OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 34-3 



been devised, as the source of the required electrical 

 power. * 



(380.) It is not our intention, however, to enter 

 into any further consideration of physiological sub- 

 jects. They form, it is true, a most important and 

 deeply interesting province of philosophical enquiry; 

 but the view that we have taken of physical science 

 has rather been directed to the study of inanimate 

 nature, than to that of the mysterious phenomena 

 of organization and life, which constitute the object 

 of physiology. The history of the animal and 

 vegetable productions of the globe, as affording 

 objects and materials for the convenience and use 

 of man, and as dependent on and indicative of the 

 general laws which determine the distribution of 

 heat, moisture, and other natural agents, over its 

 surface, and the revolutions it has undergone, are of 

 course intimately connected with our subject, and 

 will, therefore, naturally afford room for some re- 



* If the brain be an electric pile, constantly in action, it 

 may be conceived to discharge itself at regular intervals, when 

 the tension of the electricity developed reaches a certain point, 

 along the nerves which communicate with the heart, and thus 

 to excite the pulsations of that organ. This idea is forcibly 

 suggested by a view of that elegant apparatus, the dry pile of 

 Deluc; in which the successive accumulations of electricity 

 are carried off by a suspended ball, which is kept by the dis- 

 charges in a state of regular pulsation for any length of time. 

 We have witnessed the action of such a pile maintained in this 

 way for whole years in the study of the above-named eminent 

 philosopher. The same idea of the cause of the pulsation of 

 the heart appears to have occurred to Dr. Arnott ; and is men- 

 tioned in his useful and excellent work on physics, to which 

 however, we are not indebted for the suggestion, it having 

 occurred to us independently many years ago. 

 Z 4 



