
a hot fummer-clay, to the belly of a^frog, and found the quicklilver fink feveral 
degrees ; a rude experiment indeed, but ferving to confirm the. general faft, tliat 
the living body poffeffes a power of refilling the communication of heat. 
(c) Philofophical Tranfa£llons, vol. L. p. 755* 
(d) Voy. en Siberie, tom, I. p. 51, 
the 
