181 



experiments which are uot wholly unobjectionable, that the secrer 

 tion of the stomach is no longer formed when its communication 

 with the brain is intercepted. Hence, if the secretion cannot be 

 produced by the regular and assimilating life of the stomach 

 singly, and if properties from the brai.n singly (as may be proved) 

 cannot produce the secretion, it follows that both are necessary 

 to this result; and if the result takes place, as it is said and known 

 to do, when the organs are under no preternatural influence, it 

 follows that the properties by which the function is constituted 

 unite for this end, in conformity with a natural and habitual rela- 

 Jion. It is probable that, in the progress of experiment, many 

 instances of spontaneous habitual diffusion of properties from one 

 seat allying themselves with those of another, for the objects of a 

 function, will be discovered. It is probable also, that instances of 

 the same kind might with truth be quoted from the animal system, 

 as the possession of a faculty of sensation, which is manifested in 

 all sentient points and derived from the brain, &c. But the in r 

 stance already mentioned is sufficient to sanction an indication. 

 In the mean time it is not proposed as the proof (any further than 

 the fact asserted in the experiment may be admitted) of a spon- 

 taneous disturbance of the assimilating spirits of independent 

 spheres. All that I would insist upon is the probability that the 

 vital properties of one seat pass spontaneously to another, for the 

 purpose of perfecting a function; and that they are sometimes 

 derived in the secondary seat by the presence of foreign agents, 

 which have a primary operation upon the properties of this seat. 

 Of the latter, or occasional properties, we have spoken fully: of 

 the former it is necessary still further to inquire, keeping in view 

 as much as possible a line of investigation which is applicable 

 to both. 



20. Now if it shall be confirmed by the increase ot facts, as 

 it is more than indicated by those above mentioned, that spiritual 

 properties, which live in one seat by assimilation, pass from thence 

 to another; it is to be inquired why they leave their original seat: 

 and if they do not assimilate with the vital properties with which 

 they enter into alliance (as it is plain they do not, because the 

 function would then be independent of a source), it is to be asked, 

 what is the mode of this union? 



21. Before it can be asserted why properties leave the seat 

 in which they are assimilated, it seems proper that we should 

 understand what becomes of the properties which appear to be 

 unremittingly consumed 1 ? This is not an easy speculation, nor is 

 it perhaps likely to be a very satisfactory one. However, difficult 

 as it is, and although it is likely to prove unsatisfactory, the ques- 

 tion belongs rather to the subject of death than that of life; and 

 the consideration must be deferred till we speak of that subject. 



22. Thus much for the present may be observed, viz. that 

 we do not find it indicated by the most distant connexion with 

 our experience, that the properties which assimilate in one seat 



