118 PHYSIOLOGY OF ORGANIC LIFE, 



pregnation; and from this false fact and false 

 assumption, he has proceeded to investigate the 

 subject, and to make from them the most erro- 

 neous qonclusions. He might, with as much 

 propriety, have supposed that the ova of birds 

 which we see continually dropped from the 

 ovarium without impregnation, are actually im- 

 pregnated, or that the corpus luteum, which 

 is in consequence formed, is the test of it ; al- 

 though certain evidence existed that no union 

 between the pairs had taken place, and where 

 corpora lutea had been formed, but no impreg- 

 nation whatever. 



So little is known, at this time, of the nature . 

 of Hood, that with few exceptions, the genera- 

 lity of physiologists absolutely deny to it the 

 attribute of vitality. They deny the attribute 

 of vitality to that important matter, from which 

 every part of the living system is formed; which 

 supplies the wants, and which restores the 

 waste that different parts suffer. Mr. J. BELL, 

 who must be considered as high authority in 

 this matter, calls the vitality of the blood " the 

 most monstrous of all absurdities." The vita* 

 lity of the blood is an opinion almost as antient 

 as the Mosaic account of the creation. The 

 sacred writings tell us, that " the life is in the 

 blood," that is to say, that the life of the animal 

 or of the vegetable is in the blood, in common 

 with the other parts of the body ; not separate 



