ioo PHYSIC 



deducible from the study of it, to enable us not to "run 

 counter" in our attempts to aid the operation of the vis 

 medicatrix nature, but to mould " our line of conduct" 

 with an eye to combined action and co-operative influence 

 with it. The vis naturae having done its work abso- 

 lutely well or physiologically correctly in vitalising and 

 moulding into organic form the protoplasmic elements of 

 the fecundated ovum, and in superintending the various 

 stages of embryonic, foetal, and pre-adult growth by the 

 aid of the vis medicatrix naiura^ it lays the foundation 

 of a future health which, if unassailed by morbific agencies, 

 is calculated to last, in the human species, to "three score 

 and ten years," and, according to the experience of every 

 generation, to " four score," or even " the round century." 



This result is frequently obtained by the unassisted 

 operation of the combined vis nature and its constantly 

 associated vis medicatrix^ and may be regarded as the 

 natural goal which all humanity is legitimately entitled 

 to aim at gaining, by these agencies alone, but, if required 

 from any cause or combination of causes opposed to it, 

 then by the assistance of science and art. 



The vis nature, as the fountain of organism or forma- 

 tive force, and the author of vitality, utilises almost all 

 the known forces, combining and opposing them, and har- 

 nessing them to the machinery of life in the accomplish- 

 ment of the great organic work of evolution. Should 

 these forces suffice for the ends of life and health well and 

 good, but should they not, then the vis medicatrix is called 

 in to meet the difficulty and to arrange for bridging over 

 the temporary impossible by the addition or substitution 

 of other and perhaps exceptional modes of force. The 

 organic vis nature being a compound of mechanical, 

 chemical, and physiological modes of force, with that 

 specific residuum of force or forces known as vital, requires 

 for its "field of operations" a combination of organic units, 

 material and dynamic, specifically adapted and mutually 

 arranged so that their inter-dependence and co-operation 

 will result in "life," "organism in action," or that which 

 answers to any other definition of the phenomena called 

 "vital," known to science. It operates by trituration of 

 the solid materials of the food, admixture of these with 



