PROCESS OF CALORIFICATION IN ANIMAL BODIES. 173 
but in the next season suffer to a greater extent than those 
who have been acclimated. 
Mr. Rogers Harrison referred to the experience of men and 
horses in racing, to show that the animal heat does not abso- 
lutely correspond to the degree of muscular exertion. A man 
or an animal, to run with the utmost speed, must have been 
previously entirely deprived of fat, that is, of the substance 
by which, on the chemical theory, the animal heat is pro- 
duced. 
Dr. Chowne agreed with some of the speakers in the belief 
that conditions do exist which cannot be accounted for on the 
chemical theory. Thus, a cholera patient will become colder 
than the surrounding medium ; and it would be easier to 
warm a marble block, than to raise the temperature of his 
body. He believed, that the vital principle must be presumed 
to have some influence in the production of heat. 
Dr. Cogswell quoted John Hunter’s expression in reference 
to the stomach, and reminded the Fellows, that the human 
body is not a mere furnace. Moreover, vitality should not be 
confounded with nervous force, as he had shown on a previous 
occasion in reference to muscular fibre. It was worthy of 
remark, that Napoleon’s Italian soldiers suffered less than 
others in the Russian campaign. 
Mr. Richardson , in reply, strongly recommended attention 
to Samuel Metcalfe’s almost unknown work on caloric. He 
also stated, that if the chemical theory does not account for 
every fact, it is because we cannot collect all the products of 
combustion. The function of combustion is even more per- 
fect in pneumonia than in a state of health ; and therefore the 
temperature of the room should not exceed 55 ° or 60°. The 
coldness observed in the dying, and in persons suffering from 
injury, is probably attributable to the failure of the circula- 
tion. In racing animals, the muscular waste is in proportion 
to the amount of respiration and circulation ; for if such 
animal runs violently, there is no increase in the fibrin of the 
blood ; but if he remains at rest, and yet the breathing be 
accelerated, that substance does increase in quantity. The 
coldness in cholera cases is because the internal fire is ex- 
tinguished. The body will not absorb warmth ; we must 
re-kindle the dying embers. — Medical Times , Jan. 14, 1854. 
xxvi I. 
