An inquiry into the real nature of hysteria / by D. de Berdt Hovell.

  • Hovell, Dennis de Berdt.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the real nature of hysteria / by D. de Berdt Hovell. 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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    It here becomes necessary to distinguish the material conditions of our system or constitution from the immaterial, and, as far as is practicable, to determine both, as well as the still unsettled ques- tion of the inherent qualities and forces of matter, and vital force or principle. Some qualities or forces have so long been found in con- nection with matter, that they have come to be regarded as essential qualities. It is possible, however, that the difference between in- trinsic and extriusic forces may not have been perfectly considered. Professor Huxley considers that “the assumption of a special vital force is illogical and unscientific” [Physical basis of life]. “The mechanical actions of the body are governed by the same laws which regulate similar changes of energy in the organic world. Where matter is, there force must be, showing itself in motion, in tension, or in resistance. Without matter no kind of motion, nor tension, nor resistance occurs.” “ When hydrogen and oxygen,” says Mr. Huxley, “ are mixed in certain proportions, and an electric spark is passed through them, they disappear, and a quantity of water, equal in weight to the sum of their weight, appears in their place.” Here it is evident that the imponderable electric spark is not an intrinsic power or force appertaining to oxygen or hydrogen, but an extrinsic force necessary to their conversion from a state of gas to a state of water. Thus, to all intents and purposes, the electric spark may be considered as a “ special vital force ” essential to the production of water out of certain proportions of oxygen and hydrogen. It is the province of the physiologist to investigate the laws and conditions of the healthy structure and functions of the body ; of the pathologist to explain the morbid changes and alterations of both body and function; and he cannot have failed to remark the different condition of matter which is the seat of vital force, and that which is devoid of it. “It is now known to everybody,” says Dr.Tyndall, “that the vegetable world is nourished by the rays of the sun, and as animal life is sustained by vegetable, so that life also is supported in the long run by solar rays.” Science should be telescopic as well as microscopic. It is thus clear that the quality of matter which appears to be inherent must be considered in the condition in which life is absent, as well as that in which life is present. The material conditions of the dead body are quite different and distinct from the material conditions of the living body. The organic forces in both cases are not identical, any more than the condition of the vegetable when nourished by the rays of the sun, aud existing independently of them. If we sought to define the relation between the solar rays and the vegetable it would be difficult to meet with a better term than that of “ special vital force,” which Mr. Huxley has pronounced to be illogical and un- scientific.” And “ What other fire than he Whereby the blood heats, and the blossom blows, And the sea rolls, and all the world is wanned P