An inaugural dissertation upon the causes of disease, submitted preparatorily to graduation to the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh / by Arthur Powell.

  • Powell, Arthur.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation upon the causes of disease, submitted preparatorily to graduation to the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh / by Arthur Powell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    7/77 (page 4)
    must (independently of any other mode in which they can produce derangement) give rise to extensive and general disorder. Some of the best marked examples of this are observed in organic affections of the heart and lungs, also in long continued functional disorders of the stomach and bowels. Having premised these remarks on the organs of the body, and their mutual dependence in regard to function, we are led to inquire how organised beings originate, what are their relations with the external world, and what are the conditions necessary for the manifestation of their peculiar actions. THE NATURE OF LIFE. There is a tendency in the human mind to connect with every phenomenon the cause which produces it, and should it be impossible to find one, we call to our assist- ance some unknown agency endowed with sufBcient power to explain every difficulty, but which merely bears the same relation to the real cause that an algebraical symbol does to the unknown part of a problem. The ancient philosophers attributed the properties of matter to certain spirits, and explained the various phenomena they pre- sented by the motions and agency of these spirits; and there is no doubt that if the mind could divestitself of its instinctive desire for truth, this would be a far more beau- tiful and attractive philosophy than that of the ambiti- ous souls whom earth at this late period has produced,'