The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations, intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware, M.D.

  • Smellie, William, 1740-1795.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations, intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    PHILOSOPHY NATURAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. OF THE NATURE OF LIVING BODIES, AND OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. The most superficial observers are in the habit of remark- ing certain great and striking differences in the nature, structure, and qualities of the objects around them. They perceive at once, that a stone is something very different from a plant, and a plant something very different from an animal, although they do not task themselves to determine exactly in what the difference consists. It is natural as well as convenient, for mankind to class things together according to their most obvious characteristics, and in this way we have come into the use of a certain arrangement of natural bodies, not founded upon a knowledge of their intimate nature and essential properties, but upon those qualities which produce the most lively impression on our senses after only a slight examination. Thus have been established the mineral, vege- table, and animal kingdoms, which include under them all the objects of the material world. It is obvious that this arrangement is founded upon an ex- amination of those objects only, which are most within our immediate observation, and with whose qualities and proper- ties we have been most familiar. We see that rocks and mountains are immoveably fixed to the same spot, and remain always of the same size; that the earth does not change its surface except by the operation of violent and unusual causes.