220 On the Vital Principle. 



nervous fluid, or animal fpirits, in the language 

 of that time*. 



The doftrine of Stahl made very confiderablc 

 progrefs. Cudworth, from his anxiety to reduce 

 every thing to the Platonic fyftem, attempted to 

 fhew a fimilarity between the Archeus and the 

 Plaftic powerf; he was a true believer in the 

 independent principle. But the fuppofition of a 

 rational power, which, according to the chemifts, 

 originally formed the body, and afterwards di- 

 rected all its aflions, in health and difeafe, does 

 not agree with Cudworth's own account of the 

 plaftic nature, which he acknowledges to be 

 deftitute of cdnfcioufnefs J. Willis undoubtedly 

 fupported the notion of an anima vegetans^ ; but 

 the oppofers of Stahl were not uniform in their 

 fentiments. The mechanical phyficians paid 

 little attention to this queftion, and for a. long 

 time the terms of nature, fenfitive foul, and vital 

 principle were employed, without much difcuf- 

 fion, confequently, with little clearnefs of appre- 

 henfion. The exiftence of a nervous fluid was 

 now aflumed, independently of the fenfitive foul, 

 to explain the appearances of fenfation and volun- 



* Brucker. T. IV. p. 324 

 f Intelle£lual Syiletn, p. 167. 

 I Id. p. 158. 

 I) Barchufen. Hift. Med. fub tit. Willis. 



tary 



