On the nature and treatment of hereditary disease : with reference to a correlation of morbific forces / by J.M. Winn.

  • Winn, James M. (James Michell), 1808-1900
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and treatment of hereditary disease : with reference to a correlation of morbific forces / by J.M. Winn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    more than inertia, and that this force is convertible into, and is correlate with, the other forces. From Dr. Bence Jones’s lectures, to which I have referred, I select the following remarks, which are only a few out of many that are equally suggestive. ‘ The pro- gress of animal chemistry proves more and more clearly that the matter of the body has no special chemical pro- perties peculiar to life ; but that matter within possesses the same chemical energy which it possesses out of the body. Life has no power to create or to destroy any chemical force in the matter of living things ; but the very slightest difference in the circumstances under which any chemical action occurs produces a variation in the effects that are produced.’ ‘ The brain, the nerves, the muscles, the electric organs, the textures in general—all these are machines set in action chiefly by the potential energy or tension in the food, textures, and air ; the supply of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, being the first necessary conditions.’ With a full appreciation of the great value of Dr. Bence Jones’s researches, I cannot help thinking that he has gene- ralised too hastily in supposing that all the phenomena of life may be referred to purely physical causes. That many of the subordinate functions of the living body can be fully explained by chemical laws no one can doubt; there is, however, a vast deal in the operations of the brain and nervous system which in our present state of knowledge can only be accounted for by admitting the existence of other than physical forces. These other forces may be correlative although different from the ordinary energies
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