OF LIEBIG. 909 



ments, he observes in another place, that " the 

 cause of the phenomena of living bodies is not a 

 chemical force ; it is a force which has certain pro- 

 perties in common with all causes of motion and 

 of change in form and structure in material sub- 

 stances. It is a peculiar force, because it exhi- 

 bits manifestations which are found in no other 

 known force." (Vol. ii. p. 232.) And he tells 

 us in the first volume, that " the vital principle is 

 a power distinct from all the other powers in 

 nature." 



What is still more remarkable, Liebig has of- 

 fered no explanation of the office or agency of 

 heat in digestion, sanguification, secretion, nutri- 

 tion, sensation, and muscular motion ; but at 



process as nutrition, muscular motion, or any other function ? 

 And does he mean seriously that bile is not essential to chylifica- 

 tion, because of the small proportion of nitrogen it contains ; or 

 that it serves merely for the support of respiration ? The most 

 probable opinion is, that bile unites with chyme to form chyle, 

 and that the excess of carbon-and hydrogen not required to form 

 blood, is given off in combination with oxygen. For it is stated 

 by Miiller on the authority of Shultz, that in oxen which had not 

 recently taken food, there was found from 12 to 16 oz. of bile in 

 the gall bladder, but only from 2 to 4 oz. after digestion. Hence 

 it is, that when the process of digestion is arrested, as during 

 fever, or only diminished, as in hot climates, there is a super- 

 abundance of bile, which is discharged by vomiting, or passes 

 downwards, causing bilious stols. Hence also the reason why 

 Hippocrates, Galen, and nearly all the ancients, regarded bile as 

 the cause of fevers, an opinion which has prevailed to a greater 

 or less extent among mankind ever since, and is still most 

 potently believed by the vulgar. 



