LIFE. 



159 



non-hybernating animals, it is only occasion- 

 ally that anything approaching to this suspen- 

 sion of vital action can occur. That which 

 takes place during sleep only relates to the 

 sensorial functions ; the organic changes expe- 

 riencing but little diminution in activity. The 

 closeness of the connection between their vital 

 operations, and the immediate dependence of 

 these upon external stimuli, involve the de- 

 struction of life when they are totally with- 

 drawn ; and it is only under peculiar conditions 

 of the organism itself, that we ever witness a 

 suspension of vital action without the speedy 

 supervention of death. Indeed it may be 

 fairly questioned whether such suspension can 

 ever completely take place ; and whether the 

 changes which occur in the periphery of the 

 circulation are not continuing, however feebly, 

 even when no action can be detected at the 

 centre. This condition is termed syncope ; and 

 its phenomena will be more fully detailed here- 

 after. (See SYNCOPE.) We are inclined to think 

 that, where a state of apparent death has conti- 

 nued for some days, vital action was never 

 entirely suspended ; though perhaps its cessa- 

 tion may be more complete where the syncope 

 is but transient. Such would seem to be the 

 case where individuals have recovered from a 

 submersion under water, which has been pro- 

 longed beyond the few minutes that suffice to 

 produce asphyxia. It is generally supposed, 

 and we think with reason, that the mental emo- 

 tion experienced at the moment of submersion 

 produces a state of syncope ; and that the or- 

 ganism, being in that state less dependent on 

 external stimuli than when in a more active 

 condition, can bear privations which would be 

 otherwise fatal, just as is known to be the case 

 with hybernating animals, the pupa of insects, 

 &c. The well-known case of Col. Townsend 

 appears to us to prove that an apparent cessa- 

 tion of vital action does not imply its entire 

 extinction ; since when no changes could be 

 detected by his medical attendants, he was vo- 

 luntarily acting on his system both to retard and 

 renew its usual functions. Dr. Cleghorn of 

 Glasgow knew an individual who could control 

 the action of his heait, so as to be able to feign 

 death at pleasure. 



Although in these cases we may be disin- 

 clined to admit the total suspension of vital 

 action, there can be no doubt that it may occur 

 in portions of the human body under the influ- 

 ence of cold, and that, if carefully treated, it 

 may be again renewed. Nay more; there is 

 undoubted evidence that portions of the body, 

 after being totally separated from it, may be 

 reunited and made again to form integrant parts 

 of the structure, if no disorganisation has taken 

 place in the interval. That such an occurrence 

 is perfectly consonant with the doctrines which 

 we have maintained regarding the connection 

 between vitality and organisation will be at 

 once evident ; but we do not see how it can be 

 satisfactorily explained by the advocates of the 

 doctrine of a separate life or vital principle. 

 Does the finger or nose which has been cut off 

 carry with it a chip or off-shoot of the parent 

 vital principle or organic agent ? If so, when 

 does that quit its material tenement ? There 



is no evidence of its existence in the separated 

 part, which is completely dead to the general 

 structure, and which nothing prevents from 

 speedy decay, if its vital actions be not soon 

 renewed. And if it be supposed to remain, it 

 must again become merged in its parent prin- 

 ciple, when re-union of the divided parts has 

 taken place, or must submit to it like a dutiful 

 child. There is no end to the absurdities in 

 which those may be involved, who adhere with 

 pertinacity to a doctrine so useless and so un- 

 philosophical as that of a single controlling 

 agent or power, presiding over the affairs of 

 each organism. 



It is with much satisfaction that the author 

 of the foregoing article (which was written 

 above a year ago) refers his readers to the re- 

 cently published Supplement on the Atomic 

 Theory, by Dr. Daubeny, for a full discussion 

 of the question briefly considered in V. The 

 conclusions at which the learned Professor has 

 arrived are of precisely the same character as 

 those for which the author has here argued, and 

 are expressed in almost the same language. 

 The following passages may be extracted from 

 among many of great interest. 



" There is little doubt that it will eventually 

 appear, that all the secretions or excretions of 

 animals and vegetables are only so far de- 

 pendent upon life, inasmuch as, in consequence 

 of the favourable temperature which it sustains, 

 the constant circulation of the fluids it occasions, 

 and their exposure to external agents in vessels 

 of different shapes and dimensions, a mechani- 

 cal separation of the ingredients of the blood is 

 effected in some instances, and a chemical 

 change produced in its composition by catalytic 

 action in others." "The putrefaction of vege- 

 table and animal matters appears to be produced, 

 not by any sudden cessation of those affinities 

 which had previously bound their respective 

 elements together, but by the predominance 

 over them of the natural forces, which we may 

 without much difficulty conceive to have been 

 controlled under the circumstances in which the 

 living body is placed; nor does there seem any 

 sufficient reason for calling in the intervention 

 of an occult principle to explain that, to the 

 solution of which by known causes, every fresh 

 advance in chemical knowledge seems to bring 

 us into closer approximation." " It is now cer- 

 tain that the same simple laws of composition 

 pervade the whole creation ; and that, if the 

 organic chemist only takes the requisite pre- 

 cautions to avoid resolving into their ultimate 

 elements the proximate principles upon which 

 he operates, the results of his analysis will show 

 that they were combined precisely according to 

 the same plan as the elements of the mineral 

 bodies are known to be." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. Besides the systematic Trea- 

 tises on physiological science by Haller, Cullen, 

 Blumenbach, Dumas, Richerand, Treviranus, Ru- 

 dolph, Magendie, Bostock, Tiedemann, Mayo, Ade- 

 lon, Burdach, Alison, Roget, Fletcher, Dunglison, 

 Arnold, Miiller, Carpenter, and others, the fol- 

 lowing, among the almost innumerable writings on 

 the subject, may be advantageously consulted. 



Aristotle, Opera. Cicero, Qusst. Tusc. lib. i. 

 Idem, DC nat. deorum. Lucretius, De rerum na- 

 turd. Bacon, Historia vitas et mortis. Harvey, 



