Fifteenth annual commencement of the Medical Department of Georgetown College : valedictory address / by Silas L. Loomis ... ; March 2, 1865.

  • Loomis, Silas L. (Silas Lawrence), 1822-1896.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fifteenth annual commencement of the Medical Department of Georgetown College : valedictory address / by Silas L. Loomis ... ; March 2, 1865. 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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    force in each article of diet and its adaptation to the assimilating processes of the human system. We have not only the histogenetic and calorifacient pro- ducts of digestion, but in the breaking down of all that ma- terial in the prima via, which can never be taken up by the system,, we have a constant liberation of force, which is assimi- lated under some of the various forms of vitality, and is as essential to the development of the organism as chyle. Again reverting to the gradual development of matter, we find that whenever the quantity of force increases more rapidly than the gross material in the constitution of a body it is elevated in the scale of existence; that the elevation of the vegetable plane is solely dependent on its accumu- lated constituent forces; and that the higher elevation of seeds and fruits, constituting them food for man, is due to the increased force wrapped up in their constitution ; that from this same cause animated existences rank far above the vegetable plane, thereby constituting them almost ex- clusively the required food for man. Now, these facts, together with the fact that man only uses for food seeds, fruits, and meats, substances containing the greatest con- centration of imponderable material which may be readily and steadily developed by digestion, form a sufficient basis for a reasonable expectation that a higher form of force will be developed by the human being than has been exhibited by any other organization. And more : knowing that man assimilates in his growth and functional activity only the highest projections of vege- table and animal existences, thereby wrapping within his constitution the highest and tensest forces of nature, we are unavoidably driven to the conclusion that man must develop force in some of its more elevated conditions. The organization of animals of the lower order will not answer these new demands. This intense concentration of power must beget new modes, new energies, new exhibitions in some form. 'Hence we find in man entire classes of pow- ers beyond those of any other terrestrial being. Hence the grand reaches of intellect, of memory, and of imagination. He walks up and down the universe, amid the stars, and