The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie, member of the Antiquarian and Royal Societies of Edinburgh.

  • Smellie, William, 1740-1795.
Date:
MDCCXCI [1791]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie, member of the Antiquarian and Royal Societies of Edinburgh. 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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    pttradion peculiar to each fpccics. None of thcfe parti- cles c;in be regarded ?.s a germ, or bud. They arc only t'^.e elements, or conRituent parts, which, when applied to each other, form a whole. They never expand, or grow, like the embrios of animals, or plants. They re- rnw'm for ever in the fame flate, without diminution, or incteafe, except when feparated by force, or magnified by nn accumulation of frelh matter. 'J'he chrylballine juice is not aiTimutated by velVels: It is prepared by a chymical opcmtion of Nature. The bodies of plants and animals are machines, exceedingly elaborate, and more or lefs complicated. Thefc machines, by means of ditlerent or- gans, have the power of converting other animals and ve- getables into their own fuMlance. By this alFimulation, all their dimenfions are increafed ; and their various parts uniformly prefervc the fame proportions with regard to each other, and continue to perform their refpedive func- tions. Befidcs, organized bodies not only multiply their fpccics, but fome ot them pollefs the power of reproduc- ing fuch parts as are forcibly abftraded from them. In thefe and manv other qualities common to the ani- mal and vegetable, there is not the fmallefl analogy to be found in the mineral kingdom. Between the rnoft regu- lar folTils, as falts and chryftals, and the moft imperfecl animal or vegetable, the dillance is immenle. Figured foflils are not more organized than a column, or a portico. In the formation of the former, Nature, in that of the latter, man, is the artill. When no fimilarity is to be difcovered in thofe fofiils which are nearly uniform in their configuration, Ave are not to expeft it in the more loofe and irregular parts of brute matter. Here, Nature, re- gardlefs of fymmetry, conjoins heterogeneous materials, of which (he compofes irregular malTes. Many ftoncs, flints, end other concretions, afford examples of this kind. More art, it muft be acknowledged, appears in the formation of metals : But their flruchire exhibits no vefliges of organization. A N A I. O G I E S.