PHYSIOLOGY. 
these phenomena were accounted for by the 
supposition of an occult agency endowed with 
intelligence, and acting with design ; hence 
' the origin of the vague terms archajus, or pre- 
siding power, vis naturre medicatrix, nature, 
and other expressions, the inventors of which 
j do not appear to have been conscious that they 
i not merely amount to a confession of igno- 
rance, but mislead the judgment by attaching it 
to certain preconceived systems framed from 
[ ideal knowledge. It is the province of phi- 
losophy not to imagine but to infer. W hen 
it is observed, that life in all its modifications 
[ and stages, requires for its developement and 
maintenance the incessant agency of peculiar 
I powers on matter peculiarly constructed, as 
i in the experiments before alluded to, we are 
not merely justified in concluding, but we 
[ are irresistibly impelled to the inference, 
that the combination of effects to which we 
have applied the term life results from such 
agency on such organized matter. The na- 
ture of the link which constitutes this con- 
nection may for ever be concealed, but the 
I connection itself is demonstrated. The idea 
of life then is not to be confounded either 
with the abstract nature of the matter acted 
upon, or the agents through the medium of 
I which it is produced. “ There is no interior 
j independant spring of action or support,” there 
is no exterior abstract power. In the em- 
ployment then of the term vital principle, we 
j ought to be regarded as simply announcing a 
fact, not as conveying a notion of cause;' and 
| in this view it will appear, contrary even to the 
j sentiments of some authors from whom it 
j is almost temerity to differ, that the passive 
I rather than the active voice of verbs, 
should be made use of in calculations on 
vital forces and effects. See the articles 
Brunonian System ; and likewise Medi- 
cine, section Fever. 
But an error from a different source than 
that just alluded to, appears to have insinu- 
ated itself into the physiology of the present 
i day, viz. that of too hastily registering under 
one head, facts which both in their origin 
I and result, are of a nature essentially dil'fer- 
j ent. We allude to the chemico-animal phi- 
' losophy which has recently become so pre- 
valent, especially in the French and German 
I schools. Against this physiology we do not 
I think it right to urge the objection which 
i has been advanced, that it encourages ma- 
! terialism, and leads to conclusions destruc- 
tive of morality ; for besides that we doubt 
the justness of the accusation, it ought al- 
s ways to be recollected, that it is not until 
physiology terminates, that metaphysic com- 
J mences. 
In consequence of the radical change 
, which has recently been effected in the whole 
body 01 chemical science, physiological re- 
■ searches have received a fresh impulse and 
a new direction. By modern chemistry 
many facts in the animal economy have been 
j fully developed, which were before con- 
cealed. Such, however, is the proneness of 
mankind to extremes, that in this as in other 
instances, the auxiliary has been made to 
usurp tiie rights of the principal ; chemical 
affinity lias been supposed fully explicative 
I of living actions, and the idea of animation 
being regulated by a distinct ^principle ridi- 
{ culed as visionary. We believe, however, 
| the ridicule to have been misapplied; and 
[ though equally ready with our modern physi- 
I ologists to oppose the admission of “ an oc- 
cult cause” as the cause of life, we must still 
maintain that the attractions of matter, in the 
mode they contend for, are of a nature very 
different from those resulting from the agency 
of the life- producing powers on an organized 
body. For example : muscular contraction 
is generated by an abundant variety of ex- 
ternal stimuli; among these, oxygen lias 
been found to be one of the most active; 
tiie effect of the above agent has been there- 
fore preposterously confounded with the 
agent itself, oxygen has been imagined to be 
the principle of irritability, and the develope- 
ment of life by consequence has been sup- 
posed immediately to result from its combi- 
nation with the animal libre : with equal 
justice might opium or any other stim’ulus 
be in this manner as it were vitalized. 
But it will be urged that the oxygenous 
theory of life has been abandoned; nor should 
we perhaps be justified in bringing it to 
notice, did it not appear that those hypothe- 
ses which are at this instant in repute are 
founded upon precisely the same principles 
with the conjectures which originated with 
Dr. Girtanner. Thus it has been inferred 
that the newly discovered source of nervous 
excitation operates upon the muscles, by 
virtue of an attractive power in the muscu- 
lar libre for the galvanic fluid, much in the 
same manner as an acid rushes into combi- 
nation with an alkali, or as oxygen unites 
itself with an inflammable base. “ I sup- 
pose, (says M. Delametherie) that mus- 
cular contraction is produced by the heat 
which accompanies the extrication of the 
galvanic fluid, upon the same principle that- 
a piece of skin contracts which is brought 
near the lire, or on which is poured a con- 
centrated acid, a caustic alkali, or any other 
caustic body.” 
