ON ANIMAL IIK AT. 
557 
Perhaps you may think this not worth reporting in The V ete- 
rinarian ; but as it interests the farmer, or rather his “good 
housewife,” it may be on that score worth accepting, more espe- 
cially as our Journal does not confine itself to the diseases of one 
animal, but extends to every class, from the stable to the poultry 
yard. It is also the duty of all of us to attend to every class of 
animals, no matter how inferiorly linked in the order of living 
beings ; for there is, to the natural philosopher, as much plea- 
sure in contemplating the habits of the smaller as the larger 
animal, and as much instruction afforded in their comparative 
habits. 
ON ANIMAL HEAT; 
COMPRISING AN ATTEMPT TO RECONCILE THE FACTS AT* 
. TENDANT ON ITS DEVELOPMENT, WITH A PHYSICAL 
PRINCIPLE OPERATING TO PRODUCE IT HITHERTO 
OVERLOOKED. 
By Mr. Jam es W. Winter, M.R.C.S.L., Guildford. 
[We deem these observations on Animal Heat exceedingly 
valuable. There is much important matter contained in them, 
and none of our readers will rise from their perusal without 
pleasure and improvement. — Ed.] 
A considerable share of experimental research and philo- 
sophic attention has been directed, at different periods, to the 
discovery of the causes operating within the living animal, by 
which it acquires and maintains an independent heat, so wonder- 
fully regular in its supply and consumption. 
Amongst the illustrious men who have endeavoured to with- 
draw the veil with which nature has enveloped this remarkable 
process are found Boyle, Priestley, Black, Hunter, Home, Craw- 
ford, Lavoisier, Franklin, Davy, Brodie, and Magendie, — a satis- 
factory proof that the investigation has not been hitherto considered 
valueless. Did the laws which regulate the thermal properties 
of animals admit of direct proof, — if it were possible satisfacto- 
rily to ascertain by what powers they are governed, — the infer- 
ences from such data, could they be established, would be of 
the first importance to the physiologist and practical medical 
man. “An inquiry,” says Crawford, “into the causes which 
VOL. xvi. 4 F 
