348 FKAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



extract the temperature of molten platinum, which is 

 nearly four thousand degrees. The miracle here is the 

 reverse of that of the burning bush mentioned in Exo- 

 dus. There the bush burned, but was not consumed: 

 here the body is consumed, but does not burn. The 

 similarity of the action with that of the Voltaic battery 

 when it heats an external wire is too obvious to need 

 pointing out. When the machine is used to decompose 

 water, the heat of the muscle, like that of the battery, 

 is consumed in molecular work, being fully restored 

 when the gases recombine. As before, also, the trans- 

 muted heat of the muscles may be bottled up, carried 

 to the polar regions, and there restored to its pristine 

 form. 



The matter of the human body is the same as 

 that of the world around us; and here we find the forces 

 of the human body identical with those of inorganic 

 nature. Just as little as the Voltaic battery is the ani- 

 mal body a creator of force. It is an apparatus ex- 

 quisite and effectual beyond all others in transforming 

 and distributing the energy with which it is supplied, 

 but it possesses no creative power. Compared with the 

 notions previously entertained regarding the play of 

 ' vital force ' this is a great result. The problem of 

 vital dynamics has been described by a competent au- 

 thority as * the grandest of all.' I subscribe to this 

 opinion, and honour correspondingly the man who first 

 successfully grappled with the problem. He was no 

 pope, in the sense of being infallible, but he was a man 

 of genius whose work will be held in honour as long as 

 science endures. I have already named him in connec- 

 tion with our illustrious countryman Dr. Joule. Other 

 eminent men took up this subject subsequently and 

 independently, but all that has been done hitherto 



