Principles of human physiology : with their chief applications to psychology, pathology, therapeutics, hygiene, and forensic medicine / by William B. Carpenter.

  • William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of human physiology : with their chief applications to psychology, pathology, therapeutics, hygiene, and forensic medicine / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    water, with the organized structure of the seed itself, and the organic compounds which are stored up in its substance, constitute the material. A strictly scientific inquiry, then, must recognize Dynamical agency, as well as Material condition; and it will be found that this is peculiarly requisite in the Science of Life, which has been pursued by some as if it were a sufficient account of every phenomenon not otherwise explicable, to i-efer it to a vital principle; whilst others have endeavoured to reduce all Physiological causation to a set of material conditions, main- taining that Life entirely depends on organization, and that the hypo- thesis of a vital principle is consequently unnecessary and nnphilosophical. Others, again, who have recognized the opex-ation of Physical and Chemical agencies in the living body, have maintained that all Vital action is but a peculiai' manifestation of heat, mechanical powei', chemical affinity, and the like; and have thus attempted to break down the barrier between the Organized and the Tnorganic creation. The Author has elsewhere * endeavoured to show, that we have evidence of the operation of a poiver in the living body, whose manifestations are so diffei'ent from those of any of the Physical Forces, that we cannot reasonably refrain from giving it a distinctive designation; and that this Vital Power may exert itself in a gi'eat variety of modes, and may consequently produce a great variety of phenomena, according to the material conditions of its operation,—just as (though the comparison be somewhat clumsy) the mechanical, power which turns the engine-shaft in an extensive factory, is rendered efficient for an immense variety of piii'poses, according to the construction and arrangement of the several machines through which it is distributed. And further, he has attemjited to prove, that the soiu'ce of this Vital Power is to be found, not in the organization of the being itself, but in the forces which operate upon it ah externo; and that it has the same close and intimate relation with the Heat, Electricity, Chemical Affinity, and other agencies of the Inorganic world, which they have been proved to have with each other:—so that, just as Heat acting upon water generates Mechanical force, or when applied to a certain combination of metals excites Elec- tricity, so, when brought to bear upon a toi-pid animal or upon a seed (in which the material conditions of this activity are jjresent), it manifests itself as Vital Force, and is the immediate dynamical condition of the phenomena of growth, develoj)ment, &c. But further, the term Cause has a Theological as well as a Scientific sense; and, like the two usages of the term Law, these two acceptations are perfectly harmonious, although in themselves dififerent. When in scientific inquiry we have traced a multitude of complex phenomena up to * See his Memoir On the Mutual Relations of the Vital and Phj^sical Forces, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1850.
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