Introductory address to the course of medical lectures : at Georgetown College, November 3, 1862 / by Silas L. Loomis.

  • Loomis, Silas L. (Silas Lawrence), 1822-1896.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address to the course of medical lectures : at Georgetown College, November 3, 1862 / by Silas L. Loomis. 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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    highly probable hereafter, an energy just equivalent to the power exerted by the sunbeam, under whose influence they are produced, it is more rational to suppose that they are the result of ordinary chemical forces acting under the di- rection of what we prefer to call the vital principle. The general conclusion which has been arrived at is, that all the different physical energies, whether that which is called chemical action, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, or muscular motion, or mechanical power, are all referred to the disturbance of the equilibrium of the atoms, and its subsequent restoration due to their attractions and repul- sions; and that all these forms of energy are in one sense, as it were, convertible into each other; or, in other words, the force generated in the restoration of the equilibrium in one case is sufficient to disturb it, though in different form, perhaps, in another. I now propose to extend these generalizations by classing the ethereal medium as a constituent element, subject to all the laws that are commonl}r resticted to gross matter. In 1843 I advanced a similar theory, and taught it in the lecture room for the following years. The theory as pro- posed was expressed in the following laws : 1. All created substances exist under two forms, ponder- able and imponderable. 2. A definite amount of ponderable substance was created at the beginning, and has been neither increased or diminished. 3. A definite amount of imponderable substance was created at the beginning and has been neither increased or diminished. 4. All the forms of ponderable matter are but the ao-o-re- gation of elemental ponderable atoms, connected with vary- ing quantities of imponderable material, under different circumstances and relations. 5. All the forms of imponderable substance, are but the various manifestations of elemental imponderable atoms, under different circumstances and relations.