An introductory lecture delivered in the hall of the medical department of the St. Louis University, November 4th, 1845 / by M.L. Linton.
- Linton, M. L. (Moses L.), 1808-1872.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An introductory lecture delivered in the hall of the medical department of the St. Louis University, November 4th, 1845 / by M.L. Linton. 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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![[6] tainetl, which inflate* the balloon and enables earth-born man to ride the whirlwind. Chemistry is the philosophy of matter, it explains the action and re- action of matter in all its forms :—The blinding lightning and the thun- der peal as well as the air pistol and the pulse glass ; the sweep of the tempest as well as the motion of a cubic inch of air in a delicate tube ; as well the giant throes of the volcano that vents its seas of lava, as the pent up atom subjected to the spirit lamp ; as well the stupendous movements of cycling planets as the play of the light pith balls of an electroscope. Having, as it were, exhausted the study of inorganic matter, chemistry is engaged in analyzing the structures of living be- ings. It has not only revealed the composition of plants but gone far in explaining the process of their nutrition and other functions. It is do- ing the same for animals ; it has shown how these two orders of being* antagonize each other in maintaining a state of the atmosphere healthful to both—the one eliminating the other absorbing oxygen. The processes of digestion and calorification can be explained only on chemical principles. In a word, chemistry is throwing a flood of light on animal and vegetable physiology. It is, as it were, invading, conquering and illuminating these regions of chaos and old night and converting them into the most interesting departments of its own exten- ded and well governed empire. This it will do,—then, will animal and vegetable physiology be called by the new names animal and vegetable chemistry. Then will order take the place of confusion, light of dark- ness, science of guesswork. Chemistry is, at this moment, doing more for physiology than all other means ever have done, or ever can do. The dreamy specula- tions, the cabalistic jargon, the transcendental gibberish of our hoary- headed masters, what have they done for it ? They kept it stationary and spell-bound for a thousand years. What do we learn of the nature of the functions by hearing them called vital actions, for which there is no far- ther explanation. Respiration, we were told, is a vital process—calo- rification a vital process—digestion a vital process which could not be even elucidated by the science of inorganic matter. It was easy to learn physiology on this plan, but then we had the misfortune to be as wise when our studies were finished as when we commenced them ! In the infancy of chemistry these venerable system-mongers and talented hypothesis-framers looked on it with contempt and spurned its offered assistance. They explained every thing with the convenient and unmeaning terms vitality, sympathy, ami the like. Chemistry. which dealt in ores, and acids, and alkalies, was unworthy their attention! Its Baconian mode of finding out truth by observation and experiment was a drudgery to which they could not submit! They spurned chem- istry and hugged their systems ! Nothing discouraged however, it toil- ed on, rising higher and higher in the philosophy of matter. It has en- tered the theatre of living beings, and is BOW in spite of their re- proaches, teaching these hoar) headed sages more wonders than were](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21137146_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
