Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1-2).

  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical inquiries and observations (Volume 1-2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    mal life which I have delivered, to point out the tnanner In which life and growth are produced in vegetables of all kinds. But this subject belongs to the professor of botany and natural history,* who is amply qualified to do it jus- tice. I shall only remark, that vegetable life is as much the offspring of stimuli as animal, and that skill in agricul. ture consists chiefly in the proper application of them. The seed of a plant, like an animul body, has no principle of life within itself. If preserved for many years in a drawer, or in earth, below the stimulating influence of heat, air and water, it discovers no sign of vegetation. It grows, like an animal, only in consequence of stimuli acting upon its capacity of life. From a review of what has been said of animal life, in all its numerous forms and modifications, we see that it is as much an effect of impressions upon a peculiar species of matter, as sound is of the stroke of a hammer upon a bell, or music of the motion of the bow upon the strings of a violin. 1 exclude therefore the intelligent principle of Whytt, the medical mind of Stahl, the healing powers of Cullen, and the vital principle of John Hunter, as much from the body, as I do an intelligent principle from air, fire, and water. Upon the opinion of these different authors, I beg leave to add further, that they are all modifications of two errors held by Pythai^oras and Epicurus. The former believed and taught what is called the transmigration of souls, that is, that the principal of life, rational and animal, was a kind of elementary body ; that it never died; and that it passed from animals that perished, into other animal matter, and thereby imparted to it soul, or what is called life. This opinion accords with the vital principle of Mr. Hunter and Dr. Girtanner, while the anima medica of Stahl accords with the doctrine taught by Epicurus, of the globe being animated by a principle called anima mundi. Both opinions substitute an intelligent and self-moving principle to the agency of a Supreme Being, in every part of his works. There is a third error connected with this subject, which it may not be improper to mention upon this occasion, and th.it is, that man consists of spirit, soul, and body—that his spirit resides in his brain, and is concerned only in intellec