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THE PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGAM
153
asphyxia, owing to the non-arterialization of the blood in the lungs, has given place after death to the fresh hue of health, owing to the reddening of the blood in the cutaneous capillaries by the action of the atmosphere upon them; and it does not seem improbable that, in cases of obstruction to the due action of the lungs, the exhalation of carbonic acid through the skin may undergo a considerable increase ; for we find a similar disposition to vicarious action in other parts of the excreting apparatus. There is also evidence that the interchange of gases between the air and the blood through the skin has an important share in keeping up the temperature of the body; and we find the temperature of the surface much elevated in many cases of pneumonia, phthisis, &c., in which the lungs seem to perform their function very insufficiently." (Carpenter: Human Physiology, Section 309.) Now it may be stated as a general law in physiology, that in cases where the different functions are highly specialized (that is, where every one has its special and distinct organ for its own purpose alone), the general structure jetains, more or less, the primitive community of fur.ction which characterized it in the lowest grade of development. Thus, though the functions of absorption and respiration have special organs provided for them in the higher animals, they are not altogether restricted to these, but may be performed in part bythe general surface, which (although the especial organ of exhalation) permits the passage of fluid into tie interior of the system, and allows the
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