Volume 1

The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira].

  • Pereira, Jonathan, 1804-1853.
Date:
1839-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    126/590 (page 100)
    Inorganized Bodies. 1 Are produced by the agency of co- hesion and affinity, at the expense of other previously existing bodies. 2. Are preserved or exist solely by cohesion and affinity. 3. Are in a state of rest. 4. Undergo no alterations in their na- ture, except such as result from the opera- tion of attraction and repulsion. 5. Have active properties which are always the same in degree and kind. cessarily limited or definite. 7%. Perform actions referrible to repul- sion and attraction only. Organized Bodies. 1. Are produced by other similarly con- stituted bodies, which we call parents. There are, indeed, many cases in which we cannot demonstrate the existence of a parent; and several arguments may be adduced in support of the doctrine of equivocal generation ; but the majority of physiologists are opposed to it, and adopt as an axiom the statement of Harvey, “ Omne vivum ex ovo.” Cohesion and affinity are insufficient to account for the production of organized beings, and hence we call to our aid another power, which we denominate “ the vital force.” 2. Are preserved or exist frequently in opposition to the usual operation of cohesion and affinity by the agency of “ the vital force.” 3. Are in a continual state of activity, taking in from the external world certain solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, as- similating them to their own proper - fluids, and converting them into solids, or reparing peculiar liquids from them. hese phenomena constitute the process 4, Are incessantly undergoing changes, so that at different periods of their exis- teuce their properties are somewhat dif- ferent. Thus they increase, become de- veloped, arrive at maturity, and, lastly, decrease. The phenomena of age, there- fore, are peculiar to organized beings. 5. Have active properties which vary in devree and kind: the distinction of health and disease which depends on this variation is, therefore, peculiar to organized beings. 6. Exist only for a limited period. The cessation of their existence is denominated death. The oldest organized beings on our planet are probably the Baobab trees ( Adan- sonia digitata) described by Adanson ; the ages of some of which have been computed to be five or six thousand years! Though there is, perhaps, great exaggeration in this calculation, yet these trees are un- doubtedly very aged. 7. Present phenomena which cannot be explained hy reference to attraction and repulsion merely: we, therefore, admit other properties, called vital, which we refer to life, or the vital force.