10 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Characters of the Vital Properties compared with 

 those of the Physical. 



Q. The characteristics of the vital and physical pro- 

 perties in animate and inanimate nature are strikingly 

 different; in what principally consists this difference? 



/?. The physical are determinate and invariable; the 

 vital vary with every day and person. Attraction and 

 gravity are always the same; sensibility and contractility 

 are ever variant. 



Q. Is there such a state as disorder of the physical pro- 

 perties ? 



*#. No. Physiology is to living bodies, what astro- 

 nomy, hydraulics, &c. are to inert ones. There is nothing 

 in physics analogous to pathology in living bodies. 



Q. What would be the consequence of variableness in 

 physical properties ? 



Ji. The effect would be the disorganization of nature. 



Q. Then physical laws cannot govern living bodies? 



#. No. In one or two functions there is a combined 

 action of vital and physical properties; such as the eye 

 and ear. The vital powers always preponderate. 



Q. What difference is observable in the elementary ar- 

 rangements of living and inanimate bodies? 



Jl. Composition and decomposition are constantly 

 changing the elements of living bodies; but the elements 

 of inert bodies remain the same until destroyed. 



Q. Do animate and inanimate bodies resemble each 

 other in the perpetuity of their properties? 



#. Not at all. Vital properties tending to exhaust 

 themselves, animate bodies but for a limited time; they 



