8 LAWS OF THE 



The modern science of physiology has left the 

 track of Aristotle. To the eternal advantage of 

 science, and to the benefit of mankind, it no longer 

 invents a horror vacui, a quinta essentia, in order to 

 furnish credulous hearers with solutions and expla- 

 nations of phenomena, whose true connection with 

 others, whose ultimate cause is still unknown. 



If we assume that all the phenomena exhibited 

 by the organism of plants and animals are to be 

 ascribed to a peculiar cause, different in its manifes- 

 tations from all other causes which produce motion 

 or change of condition ; if, therefore, we regard the 

 vital force as an independent force, then, in the 

 phenomena of organic life, as in all other pheno- 

 mena ascribed to the action of forces, we have 

 the statics, that is, the state of equilibrium deter- 

 mined by a resistance, and the dynamics, of the vital 

 force. 



All the parts of the animal body are produced 

 from a peculiar fluid, circulating in its organism, by 

 virtue of an influence residing in every cell, in every 

 organ, or part of an organ. Physiology teaches that 

 all parts of the body were originally blood ; or that 

 at least they were brought to the growing organs by 

 means of this fluid. 



The most ordinary experience further shews, 

 that at each moment of life, in the animal organ- 

 ism, a continued change of matter, more or less 

 accelerated, is going on ; that a part of the structure 

 is transformed into unorganised matter, loses its 



