248 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on the 



mechanical result of muscular contraction; the aeration and 

 the coagulation of the blood, and the process of digestion, are 

 chemical ; while absorption finds an explanation in the pheno- 

 mena of diffusion and osmosis. 



When the energy which is in matter is manifested without 

 reference to species, we call it simply dynamics ; when it 

 results in the production of mineral species, we call it chemics, 

 or chemism ; and when it gives rise to organisms, which may 

 be defined as kinetic individuals, we distinguish it as vital, or 

 biotic. In matter we must recognize with Tyndall, "the pro- 

 mise and the potency of all terrestrial life"*. 



§ 26. It follows, from what has been said, that the word 

 physiology, as popularly limited to the functions of living 

 beings, is made to include many phenomena which are not 

 biotic, but are common to the organic and mineral kingdoms, 

 and that we need some further definition to distinguish those 

 which are characteristic of organic life. I therefore venture 

 to designate the study of these by the distinctive name of 

 Biophysiology ; while those phenomena which are recognized 

 as simply dynamic, or dynamic and chemic, whether mani- 

 fested in organisms or in mineral species, may be included 

 under the name of Abiophysiology. 



General physiology comprehending these two divisions, will 

 thus be restored to its original and proper signification, as an 

 inquiry into the reason of all things in the material universe, 

 and as distinguished from physiography, whose province is 

 the description of universal nature. Scientific precision 

 demands a reform in our terminology, and requires us to 

 extend the name of physiology once more to the processes and 

 the activities of the three kingdoms of nature. The inorganic, 

 not less than the organic, world has its physiology. On 

 the other hand, the study of mind and spirit and the pheno- 

 mena of consciousness, which Locke and Thomas Brown in- 

 cluded under the head of physic and physiology, should be 

 relegated to the domain of psychology. 



§ 27. The kindred term physiography is now correctly 

 employed in a general sense, with a meaning coextensive with 

 that which we claim for physiology. A great living teacher, 

 Prof. Huxley, has given us, under the title of i Physiography, 

 an Introduction to the Study of Nature,' an elementary trea- 

 tise wherein, after describing the rocks, the waters, and the 

 atmosphere, which make up the inorganic portions of the 

 earth, he proceeds to consider the growth and development of 



* Address as President of the British Association, Belfast, 1874, (Ap- 

 pleton's ed.) p. 59. 



