Carolina Watchman

              yx t c * i *)'- 1 wjyemuiiiif m in vain would the heart be org-anised—in , vain would it be endowed with contractility that is the power of acting if it were not also endowed with sensibility that is tbe power of knowing when to act — of feeling tbe presence of a stimulus tbe several stimuli may be likened to a number of mes senger sent out from head quarters the heart in order to tell the several parts of the body whan to act and tbe arteries are the roads along which they travel — the principal stimuli within the body being the countless streams of blood flowing along its arteries you must remember howev er that this office of stimulation is by fltr stimuli what chemical phenomena are to tbe centrifugal and contri petal force and the antagonisatioo of these forces bv each thei what the motion of the hands of a watch is to the main spring and its e lasticityjfjiz the sum total numerous ef lects#>f*»whicb these four attributes of or ganic matter above mentioned are the se condary causes these effects we call bring actions actions the totality of which constitutes life organised matter is . harp of which vi tality is the musical power stimuli are the mtersof the p/erforner,and life i tbe music prwuced — a hymn day and night iu praise of the goodness and power ol hun who permits this harp of a thousand strings to keep in tunc so long such is life now what is health as life consists in the aggregate union of all the living actions and indifferently whether those actions be well or ill per formed so health consists in the aggregate union of such of those actions by which nutrition is carried on — and not indifferent ly whether they be well or ill per|ormed,but exclusively when they are well performed and disease consists exclusively in their being one or more of them ul performed you will now readily understand of what tremendous importance to health are the properties contractility and sensibility for as health consists in the due perform ance of certain actions it is clear that they will be feebly or energetically performed accordingly as those two properties are themselves energetic or feeble you will also see that the stimulous which the blood offers to them is of vast importance like wise the stimulous is a sort of messen ger sent to summok them to action in proportion as lhe summons is feebly deliv ered it will be faintly heard and feebly o beyed contractility and sensibility are a horse that gallops furiously moves slug gishly or goes to sleep entirely exactly in proportion as the stimulous of the whip is gently or vigorously applied like the horse too the faster they are driven on by the whip the sooner ihey are tired — like him they may be driven even to death — like him they require rest and repose do not therefore be led to undervalue the import ance of these properties because of the playfulness with winch i have occasionally spoken of them — as for instance in the allusions to paganini and his fiddle ri dentem dicere verum quid vetat ?' what reason on earth is there for always telling the truth wiih a grave face why should we not sometimes tell it with a smiling eye as well as a scowling brow gravity not wisdom nor a smile folly besides if to smile he a folly what then qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit says r chefoiicault flf(jinlfm ihpn 5 that arrangement of the component parts of matter wnich fits it to be endowed with contractility st sensi bility contractility is that properly which endows it with the power of executing living motions stimuli are impressing causes act ing on its contractility & exciting it organ ized matter to acl...ii ; and sensibility is lhe properly by which it perceives the presence of these impressing causes the muscles of yotu arm are organized and they possess contractility and sensibil ity ; and when you will to raise your arm your will becomes an impressing cause exciting those muscles to action that is to contract their sensibility makes them aware that this impressing cause or stimu lus viz the will is acting upon them and they contract m obedience to it and your arm is raised accordingly but if the nerves which convey that stimulus from the brain to the arm be par alysed you may will " till the crack of doom your arm will not stir — it will care no more for your willing than did the mules of the abbess of androuillet for all tiiat pious old lady's pish-ing and pshaw ing and thumping with her cane on the bottom of the chaise there are the or ganized muscles still : there are still re maining the contractility and sensibility ol those muscles ; and the impressing cause is still in energetic operation like the good abbess's cane but then this operation is confined to lhe wrong place — lhe cane is thumping on the bottom of the chaise in stead of being applied to the crupper ofthe mv le — the stimulus ofthe will still exist it is true but then it is in the brain only from the muscles of the arm where its presence is required it is absent — absent without leave like the abbess's muleteer — and your srm will remain as obstinately immovable by your side as did the mules of the abbess of androuillet at the foot of the burgundian hill terms ss itr.toiman may hereafter oe had for , and fifty cents per year vu**fwov **** ********** wh ° ,' » ( ance the whole sum at one , payment £*^*« paper for one year at i wo doi - and as long as the same class shah sas topeyw advance the sum ot t ! ',., the same terms shall continue : i.ev will he charges as other subscri *** m who do not pay duiing t>ie year d three dollars in all cases x-jonvvill deceived for lea than v - ' " i ill be d'<coifi-iiied m*a at the op i unless 11 arrearges are paid i ot l from the london metropolitan popular information on contraction but the power of contracting il is the being able in contract now indian rubber or a steel spring may be said to be able to contract but then the one of these can only do after having been put upon the stretch and the other only having been bent they can only contract after having been put into an un natural condtion in their natural condi tion they are like all other inorganic mat ter at rest and can neither contract or ex pand nor dilate without being first submit ted to the action of mechanical or chemical force but living matter can rjo much more than this when at perfect rest and in its natural state it can contract shrink in short perform spontaneous movements merely on being excited stimulated or ir ritated and without the agency of any me chanical or chemical power it does this by virtue of a property called contractility when you look atavery strong light the iris the coiourc().b.amol thejme being ir ties i say are subject to'certain law i am now about to endeavor to establish these law or rather i am going to endea vor to convince you of their exi.teoee that they do exist is a truth that ha been well and incontrovertably established end admitted among all men acquainted witf the animal economy the effect of medi cines upon ii stu sic ever since hippo crates practised physic at athens and that is more than two thousand years ago but it w not sufficient that medical men are *- ware that these laws exist my object is to convince you of their existence i want you to know what is good and what is in jurious to your health not from my distum hut irom the simple exercise of your cwa reason i beg that you will consider what i am