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DR. CARPENTER ON THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF 
changes of composition which take place within living bodies are analogous to those 
occurring externally to them, was assumed by another party as the foundation of the 
hypothesis that all the phenomena of life are of the nature of Chemical actions ; and 
of that hypothesis the latro-chemical doctrines which superseded the system of Galen, 
and which held their ground under various modifications for several centuries, w^ere 
the natural expressions The insufficiency of either of these hypotheses, or of both 
of them combined, to explain the phenomena of life, gave origin to a third, which 
was undoubtedly more correct in its fundamental conception than either of its pre- 
decessors had been ; the position assumed being, that the phenomena of each living 
body proceed from a vital agency, or anima, peculiar to each organized structure, 
and having nothing in common with chemical or mechanical principles T. The 
sect of the Vitalists, however, did not steer clear of the exclusiveness which had been 
the great fault of the chemists and physicists ; but, in looking at every action of 
the living body as the immediate result of vital agency, claimed for that agency 
much that is clearly attributable to the operation of chemical and physical forces. 
Among modern Physiologists there is a distinct recognition of the fact, that many 
of the phenomena of living bodies may be placed in the same category with those 
of inanimate matter, and that such are not otherwise affected by vital agency than 
as this prepares or modifies the conditions under which they occur. But there is also 
a distinct recognition of the fact, that living bodies present a large class of phenomena 
which are altogether peculiar to them, and which can only be attributed to agencies 
of which the inorganic world is altogether independent ; and hence has arisen the 
notion of vital agency as the foundation of Physiological science, just as the notion 
of affinity is the foundation of Chemistry, and that of mutual attraction of General 
Physics. And putting aside all hypothetical considerations with regard to the 
abstract nature of that agency, Physiologists have been aiming to determine the laws 
passing along them, of the size of the particles and the pores, the amount of retardation arising from friction 
and other mechanical causes, while the doctrines of derivation, revulsion, lentor, obstruction, and resolution, 
with others of an analogous kind, all founded upon mechanical principles, were the almost universal language 
of both physicians and physiologists towards the close of the seventeenth century.” 
* “ The leading principle of the chemists,” says Dr. Bostock (op. cit. p. 138), “ was, that the living body is 
subject to the same chemical laws with inanimate matter, and that all the phenomena of vitality may be explained 
by the operation of these laws.” The chemical physicians of the seventeenth century held “ that the operations 
of the living body are all guided by chemical actions, of which one of the most important and the most universal 
is fermentation. The states of health and disease were supposed to be ultimately referable to certain fermenta- 
tions, which took place in the blood or other fluids ; while these fluids themselves were the result of specific 
fermentations, by which they were elaborated from the elements of which the body is composed ” (op. cit. 
p.157). 
f “We are told,” says Dr. Bostock (op. cit. p. 175), “ that the anima superintends and dii'ects every part 
of the animal economy from its first formation ; that it pi-events or repairs injuries, counteracts the effects of 
morbid causes, or tends to remove them when actually present, yet that we are unconscious of its existence ; 
and that, while it manifests every attribute of reason and design, it is devoid of these qualities, and is, in fact, 
a necessary and unintelligent agent.” 
