THE TRUE PHYSICIAN. 087 



is only a general term designating the natural ac- 

 tion of all the organs ; and is in proportion to the 

 amount of respiration, sanguification, secretion, and 

 nutrition. Hence it is, that a broken bone unites 

 much sooner in birds than in mammalia, and 

 sooner in all warm than in cold blooded animals, 

 sooner in youth and adolescence than in old 

 age, and always sooner in persons of large chest 

 and sanguine temperament, than in such as have 

 a small thorax, imperfect lungs, or feeble and 

 phlegmatic constitutions. But whenever the vital 

 properties of the blood are impaired, and the for- 

 mative process diminished, whether from disease 

 of the lungs, the respiration of impure air, ex- 

 posure to cold, over exertion of body or mind, im 

 perfect nourishment, excessive medication, or the 

 depressing emotions, the power of resisting the 

 various causes of disease, (the vis conservatrix na- 

 tures) of uniting wounds, and restoring lost parts, 

 is proportionally reduced. Nar is it possible that 

 any general disease could exist so long* as the blood 

 is constantly renovated by respiration, and depu- 

 rated by excretion from the lungs, skin, kidneys, 

 and bowels. 



The circulation of arterial blood from the heart 

 throughout all parts of the animal frame is some- 

 what analogous to the distribution of water from 

 the ocean through the atmosphere by evapora- 

 tion : and the return of the same water to the 

 fountain whence it sprung, by innumerable rivers, 



