Mr Carpenter on Vital and Physical Phenomena. 327 



form an integral part, are nearly uniform in all the great 

 oceanic basins ; and that the course of these circuits, and of the 

 stormy gyrations which they may contain, is, in the southern 

 hemisphere, in counter direction to those north of the equator, 

 producing a corresponding difference in the general phases of 

 storms and winds in the two hemispheres. From the foregoing 

 results we infer the value and importance of correct marine re- 

 ports relating to violent gales. These reports should always 

 comprise the date, the latitude and longitude, and the principal 

 direction and changes of the wind. 



On the Differences of the Laxvs regulating Vital and Physical 

 Phenomena. By William B. Carpenter, M. R. C. S., 

 late President of the Royal Medical and Royal Physical 

 Societies, Edinburgh.* Communicated by the Author. 



1 , All the knowledge which man possesses of the external 

 world is derived from the impressions made by matter, under 

 some of its forms, upon his organs of sense, which excite sensa- 

 tions, perceptions, and reasoning processes in his mind. 



2. Of matter, in the abstract, man has no definite idea ; he 

 judges of it only by its properties ; and as his notion of these 

 properties results simply from the changes produced in his 

 organs of sensation, the term " properties of matter" expresses 

 nothino- else than the relations between matter and the perci- 

 pient mind. And just as the occasional varieties in the confor- 

 mation of the organs of the senses lead to a different apprecia- 

 tion of certain of these properties (e. g. as regards colour or 

 sound), in certain minds, so is it possible to conceive that beings 

 mi"-ht be created whose organs should take cognisance of a set 



* The following paper constitutes a portion of the essay to which was re- 

 cently adjudged the prize annually raised by the contributions of the students, 

 and awarded by the Professors, of the University of Edinburgh. Circum- 

 stances, which it is unnecessary to specify, have rendered it desirable not to 

 publish, in its present form, the division of the essay comprehended in § 9- 

 'JO ; an abstract of which has been introduced, however, for the purpose of 

 shewing the course of the argument. 



