Medical and physical memoirs / by Charles Caldwell.

  • Caldwell, Charles, 1772-1853.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and physical memoirs / by Charles Caldwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    MBMOIR X¥. THOUGHTS ON THE PRESERVATIVE AND RESTORATIVE AN INTRODUCTORr ADDRESS. BY a writer, who is no less distinguished by the soundness ot his views, and the extent of his Httninments, as a philosopher and a scholar, than by his inspi-ration and classical polish, as a poet, we are told, that Jll! l/iings subsist by elemental sb-ifp, And passions are the elemeids of life. The more extensive the survey we take of the general arrange- ment and administration of n^iture, and the more successful we prove, in discovering the state and condition of tilings, as they are, the more thoroughly shall we be convinced of the tiuth, and the more highly will we appreciate the [irofundity, of the sentiments inculcated in these two lines. We shall perceive, in a particular manner, while thus engaged, that, throughout creation, as far as we are permitted to examine it, there exist certain great antagonist powers, b} the conflicting in- fluence of which the biilance of things is settled and maintained. And it is in reference to this peculiar condition of general exist- ence, that the universe is truly said to stand self balanced; universal action and re-action being equal and contrary, and giving stability to the whole; precisely as the human body stands self balanced, by the opposite action of antagonizing muscles. For, we shall see hereafter, that in living as well as dead matter these opposites prevail. Give to one of those powers, in any of the deparments of nature, an ascendency over the other, and the inevitable consequence will he, wild commotion, disorder, and misrule. And the extent of the uproar and desolation thus produced, will be in proportion to the violence done to the equipoise. From no other source, as might be easily proved, do we derive tempests, and inundations, and those still more terrific an i destruc- tive occurrences, earth-qnakes and volcanic eruptions. To the same cause must we attribute the tornado, the thunder-storm, the Water-spout, the monsoons, the trade-winds, and uU minor disburfa-