60 POSTSCRIPT. 



When I had the honour of behig ap- 

 pointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery 



is, how do these organs accomplish their respective 

 functions? The opinion that the functions of life are the 

 result of subtile principles commixed with the visible 

 fabric of living beings, will,. I believe, be soon generally 

 admitted; and I contend that the liver and stomach 

 prepare their respective fluids in consequence of their 

 vital principles, and not merely as a result of their or- 

 ganization. Yet I cannot suppose that the brain pro- 

 duces our sensations and thoughts in the same manner. 

 Indeed, it is impossible to suppose, as a poetical writer 

 has humorously suggested with regard to Milton, 



That he from the glands of his brain 

 Secreted his Paradise Lost. 



Also, from the equal absurdity of supposing that the soft 

 medullary fibres of the brain feel and think, the common 

 sense of mankind will for ever revolt. As we cannot 

 either suppose sensation to result from any motion or 

 arrangement of insensible atoms, as we have reason to 

 believe that all the vital processes are carried on in 

 many instances without sensation, and that when it is 

 added that its district is limited to the brain, so we seem 

 compelled to admit that life influences, through the means 

 of its actions and organization, something having the 

 properties of perception, &c. is actedon by it in return. 

 As Mr. ^.awrence's late publication contains but a repe- 

 tition of assertions which I have in general objected to, 

 as he continues to harp upon words without attending to 

 thoughts, and without even seeming to have noticed what 

 I have said with relation to the subjects under discus- 

 sion, I have nothing further to add to the foregoing 

 lectures, except upon one point on which he has a little 



