The  Seat  of  the  Oxidations  of  the  Body.  According
to  elder  views  oxidation  mainly  took  place  in  the  blood  while
flowing  through  the  lungs.  Those  organs  were  considered  a
sort  of  furnace  in  which  heat  was  liberated  by  blood  oxidation,
and  then  distributed  by  the  circulation.  But  if  this  were  so
the  lungs  ought  to  be  the  hottest  parts  of  the  Body,  and  the
blood  leaving  them  by  the  pulmonary  veins  much  hotter  than
that  brought  to  them  by  the  pulmonary  artery  after  it  had
been  cooled  by  warming  all  the  tissues;  and  neither  of  these

451


452  THE  HUMAN  BODY.
