on-hybernating animals, it is only occasion- 
ly that anything approaching to this suspen- 
on of vital action can occur. That which 
akes place during sleep only relates to the 
sorial functions; the organic changes expe- 
cing but little diminution in activity. The 
eness of the connection hetween their vital 
ations, and the immediate dependence of 
hese upon external stimuli, involve the de- 
struction of life when they are totally with- 
drawn ; and it is only under peculiar conditions 
of the organism itself, that we ever witness a 
uspension of vital action without the speedy 
supervention of death. Indeed it may be 
‘fairly questioned whether such suspension can 
er completely take place; and whether the 
nges which occur in the periphery of the 
‘culation are not continuing, however feebly, 
when no action can be detected at the 
‘centre. This condition is termed syncope ; and 
| its phenomena will be more fully detailed here- 
after. (See Syncope.) We are inclined to think 
that, where a state of apparent death has conti- 
ued for some days, vital action was never 
mtirely suspended ; though perhaps its cessa- 
tion may be more complete where the syncope 
‘is but transient. Such would seem to be the 
ge where individuals have recovered from a 
ubmersion under water, which has been pro- 
onged beyond the few minutes that suffice to 
oduce asphyxia. It is generally supposed, 
ind we think with reason, that the mental emo- 
tion experienced at the moment of submersion 
oduces a state of syncope; and that the or- 
anism, being in that state less dependent on 
| external stimuli than when in a more active 
‘condition, can bear privations which would be 
Otherwise fatal, just as is known to be the case 
vith hybernating animals, the pupe of insects, 
ce. The well-known case of Col. Townsend 
appears to us to prove that an apparent cessa- 
tion of vital action does not imply its entire 
‘€xtinction ; since when no changes could be 
| etected by his medical attendants, he was vo- 
= Re ee Me 
Tuntarily acting on his system both to retard and 
Tenew its usual functions. Dr. Cleghorn of 
Glasgow knew an individual who could control 
the action of his heart, so as to be able to feign 
death at pleasure. . 
_ Although in these cases we may be disin- 
clined to admit the ¢ofal suspension of vital 
action, there can be no doubt that it may occur 
in portions of the human body under the influ- 
nce of cold, and that, if carefully treated, it 
‘May be again renewed. Nay more ;—there is 
undoubted evidence that portions of the body, 
fier being totally separated from it, may be 
Teunited and made again to form integrant parts 
of the structure, if no disorganisation has taken 
place in the interval. That such an occurrence 
Is perfectly consonant with the doctrines which 
we have maintained regarding the connection 
between vitality and organisation—will be at 
Once evident; but we do not see how it can be 
satisfactorily explained by the advocates of the 
loctrine of a separate life or vital principle. 
Does the finger or nose which has been cut off 
a with it a chip or off-shoot of the parent 
ital principle or organic agent? If so, when 
does that quit ifs material tenement? There 
| 
& 
LIFE. 
159 
is no evidence of its existence in the separated 
part, which is completely dead to the general 
structure, and which nothing prevents from 
speedy decay, if its vital actions be not soon 
renewed. And if it be supposed to remain, it 
must again become merged in its parent prin- 
ciple, when re-union of the divided parts has 
taken place, or must submit to it like a dutiful 
child. There is no end to the absurdities in 
which those may be involved, who adhere with 
pertinacity to a doctrine so useless and so un- 
philosophical as that of a single controlling 
agent or power, presiding over the affairs of 
each organism. 
It is with much satisfaction that the author 
of the foregoing article (which was written 
above a year ago) refers his readers to the re- 
cently published Supplement on the Atomic 
Lheory, by Dr. Daubeny, for a full discussion 
of the question briefly cpnsidered in§ V. The 
conclusions at which The learned Professor has 
arrived are of precisely the same character as 
those for which the author has here argued, and 
are expressed in almost the same language. 
The following passages may be extracted from 
among many of great interest. 
“ There is little doubt that it will eventually 
appear, that all the secretions or excretions of 
animals and vegetables are only so far de- 
pendent upon life, inasmuch as, in consequence 
of the favourable temperature which it sustains, 
the constant circulation of the fluids it occasions, 
and their exposure to external agents in vessels 
of different shapes and dimensions, a mechani- 
cal separation of the ingredients of the blood is 
effected in some instances, and a chemical 
change produced in its composition by catalytic 
action in others.” ‘The putrefaction of vege- 
tableand animal matters appears to be produced, 
not by any sudden cessation of those affinities 
which had previously bound their respective 
elements together, but by the predominance 
over them of the natural forces, which we may 
without much difficulty conceive to have been 
controlled under the circumstances in which the 
living body is placed; nor does there seem any 
sufficient reason for calling in the intervention 
of an occult principle to explain that, to the 
solution of which by known causes, every fresh 
advance in chemical knowledge seems to bring 
us into closer approximation.” ‘ [tis now cer- 
tain that the same simple laws of composition 
pervade the whole creation; and that, if the 
organic chemist only takes the requisite pre- 
cautions to avoid resolving into their ultimate 
elements the proximate principles upon which 
he operates, the results of his analysis will show 
that they were combined ‘precisely according to 
the same plan as the elements of the mineral 
bodies are known to be.” 
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Besides the systematic Trea- 
tises on physiological science by Haller, Cullen, 
Blumenbach, Dumas, Richerand, Treviranus, Ru- 
dolph, Magendie, Bostock, Tiedemann, Mayo, Ade- 
lon, Burdach, Alison, Roget, Fletcher, Dunglison, 
Arnold, Miiller, Carpenter, and others,—the fol- 
lowing, among the almost innumerable writings on 
the subject, may be advantageously consulted. 
Aristotle, Opera. Cicero, Quest. Tusc. lib. i. 
Idem, De nat. deorum. Lucretius, De rerum na- 
turd. Bacon, Historia vite et mortis, Harvey, 
