250 Dr. Spurgiii's Outlines of a Philosophical 



cerebral organizations which thus by Uving, act. Should you 

 say, can it be possible for there to be such a material fluid? 

 we request you to contemplate the powers of the seminal 

 , fluid in all animals, which has the wonderful power of accom- 

 plishing and fulfilling certain specific purposes and designs 

 to perfection ; in that it can serve as the commencing point 

 for a new being, the exact type of the prototype parent ; nay, 

 can from one vile reptile and insect, from one individual parent, 

 produce ye a thousand offspring, — each typical of the same 

 parent, but not the same type. This is fluidity, this is plasticity, 

 this is adaptability to certain living purposes and designs 

 which none can question. 



Physiologists and philosophers of every age have enter- 

 tained some notion concerning a vital principle, and have en- 

 deavoured to express their ideas by some peculiar term; whence 

 we read of as many terms as there have been distinct notions 

 maintained by different sects of philosophers. Thus we hear 



corresponding organ of hearing, belongs to living or sentient beings, and 

 therefore requires a medium for its existence as such : the organ alone is 

 not that medium, the nerves alone are not that medium ; for these exist 

 during fainting, and after death for a time ; and yet the sensation perishes, 

 or the susceptibility of being affected by sound on the part of the body is 

 lost : it is the same with the other animal senses. The only change of state in 

 the body at such a time is the cessation of the circulation of a fluid; — in 

 respect to the blood-vessels, we know that the circulation of their blood 

 has ceased ; but in respect to the nerves, we conjecture that the circulation 

 of their appropriate fluid or blood has stopped also ; and we are not al- 

 lowed to do more than form the conjecture by certain physiologists, who 

 at the same time are well aware that the simple division of, or pressure 

 upon a nerve, is sufficient to destroy the communication of external im- 

 pression to the brain, even while red blood is circulating in a living body. 

 We do not suppose that the nervous fluid alone is the medium of sensa- 

 tion, any more than that the nerve alone is ; but we believe that, for the 

 existence of sensation, or for our being rendered sensible of some outward 

 impression, both a nerve and a nervous fluid are indispensably requisite; 

 the fluid standing in the same relationship to the nerve as the blood does 

 to the blood-vessel ; or as what is active, stands to what is passive ; the 

 latter deriving all its reaction from the former, and giving the appearance 

 of its being the sole mover. We would request all physiologists to consider 

 the source of the seminal fluid, and the size of the vessels through which 

 it passes, and then to reflect upon the seniinal tubes of the insect race con- 

 jointly witli the nature of the fluid itself; how that it must be essentially 

 as intrinsically diverse in every genus and species of that race, howsoever 

 similar the outward appearance may be, as are the genera and species them- 

 selves. If they have any power of reflection or correct judgement, such 

 considerations will ever strike them with astonishment, and cause them to 

 be very backward in expressing their disbelief of, or in their pronouncing 

 as ridiculous, the notion of an animal fluid, not electrical or galvanic, cir- 

 culating through the nerves, and existing in, because capable of being eli- 

 minated from, the blood, and imparting to the blood, so long as it itself is 

 vital and fluid, both vitality and fluidity. 



of 



