On the Vital Principle, 231 



very well explained on mechanical and chemical 

 principles, it is unphilofophical to recur to any 

 others, and in faft the life of the blood muft be 

 taken for granted, before this ph^enomenon can 

 be referred to it : for we might with equal proba- 

 bility afcribe the freezing of water to a living 

 power. If the blood, in cafes of violent inflam- 

 mation, be later in coagulating than the blood of 

 healthy perfons*, it is readily explained by the 

 more intimate mixture of the parts of the blood, 

 efi^eded by the increafed aftion of the veflTels, 

 which prevents the difference of the fpecific 

 gravity of each part from ading fo fpeedily as 

 ufual. 



The fifth dired proof is, the nourifhment and 

 prefervation of life in paralytic limbs j-. In re- 

 ply to this it may be obferved, that the con- 

 tinuance of circulation in a paralytic limb may 

 be explained on common principles, therefore the 

 the introdu6lion of a new power, to account for 

 the phrEnomenon, isoinnecefTary. The explana- 

 tion to which I allude^ is derived from the flimu- 

 lus of rhe blo'od (which does not imply its life) 

 exerted on the containing vefTels ; from the im- 

 palfe given by the vis a tergo, and from the 

 fympathy which prevails, through the arterial 

 fyftem, among the contrading fibres of the 



* Ibid. t Id. Ibid. 



0^4 vefTels, 



