RECAPITULATION ; 



OR SUGGESTIONS AFTER WRITING THE WORK. 



There appears to be in the vegetable, as well as in the 

 animal kingdom, a healing and preservative power, which 

 repairs all breaches, renovates what is worn out,and strug- 

 gles against decay. Physicians call this power in the hu- 

 man system, the vis medicatrix et conservatrix natura, or 

 the healing and preservative power of nature. When a 

 bone is broken, nature immediately begins to repair the 

 breach by throwing out a secretion of bony niatter ? which 

 gradually hardens and unites the ends of the bones. To 

 still plainer show her intention, Nature after having unit- 

 ed the ends of the bone, builds up a strong ridge round 

 the part which was seperated, as if to guard against any 

 future violence. This ridge may be felt through the flesh 

 by any person, particularly a young one, who has had a 

 bone broken. In grafting a tree, precisely the same ope- 

 ration is carried on. A secretion of sap is thrown out, 

 which hardens into wood and thus unites the two parts. 

 When the human flesh is cut with a knife, nature also se- 

 cretes from the blood a fluid, but not bony, which thick- 

 ens like glue when the wound is kept from the air, and 

 unites the lips of the wound by the first intention that is, 

 without suppuration. But if the air is suffered to act up- 



