The same phenomena take place when phosphorus is burned in oxygen gas; the gas becomes diminished, the phosphorus increased, in weight, and converted into an acid, and a great quantity of heat is given out. The same is the case when charcoal is burned in this gas. In short, in every instance of combustion, the oxygen combines with the combustible body, and at the same time gives out its heat, which supported it in the form of gas. This is the case of the combustion of coal in a common fire, as well as in other cases of combustion; the heat comes from the air, and not from the coal.
When we examine the phenomena of respiration with attention, we shall find them very analogous to those of combustion. A candle will not burn in an exhausted receiver: an animal in the same situation ceases to live.
When a candle is confined in a given quantity of atmospheric air, it will burn only for a certain length of time. On examining the air in which it has been burned, the oxygen is found to be all extracted, nothing remaining but azotic gas, and a quantity of carbonic acid gas, produced by the union of the charcoal of the candle with the oxygen of the atmospheric air.
In the same manner, if an animal be confined in a given quantity of atmospheric air, it will live only a short time; on examining the air in which it has ceased to live, it will be found to have lost its oxygen: what remains being a mixture of azotic and carbonic acid gases.
When a candle is enclosed in a given quantity of pure oxygen gas, it will burn four times as long as in the same quantity of atmospheric air.
In the same manner it has been proved, that an animal will be four times as long in consuming a given quantity of pure oxygen gas, as in rendering unfit for respiration the same quantity of atmospheric air.
Here then we observe a striking similarity between combustion and animal respiration. The ancients seem to have had a more accurate idea of respiration than most of the philosophers who followed them. They supposed that the air contained a principle proper for the support and nourishment of life, which they called pabulum vitae. This idea, which was unconnected with any hypothesis, was followed by systems destitute of foundation. Sometimes it was thought that the air in the lungs incessantly acted as a stimulus or spur to drive on the circulation; sometimes the lungs were considered in the light of a pair of bellows, or fan, to cool the body, which was supposed to be heated by a thousand imaginary causes: and when philosophers were convinced, by experiments, that the bulk of the air was diminished by respiration, they explained it by saying, that the air had lost its spring.
Modern chemistry however enables us to explain the phenomena of respiration in a satisfactory manner.
In order to see this, we shall proceed to examine the changes produced by respiration; firstly, on the air, and secondly, on the blood.
The air which has served for respiration, is found to contain a mixture of azotic and carbonic acid gas, with a small quantity of oxygen gas; and a considerable quantity of water is thrown off from the lungs, in the form of vapour, during respiration.
From a variety of facts, it appears that oxygen gas is decomposed in the lungs during respiration; a part of it unites, as we shall afterwards see, with the iron contained in the blood, and converts it into an oxid; another and greater portion unites with the carbon, brought by the venous blood from all parts of the body to the lungs, and thus forms carbonic acid gas; while another portion of the oxygen unites with the hydrogen, brought in the same manner by the blood, and forms water. Thus then we are able to account for the different products of respiration.
Hence we see, that the explanation of animal heat follows as a simple and beautiful corollary from the theory of combustion; and we may consider respiration as an operation in which oxygen gas is continually passing from the gaseous to the concrete state; it will therefore give out at every instant the heat which it held in combination, and this heat, being conveyed by the circulation of the blood to all parts of the body, is a constant source of heat to the animal.
These facts likewise enable us to explain the reason, why an animal preserves the same temperature, notwithstanding the various changes which occur in the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. In winter the air is condensed by the cold, the lungs therefore receive a greater quantity of oxygen in the same bulk, and the heat extricated will be proportionally increased. In summer, on the contrary, the air being rarefied by the heat, a less quantity of oxygen will be received by the lungs during each inspiration, and consequently the heat which is extricated must be less.
For the same reason, in northern latitudes, the heat extricated by respiration will be much greater than in the southern. By this simple and beautiful contrivance, nature has moderated the extremes of climate, and enabled the human body to bear vicissitudes which would otherwise destroy it.
Of all the phenomena of the animal body, there is none at first sight more remarkable, than that which animals possess of resisting the extremes of temperature.
The heat of the body, as has already been observed, continues at the same degree, though the temperature of the atmosphere be sometimes considerably hotter, at other times considerably colder, than the animal body: so that man is able to live, and to preserve the temperature of health, on the burning sands of Africa, and on the frozen plains of Siberia.
The alterations of temperature which the human body has been known to bear, without any fatal or even bad effects, are not less than 400 degrees or 500 degrees of Fahrenheit. The natural heat of the human body is 96 degrees or 97 degrees. In the West Indies, the heat of the atmosphere is often 98 degrees or 99 degrees, and sometimes rises even to 126 degrees, or 30 degrees above the temperature of the human body, notwithstanding which, a thermometer put in the mouth points to 96 degrees or 97 degrees. The inhabitants of the hot regions of Surinam support, without inconvenience, the heat of their climate. We are assured that in Senegal, about the latitude of 17 degrees, the thermometer in the shade generally stands at 108 degrees, without any fatal effects to men or animals. The Russians often live in places heated by stoves to 108 degrees or 109 degrees, and some philosophers in this country, by way of experiment, remained a considerable time in a room heated above the boiling point of water.
On the other hand, an equal excess of cold seems to have no greater effect in altering the degree of heat proper to animal bodies. Delisle has observed a cold in Siberia 70 degrees below the zero of Fahrenheit's scale, notwithstanding which animals lived. Gmelin has seen the inhabitants of Jeniseisk under the 58th degree of northern latitude, sustaining a degree of cold, which in January became so severe, that the spirit in the thermometer was 126 degrees below the freezing point. Professor Pallas in Siberia, and our countrymen at Hudson's Bay, have experienced a degree of cold almost equal to this. All these facts tend to prove, that the heat of animals continues without alteration in very different temperatures. Hence it is evident that they must be able to produce a greater degree of heat, when surrounded by a cold medium; and on the contrary, that they must effect a diminution of the heat, when the surrounding medium is very hot.
All these circumstances may be accounted for, by the principles we have laid down; the decomposition of oxygen in the lungs.
There have not been wanting, however, some very eminent physiologists, who have contended that animal heat is produced chiefly by the nerves. They have brought forward in proof of this the well known fact, that when the spinal marrow is injured, the temperature of the body generally becomes diminished; and that in a paralytic limb the heat is less than ordinary, though the strength and velocity of the pulse remain the same. These facts, and others of a similar nature, have induced them to believe, that the nervous system is the chief cause and essential organ of heat; and they have adduced similar arguments, to prove that nutrition is performed by the nerves, for a limb which is paralytic from an injury of the nerves, wastes, though the circulation continues. The truth is, that the nerves exert their influence upon these, and all other functions of the body, and modify their action. The liver secretes bile, but if the nerves leading to it be destroyed, the secretion of bile will cease; but who will say, that the bile is secreted by the nerves? The nitric acid will dissolve metals, and this solution will go on more quickly if heat be applied; but surely the nitric acid is the solvent, the heat being