A physiological memoir presented to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, May 2d, 1828 / by John Bywater.

  • Bywater, John.
Date:
[1828]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A physiological memoir presented to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, May 2d, 1828 / by John Bywater. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    increased in a similar proportion, clearly indicating that oxygen is the medium by which the vitality of light is conveyed to the animal system. Although this short sketch of respiration and muscular action may not be strictly correct in detail, yet I am strongly inclined to believe that it is so in principle, and that it supports the idea that vital processes depend on a directing power which has been spe- cifically imparted to living organized structures, for the purpose of controlling the force of an universal agent, and adorning the terrestrial face of nature with an everchanging variety. .. Having had occasion to refer, in a special man- ner, to the process of combustion, and show the probability that it arises from an active principle derived from light, it may not be altogether unin- teresting to make a few general remarks on the nature of heat, as its source and real character are still disputed questions among physiologists. The idea, entertained by some writers, that heat ori- ginates and depends on the action of a subtile fluid, termed caloric, which is indifferent to motion, ex- cept that of keeping up an equilibrium among the various bodies through which it is diffused ; or, as others have contended, that it entirely depends on a vibratory motion which obtains among the par-