A lecture, introductory to a course on the institutes of medicine and materia medica : for the session of MDCCCXLVII-VIII / by Martyn Paine.

  • Paine, Martyn, 1794-1877.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture, introductory to a course on the institutes of medicine and materia medica : for the session of MDCCCXLVII-VIII / by Martyn Paine. 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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    life in the nervous system and the organs of sense, which are particu- larly associated with it. In the moral attributeof^iwliiret he offers strong points of resemblance to many of the mostnumble in the scale of being; but in 4kk vmywt -b« -is gfeatly inferior. Man, therefore, finds himself contradistinguished from the vegetable tribes, in respect to the great plan of life, in little else than a more complex structure ; and what is superadded to answer the purposes of sensual enjoyment, he holds in common with the kingdom of which he is the head. So far, then, he is only primus inter pares,—the first among his equals. It is true, he walks erect, and has distinguishing powers of articu- C \ lation, though there are none of us who sing so sweetly as the birds. But who else than man could have traced out this magnificent system m\ of affinities, or have shown his relationship to every moving thing, and to every plant that grows ? That is his prerogative alone, and it is that thinking, immortal principle which separates him so widely from all other created existences as to establish a relationship, a companionship with God himself. In this aspect of his nature, he stands alone upon earth, and looks up to Jdeaven for an intimate alliance with that Supreme Intelligence who had laid the plan of his general economy in harmoni- ous relation to those objects which were created for his uses and happi- A It / / ■ • ' ous relation 10 mose oDjects wnicn were createa ior nis uses ana nappi- / ' / ness. In the one, he realizes an^fnfinite )frisdom and power in his physi- / ; cal connections wh'.oh attend his being upon earth, in the other, he equally sees that the end of those connections separates him completely w * from matter, and leaves him alone related to the ipirit in whose /mage J . ^ «\i ^/ ^is intellectual part had been ordained and associated with perishable Nature It is mine, however, to speak of man as he exists upon earth, to point , out his affinities to the objects which surround him, and to indicate the v ^ influences and changes to which he is liable. It is, however, only a \ glance at some'small portion of this vast field which can be taken in s, an hour; and a life-time could not compass what ia useful to be known in the walks of physiology, and as they traverse the recesses of pathol- ogy and therapeutics. Before we can begin, however, to investigate n) the functions of living beings in their healthy and morbid states, we N must know something of the structure through which they areperform- \j* ed ; and this is distinguished by great variety, especially in the animal kingdom. Numerous complex organs are here introduced which have no existence in plants; and where the office of each organ is the same, the structure of each is variable in the different species of animals. It is in plants alone that we meet with little else than what is strictly essential to organic life ; and so perfectly co-extensive with animated nature is the fundamental plan of life, that what composes the essential structure of plants is also at the foundation of animal existences. It is in those vessels, or in such as are closely analogous, which carry on the processes of assimilation and secretion in the vegetable world, that we must look for growth, nutrition, secretion, &c. in animals, and what, therefore, is superadded to the organic mechanism of the latter is at most but incidentally subsidiary to the fundamental structure^vThe same *ff order of simplicity prevails, also, throughout all the mutations to which animals and plants are liable. If disease beset the plant, it is but a s // ^R&jti±^i flffaafflyj^fcfn** ^wfri i j.