Mr. Davy, preferring somc name founded upon one of its obvious
and characteristic properties, proposes chloric gas, which does not
imply any_error, and would not require to be changed, even if it
should hereafter be discovered to be a compound.
For expressing the compounds of this substance with other bodies, he is not disposed to employ the same term, but proposes adding to each base the terminal syllable ine, which is to imply the presence of the chloric base. Thus horn silver is to be called argentine: butter of antimony, antimonine, &c. He conceives also, that by means of vowels prefixed to the name, the proportion in which this body is combined with others may be conveniently expressed.
It has been observed by Mr. Cruickshank, and the same obser- vations have been made by M. Bichat (in his Re’eherches Physiolo- gigues sur la Vie et la Mort), that the brain is not directly necessary to the action of the heart; and that when the functions of the brain are destroyed, the circulation of the blood ceases only in consequence of the suspension of the respiration.
The former of these observations Mr. Brodie had found to be cor- rect; for if the spinal marrow were divided, though the respiration was thereby immediately stopped, still the heart continued to con- tract, and to propel forward, for a short time, dark-coloured blood; and even when the head was entirely removed, if the blood-vessels were secured by ligature, the circulation seemed unaffected by the entire separation. It appeared. therefore, in conformity to the second observation, to cease solely in consequence of the suspension of re- spiration; but Mr. Brodie conceived that this point might admit of direct proof by experiment; for in that case the heart should con— tinue to act for a greater length of time, if the process of respiration were carried on artificially.
The present lecture comprises the details of his experiments on this subject.
The first experiment was made upon a rabbit, the head of which was removed after the blood-vessels had been tied up; and the lungs were then inflated artificially once in five seconds, during twenty-five minutes. The circulation of the blood was found to continue the whole of that time; but it was observed that no secretion of urine took place.
The second experiment was made upon a middle-sized dog, for the purpose of ascertaining also, whether the animal heat was kept up to its natural standard. At the end of two hours the pulse continued as high as seventy, but in the next half hour it was found to have declined rapidly, and the artificial respiration was discontinued. At the end of one hour a thermometer in the rectum had fallen 6°:
