PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 403 



none : and it thus ranks in the physical world, with Theology in the 

 intellectual ; as alike aiming to meliorate the condition of the human, 

 race. To the pious Physician, alone, it belongs, to unite these noble 

 aims ; by caring for the eternal welfare of those whose health he 

 attempts to restore; and referring them to the great Physician of 

 souls, for the cure of diseases far more fatal than any which his skill 

 can remove. 



The principle of life, and the connection of the soul and body, are 

 among the greatest mysteries of nature ; such as man, in his finite 

 state, probably can never completely fathom. Hippocrates attributed 

 animal warmth to a material fire, residing in the left ventricle of the 

 heart, and moderated by the inhalation of the air ; but the mind he 

 regarded as an ethereal fire, immortal, and intelligent, acting on the 

 body by means of certain faculties or powers. Plato regarded the 

 spinal marrow as the bond of union between the soul and body : and 

 he believed in three vital principles, residing respectively in the 

 head, the heart, and the liver, or stomach. Galen modified this idea, 

 and imagined the existence of three spirits, or faculties ; the animal, 

 residing in the brain, the source of sensation and motion ; the vital, 

 residing in the heart, the source of warmth and vitality ; and the 

 natural, residing in the liver or stomach, the source of nutrition and 

 growth. 



In modern times, Van Helmont gave the name of archeus, or the 

 chief, and Boerhaave, that of impetumfaciens, or the active energy, 

 to the great principle of life ; but without throwing any new light 

 upon the subject. Glisson, in his work on the " Life of Nature and 

 of its three first faculties, the perceptive, appetitive, and motive," 

 published in 1672, first ascribed to the fibres of the animal body a 

 peculiar power which he called irritability. This he divided into 

 three kinds, natural, vital, and animal ; pointing out the differences 

 in different organs. The idea of a nervous fluid, as the exciting 

 cause of muscular action, has always been a prominent one ; the 

 ancients comparing it to air ; the alchemists to an acid ; while New- 

 ton suggested that it might be ethereal; an opinion which was adopted 

 by Haller and Cuvier. But although an ethereal medium, which is 

 very probably a galvanic current, may be the intermediate agent in 

 producing muscular motion ; still the mind, or soul, the power which 

 controls this mechanism, is left as inexplicable as ever. The 

 mechanism itself may yet be farther elucidated by new discoveries : 

 but the presiding spirit, must, we apprehend, be loosed from its 

 earthly bondage, before it can turn and perceive the chains which 

 bound it. 



In distributing the medical sciences under their appropriate branches, 

 we incline strongly to the opinion that Anatomy and Physiology, 

 from their close relations, the one treating of the mechanism of the 

 body, and the other of its uses, should both be included in one and 

 the same branch; for which we would propose the name Andro- 

 noiny ; a name which, we trust, will often be found convenient to 

 designate these subjects connectedly; with the greatest possible 

 brevity. Pharmacy, Materia Medica, and Therapeutics, in so far as 

 they relate to the preparation and properties of medicines, we would 



