GENERAL VIEW OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 17 



by that beating engine, part shoots upwards, and sweeps with a 

 bounding impetus into the head, where it impregnates the prolific 

 fields of the brain, and forms those subtle spirituous dews, the 

 animal spirits, which impart sense to every nerve, and communicate 

 motion to every limb. Part flows downward, and rolls the reeking 

 current through all the lower quarters ; and disperses the nutri- 

 mental stores even to the meanest member, and the minutest part. 

 Thus the human river, with its incomparable rich fluid, laves the 

 several regions of the body, transfusing vigor and propagating 

 health through the whole. When this vital fluid, has pervaded 

 every part, and given each his proper fluid, it is met by the ends 

 of veins, and by them re-conducted back to the fountain. There 

 it commences ftie same round ; and the same force that darts the 

 crimson wave from the heart, drives it also back again to it. 

 Where opposite currents would be in danger of clashing, as in the 

 ascending and descending great trunks of the veins, a fibrous ex- 

 crescence intervenes, which, like a projecting pier, breaks the 

 stroke of each, and diverts both streams into their proper re- 

 ceptacle. Thus modelled by the most judicious rules, and guarded 

 by the wisest precautions, the living flood never discontinues its 

 interchangeable tide, but night and day, whether we sleep or wake, 

 still perseveres to sally briskly through the arteries, and to return 

 softly through the veins. These are a few, and but a very few 

 instances of that contrivance, regularity, and beauty, which are ob- 

 servable in the human frame. Attentive inquirers discover deep 

 footsteps of design, and more refined strokes of skill, discover 

 them not only in the grand and most distinguished parts, but in 

 every limb and organ ; in every fibre that is extended, in every new 

 discovered system of vessels, and in every globule that flows ! 



SENSES. 



Having thus developed an organized body, endued with a prin- 

 ciple of motion, and furnished with the power of nutrition, the 

 sensitive faculties are now to be displayed. The functions of the 

 mind are the effect of stimuli, as well as those of the body ; and 

 the more the mind is excited to action, the more is the vitality 

 exhausted. The mind has a very great influence upon the body, 

 and impressions made upon the one, instantly affect the other; the 



rate of one hundred thousand strokes every twenty-four hours, having at every stroke 

 a great resistance to overcome ; and continue this action for that length of time without 

 disorder and without weariness, whether asleep or awake. A perpetual motion. 

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