88 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
many of those terms, such as animal heat, vital elasticity, the 
chemistry of life, and so forth, which, violating in themselves 
the sublime unity displayed in the primary forces of nature, 
were coined w ith the express object of teaching that the living 
actions were altogether sui generis ” 
Still there must be a power, or a force, in the living body 
beyond these, or wdiy do not the same law^s always obtain ? 
It is only when life is withdrawn that many of them come 
into operation. This power has been referred by some phi¬ 
losophers to electricity, who have considered it to be the vis 
mundi. It still remains, however, to be proved ; for, al¬ 
though galvanism has been made to excite a muscle in the 
absence of its supplying nerve, or by its being transmitted 
along the latter, yet it is now known that the nerve-force and 
electricity are not governed by the same law s, or, in other 
words, they are differently conducted; hence they are not 
identical in their nature, however closely allied they may be. 
This may suffice to bring them under the head of correlative 
forces, in common wdth heat, and light, and electricity, wdiich 
w ith its modifications, are considered by some philosophers 
to be among the common principles that pervade matter; 
nevertheless, it is not enough to prove their oneness. 
It has been stated that Dr. Todd has pointed out that, 
although the muscular current is closely allied to elec¬ 
tricity, it is so far distinguished from it that it is arrested 
by conductors, as when a thin film of gold is WTapped round 
the living muscle, whilst it readily traverses non-conductors; 
phenomena the very counterpart of wffiat Professor Muller 
pointed out years ago in regard to the nervous and electric forces. 
The late Dr. Prout, seeing in every part of the animal economy 
unequivocal marks of its adaptation of means to ends, inferred 
that in the various parts of every organic body there exist 
intelligent agents, superior to and capable of controlling and 
directing the forces operating on inorganic matter, and 
thereby affecting the vital phenomena. 
These differences of opinion, remarks the author already 
referred to, renders it necessary— 
6i always to keep in view 7 the truth recognised by the great 
