114 NOVUM OROANUM 



tures, but by concrete bodies, as they are found in nature 

 and in its usual course. For instance, suppose the inquiry 

 to be, from what beginnings, in what manner, and by what 

 process gold or any metal or stone is generated from the 

 original menstruum, or its elements, up to the perfect min 

 eral: or, in like manner, by what process plants are gener 

 ated, from the first concretion of juices in the earth, or from 

 seeds, up to the perfect plant, with the whole successive 

 motion, and varied and uninterrupted efforts of nature; and 

 the same inquiry be made as to a regularly deduced system 

 of the generation of animals from coition to birth, and so on 

 of other bodies. 



Nor is this species of inquiry confined to the mere gen 

 eration of bodies, but it is applicable to other changes and 

 labors of nature. For instance, where an inquiry is made 

 into the whole series and continued operation of the nutri 

 tive process, from the first reception of the food to its com 

 plete assimilation to the recipient; 7 or into the voluntary 

 motion of animals, from the first impression of the imagina 

 tion, and the continuous effects of the spirits, up to the 

 bending and motion of the joints; or into the free motion of 

 the tongue and lips, and other accessories which give utter 

 ance to articulate sounds. For all these investigations relate 

 to concrete or associated natures artificially brought together, 

 and take into consideration certain particular and special 

 habits of nature, and not those fundamental and general 

 laws which constitute forms. It must, however, be plainly 

 owned, that this method appears more prompt and easy, and 

 of greater promise than the primary one. 



7 Haller has pursued this investigation in his &quot;Physiology,&quot; and hits left 

 his successors little else to do than repeat his discoveries. Ed. 



