The constitution of man : considered in relation to external objects / by George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution of man : considered in relation to external objects / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ESSAY THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. CHAPTER I. ON NATURAL LAWS. A statement of the evidence of a great intelligent First Cause is given in the ' Phrenological Journal,' and in the ' System of Phrenology.' I hold this exist- ence as capable of demonstration. By Nature, I mean the workmanship of this great Being, such as it is re- vealed to our minds by our senses and faculties. In natural science, three subjects of inquiry may be distinguished. 1st. What exists I 2dly. What is the purpose or design of what exists ; and, 3dly. Why was what exists designed for such uses as it evidently subserves ! For example,—It is a matter of fact that arctic regions and torrid zones exist,—that a certain kind of moss is most abundant in Lapland in mid-win- ler,—that the rein-deer feeds on it, and enjoys high health and vigor in situations where most other animals would die ; farther, it is a matter of fact that camels exist in Africa ; that they have broad hoofs, and stomachs fitted to retain water for a length of time, and that they flourish amid arid tracts of sand, where the rein-deer would not live for a day. All this falls under the in- quiry, What exists ? But in contemplating the fore- going facts, it is impossible not to infer that one object of the Lapland moss is to feed the rein-deer, and one purpose of the deer is to assist man : and that, in like manner, broad feet have been given to the camel to enable it to walk on sand, and a retentive stomach to fit it for arid places in which water is not found except at wide intervals. These are inquiries into the use or purpose of what exists. In like manner, we may in- quire, What purpose do sandy deserts and desolate heaths subserve in the economy of nature 1 In short, an inquiry into the use or purpose of any object that exists, is merely an examination of its relations to other objects and beings, and of the modes in which it affects them; and this is quite a legitimate exercise of the human intellect. But, 3dly, we may ask, why were the physical elements of nature created such as they are 1 Why were summer, autumn, spring, and winter introduced ] Why were animals formed of organized matter] These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it is, or into the will of the Deity in crea- tion. Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second ; but it may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the third. My investigations are con- fined to the first and second, and I do not discuss the third. A law: in the common acceptation, denotes a rule of action ; its existence indicates an established and con- stant mode, or process, according to which phenomena take place ; and this is the sense in which I shall use it, when treating of physical substances and beings. For example, water and heat are substances ; and wa- ter presents different appearances, and manifests cer- tain qualitjes, according to the altitude of its situation, and the degree of heat with which it is combined. When at the level of the sea, and combined with that portion of heat indicated by 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, it freezes o\ becomes solid; when combined with the portion denoted by 212° of that in- strument, it rises into vapour or steam. Here water and heat are the substances,—the freezing and rising in vapour are the appearances or phenomena presented by them; and when we say that these take place ac- cording to a Law of Nature, we mean only that these modes of action appear, to our intellects, to be estab- lished in the very constitution of the water and heat, and in their natural relationship to each other; and that the processes of freezing and rising in vapour are their constant appearances, when combined in these propor- tions, other conditions being the same. The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st. That all substances and beings have received a definite natu- ral constitution ; 2dly. That every mode of action, which is said to take place according to a natural law, is inherent in the constitution of the substance, or being, that acts; and, 3dly. That the mode of action described is universal and invariable, wherever and whenever the substances, or beings, are found in the same condition. For example, water, at the level of the sea, freezes and boils, at the same temperature, in China and in France, in Peru and in England; and there is no exception to the regularity with which it exhibits these appearances, when all its conditions are the same : For cazteris paribus is a condition which per- vades all departments of science, phrenology included. If water be carried to the top of a mountain 20,000 feet hioh, it boils at a lower temperature than 212°, but this again depends on its relationship to the air, and takes place also according to fixed and invariable principles. The air exerts a great pressure on the wa- ter. At the level of the sea the pressure is nearly the same in all quarters of the globe, and in that situation the freezing points and boiling points correspond all over the world; but on the top of a high mountain the pressure is much less, and the vapour not being held down by so great a power of resistance, rises at a lower degree of heat than 212°. But this change of appear- ances does not indicate a change in the constitution of the water and the heat, but only a variation of the cir- cumstances in which they are placed ; and hence it is not correct to say, that water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a lower temperature than 212°, is an exception to the general law of nature : there never are exceptions to the laws of nature ; for the Creator is too wise and too powerful to make imperfect or in- consistent arrangements. The error is in the human mind inferring the law to be, that water boils at 212° in all altitudes ; when the real law is only that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the sea, in all coun- tries ; and that it boils at a lower temperature, the higher it is carried, because there the pressure of the atmosphere is diminished. Intelligent beings exist, and are capable of modify- ing their actions. By means of their faculties, the laws impressed by the Creator on physical substances become known to them ; and, when perceived, consti- tute laws to them, by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it is a physical law, that boiling water destroys the muscular and nervous systems of man. This is the result purely of the constitution of the