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18 Sprengel, ii. 359.
22 De Spiritu, v. 1078.
23 Spr. i. 501.
28 Ib. p. 34.
31 Cuv. p. 44.
32 p. 45.
Sect. 2.—The Discovery of the Circulation made by Harvey.
36 Cuv. 53.
If, by what has been said, I have exemplified sufficiently the nature
of those steps in physiology, which, like the discovery of the
Circulation, give an explanation of the process of some of the animal
functions, it is not necessary for me to dwell longer on the subject;
for to write a history, or even a sketch of the history of Physiology,
would suit neither my powers nor my purpose. Some further analysis
of the general views which have been promulgated by the most
eminent physiologists, may perhaps be attempted in treating of the
Philosophy of Inductive Science; but the estimation of the value of
recent speculations and investigations must be left to those who
have made this vast subject the study of their lives. A few brief
notices may, however, be here introduced. 452
CHAPTER III.
I TthemaySciences,
have been observed in the previous course of this History of
that the discoveries in each science have a peculiar
physiognomy: something of a common type may be traced in the
progress of each of the theories belonging to the same department
of knowledge. We may notice something of this common form in the
various branches of physiological speculation. In most, or all of them,
we have, as we have noticed the case to be with respect to the
circulation of the blood, clear and certain discoveries of mechanical
and chemical processes, succeeded by speculations far more
obscure, doubtful, and vague, respecting the relation of these
changes to the laws of life. This feature in the history of physiology
may be further instanced, (it shall be done very briefly), in one or two
other cases. And we may observe, that the lesson which we are to
collect from this narrative, is by no means that we are to confine
ourselves to the positive discovery, and reject all the less clear and
certain speculations. To do this, would be to lose most of the
chances of ulterior progress; for though it may be, that our
conceptions of the nature of organic life are not yet sufficiently
precise and steady to become the guides to positive inductive truths,
still the only way in which these peculiar physiological ideas can be
made more distinct and precise, and thus brought more nearly into a
scientific form, is by this struggle with our ignorance or imperfect
knowledge. This is the lesson we have learnt from the history of
physical astronomy and other sciences. We must strive to refer facts
which are known and understood, to higher principles, of which we
cannot doubt the existence, and of which, in some degree, we can
see the place; however dim and shadowy may be the glimpses we
have hitherto been able to obtain of their forms. We may often fail in
such attempts, but without the attempt we can never succeed. 453
42 Ib. p. 365.
Thus it was shown that aliments taken into the stomach are, by its
action, made to produce chyme; from the chyme, gradually changed
454 in its progress through the intestines, chyle is absorbed by the
lacteals; and this, poured into the blood by the thoracic duct, repairs
the waste and nourishes the growth of the animal. But by what
powers is the food made to undergo these transformations? Can we
explain them on mechanical or on chemical principles? Here we
come to a part of physiology less certain than the discovery of
vessels, or of the motion of fluids. We have a number of opinions on
this subject, but no universally acknowledged truth. We have a
collection of Hypotheses of Digestion and Nutrition.
I shall confine myself to the former class; and without dwelling long
upon these, I shall mention some of them. The philosophers of the
Academy del Cimento, and several others, having experimented on
the stomach of gallinaceous birds, and observed the astonishing
force with which it breaks and grinds substances, were led to
consider the digestion which takes place in the stomach as a kind of
trituration. 43 Other writers thought it was more properly described as
fermentation; others again spoke of it as a putrefaction. Varignon
gave a merely physical account of the first part of the process,
maintaining that the division of the aliments was the effect of the
disengagement of the air introduced into the stomach, and dilated by
the heat of the body. The opinion that digestion is a solution of the
food by the gastric juice has been more extensively entertained.
43 Bourdon, Physiol. Comp. p. 514.
47 Ib. p. 101.
49 Ib. p. 53.
Many succeeding anatomists pursued the examination of the
series of changes in generation, and of the organs which are
concerned in them, especially Malpighi, who employed the
microscope in this investigation, and whose work on the Chick was
published in 1673. It is impossible to give here any general view of
the result of these laborious series of researches: but we may
observe, that they led to an extremely minute and exact survey of all
the parts of the fœtus, its envelopes and appendages, and, of
course, to a designation of these by appropriate names. These
names afterwards served to mark the attempts which were made to
carry the analogy of animal generation into the vegetable kingdom.
51 Bourdon, p. 221.
52 Ib. p. 49.