From such mode of reasoning it has been 
inferred, that the science of medicine is re- 
solvable into a combination and separation of 
principles as in the chemist’s laboratory ; and 
that life and health are to be preserved and 
restored in the same manner as a fluid body 
is made viscid by the introduction of a fo- 
reign principle. Thus we have found in the 
writings of medical systematics of this class 
the processes described, and the results con- 
fidently anticipated, of oxygenating, deoxy- 
genating, hyperoxygenating,and galvanizing, 
the animal frame. 
It is however obvious, that these specu- 
lations are fundamentally erroneous; for 
life and health are built upon a firmer basis 
than that either of aggregative or chemical 
attraction. The intimate bond of union be- 
tween every the most minute portion of a 
living body, must be severed, the indivisi- 
bility of the frame must first be dissolved, in 
a word life must have deserted the bodv, be- 
fore the above powers can be admitted. In 
what manner, according to the tenets we are 
now canvasing, could that remarkable pro- 
perty of animal life (caloricite) be preserved, 
of retaining a regular quantity of interior, 
amidst .all the vicissitudes of exterior, heat? 
Almost every chemical combination. is effect- 
ed by a variation, and in very many cases, 
a trivial variation, in temperature ; but the 
living body is capable of sustaining or of re- 
sisting heat to a degree which would imme- 
diately change animal or vegetable substance 
deprived of life into substance of a totally 
diiterent nature. 
Life, in the systems we are commenting 
4 23 
upon, appears, as before observed, to be con- 
founded with that which produces or elicits 
life. Vital phenomena are not observed ai d 
arranged in their natural and regular se- 
quence ; enquiries are instituted from a wrong 
point ; thus, although we even accede to ti e 
position of M. Cuvier, that tiie living and 
contracted muscular libre is not, strictly 
speaking, the same body, nor composed of 
the same chemical materials, as the relaxed 
or inactive fibre,” we are not therefore com- 
pelled to the alternative of referring the com- 
mencement of muscular action to a change 
of affinity ; or with Humboldt and others, to 
acknowledge that the primary operation of 
every agent on living matter is virtually an 
instance of chemical combination. 
Let us follow in idea, the influence of the 
most minute portion of some materials which 
effect an instantaneous change on every the 
most distant fibre of the body, we shall often 
find, for instance, an immediate excitation 
of all the vital functions, result from their re- 
ception into the stomach ; now, allowing that 
the change thus operated occasions an abund- 
ance of new combinations strictly chemical, 
in the fluids and solids, does it therefore 
follow that the primary impulse on the ex- 
citability is a chemical process? if so, how 
could a similar result be obtained from a 
cause ab origine mental? or how could the 
mandates of the will contract the fibre? 
Y ithout further enlargement, therefore, 
(and was it not for the practical import- 
ance of the subject, we should conceive 
an apology already, due to the reader,) we 
trust we may be permitted to conclude, 
that as the natural philosopher demonstrates 
a particular quality in bodies to be propor- 
tioned to. their quantity, _ and designates this 
principle by the term gravitation ; as (lie 
chemist finds the mixture of two different 
bodies to form a third, and refers it to the 
affinity of their minute particles ; so the 
physiologist, recognizing the difference of 
character in the phenomena of life from 
either of the above modifications of being, 
makes a separate register or classification of 
such phenomena, under the comprehensive 
title of the vital principle; in other words, 
that “ the primary motions of matter 
(or rather we should say, laws of nature) are 
capable of division into the three classes of 
gravitation, chemistry, and life.” 
In the above sketch we have confined our 
observations to what may be regarded the 
great characteristic of living existence, indi- 
visibility ; under the immediate influence 
of which the individual is preserved, and the 
species propagated,; or the secondary facul- 
ties are exercised, of assimilation and gener- 
ation ; these faculties we might now pro- 
ceed to notice ; but as they branch out into 
several functions, it will be more consistent 
with our limits to refer their consideration 
to such functions which we are now to de- 
scribe, together w ith those resulting from sen- 
sibility and irritability, which it was how r - 
ever first necessary to view as in a manner 
constituent parts of an indivisible whole. 
The following table (which we have taken 
from M. Richerand) presents, perhaps, the 
most comprehensive and accurate plan which 
has been formed of vital functions ; we shall 
therefore follow its arrangement, and in in- 
stances where these functions have been 
treated of under separate heads, refer to them 
under their respective titles. 
