Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![out of this change life is to arise, digestion being the first step towards vivification. It may be supposed that the first step in the digestion of vegetables is that of animalizing them, and that they go through the next of chylification with animal matter; but this we cannot allow, for it would be supposing two different actions going on in the stomach at the same time, which I should very much doubt. The second process, vivification, must take place somewhere before the blood becomes an active part of the machine. We shall first pre- mise that animalization may take place without vivification—(how far this is the case is not easily determined,)—however, we may say with certainty that vivification cannot be prior to animalization. Let us first trace animalization. Animalization begins in the stomach, and in common language is called digestion, the immediate produce of which is called chyle. In the change of food into chyle we do not see why it may not have re- ceived the living principle, for the change is such as renders it capable of becoming alive. But it may be supposed that this process is re- served for the lungs, where the chyle is so much exposed to the air: the air may be imagined to act on it like heat on an egg, or moisture and warmth on seeds, giving a power of growth to their particles. In these cases, however, it is not the principle of life which they give; they only give life its action. Again, blood may be supposed not to become alive till it be made into a solid, when it becomes part of our body, and loses the property of blood, and there its life is indisputable; but I am apt to believe that the living principle takes place sooner, which I imagine will appear in investigating the properties of the blood, with the many phenomena that attend it in the living body. I have already observed that the organization of animal matter is not necessary for life*, only for its actions ; therefore fluidity is no objection to the blood being alive. My reasons for supposing the blood to be alive in a fluid state are the following : 1st, It may be observed that it appears to carry life to every part of the body, for whenever the whole or a part is deprived of fresh blood it very soon dies. This blood, how- ever, must be such as has undergone some change in the lungs ; for if the * [This has ever been a qucestio vexata with physiologists, and will probably long continue so. The instance of the egg which has been already adduced, and of the blood, which now comes under consideration, were supposed by Mr. Hunter to demon- strate the existence of vitality independently of organization. Although, however, the fact of the vitality of the blood and of the egg should be admitted, it yet remains to be proved that the globules of which they both appear to consist do not present incipient traces of organization; but the question is not one which can be entered into here.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21996623_0001_0261.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
