38 MEMOIR OF JOHN BARCLAY. 



phenomena to an internal animating principle,- 

 Aristotle, Harvey, Willis, Hunter, and Abernethy, 

 &c. 



In summing up the whole arguments, the Doctor 

 comes to the conclusion that all physiological writers, 

 ancient and modern, seem to he agreed that the causes 

 of life and organisation are utterly invisible, whether 

 they pass under the name of " animating principles, 

 vital principles, in divisible atoms, or organic particles/' 

 or by whatever name they may be called : and that 

 the first writer who has thrown any light upon this 

 subject is the prophet Moses, the law-giver of the 

 Jews. He regularly assigns an adequate cause for 

 the phenomena which he describes, not only for the 

 orderly arrangement of the universe, but the first 

 formation of the various species of animals and plants. 

 The cause which he assigns is an omnipotent, omni- 

 scient, omnipresent Being, invisible, self-existent, and 

 eternal, and to whose will the whole material universe 

 is subjected, more thoroughly and completely, though 

 not more inconceivably, than our bodily organs are 

 subjected to our wills. 



About this time the Doctor, for once, appeared as 

 a controversialist. 



Many conjectures have been formed, and many 

 fables told, respecting that dubious animal the Sea 

 Snake. A huge sea monster, however, cast ashore 

 on the island of Stronsa, in September 1808, was be- 

 lieved to have at last settled the point, and authen- 

 ticated its existence ; it measured 55 feet in length, 

 and 1 feet in circumference ; had six fins or paws 



