The first appearance of Dr. Washington as the advocate of my theory was in the _Nashville Journal_, March, 1854; and his fertile genius had there brought a new illustration of its truth. It had, he said, opened his eyes to the explanation of a fact which had puzzled him from his boyhood. "In slaughtering animals, if the trachea was cut, scarcely any hæmorrhage resulted; while, if that was left untouched, full hæmorrhage occurred. By the Willardian theory, the fact is readily susceptible of explanation. The blood, filling the trachea, suspended respiration, and of course the impelling power of the blood was suspended, and the hæmorrhage ceased. The engine could not work without steam. When the trachea was not cut, respiration went on, and kept up the circulation, until the animal was nearly exsanguineous, and the powers of life gave way." This fact was clearly ascertained by Dr. W. K. Bowling, the well-known editor of the _Nashville Journal_, and able professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the university of that place. He sent me the Journal containing this welcome endorsement of my theory from one who was, as Dr. Bowling assured me, "an observer of superior tact and learning," known by his medical compositions as well in Europe as America. Since that time (March, 1854), that Journal, though not excluding articles which oppose, has been understood to be in favor of the theory. Dr. Washington has written repeatedly, answering all objections;[10] and he has, in the Journal (as I have been assured by one of the Editors), "crushed out all that would take up his glove, and is left in undisputed possession of the field--looking in vain for an opponent." In the meantime, in 1856, Dr. J. N. Draper, Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of New-York, in an elaborate work on "Human Physiology," has agreed that Harvey's theory of the paramount power of the heart's action in the circulation must be abandoned; and that to respiration must be assigned "the great duty of originating the blood's circulation."[11] 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!