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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    with those imperfect animals which have little or no power of forming heat, but are obliged to the atmosphere for heat. When we consider the white bear, the fox, and wolf, in the more northerly climates, inhabiting countries where the temperature is below zero, yet having a power of preserving their noses, feet, tails, &c., while man, with all his care and art, loses his extremities in the same degree of cold, we must acknowledge that those animals have by much the greater power of generating heat of the two. When we compare the above animals with the lion, tiger, monkey, &c., we find the proportion in the power of generating heat between these two classes of animals still greater; for if the human species finds it impossible to generate heat like the white bear, &c., the lion and tiger must find it impossible to generate heat equal to man: for though they may not lose parts of their bodies when in cold that is tolerable to the human species, they lose their lives in the end*. It may be desirable to inquire into the proper temperature for each of those classes above mentioned, that is, the temperature in which they carry on their ultimate actions f. This must be ascertained with great difficulty; perhaps the temperature suitable to the white bear, &c. is about 50° ; for the human species about 60°; for the lion, tiger, &c. about 70°; and there may be some which require a still higher temperature, though probably none will require a lower than 50° J. * [Habit in this instance has great influence, so that the calorific function actually increases or strengthens in winter and diminishes in summer, (Edwards, De l’Influence, &c., pp. 162 seq., 242 seq.) an effect which we cannot but observe in those who have resided in the East and West Indies returning to an European climate.] f [By ultimate actions Hunter probably means generation, as he has stated the con- tinuance of the species to be the ultimate end for which the vital powers are given to animals.] + [“ Vegetables and animals are prepared for almost all climates, and for tempera- tures higher than the heat of any country. Dr. Reeve found larvae in a spring at 208°; Lord Bute, confervae and beetles in the boiling springs of Albano, that died when plunged into cold water. A species of chara will flower and produce seed in the hot springs of Iceland, which boil an egg in four minutes. One plant, uredo nivalis, which is a mere microscopic globule, is said to grow and flower under the snow. “ Some cold-blooded animals bear heat very badly. Dr. Edwards says that frogs die in a few seconds in water at 107°. [but Dr. Marshall Hall states that a frog plunged into water at 120°, “ first struggles violently, then experiences convulsive movements, and then promptly dies, whilst the limbs become exceedingly and permanently rigid. After apparent death, all sensibility and motion having ceased, the heart is found to beat for a considerable time, presenting the singular phenomenon of an animal dead to animal life and maintaining a sort of vegetative existence only.” (Hall on Circ., p. 174.)—Editor.'] iet a species of taenia has been found alive in a boiled carp ; but then the carp which it inhabits will live in water as hot as human blood. “ The germs of many insects, &c. are unaffected by a great range of temperature. I