On the natural history and classification of quadrupeds / [William Swainson].

  • William Swainson
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the natural history and classification of quadrupeds / [William Swainson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/414 (page 5)
    (10.) The true nature of matter, in its most general sense, has never yet been, and probably never will be, clearly understood. It is usual to consider matter as divi- sible into ponderable and imponderable. (11.) Ponderosity is obviously the chief or typical distinction of matter ; it is that quality by which it is most widely separated from the other divisions last in- timated, no less than from time and space. Hence it follows, that, whatever may be our speculations or theories on the aberrant, or imponderable, forms of matter, we can have no doubt as to the nature of bodies which unite form and substance. (12.) No two particles of ponderable matter can oc- cupy the same place at the same time ; and no one can be in different places at the same time : by the first we demonstrate its solidity, and by the latter its identity. (13.) Ponderable matter, when its particles are col- lected together and united in a compact mass, which possesses a definite form, is termed a body; and of such bodies we know only of three sorts, — animals, vege- tables, and minerals : the two first of these are termed organic; that is, they possess an internal organisation for their growth or increase. Minerals, on the other hand, are inorganic, without life, and increase by external de- positions alone. (14.) The general sense of mankind, from the ear- liest ages, is in favour of this mode of dividing matter, properly so called; since all the substances, or bodies, composing our globe belong to one or other of these three kingdoms of nature. Matter, indeed, may be simply divided into organic and inorganic ; but, having already pointed out the impropriety of adopting such a division in science, and the inconsistency to which it has led *, the arguments need not be here repeated. Before, however, we proceed further, let us pause and contem- plate some of the inferences which may be gathered from the foregoing definitions. (15.) Man, the only being upon earth who is endowed * North. Zool., Vol. II., Preface liii. ,