i 882.] 
Vital and Cosmical Energy. 
255 
exhibiting independent contractile power. The alchemist 
and charlatan Paracelsus taught that Man is a complete ho- 
mologue of the Universe, and that all the celestial and 
terrestrial motions are repeated in the narrow compass of his 
corporeal frame. What is true of the little inner world, he 
argued, must therefore be true of the great outer world, so 
that Microcosm and Macrocosm mutually explain each 
other. This mystical doCtrine, springing from a false theory 
of physics, and productive of innumerable absurdities, yet 
contains a seed of truth. Man is indeed an integral part of 
cosmic physiology. 
Many will readily allow that what is called “ animal life ” 
needs no spiritual entity for its production and support, but 
will hesitate to assign a material origin to our intellectual 
and moral faculties. Yet it has been proved by experiment 
that an appreciable amount of heat is evolved by cerebral, 
just as by muscular, aCtion ; so that were our instruments 
sufficiently delicate, and our estimation of mental effort suf- 
ficiently exaCt, it would be possible to assign an equivalent 
in units of heat to every expenditure of intellectual force. 
This shows that thought is not less intimately connected 
with modifications of cerebral tissue than motion with modi- 
fications of muscular fibre. Thought is indeed the result of 
that slow combustion set up in the grey matter of the en- 
cephalon by the capillary circulation of blood from the lungs, 
just as contractility is the result of combustion in the 
muscles, and secretion of combustion in the liver and other 
glands. Not only does the vital machinery stop if the cir- 
culation in the brain be suspended, but its aCtion can be 
temporarily restored after apparent death by injections of 
oxygenated blood. The head of a dog separated from the 
trunk has been thus for a moment revivified, so that when 
the animal was called by name its eyes turned in the direc- 
tion of the familar sound.* 
Life, like cohesion, is thus proved to depend upon a spe- 
cial adjustment of material forces. When one of these is 
disturbed, equilibrium is lost ; and if this disturbance can 
be rectified, equilibrium is regained. It is well pointed out 
by Dr. Lewins that the ancient rationale of “ suspended 
animation ” is practically inconsistent with the efficacy of 
those “ mechanical means of treatment successfully em- 
ployed for the restoration of the apparently dead. Where 
matter is held to be essentially inert, a vital principle, an 
animating spirit, must be assumed, which in syncope, 
* The Brain and its Functions, by Dr. J. Luys, p. 6g. 
