An inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay.

Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    lihood it is to be confined to this world, or extended to another. On deliberately examining an animal struc- ture in connexion with its functions, reflecting on its singular and astonishing mechanism, how food and drink are converted into blood, and blood into such a diversity of organs, by che- mical processes different in kind, and different- ly conducted, from any that are known, what are we to think ? Can such a mechanism be the cause of feeling, reasoning, and reflection ? or can chemical affinities, without a chemist of un- common resources, and of extraordinary art and intelligence, produce such a structure? Some think that they may, and others think not. This difference of opinion was what suggested the fol- lowing Inquiry j the object of which is to collect and to state the arguments on both sides, to exa- mine the legitimacy and force of these arguments as they occur, and after the Inquirer has given his opinion, to leave the reader to judge for himself. As young men, entering on the studies of ana- tomy and chemistry, are naturally led to investi- gate the causes of organization, and are frequently apt to form hypotheses on grounds of information not the most ample, it was imagined that such pn inquiry might be particularly useful to them.