in its Relations to Physiology. 429 



themselves, and their own constituents, are subject to the very same 

 processes of decomposition? 



The influences of atmospheric air, of the aliments, of motion and 

 rest, of beat and cold, and of remedial agents upon the animal body, 

 both in health and disease, have long been recognised, and yet, never- 

 theless, phlogiston until very recently has, either openly or covertly 

 been assumed, in all theories constructed to explain these influences, to 

 enact the principal part. 



The existence of hydropathic institutions, those dens of covetous 

 and rapacious gamblers, where the wretched invalid resorts to throw 

 the dice for health and life ; the rise and progress of the homoeopathic 

 system, which treats truth with scorn, and bids defiance to common 

 sense, loudly proclaim the need which exists for the adoption of 

 settled principles, definite methods of research, and a systematic ar- 

 rangement to guarantee their attainment and retention. 



What are denominated by physiologists vital processes, embrace, 

 besides the vis vitce, the effects of many unascertained causes, the know- 

 ledge of which is essential if we are desirous to advance to a real com- 

 prehension of the ultimate cause of life, and which we must investigate 

 in the phenomena which characterise the totality of life. 



This knowledge can only be atained by means of the most persever- 

 ing and unwearied efforts and researches ; the power, the means, the in- 

 struments necessary to arrive at these results exist, and are in our pos- 

 session. 



The only method by which we can succeed, however, is by endea- 

 vouring to fix by numbers, measure, and weight, the apparently uncer- 

 tain and ever variable phenomena. This is the method of Galileo and 

 Bacon, the profound acuteness of its device, the precision of its results, 

 the universal utility of its application, have been brilliantly manifested 

 in the progress of chemistry. 



Twenty-five years ago chemistry began to be applied to the more 

 minute investigation of the constituents of the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms ; the results which have been obtained are expressed in num- 

 bers, weight, and measure, after this method ; we must now endeavour 

 to introduce the application of numbers, weight, and measure, into phy- 

 siology and medicine, to substitute them for mere unmeaning and 

 empty sounds. The chemistry of the present day, in its proposed ap- 

 plication to physiology and pathology, has none of the characteristics 

 of iatro-chemistry. 



It is not the true chemist who has endeavoured to apply to the animal 

 organism, his notions derived from purely chemical processes, he has 



