The principles of medicine / by John M. Scudder.

  • Scudder, John M. (John Milton), 1829-1894.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of medicine / by John M. Scudder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    doubtless, employed as expressions of the functions or qualities of the soul, have, in the course of time, gathered other mean- ings and confused the popular ideas. . . . . On one of these terms, the vital principle, I may make a few remarks, since, from being a mere expression of convenience, it has by degrees risen among physiologists and physicians to the rank of designating an existing agent, by some regarded as of the same kind as light, heat, electricity, or gravitation—nay, even superior to these, since it is its peculiar attribute to hold them all in check. Animated by this extraordinary power, organic substances are supposed to withstand every external influence, and to submit to physical agents only after this principle has left them. Such a preposterous doctrine will not bear the touch of exact science for a moment. It is only a relic of the old metaphysical system of philosophizing, which accepted a name in lieu of an explanation, which preferred the dogma of the horror of a vacuum to the more simple view of the press- ure of the air. 4. It is true, however, that there is organic life, and every one has the evidence of this in his owu person, and as he is brought in contact with it throughout his existence. Whatever it may be, and whatever relations it may bear to other forces in nature, it stands at the threshold of our inquiries, and we can not pass it by without examination. Before giving my own views, I will briefly present those of other writers which have claim to our consideration, and which will pave the wTay for certain definite axioms. 5. Going back to the year 1744, we find Swedenborg, one of the most accurate observers and correct reasoners of the six- teenth century, presenting the matter in this form : There is a certain formative substance or force that draws the thread from the first living point and afterward continues it to the last point of life. With respect to this formative substance or force, such is the defect of terms that we can predict scarcely anything of it, except that it is the first, the most perfect, the most universal, and the most simple of all the substances and