The philosophy of death; or a general medical and statistical treatise on the nature and causes of human mortality / By John Reid, licentiate of the Faculty of physicians and surgeons, Glasgow.

  • Reid, John
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of death; or a general medical and statistical treatise on the nature and causes of human mortality / By John Reid, licentiate of the Faculty of physicians and surgeons, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tiie t PHILOSOPHY OF DEATH. CHAPTER I. On the different Forms of Matter, and the General Laws by which they are governed and changed—On the Development and Forma¬ tion of the Human Body in connexion with the Vital Functions —And on Life and Organization. As the various changes which take place in animal matter, both in health and disease, and after death, can only be illustrated by reference to the natural laws and certain scientific principles, we will commence the present inquiry with a brief enumeration of these, in connexion with those particular branches of science most intimately related to the subject. The science of Chemistry makes us acquainted with the elementary particles of which the various productions of nature are radically composed. According to the principles of that science, all bodies are either simple or compound. A simple body may be termed a natural production, which invariably presents the same relative characteristics ; thus an atom of sulphur cannot be reduced by any known means into any two atoms possessing different properties; therefore sulphur is termed a simple body. But such is not the case with some substances equally simple looking. Lime has just as much the appearance of a simple body as A