The discovery of the vital principle, or physiology of man.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The discovery of the vital principle, or physiology of man. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    essential quality of hardness, is that substance which fills all space, forms every figure contained in a circle, is seen and felt in every place, is visible and invisible, assumes every shape and colour, gives laws to all mankind, builds cities and palaces, and peoples kingdoms?” Would any one, I ask in reply to this question, who is unacquainted with the powers of organization, suppose that from a single minute seed, could arise a full-formed plant in all its beauty and perfection; or, from the simple egg, an animal endowed with the powers of feeling and locomotion ? Are these extraordinary facts more difficult for such a person to conceive, than for one already ac- quainted with them to believe, that, under certain circumstances, the phenomena I have enumerated might be achieved by the diamond ?# In its natural state this valuable gem is found in the figure de- scribed in the subjoined diagram, which has an oviform surface in whatever direction it is viewed. Jameson also describes three very magnificent samples, as follows * Of the wonderful power of organization, Dr. Roget says, “ Let us take as a specimen the crystalline lens, or hard central part of the eye of a cod-fish, which is a perfectly transparent, and to all appearance homogeneous spherule. No one, unaccustomed to explore the wonders of nature, would suspect that so simple a body, which he might suppose to be formed of a uniform material, cast in a mould, would disclose, when examined under a powerful microscope,