The substance of a lecture : designed as an introduction to the study of anatomy considered as the science of organization ; and delivered at the re-opening of the school, founded by ... Joshua Brookes, Esq. in Blenheim Street Oct. 1st, 1833 / [Thomas King].

  • King, Thomas, 1802-1839.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The substance of a lecture : designed as an introduction to the study of anatomy considered as the science of organization ; and delivered at the re-opening of the school, founded by ... Joshua Brookes, Esq. in Blenheim Street Oct. 1st, 1833 / [Thomas King]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    is, however, a kind of approximation of the two Classes, as far as re- gards real Minerals; which do increase within certain limits and under an aggregate of circumstances more or less appreciable: and, what is still more remarkable, we can explain by simple laws how a primary form of Molecule has arrived at a secondary one. We ob- serve, too, the striking fact, that each variety appears to depend on external, local circumstances, perhaps more than the varieties of the Organized World ; so that we can say of a crystal, as we can of an animal: it belongs to such and such a locality. Origin by generation is said to belong only to Organized Beings, and constitutes a character which has been much dwelt upon as eminently distinctive. In their formation, we find that certain compo- nent elements are brought into contact and union ; and that a new being is originated by the more or less necessary exercise of the functions, by the natural processes of life in the parent: Whereas, in the Unorganized World, individuals in their succession are quite independent of each other. Still, there is a kind of analogy between the two, as far as regards the Molecule, considered as the body, which Blainville has beautifully explained. We suppose the Mineral compound Molecule to be a combination of determinate composing Molecules, as- suming a form equally determinate. Now, at the moment the com- ponent Molecules act upon each other by reciprocal affinity, and so dispose themselves as to constitute the new compound Molecule, there really is something like generation. Of course, this does not apply to the Crystal, or to any thing beyond the mere Molecule : and the process, which approaches in some degree to a living one, is limited to the extremely short instant of formation ; the very moment after the Molecule is formed, it is utterly inert, devoid of the least trace of life. Characters equally striking and distinctive are manifest in the mode of decrease or decay, which we term death, and which, in truth, is a chemical decomposition. Unorganized bodies are diminished and destroyed by external forces acting upon them physically, mechani- cally and chemically : they decrease, therefore, from without, inwards; because, on their exterior external circumstances chiefly act; and their elements, when caused to separate, go to form new combinations, and never reproduce the same being. Besides, their elements arc so fixed and immoveable, or held together by an attraction or affinity so