46 



the zoophytes, so similar to them in many respects, are endowed with 

 the remarkable property of reproduction by slips; which implies, that 

 each part contains the aggregate of organs necessary to life, and can 

 exist alone. 



The vital principle has by some been confounded with the rational soul; 

 but others have distinguished it from that emanation of divinity, to which, 

 as much as to the perfection of his organization, man owes his superiori- 

 ty to all the animal kinds. What bond unites the material principle, 

 which receives impressions and transmits them, to the intelligence which 

 feels, perceives, examines, compares, judges, and reasons on them? 

 Were man one, says Hippocrates, did his material principle make up his 

 whole nature, pleasure and pain would be as nothing to him : he would 

 be without sensation : for, how could he account to himself for impres- 

 sions ? Si unus- esset homo, non doleret, quiet non sciret unde doleret. Here 

 we stand on the confines of physiology and metaphysics; let us beware 

 of setting foot in the dim paths that are before us : the torch of ob- 

 servation would yield but ineffectual light, too faint to dispel the thick 

 darkness that lies over them. 



The vital power is merely the vis medicatrix naturse, more powerful 

 than the physician, in the cure of many diseases ; the art of the physician 

 consisting, in most cases, in awakening or directing the action of that 

 power. When a thorn is thrust into a part endowed with sensibility, a 

 sharp pain is felt, the fluids rush in abundance to the part, it becomes 

 red and swollen; all the vital powers are excited, the sensibility becomes 

 more acute, the contractility greater, and the temperature rises. Does 

 not this increase of vital energy in the injured part, this process which 

 takes place, around the substance that is the cause of the disorder ; those 

 means which are provided to expel it, indicate the existence of a preserv- 

 ing principle, incessantly watching over the harmony of the functions, 

 and struggling against all the powers that may tend to interrupt its ex- 

 ercise, or to annihilate the vital motion? 



Ttieory of inflammation*. Inflammation may, I believe, be defined; the 

 increase of vital properties in the part which it affects^. Sensibility becomes 

 more acute in the part so affected, its contractility greater; and from 

 that increase of sensibility and action, arise all the symptoms character- 

 istic of inflammation. Thus the pain, the swelling, the redness, the heat, 

 and the difference in the state of the secretions, denote in the part a more 

 energetic and active vitality. 



Those who have objected to the definition which I have given of in- 

 flammation, have evidently mistaken the functions of the organs for their 

 properties. It is very true, that inflammation of the eye is attended with 

 loss of sight, but that circumstance depends on the opacity of the trans- 

 parent parts which should transmit the luminous rays to the retina. The 

 sight is prevented by a mechanical obstacle, but the sensibility of the 



* See APPENDIX, Note G. 



t IUFLAMMATIOX is a state of disease. A wound or other injury is inflicted, the nerves 

 ana vessels are injured, and sensibility becomes greater, because the ability to resist, or 

 the tone of the part is lessened. Hence slighter impressions in this condition produce 

 pain. The swelling is owing to the quantity of blood received into the vessels being 

 greater than in health, because the vessels being -weakened are distended : the redness is 

 produced by the quantity of blood. The heat is accumulated, because the natural pro- 

 cess, removing its excess by perspiration is suspended, as the previous injury and 

 consequences check this secretion. Gotlman. 



