On muscular motion ... / Sir Gilbert Blane.

  • Gilbert Blane
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On muscular motion ... / Sir Gilbert Blane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    1 or the ocean, could not take place without gravitation, which is one of the attra&ive powers of matter. Attra&ion and repullion may be conlidered as one principle, in- Hypothecs of ti rr r i • n . . attraftion and afmuch as they are both expreliive of that active itate originally repuifion COn- . ftitutingtheef- , having affinity fence of mat- ter. with each other, either attract or repel, according to their distance, their common temperature, and other circumstances ; and it is fo univerfal an agent in nature, that l'ome modern philofophers have made it abforb, as it were, every other power and property of mat- ter. The late Father Bofcovich*, of Milan, about forty years ago, advanced a very bold doftrine to this effect, alledging, with great Strength of argument, illustrated by geometrical reafoning, that there does not exiSt in nature any fuch thing as impenetrable ex- tended particles ; and he deduces all the phenomena of the mate- rial world from one principle, which fuppofes it constituted of points having feveral fpheres of attraction and repuifion, which be- ing variously arranged and combined, produce the different forms and properties of matter, and its feveral powers, fuch as chemical at- traction, coheSion, and gravitation. Whether this hypothefis is founded in truth or not, it would appear from the reafonings made ufe of, that all the relative properties of matter may be accounted for, though we abftract from every other consideration but attrac- tion and repuifion. It is evident, therefore, that whatever may be the caufe of muf- Mufcuiarmo- ti°n cannot de- cular motion, it is not referrible to mechanifm, which is itfelf only pend on any mechanical caufe ; * See this do&rine fully explained, in a work entitled, Theoria nova Philo fo phi es naturalis redadla ad unicam legem, idc. Audi ore Roger io Bojcovich, Vcnetiis, 1763. a fe- inherent in matter, and becaufe any two particles
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