C>(^ ON THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



cies, or at resolving life in general into a mere play of che- 

 mical affinities, I can only say that they appear to me Inju- 

 dicious. The ablest chemists, those who are most deeply 

 versed in the operations, means, various applications, and 

 extent of their science, are extremely cautious in applying 

 it to the explanation of vital processes. One of the most 

 striking phenomena of living bodies Is the exception which 

 they offer to the laws of chemistry. Composed of matters 

 extremely prone to decomposition, and surrounded by all 

 the influences of heat, air, and moisture, which are very 

 favourable to such change, they yet remain unaltered. 



Living bodies, as well as all dead ones, exhibit electri- 

 cal phenomena under certain circumstances : but the con- 

 trast between the animal functions and electric operations 

 is so obvious and forcible, that the attempts to assimilate 

 them do not demand further notice. 



By the preceding observations, or by any subsequent 

 ones, I would by no means discourage surgical students 

 from the pursuit of the physical sciences. I regard them, 

 on the contrary, not merely as a desirable ornamental 

 accompaniment, but as powerful and indispensable auxi- 

 liaries in physiological and medical researches. A close 

 alliance between the science of living nature and physics 

 and chemistry, cannot fail to be mutually advantageous. 

 What we have principally to guard against, in our profes- 

 sional researches and studies. Is the Influence of partial and 

 confined views, and of those favourite notions and specu- 

 lations, which, like coloured glass, distort all things seen 

 through their medium. Thus we have had a chemical 

 sect, which could discern. In the beautifully varied ap- 

 pointments, and nice adaptations of animal structure, no- 

 thing but an assemblage of chemical instruments : a me- 

 dico-mathematical doctrine, which explained all the phe- 

 nomena of life by the sciences of number and magnitude, 

 by algebra, geometry, mechanics, and hydraulics ; and 

 even a tribe of animists, who, finding that all the powers 

 of inorganic nature had been Invoked in vain, resorted 

 to the world of spirits, and maintained that the soul is the 



