"To every form of being is assigned An active principle: howe'er removed From sense and observation, it subsists In all things, in all natures, in the stars Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds, In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks, The moving waters, and the invisible air. from link to link It circulates, the soul of all the worlds." WORDSWORTH. CHAPTER II. "Nil turpius physico, quam fieri sine causa quidquam dicere." CICERO. "The ultimate purpose of our researches is to penetrate and lay open the secret springs by which the great system of organization, termed nature, is maintained in a state of perpetual activity.-LAWRENCE. THE prevalent doctrine of modern physiologists, that the phenomena of life are wholly distinct from those of inorganic matter, has arisen from our imperfect knowledge in regard to the primary physical cause of motion throughout nature; and is refuted by the fact, that the organizing power of the earth, like all the mechanical and chemical transformations that modify its surface, is directly in proportion to the quantity of caloric which it receives from the sun. For we have already seen that as the amount of evaporation and rain, the magnitude of rivers, the number of volcanoes, and the elevation of mountains diminish from the equator to the regions of lowest mean temperature; so do the number, variety, and magnitude of organized beings. Let us then reject the notion of Bichat, that “ Physics are not accessary, but foreign to the science of physiology." (Life and Death, p. 83.) |