Lecture, introductory to the course on the theory and practice of medicine : in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, session of 1846-47 / by W. Darrach.

  • Darrach, William, 1796-1865.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lecture, introductory to the course on the theory and practice of medicine : in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, session of 1846-47 / by W. Darrach. 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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    sides the perishable organisms for nutrition and reproduction and for sensation, perception, voHtion, and self-motion, there is the immortal Riiach. Tliis Ruach, not subject, like organic matter, to evolution, bloom and atrophy, exists before the cerebrum and the mean fleshy mental faculties are fully de- veloped, and as brightly and immortally still, when from age, or premature disease, or a moribund state, both corporeal facul- ties and functions are impaired or extinguished. Still, the Ruach lives, as the flame in Horeb's bush. I distinguish then the immortal spirit of man from all that niindwhichdependsonorganization,aLnd which maybe the pro- per subject of a pure phrenology. I do not confound them. The intellectual faculties and man's spirit are not the same, yet I know nothing of the mode of their connate union. I know not how it is, that there is the evolving, blooming, and atrophic faculty of memory; and also, that the eternal spirit of man has memory, and that it is said in the parable, in reference to the spirit of a rich man separated from the body, Remember that thou, in thy lifetime, &c. Certain knowledge on this point must come from some one who shall combine the powers and varied directions of mind of such men as Locke and Jon. Edwards, Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Dalton, Sir Charles Bell and Le Verrier. The logic which has demonstrated the freedom of the human will, analyzed the mental faculties, and, reasoning on the variation in the course of Uranus, declared the existence, location, and magnitude of another, and as yet nameless star; the analysis and experiments, which have separated the sun's ray into its calo- rific, colorific, and chemical constituents; which have disco- vered, that material atoms combine in definite proportions; and that nerves, with few exceptions, have each one filament to excite motion, and another to excite sensation, are praise- worthy attainments. But that will be a higher analysis and a more glorious experiment which shall so demonstrate the human mind as to show separately, first, the perishable intel- lect dependent on organization, second, the immortal re- sponsible spirit, and third, the mode of their mystic union. As yet, we are ignorant of the manner of this union. The fact of it, however is believed in. The immortal spirit of man, in some way or other, incorporates itself, to raise and sustain the mean intellectual faculties above brutality. Light incor- porates itself with the atmosphere ; and this, thereby, becomes the enlightened and vivifying atmosphere of day. It departs, and there remains only nocturnal air, contracted, cheerless, and deadly. So, permit the analogy, the immortal spirit is in- fused into intellect to constitute the spiritual human mind. It