452 Additional Notes. 



Stahl were adopted, particularly by a number of medical 

 philosophers in different nans of Europe; but at the close or 

 the century there were few or none who professed an ad- 

 herence to them. 



Hartley's Phitasapky. p. 17. 



It is asserted, in the above-mentioned page, that Dr. Hart- 

 ley derived his doc trine of -vibration from Newton. The 

 truth is, that Dr. 1 Willi am Briggs, who instructed New- 

 ton in anatomy, appears to have been the first who taught 

 the doctrine of nervous vibrations. This he did in his Nova 

 Fisionis Theoria, published in 1632. Newton, taking the 

 idea from him,, suggests it, not as a fixed opinion, but as a 

 modest query (see 23d query, subjoined to his Optics), whe- 

 ther Cl vision is effected chiefly by the vibrations of an elastic 

 medium, excited in the bottom of the eve by the rays of 

 light, and propagated along the solid, pellucid, and uniform 

 oapillaments of the optic nerve? And whether hearing is 

 effected by the vibrations of the same or of some other me- 

 dium, excited by the tremor of the air in the auditory nerves, 

 and propagated along the solid, pellucid, and uniform capilla- 

 ments of those nerves r" And so with regard to the other 

 senses. Wnat was thus suggested by Newton became a 

 fundamental principle in Hartley's system, and has been 

 considered by him and his followers as. placed on the high 

 ground of demonstration. 



Kant\s Philosophy. 



Immanuel Kant was born in 1724, anil is still living. 

 His philosophy has excited almost as much attention as that 

 of Wolfe did eightv years ago, and has called forth the ta- 

 lents of many of the most eminent men of Germany, for 

 and against it. Besides those who have been already men- 

 tioned as distinguished parti zans in this controversy, there are 

 some others worthy of notice. Joh. Gotth. Fuhte, of 

 Jena; Professor Born, of Leipsic; Professor Beck, of Ro- 

 stock; and the Rev. Geo. Sam. Mellin, of Magdeburg, 

 have written largely and ably in defence of the Kantian doc- 

 trine; while Feder, Eberhard, Professor Tiedemann, 

 and Professor Ma as, have been equally conspicuous, zealous 

 and able in opposition to this far-famed system. 



