48 LECTURE I. 



it is equally probable there is an electric 

 fluid and a vital principle. Permit me to 

 repeat, that I excited your attention to the 

 consideration of this subject, not only be- 

 cause it affords a strong proof of Mr. Hun- 

 ter's genius and reflection, but because I 

 felt assured, that without understanding his 

 opinions respecting life, no one can under- 

 stand his general Physiology, or that 

 Pathology which it was my principal duty 

 and desire afterwards to explain. He 

 seems to me to have written under a per- 

 suasion that others knew what he did re- 

 specting the vital functions, and had 

 thought as he had done, and his merits as 

 a Physiologist, has therefore been less 

 generally perceived from the want of this 

 previous information and reflection. 



What Mr. Hunter thought about sen- 

 sation I know not ; what I think, I willingly 

 declare, which is, that it can be neither 

 the result of organization, nor an affection 

 of mere life. In reasoning on the motions 

 of the matter which surrounds us, and also 

 of that of which we are composed, we must 



