DR. DAVY ON ANIMAL HEAT. 
59 
have an effect of the kind, supposing, which is possible, the blood-corpuscle and 
nucleus, or containing and contained part, to be in the electrical relation to each 
other of positive and negative. If it be objected to this, that as regards nuclei 
as well as size, there is an analogy between the blood- corpuscle of fishes, birds and 
reptiles, the temperature of which commonly is so very different, it may be answered, 
that in all these classes such a constitution of blood- corpuscle may be designed for 
the same end, and that birds partly owe their high temperature to it ; and that in 
reptiles and fishes, in most of which the proportion of red particles is small, were the 
constitution of blood-corpuscle different, it would be inadequate to perform the 
part required of it. 
II. On the Temperature of Man in advanced age. 
Not aware of any observations having been published on the temperature of man 
in advanced old age, I have been induced to institute some trials, the results of which 
I shall now briefly describe. 
1. 91 years of age; feeble on his legs, but in pretty good health; a native of 
Grasmere in Westmoreland, where he has always resided, in easy circumstances, 
cultivating his own land. In June, when the temperature of the air was 60°, a ther- 
mometer placed under the tongue rose to 99°*5 ; his hands were warm ; his pulse at 
the wrist 48, strong, intermitting. The observation was made at 2 p.m. ; he had dined 
at noon. On the 28th of the October following, his temperature was again tried, about 
the same time of day, when the open air was 42°, the air of his room 52° ; now, 
under the tongue, the thermometer was 98 0, 5 ; the pulse 56 ; his state of health much 
the same as before. 
2. 88 years of age, also a native of Grasmere, where he has mostly resided, as a 
day labourer ; is pretty firm on his feet, but troubled with chronic cough and diffi- 
culty of breathing. In June, when the temperature of the air was 60°, a thermometer 
placed under the tongue rose to 99 0, 5 ; his pulse was 56, and rather feeble ; he had 
dined three hours previously. On the 28th of October, an hour after dinner, when 
his pulse was 70, the thermometer under the tongue was 98° ; the air of the room 55°. 
In February, about three hours after dinner, when his pulse was 44 and feeble, the 
temperature under the tongue was 96°. This was on the 27th, the air then of his 
room was 44°; the open air about 32°, after a heavy fall of snow, and a sharp frost 
of several days’ duration. The old man was feebler than in the summer and autumn ; 
and though he did not complain of cold, his hand felt cold. 
3. The wife of the preceding, the mother of several children, 76 years of age ; 
hale for her years, but blind from cataract complicated with amaurosis. Her tem- 
perature, tried at the same time as her husband’s, in June, was found under the tongue 
to be 98 0, 5, her pulse 78, and pretty strong. Tried again in October, it was found 
to be 98°, with a pulse of 70 ; and again in February, on the 27th, it was found to be 
99° ; her pulse being 80. 
