ABSTRACT. 



ABSCRDUM, BEDUCTIO AD. 



i or mature age, it U lee* injurious than in infancy, youth, or 

 extreme old ag. A degree and duration of it, which are highly Wne- 

 flcial in a fever or an iiiflainniation, would be fatal in the state of health. 



It ii curious, and it is highly important to bear in mind, that 

 abstinence and execs* produce symptoms ao nearly alike, that it ofu-n 

 require* the utmost care and sagacity on the part of the phyaician to 

 di>tinguii<h Uie one case from the other; and a* the one require* 

 ofjnoaite remedies from the other, a mistake may be fatal, and must be 

 injurious. A man, addicted to drunkenness, waa cait into prison for 

 theft, and reduced, at unce, to a diet of bread and water. After the 

 fir* week, a disorder of the intellectual faculties took place; hia 

 countenance became pale and expressive of languor, hU fleah wasted, 

 and his strength declined; hu nights were sleepless; shortly after- 

 wards there was delirium, which was mild at first, but subsequently 

 furious. These symptoms might have been easily mistaken for those 

 which denote inflammation of the brain ; but the true nature of the 

 aflirrtt"n was discriminated, and brandy was administered. Immediately 

 toe affection of the brain disappeared, and the flwh and Ktrength 

 returned. 



Some time ago an alarming epidemic broke out in the Milbank 

 Penitentiary, London. The prisoners confined in this prison writ 

 suddenly put upon a diet, from which animal food was almost entirely 

 excluded. An ox's head, the meat of which weighs eight pounds, wan 

 made into soup for one hundred people, which allows one ounce and a 

 quarter of meat to each person. The prisoners were at the same time 

 Hubjected to a low degree of temperature, to considerable exertion, and 

 were confined within the walls of a prison, situated in the midst of a 

 marsh, which is below the level of the adjoining river. The con- 

 sequences were, first, loss of colour, of flesh, and of strength ; next, 

 this simple debility of constitution was succeeded by various forms of 

 dame scurvy, dysentery, diarrhoea, low fever ; and, lastly, affections 

 of the brain and nervous system namely, headache, vertigo, delirium, 

 convulsions, apoplexy, and even mania. When bleeding was tried, the 

 patients fainted after losing five, four, or even fewer ounces of blood. 

 Abstinence will sometimes produce a train of symptoms exactly similar 

 to those of the disease which it in employed to remove. Persistence in 

 toe abstinence will aggravate the malady, which will battle every mode 

 <if treatment as long as the abstinence U persevered in ; but which 

 will disappear with surprising rapidity on the administration of a 

 generous diet. Thin in especially the case with those affections of 

 simple irritation which assume the appearance of inflammation, and 

 which are attended with headache, noise in the ears, giddiness, restless- 

 ness, sleeplessness, and delirium. A professional man was seized with 

 fever ; rigid abstinence was enforced, not only during the continuance 

 of the fever, but also during the stage of convalescence. Delirium, 

 which had been present in the height of the fever, recurred in the 

 convalescence. A physician of eminence in maniacal cases was -con- 

 sulted, who recommended him to be removed to a private asylum. 

 Before this advice was carried into effect, another physician saw him : 

 a different treatment and regimen, with a gradual increase of nourish- 

 ment, were adopted ; the patient was well in a few days, and \vitliin 

 a fortnight returned to hi* professional avocations. 



It is the common belief that abstinence is conducive to longevity, 

 and many stories are on record which are conceived to establish the 

 truth of this opinion. It is stated, for example, that the primitive 

 Christian* of the east, who retired from persecution into the deserts of 

 Arabia and Egypt, lived healthfully and cheerfully on twelve ounces of 

 bread per day, with mere water ; that, with this diet, St. Anthony 

 lived 105 yean; James the Hermit, 104; Arsenius, tutor of the 

 Emperor Aroadius, 120; 8t Epiphauius, 1 1 5 ; Simeon tli Sty lite, 112; 

 and Komaiild, 120 : to which are added many others. But we should 

 remark that the evidence for these instance* of longevity is not v<-> v 

 satisfactory. [FOOD, in If AT. HUT. Uiv.] 



ABSTRACT. [VEXDOB* AJD PCBCHAMBB.] 



ABSTRACTION U an act of the mind, by which it considers a 

 certain attribute of an object, or several objects, by itself, and without 

 regarding any other attribute* which the object or object* may happen 

 to poesee*. Thus, if we see ink, pitch, ebony, and a negro, we see that 

 thai* object* have in common the attribute of blackness; and this 

 nullity we can in thought drate of or abttract from the various other 

 attributes which they respectively posses* ; and consider it separately 

 and independently of anything else. In like manner we can consider 

 any attribute of a aragla object, such as of the sun or moon, without 

 attending to its other attribute* ; thus we may contemplate the magni- 

 tude of the sun without attending to it* heat, light, Ao. ; so we may 

 contemplate the light of the moon, without attending to it* magnitude, 

 the inequalities of its surface, *c. All name* of classe*, inasmuch as 

 the individual member* can never be identical, are formed by a process 

 of abstraction. Thus, when we think of a (hip or a house, we pay no 

 attention to the material*. colour, shape, size, construction, convenience, 

 or beauty of the ship or house, but we give the one name to any 

 dwelling of man built by regular artificer*, and the other to any vessel 

 with a deck and masts mad* to sail on the am. Any object which 

 paniiii these attribute, we call a .hip or a house ; though there 



cannot be any chip or hou** which po ./,/ UIOM attributes, and 



i* not also of a certain colour, nine, ehap*, *c. '; but the** incidental 

 cmalitie* we leave out of our ronnideraUon in referring any object to 



From these remark* it i* evident that abet 

 arbitrary act of the mind, by which a oertair 



ing a merely 



apart from any other attributes with which it may happen to be asso- 

 ciated, do** not represent to us image* !>. which tlior* in 

 anything corresponding in the nature of thing* ; there i* nowhere an 

 abstract man or tree which has no i< 



incidents, not entering into the abstract notion simplified uy those 

 general terms. Whenever we recognise in any object those peculiar-it ir-. 

