Writings of the late Professor Blumenbach. 235 



accidental mutilations, act on animal bodies, so as, in time, 

 to produce hereditary effects. That his doctrine of forming 

 impulses was adopted, and, though with altered modes of ex- 

 pression and representation, employed as the basis of wider 

 development, as by Kant in his Criticism on the Judgment, by 

 Fichte in his Ethics, by Schelling in the " JPeltseele," and by 

 Goethe in his Morphology, afforded him peculiar satisfaction, 

 as it proved at the same time both its soundness and produc- 

 tiveness. 



His Handbook* of Physiology is distinguished by the ele- 

 gance of its language, and, like all his works, by the well se- 

 lected information, as well as the number and value of his own 

 observations. 



The question as to whether the blood should be regarded as 

 a peculiar vital power occupied himt greatly ; as did also the 

 cause of the black colour in the Negro, j He confirmed by 

 his own observations the chief experiments of Galvani. || He 

 endeavoured to ascertain the truth respecting the eyes of the 

 white Negro, § and the movement of the iris, by comparing 

 and considering the facts previously collected, and by his own 

 observation. On the 23d August 1782, he had examined two 

 Albinoes at Chamouni. 



In 1784 he discovered,*!! while dissecting the eye of a seal, 

 the remarkable structure by which that animal is enabled, at 

 will, to lengthen or shorten the axis of the eyeball, so as to 



* Institutiones Physiol ogicse, 1787. Of the many editions and transla- 

 tions, Blumenbach placed most value on that by Elliotson, published by 

 Bentley of London in 1814, because this was the first book printed entirely 

 by a machine. Compare Gott. gel. Anz. 1818, No. 172, p. 1713. A 4th 

 edition of Elliotson's translation was published in 1828. 



t De vi vitali sanguinis, 1787. Comment, vol. ix. p. 1-13. Afterwards 

 Lis Programm : Dc vi vitali sanguini deneganda, vita autem propria solidis 

 quibusdam corporis humani partibus adserenda curao iterate, which was oc- 

 casioned by the publication of John Hunter's work on the Blood after the 

 dcatli of that surgeon, and appeared in the year 1795. 



J Dc generis h. variet. nat. p. 122, &c. 3d edition. 



|| Gott. gel. Anz. 1703. No. 32, p. 320. 



§ De oculis lcuctcthiopum et iridis motu, 1784. Comment, vol. vii. 

 p. 29-02. Compare Gott. gel. Adz. 1784, No. 175. Med. Bibliothek, vol. ii. 

 p. 5:57-547. 



c i Commentat. vol. vii. 1784, p. 40. Handbook of Comparative Anatomy, 

 3d edition, p. 401. 



