CHEMISTRY. 89 



consider the organic characters of things, whether animal or vegeta- 

 ble; chemistry, their inorganic or mineral elements. This is a broad 

 distinction, and easy to apply. We would not rescind one chemi- 

 cal experiment, or deny the value of one fact therefrom resulting ; 

 but we protest against the logic of reasoning from chemistry to phy- 

 siology; from bricks to architecture; from neutral matter to forms 

 shapen for particular purposes, and with qualities that constitute 

 their point, and their very existence. 



At the same time there is no objection to regard life as a fire, 

 and the chest as one of its principal grates ; the fuel being the blood, 

 and the draught, the fresh air of the lungs. In proportion as the 

 outward world is cold, this lung-fire must be kept up by more in- 

 flammable materials, just as larger coals and logs are in use in De- 

 cember than in May. And moreover in proportion to the size of 

 the fire is the quantity of smoke or carbonic acid disengaged from 

 the system. All this is safe analogy and good experiment. But 

 let us not be deceived into regarding this as animal heat: it is as 

 purely mineral heat — this presumed " combustion" of carbon and 

 fat — as the heat in an ordinary stove. Animal heat is that which 

 warms life, or inflames the animal, as such. Its burnings are desires, 

 the flames of animal existence. These are kindled by their appro- 

 priate objects. The universal animal heat of the body is the or- 

 ganic zeal or love of self-preservation hotly present in every part. 

 This is the origin of hunger and thirst, which tend to continue bodi- 

 ly life, and lay the world under contribution, not despising even its 

 mineral fire. There are different orders of fire; even in nature there 

 is a substratum of heat of which we make all our fires. And so in 

 the body there is an animal heat which lies at the basis of human 

 warmth, even when the temperature can be fully accounted for by 

 the " combustion" of the food. Take the sun out of nature, and 

 the numbed flints will have lost their sparks; and take the soul out 

 of the body, and you may indeed roast it or boil it, but cannot warm 

 it with one ray of "animal heat." 



Moreover there are several kinds of chemistry. The present 

 chemical sciences are of the mineral degree, although their higher 

 branches are indeed mineral-vegetable and mineral-animal. But 

 there is no such science yet as either vegetable or animal chemistry. 



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