LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ROBERT WHYTT, M.D. 109 



a mere name or empty sound ; they must therefore be ascribed either to the im- 

 mediate agency of the Supreme Being, or to that of some general inferior nature 

 which He has constituted for this purpose, or to the energy of a particular active 

 principle united with the body. The first two suppositions are indeed possible, 

 but not probable, as is the last ; whence it may be inferred, that not only the 

 voluntary motions, of which we are immediately conscious, but those also which 

 we do not advert to, proceed from that sentient and intelligent principle with 

 which the Creator has animated our bodies, whose powers and operations, it 

 must be owned, are in many instances as much above our knowledge, as is the 

 nature of its union with the body, or the manner of their reciprocal action upon 

 each other."* 



These few passages will afford some insight into the manner of Whytt's 

 reasoning, and at the same time show the kind of language which he habitually 

 employs. 



In considering more in detail the system developed in this work, it is essential 

 to take note of the two distinct subjects embraced in the title ; namely, the vital 

 motions of animals, and the involuntary motions of animals, such as, in the lan- 

 guage of physiology, are not vital. It has so happened, that the views enter- 

 tained by Whytt, respecting vital motions, namely, the contraction of the heart, 

 the contraction of the arteries, and, generally, the action of the organs concerned 

 in the maintenance of the living system, have not, in their full extent, been very 

 largely adopted by modern physiologists ; that is, to the extent of regarding the 

 contractility of the moving fibre, as being dependent on an influence derived from 

 the nervous system. Recent physiology nevertheless fully admits that all such 

 organs are retained in harmony with each other, and with the whole system, by 

 means of the nerves distributed to them. Whence it follows, that much even of 

 what Whytt taught under the head of vital motions, in a certain measure, repre- 

 sents modern ideas. On the other hand, the views enunciated by Whytt respect- 

 ing such involuntary motions of animals as are not vital, are found to be not 

 only the foundation of the present ideas as to these movements, but to represent 

 the largest generalization which has been reached as to the general nature of 

 activity in the organic world. 



Whytt's great claim to a permanent fame, therefore, is that he was the first 

 to strike into a right path of investigation, in respect to the relation, in organic 

 nature, between external impressions and the movements determined from within 

 the organism. Between this generalization and the doctrine of Whytt, in regard 

 to the non- vital involuntary movements of animals, it is easy to trace the con- 

 nection step by step. Whytt, throwing aside the rational soul of the Stahlians 

 as a cause of non-vital involuntary motion, ascribed such movements to the effect 



* Works, pp. 140-160. 



