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ble time without the renovation of ingesta, with no greater diminu- 

 tion of bulk than that which may result from frequent or continued 

 excretion. But the waste which succeeds to a long privation of 

 food, or an habitual scantiness of it, shews that the facts alluded 

 to will not sanction a very general or positive conclusion. 



7. We may therefore designate the relation we are consider- 

 ing more correctly, by extending a little the chain of dependences. 

 Thus, the process of growth depends, 1st, on the disposition and 

 quantum of the diffused spirit; and, 2nd, upon the presence of 

 organic particles in the material: both these depend, in different 

 ways, upon preparatory functions, to be spoken of hereafter: but 

 when the effects of the relation take place, they prove the agree- 

 ment of the agents, the tendencies of which we are further to 

 consider. 



8. It is sufficient for our present purpose to insist upon the 

 balance hinted at in the last paragraph, for there are no circum- 

 stances of health or disease which will enable us to decide 

 peremptorily when defective nutrition is attributable to the state 

 of the spirit, or when to deficiency of organic particles in the 

 material; thus, leanness might succeed to disorder of the abdomi- 

 nal viscera, or to continued fever of the low kind, while the usual 

 quantity of food is taken: shall we say that under this state the 

 defective nutrition arises in consequence of a disorder of the 

 stomach, &c. which impedes its function of preparing organic 

 particles for aggregation? We can scarcely affirm this, in the first 

 case, because the state of the diffused spirit is liable at all times, 

 directly or indirectly, to participate in its apparently local changes; 

 and in the second case, the same is to be observed of the state of 

 the preparatory organs in respect to a febrile diathesis. Owing 

 therefore to this reciprocation, we must be content to reason upon 

 the facts we have, rather than assume those which we desire. 



9. We are then justified in assigning only thus much as a 

 basis of this relation, namely, that growth or increase requires the 

 concurrence of an adequate quantum both of the disposed spirit 

 and of the organic particles; and that decrease, or the reverse of 

 growth, might result from defect of either.* 



10. The processes of growth are continued from the exis- 

 tence of the fecundated ovum to the period of adult age. Growth, 

 especially in the uterine stage, is not a mere increase of bulk; but 

 many new parts are formed and many conversions occur in those 

 already produced. The examples of the former are found in the 

 formation of organs and structures, of which in the ovum no simili- 

 tude could be detected; and the composition of which could 

 neither be discovered in the primitive radicle, nor in the nutritious 

 fluid which assists its development; the examples of the latter 

 are found by a comparison of the adult fabric with the state of 



* I am sufficiently aware of a function of the absorbents which relates to 

 the same end ; but this will be subsequently spoken ef. 



