A Review of the Doctrine of a Vital Principle: As Maintained by Some Writers on Physiology, with Observations on the Causes of Physical and Animal LifeJ. and A. Arch, 1829 - 236 pages |
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Æneid afford agency agent aliment analogy anatomist animal economy animal heat animalcules antizymic appear argument arterial ascribed belong Bildungstrieb blood brain caloric capable carbonic acid cause cerebellum changes chemical affinities chemical elements chyle chyme ciple circumstances coagulation common connected connexion conscious Cuvier cypher degree displayed dium doctrine effects electric evidence exerted existence experiments explain fact favour fibrin fluid functions glands hypothesis ideas imagined immaterial principle inference influence instance known lacteals lation living body lungs maintained material matter means mechanical medulla oblongata mena ment mind muscles muscular fibres natural philosophy nature nerves nervous system notion observed operation opinion organized Paracelsus particles particular peculiar pheno phenomena philosophers physical physiologists plants probably properties quantity remarkable respect respiration result roots secretion sensation similar solution sorbing soul species stance stomach structure substance supposed takes place temperature termed theory tion ture vegetable vessels vital action vital principle writers
Popular passages
Page 145 - Is not vision performed chiefly by the vibrations of this medium., excited in the bottom of the eye by the rays of light, and propagated through the solid, pellucid, and uniform capillamenta of the nerves into the place of sensation?
Page 24 - Hartley's comparison of the theorist to the decypherer is, that there are few, if any, physical hypotheses, which afford the only way of explaining the phenomena to which they are applied ; and therefore, admitting them to be perfectly consistent with all the known facts, they leave us in the same state of uncertainty, in which the decypherer would find himself, if he should discover a variety of keys to the same cypher.
Page 145 - Do not the rays of light, in falling upon the bottom of the eye, excite vibrations in the tunica retina ? which vibrations being propagated along the solid fibres of the optic nerves into the brain, cause the sense of seeing.
Page 23 - Supposing," says Dr. Hartley, " the existence of the ather to be destitute of all direct evidence, still, if it serves to explain and account for a great variety of phenomena, it will, by this means, have an indirect argument in its favor.
Page 145 - And is not hearing performed by the vibrations either of this or some other medium, excited in the auditory nerves by the tremors of the air and propagated through the solid, pellucid, and uniform capillamenta of those nerves into the place of sensation? And so of the other senses.
Page 48 - ... of the existence and operation of mind or intellect, in a state separate from organization, and under conditions which preclude all reference to organization. " The universal Mind," says a distinguished philosopher,* " though everywhere present, where matter * The late Professor Dugald Stewart.
Page 144 - When a Man in the dark presses either corner of his Eye with his Finger, and turns his Eye away from his Finger, he will see a Circle of Colours like those in the Feather of a Peacock's Tail.
Page 37 - And what is sweet, blue, or warm in idea, is but the certain bulk, figure, and motion of the insensible parts in the hodies themselves, which we call so...
Page 135 - The development of forms, according to their generic, specific, and individual diversities, not less in the vegetable than in the animal world, can only be accounted for by ascribing it to the universal energy and wisdom of the Creator.
Page 47 - The whole universe displays the most striking marks of the existence and operation of mind or intellect, in a state separate from organization, and under conditions which preclude all reference to organization.