OF THE VITAL POWERS. 25 



effects of others, is very remarkable : v. c. the power of 

 caloric, upon which probably national temperament 

 chiefly depends.* That of joy, a most energetic mental 

 stimulus, is similar, f Likewise perhaps that of 

 oxygen, (50) by whose chemical stimulus the vital 

 powers, particularly irritability, are greatly excited, 

 and more disposed to react, upon the impulse of other 

 stimuli. 



55. Not less considerable than the variety of stimuli, 

 is that more minute discrepancy of the different organs, 

 and of the same organs in different individuals, accord- 

 ing to age, sex, temperament, idiosyncrasy, habit, mode 

 of life, &c, to which are owing the diversified effects of 

 the same stimuli upon different organs, % and even upon 

 the same in different individuals, and upon which 

 depends what the English have lately termed specific 

 irritability. § 



56. Lastly, the influence of stimuli by means of sym- 

 pathy, is very extraordinary : by its means, if one part 

 is excited, another, frequently very remote, consents in 



feeling, motion, or some peculiar function. || 



« , — 



* Montesquieu, De C Esprit des Lois. T. ii. p. 34. London. 1757. 8vo. 

 1" J. Casp. Hirzcl, lie Animi Iwti et ereeti efficacia in corpore sano et trgro. 

 Lugd. Bat. 1746. 



X Called Le Tact ou le Gout particulier de chaque Partir, by Theopb. de 

 Bordeu, Rechcrches Anatomiques sur les Glandes. p. 376 sq. 

 § Sam. Farr, on Animal Motion. 1771. 8vo. p. 141. 



J. Mudge's Cure for a recent catarrhous Cough. Edit 2. 1779. 8vo. 

 p. 238. 



Gilb. Blane, On Muscular Motion. 1788. 4to. p. 22. 

 J. L. Gautier, De irritabilitatis notione, Sfc. Hal. 1793. 8vo. p. 56. 

 || J. H. Rahn, De Causis Physicis Sympathia. Excrc. i. — vii. Tlgur. from 

 1786. 4to. 



Syllage selectiorum opusculor. de mirabili sympathia qua partes inter di- 

 versas c. h. intercedit. Edited by J. C. Tr. Schlegel. Lips. 1787. 8vo. 



