FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  
s of animal matter which has been called electropositive, it may be supposed that some electrical function is exercised by oxygen in the blood; but this is a mere hypothesis. An attempt has been made founded on experiments on the decomposition of bodies by electricity to explain secretion by weak electrical powers, and to suppose the glands electrical organs, and even to imagine the action of the nerves dependent upon electricity; these, like all other notions of the same kind, appear to me very little refined. If electrical effects be the exhibition of certain powers belonging to matter, which is a fair supposition, then no change can take place without their being more or less concerned; but to imagine the presence of electricity to solve phenomena the cause of which is unknown is merely to substitute one undefined word for another. In some animals electrical organs are found, but then they furnish the artillery of the animal and means of seizing its prey and of its defence. And speculations of this kind must be ranked with those belonging to some of the more superficial followers of the Newtonian philosophy, who explained the properties of animated nature by mechanical powers, and muscular action by the expansion and contraction of elastic bladders; man, in this state of vague philosophical inquiry, was supposed a species of hydraulic machine. And when the pneumatic chemistry was invented, organic structures were soon imagined to be laboratories in which combinations and decompositions produced all the effects of living actions; then muscular contractions were supposed to depend upon explosions like those of the detonating compounds, and the formation of blood from chyle was considered as a pure chemical solution. And, now that the progress of science has opened new and extraordinary views in electricity, these views are not unnaturally applied by speculative reasoners to solve some of the mysterious and recondite phenomena of organised beings. But the analogy is too remote and incorrect; the sources of life cannot be grasped by such machinery; to look for them in the powers of electro-chemistry is seeking the living among the dead: that which touches will not be felt, that which sees will not be visible, that which commands sensations will not be their subject. _Phil_.--I conclude, from what you last said, that though you are inclined to believe that some unknown subtle matter is added to the organised system
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  



Top keywords:
electrical
 

powers

 

electricity

 

supposed

 

matter

 
imagine
 
action
 

effects

 
unknown
 

animal


phenomena

 

living

 
organised
 

belonging

 
chemistry
 

organs

 
muscular
 
chemical
 

progress

 

solution


pneumatic

 

machine

 

hydraulic

 

species

 

extraordinary

 

invented

 

opened

 

science

 

laboratories

 

imagined


depend

 
combinations
 

decompositions

 

produced

 

actions

 
contractions
 

explosions

 
detonating
 

considered

 
organic

structures
 

formation

 
compounds
 
recondite
 

commands

 

sensations

 
subject
 

visible

 
touches
 

conclude