Volume 1

The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer.

Date:
1835-37
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the water was now hotter than the heat of the man. These were only simple experiments, but I chose to make a comparative one with a dead penis. A living and dead penis were immersed in water gradually made warmer and warmer, from 100° to 118°, and continued in this heat for some minutes. The dead penis raised the thermometer to 114°, while the living could not raise it higher than 1024-°. It was observed by the person on whom the experiment was made, that about a minute after che part was put in water the water did not feel hot, but on the water being agitated it felt so hot that he could hardly bear it. On applying the thermometer to the sides of the living glans, while in the water, the mercury fell from 118° to about 104°, while it did not fall above a degree when put close to the dead penis, so that the living glans produced a cold space of water about it*. This experiment may furnish a useful hint about bathing in water, whether colder or warmer than the heat of the body; for if it is intended to be either colder or hotter, as it will soon be of the same temperature with that of the body, the patient, if in a large bath, should move from place to place, and in a warm bath there should be a constant succession of water of the intended heatf. The experiments made by Dr. G. Fordyce in heated rooms prove, in; the clearest manner, that the body has a power of destroying heat. The action of evaporation produces cold, and in proportion to the .quickness of the evaporation is the cold produced ; and from experiment ■ we find that the evaporation of spirits of wine produces cold faster than chat of water, and of aether faster than spirits of wine. On this prin- ciple we suppose that evaporation is one means of producing cold in the living bodyj. It appears from Dr. Fordyce’s experiments that the living powers 'were very much assisted in generating cold by evaporation, but that evaporation was not the sole agent in keeping the body cool. There is * [These experiments on parts of the body are evidently inconclusive, in as much as my elevation of temperature is necessarily prevented by a continual influx of fresh blood, ivhicli carries off the heat.] f [Upon the same principle the Sirocco and scorching winds of the African deserts ire so destructive of animal life. In the expedition to discover the N.W. Passage, the sailors found a temperature at zero attended with a breeze far more difficult to resist :han a temperature at 50° below zero attended with a calm atmosphere.] t [The influence of evaporation in producing this effect has been fully investigated by De la Roche, who arrived to the general conclusion that evaporation from the lungs snd skin is the main cause by which the temperature is regulated in all cases, and the <ole cause by which this effect is produced when the body is exposed to a temperature ibove its own natural standard. (See Journ. de Phys., tom. lxiii.lxxi, andlxxvii. See ilso Treatise on Inflammation, loc, cit.)] U 2