An enquiry into the probability and rationality of Mr. Hunter's theory of life, being the subject of two anatomical lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons, of London / by John Abernethy.

  • Abernethy, John, 1764-1831.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the probability and rationality of Mr. Hunter's theory of life, being the subject of two anatomical lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons, of London / by John Abernethy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    pend on organization. Mr. Hunter, who so patiently and accurately examined the different links of this great chain, which seems to connect even man with the common matter of the universe, was of this opinion. In speaking of the pro- perties of life, he says, it is something' that prevents the chemical decomposition, to which dead animal and vegetable matter is so prone; that regulates the temperature of the bodies it inhabits, and is the causfc of the actions we observe in them. All these circumstances, though deduced from an extensive contemplation of the subject, may, however, be legitimately drawn from observations made on the egg. A living egg does not putrefy under circumstances that would rapidly cause that change in a dead one. The former resists a degree of cold that would freeze the latter. And when subjected to the genial warmth of incubation, the matter of it begins to c