80 LECTURE II. 



the vital processes with one another in the 

 same animal, and in all the varieties of liv- 

 ing beings.* 



Under the influence of these notions, we 

 cannot be surprised that he is interested in 

 recording the facts, which seemed to him 

 to shew that when age has annulled the 

 principal sexual powers, their appropriate 

 external evidences are not only discon- 

 tinued, but sometimes those of an opposite 

 character are displayed, f 



The difference of form and character be- 

 tween the male and female of most animals 



* If, indeed, all the phaenomena of life were pro- 

 duced by the super-addition of a subtile substance, or 

 substances capable of causing chemical composition, 

 decomposition, variations of temperature, and actions, 

 according to the suggestion contained in the first lec- 

 ture, page 35, without being regulated by any other 

 vital energy, but acting in conformity to pre-established 

 laws ; still the results are so different from what we 

 observe from the operation of the same causes in mat- 

 ter in general, that the laws of life must be peculiar* 

 and, therefore, require to be made a separate study. 



i Mr. Hunter's paper on this subject will be found 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1 780. 



