VITAL AND PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 21 



self to think, he laid down the meaning of the word law^ 

 and its place in science. 



The term laiv expresses the conditions of action of the pro- 

 perties of matter. In our study of the phenomena of nature, 

 it is our object to ascertain their laws by the inquiry into the 

 conditions under which the occurrences present themselves ; 

 and a law deduced from this source is nothing more than 

 a general expression of the conditions common to a certain 

 class of phenomena, leading us to the belief that under the 

 same conditions the same phenomena will constantly occur. 

 When this is found to be the case by the experimental applica- 

 tion of the law to unknown cases, the law is said to be verified, 

 and it may then fairly rank as a general fact to be included with 

 others of like standing in a still higher expression of the condi- 

 tions common to all these, and therefore to all the particular 

 instances included in them. By successive generalizations of 

 this nature, we aim to ascend from the most complicated and 

 restricted to the most simple and universal statement of the 

 phenomena of the universe ; and in so far as this is attained 

 in every science, giving us the means not only of explaining 

 new phenomena as they arise, but of predicting otherwise 

 unexpected occurrences, that science may be regarded as 

 perfect. 



Starting from this view of Law, the essayist affirmed 

 (in words afterwards quoted by Dr. Roget, in his article, 

 " Physiology," in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica ") that 

 " there is nothing essentially different in the character oi the 

 " laws regulating vital and physical phenomena, either as to 

 " their comprehensiveness, their uniformity of action, or the 

 " mode in which they are to be established by the general- 

 "ization of particular facts." He recognized a practical dis- 

 tinction between the properties of inorganic matter and 

 those of living organized matter ; but he declared that 

 " the properties of any aggregation of matter depend upon 

 "the method in which its ultimate molecules are combined 

 "and arranged;" that "the vital properties of organized 



