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.

    86/602 (page 62)
    CHAP. III. MATTER. “ What forms the mass, Term'd by the learned, Matter, seeds of things, And generative atoms; Atoms primordial, as hence all proceeds.” Mason Good’s Lucretius. All matter composing this universe is diamond; but that material varies according to combustion. At the point of extreme heat* it is in a perfectly elastic, pure, and simple state; at the freezing point it becomes condensed or crystallized into what we term Iron. Now, all enquirers into the origin of matter have, by common consent, traced it to hy- drogen and oxygen. I shall go a step farther, and assert that diamond is the base of hydrogen: iron that of oxygen. Hydrogen being matter in the point of extreme heat, oxygen being the same material in its most condensed state at the freezing point. These two gases, when combined, constitute water, which is our gravitating element. We shall, accordingly, find that the particles of matter deposited by the sun at our planet are, in fact. * We are speaking of the universal temperature.