Dr. Washington has not only defended me in every important position which I have taken, and added new illustrations—but he has made the theory available to showing new proofs of the wisdom of God in the creation of man. Thus—steam is formed in the vacuum of the lungs at the low temperature of 67°, while, if there were no vacuum, 212° of heat would be required to produce it,—an impossible quantity, since it would coagulate the albumen of the blood. But form the vacuum, and the boiling of the blood with any degree of heat less than 101° could not cause any such disaster, while the steam going off from the lungs through the arterial system to the capillaries, gradually condenses, warming the body by giving off its latent heat; and the latent heat of vapor is the same however it is formed, and is always 1,114°. What divine wisdom and economy are thus displayed!
Homœopathy has, we believe, never found any difficulty in receiving this theory. We know that, at one of its conventions held in Providence, it was ably supported; and Dr. Marcy, whom I have the honor to address, was, as we have seen, one of its earliest defenders. He has never, whether allopathist or homœopathist, been known to hesitate when his own mind brought him clear conclusions;—the distinguishing mark, according to Dugald Stewart, of intrepidity of character.
With profound respect,
Emma Willard.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is here seen what an important work this theory does for the venous circulation, and why the blood moves into the lungs. We have read of a theory which maintains that it goes there because there is a mutual attraction between it and the capillaries of the lungs. But there is none between the water in our tube and that in the tin vessel where water is boiling; but it goes into it with a rush notwithstanding. Because there is a strong suction power produced by expansion, no other attraction is needed. The apparatus, as here described, goes no farther than to represent the circulation in single-hearted animals. But in my work is a drawing which shows the left heart on the opposite of the mimic lungs from the right; and then how the same tube, by being folded in the form of a figure eight (8), shows the two hearts united into one, and both ventricles working by the same contractions to perform their different tasks.
[2] Mrs. B. Ogle Taylor, of Washington, formerly Miss Julia Dickinson, of Troy, was thus found dead; and the late Mrs. Cass thus lost her life. “She was seized,” says a newspaper account, “in a hot bath, which she had taken soon after eating.” She lived an hour, unconscious, and the physician said she died of congestion of the brain. How easily could these highly intelligent ladies have kept themselves from danger, or saved themselves when they felt it approaching, had they known and understood these principles. For two reasons, in case of the failure of the motive power from keeping the body too long in hot water, the blood would be congested in the head. First, the head would not be immersed, and, second, the last blood which the lungs sent forth would go to it.
[3] What can the Smithsonian Institute do better to carry out the views with which the benevolent Smithson gave his fortune, than thus to teach mankind when life may, by free circulation, be made to confer enjoyment—how it may be inadvertently destroyed—and how it may be restored, when, by drowning or otherwise, it is suspended? Sudden deaths often occur by mal-position. That of the late Secretary Marcy is doubtless an example. After his blood was heated and his circulation quickened, he laid himself down on his back, his head not raised. Attention to the workings of such a piece of apparatus as might be made, would have shown the fatal effects of such a position at such a time.
[4] A young physician, whom I paid for correcting the proofs, was not successful in preventing mistakes, especially in regard to numbers.
[5] I had just been reading Cuvier, to see whether he believed in the Harveian theory of the circulation. I found he did not. “The circulation vortex,” says he, “is sometimes simple, sometimes double and even triple (including that of the vena porta); the rapidity of its movements is often aided by the contraction of a certain fleshy apparatus denominated hearts.” Thus showing that my theory gave to the heart all the prominence that was given to it by this great philosopher, who had not, however, advanced any opinion as to the cause of the circulation.
[6] One of them, my lamented niece, Jane Porter Lincoln, at my request, immediately wrote an account of the experiment, which is now in my possession.