4 o FORCE DOCTRINES. 



port the chemical theory of nutrition, shall have all the 

 support that can be derived from the following statements : 

 " Thus oxidation depends on the nutrition of the blood- 

 globules, the heart, and the blood-vessels which admit of the 

 diffusion of the oxygen and the fuel into each portion of the 

 extravascular structures ; whilst nutrition depends on oxida- 

 tion directly by a transformation offeree, and indirectly by the 

 heat causing a relaxation of the' vessels, and thus permitting 

 an increased flow of nutritive substances to the parts." 



Instead of discussing the nature of the phenomena oc- 

 curring in the simplest living thing, and then passing on by 

 degrees to the consideration of the complex actions of man 

 and the higher animals, the disciples of the new school of 

 thought apply themselves at once to the most advanced en- 

 quiry ; and it is curious how ingeniously they manage to 

 avoid the discussion of the real question at issue. As I have 

 before hinted, the steady investigation of the phenomena 

 occurring in a mass of living matter, affords results very 

 unfavourable to the doctrines now taught, and proves that 

 we really know much less than some of the most popular 

 teachers would have us believe. 



Those who follow Physiology and Medicine have to 

 confess to the existence in times past and present of many 

 erroneous medical doctrines, but the most bigoted and ill- 

 founded views ever entertained were not weaker or less 

 supported by facts and observation than the new dogma 

 now so widely taught, that all the phenomena of living 

 things, like the actions of machines, are due alone to simple 

 energy or motion ; and I do not believe that any scientific 

 statement ever made was less justified by known facts than 

 the assertion, that living things are " the workmanship of the 



