Volume 1

Lectures on comparative anatomy / translated from the French of G. Cuvier by William Ross ; under the inspection of James Macartney.

Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on comparative anatomy / translated from the French of G. Cuvier by William Ross ; under the inspection of James Macartney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    a view of what conftitutes the individual cha- radler of the phaenomena. It is necelTary he fliould in particular difHnguifh what forms the general and necelTary condition of each. To do this he ought to examine all the modifications that may refult from their various combinations with other phtenomcna; and alfo, feparate or difengage them from all the necefiary circum- fiances with which they are involved. In fhort, he mull not limit himfelf to a fingle fpecies of organized beings, but mufl compare the whole ; purfuing life, and the phaenomena of which it confifts, throughout all animated nature. Thefe are the only means by which he can hope to re- move the myfterious veil which conceals the ef- fence of vitality. Phyfiology, indeed, is neceflarily in the fame ftate as other phyfical fciences, which, from the complication and obfcurity of the phaenomena, have not hitherto been fubmitted to calcula- tion. Pofleffing no'demonfirated principle, whence the particular fa<5ls might be deduced as confequcnces, the whole fcience confifts as yet in the fcrics of thefe fads only; and ve can- not hope to difcovcr general caufes but in ]wo- portion as we may be able to clafs the fads, and fuccecd in arranging them under ccrtaii*. common laws. Put phyfiology does not poftefs the fame advantage for attaining this objed as thofc
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