204. Dr. Spurgin's Outlines of a Philosophical 



ject, as to the blood, or to a muscle, or a gland ; this research 

 can never be so complete as to exhaust and to display all the 

 hidden qualities of that object. Let us take the blood for an 

 example: The experiments which have been made upon it only 

 inform us that its colour is of different degrees of redness ; that 

 it is heavier than water; that it sinks to the bottom of the serum ; 

 that it is of a gende and almost uniform warmth in the body; 

 and that it contains salts both fixed and volatile, of several 

 kinds, besides other things, such as albumen, and fibrin, 

 which are termed animal matter ; and variable proportions of 

 water. But these experiments alone do not inform us whence 

 its redness, its gravity, and its heat, derive their origin ; nor 

 in what way the products to be obtained from it by distillation, 

 or by means of chemical analysis, are preserved therein in 

 that peculiar combination and form that renders the blood 

 such an homogeneous and simple fluid as it appears to be in its 

 natural and fluid state. These latter points must be regarded 

 as so many accidents and essentials, the knowledge of which 

 is only to be sought for and obtained in common or more 

 general experience, or in our experience as taken in its whole 

 compass and course. For we do not hesitate to assert, nor 

 are we afraid to maintain, that whenever a subject is defined 

 and determined by occult qualities, it remains as obscure and 

 unintelligible as if no definition or description had ever been 

 given ; in like manner as we stop at the very threshold of 

 the science of angiology, or of the circulation of the blood, 

 if we do not learn the whole anatomy of the body and of all 

 its viscera; that is, unless we closely pursue the blood into 

 all the recesses into which it flows. 



The case is similar in all other instances, whether in ana- 

 tomy, or physics. Thus, if we would investigate the causes of 

 the action of a muscle or moving fibre, our labour will be in 

 vain, unless, in addition to our more confined experience or 

 knowledge of tlie muscle or fibre itself, as to its particular 

 form or situation, we are at the same time acquainted with 

 many of the particulars relating to the rest in the body, and 

 likewise with those relating to the blood, its arteries, and 

 heart, to the nerves, ganglia of nerves, medulla oblongata and 

 medulla spinalis, to the cerebellum, the cerebrum, and to many 

 of the members, organs, and tunics endowed with the faculty 

 of muscular motion : and not only so, but we ought also to 

 know the chief particulars relating to those parts of physics 

 and mechanics, which treat of forces, elasticity, motion, and 

 several other subjects. 



Thus it may be seen, how, from a knowledge or experience 

 of the particulars involved in any one subject, our notions and 



ideas 