 which we consider a* characteristic of a certain cla**, < 

 that class, without taking any heed of tin- "'/IT attribute* with which 

 they may happen to be combined. Thiu.il in ^.me iim-splored part of 

 the world there should be discovered a race of animal* resembling some 

 known variety of the human race in every particular except the colour 

 of the skin or the hair, they would be doubtless called men, although 

 there U no such thing as an abstract man whose skin or hair i* devoid 

 of colour. 



The circumstance of there not being any sensible object, or any 

 conception of our mind, which we can image to curatives with' 

 attributes, ha* given rise to considerable perplexity on the subject of 

 abstraction. For instance, when think of a hone, we represent to 

 ourselves an animal of certain colour, shape, and au* ; though we 

 should equally give the name of hone to an animal of different colour, 

 shape, and sue. So, when we think of a plane triangle, although a 

 triangle U any plane figure bounded by three straight lines, yet we 

 cannot help representing to oureelves a triangle which U either right- 

 angled, or acute-angled, or obtuse-angled, or equilateral or scalene. 

 The truth is, that the process by which Uie mind abstracts is, that it 

 conceives or represents to itself the object of thought &* an individual 

 of its class, together with curtain particular attributes which must 

 belong to all individuals ; anil it considers apart from the rest only 

 that attribute which is required for the matter in li.imi Thus, il it i 

 a question whether a uewly-ii li-t,.n is that of an .initial 



belonging to the class of elephants or of deer, the oornj 

 anatomist calls to his mind au elephant or deer, such as actually exists, 

 but contidert only the structure of his bones ; and, if there i* 

 agreement in this respect, he pronounces the skil.t ..n to li.m 1. 

 to one of those classes. So, likewise, when a mathematician, by 

 of a figure described on paper, prove* that the square of the hypotenuse 

 equals the sum of the squares of the other sides of ,1 right-angled 

 triangle, although the image in his mind is that of a triangle of A 

 definite size, \--t hu considers only the relation of the sides and angles, 

 without paying any attention to the length of the lines. 



This process, by which the mind i/ciieralitci a particular notion, by 

 'ui-Meriug only a part of it, might be illustrated by many examples of 

 changes in the meaning of words. Thus, there stood formerly on tho 

 bank of the Thames, in London, a palace called Bridewell ; this, in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, was converted into a penitentiary, or prison for lunl 

 labour; whence the term bridewell has been extended, and is now 

 sometimes used as a general name for such penitentiaries, s 

 n.-iii,. /.iilace has been extended to all sumptuous houses, livimr 

 originally been confined to that on the Palatine hill, at Rome. It ha* 

 been remarked that, although brute animals have, like men, the t 

 of reasoning or drawing conclusions from premises, yet they have not, 

 like men, the faculty of abstraction. Nevertheless, it is plain that 

 some animals go through a process of which the effects exactly cor- 

 respond with that of abstraction in men ; for example, they can 

 and are aware of the recurrence of certain numbers ; and a dog who 

 ha* onoe been beaten with a (tick, or pelted with a stone, will nin away 

 from all sticks or stones, of whatsoever size, shape, or colour. That they 

 cannot found, on abstraction, the admirable gift of language, the most 

 important distinction between men and beasts, is owing apparently not 

 to the absence of the power of forming general nations. n. yt t., tli, 

 inability of making articulate sounds, a* we may perceive in the 

 instance of the parrot. [NOMINALISTS.] 



ABSURDUM, REDUCTIO AD, is that ipeoie* of argument which 

 proves, not the thing asserted, but the abiurdity of everything which 

 contradict* it. It i* much used in geometry, in order to demonstrate 

 the convene of a proposition already proved. One of two thing* mu-t 

 be true ; either the proposition asserted, or something which contra- 

 dicts it. If the opposing party deny the proposition, he must affirm 

 that which is contradictory. Let hi* counter-proposition be taken for 

 granted ; then, if by the legitimate use of it *om* absurdity can be 

 deduced, it is evident that hi* contradiction in wrong, and the origin*! 

 proposition right. A* an instance of this method of proceeding, 1 

 uppose it ha* been proved, and i* not denied, that whenever A is B 

 then c i* D. We may then affirm that when c is not D. A is not B. 

 For if A were B, o would be D ; but c U not D, therefore A is not B. 

 The full form of the JlaJutiio ad Akturdiin, in this cane, is as follow* : 

 You grant that if A were B, c would be D ; but you refuse to admit 

 the consequence that, when c is not D, A is not B ; that is, you gay 

 that o may not be D, and yet A may be B. Let tliio. then, he a* you 

 ay, that i*. let o not be n, and yet let A be B. But in supposing that 

 A is B, the admitted proposition oblige* you to say that c i* D. But 

 you have lupposed that o is not D : you therefore nay at the name time 

 that o i* D, and that c i* not n, which i* absurd. Consequently, if it 

 be true that whenever A in n then c in t>, it follows that when r is not 

 D, A i* not B. 



The Atdvctio ad, Abirdnm ha* been objected to a* not equally 