about to say on the subject of these laws with great attention—examine the proof and arguments carefully but fairly for i tell you at the outset that if you admit the existence of these laws you will not afterwards be at liberty to question or doubt the truth or propriety of what i shall amy with regard to diet and regimen for the existence of contractility and sensibility are like the axioms of euclid : ihey ar self-evident truths jf which any one may convince himself by experiment for in stance a dead man may easily be made to move his limbs to breathe and frown scr by exciting the appropriate muscle to con tract by means of galvanism and the laws to which these properties are subject aud of which i am now to speak are if i prove them ofthe nature of the proposi tions of the first bonk of eitciij if these be true the propositions oi ihe scrmnd hook must be true also of necessity the truths ofthe second book arising out of the truths of the first ' as naturally as pigs squeak as for instance if you admit'ihai twice two are four you must of necessity also ad i mit that the half of four is two so if you i admit what i am about to say of these i laws you must also admit tho propriety of i what i shall hereafter say as to diet and re i gimen as the correctness of ihe former i as for instance if you a;!mit no.v that sen i sibility can be worn out and ihat such and i such a regimen is calculated to wear it out i then i say you must also of necessity ad i mit that this particular regimen is injuri i ous to health when i come to apply i these laws to the subjects of diet and rcgi i men i repeat that either what i shall say i then must be true or what i am about to i say now must be false m as all the actions uf the body are perfurmed by i contractions and as these contractions are per i formed in virtue of the conirac.ile power that is i contractility it is evident that the physical i strength of the body — that strength by which i we raise heavy weights walk run leap c — i will be in proportion to the energy ofthe con i tractile power a high degree of contractile i power then is synonymous wiih strength and i a low degree of contractile power is synonymous h wiih weakness h but not only are the motions of the limbs per i formed by contractions but also those motions f i the internal organs by which nutrition is effected h now this being the case and as these internal i contractions are also performed in virtue of th h contractile power or contractility it is again h manifest that the energy with which these in i ternal motions are performed and by which nu h trition is effected will be also in proportion to h energy of the contractile power ; and as health i consists iu the due energy as we have before h seen with which these motions am effected it h follows clearly and logically that a high de i gree of contractile power is synonymous with a high degree of health , and that a low degree of contractile power is synonymous with feeble i heal'.ti having premised the above short paragraph i now proceed to mention lo you lhe first important h law to which contractility is subjpet viz svaav escence contractility can only exist in per ftction in recently organised mailer no sooner h has a molecule ot matter be.-oine organised arid i assimilated to lhe living matter than itscuntrac i till ty begins to fade — to evaporate as it were h like breath which has been breathed upon a i highly polished surface such as steel or look i ing glass indeed it seems to be the evanescent h rmar of contractility which has given occasion i to that particular connivance by which life is i supported — viz by constant organisation and dis i organsalion — that ir perpeioal building ip by i the arteries at.d pulling down by the absorbents i for if contractility could continue to exist in full h energy in an organised body during the whole i time that body was destined to exist what ne i cessity was there for ibis constant renewal t — h this constant disorganisation and re-organisa i tion this constant pulling down & building up i the evanescent nature of contractility may i h think be accounted for thus it seems to have i been a predetermined law of nature that the on 1 ly permanent condition of n.atter should be the h inorganic condition nevertheless certain cndah in the general scheme of creation were to be f ul 1 filled which required for their accomphshmenib the existence of organised matter but in or-l der that organised mailer might nol be perma-h nen t and so destroy or neutralise that original^h aw by which it was enacted that there shouldj^b the human system letters to brother john — no iii continued whitechapcl churchyard 15th march 18s6 my dear john i hare already described to you as much ofthe structure ofthe body as i believed necessary in order to enable you to under stand the nature of the several actions which ore perpetually going on within that struc ture it is of these actions that i have now to speak but previously to a descrip tion of the actions peculiar to living beings it seems proper to devote a few moments to an inquiry into the nature of life it self manner of means the main duty which tbe blood has to perform it is only an adven titious office only one of the numerous functions which the blood performs be sides the blood there is another remarkable stimulus another messenger sent to certain parts ofthe body to summon them to action but it is sent,not from,theheart,bnt from the brain this messenger is astrange incom prehensible being and his name is wile comparing organised matter to a musi cal instrument and its aptitude to act i e live to that instrument's aptitude to sound one might liken the stimulus offered by the blood to the performer whose office it is to play upon the fiddle these two properties sensibility and contractility ' constitute vitality i say vitality not life i and here alio me to caution you against falling into the vulgar error of confounding vitality with life the term vitality no ! more signifies life than the word fiddle sig nifies music vitality siguifies not life but livability if j may coin a word that is the aptitude or fitness to live as musical itij if i may be allowed to com another word would denote not music but the aptitude or fitness to give rise to musical sounds vitality 13 a secondary cause — a necessary condition of organised matter in order to give rise to living actions as musicality is a necessary condition in a fiddle in order to give rise to musical sounds a fiddle may be perfect in all its parts and yet for want of this necessary condition which 1 have called musicality be wholly unable to produce musical sounds for instance if you wero to fill the body of paganini's best fiddle with sand and soak its strings in tal low paganini might go mad perhaps but twenty piiganints or one paganini with a twenty-pagaiiini power which is the same thing would not be able to extract from it a single musical tone why because the instrument would have lost that necessary condition which i caw musicality — the sand and the tallow have destroyed it en ca put sed cerebrum non hahet which be ing interpreted into the vulgar tongue for lhe henefii of k ems polite signifieth there is the fiddle but where is its aptitude to discourse most excellent music 1 " i will make this clear in a mo'n»ni ti fi^i condition necessary to life is organism tu^f ii kit | tne msmsmi id vitality or that condition oi manner of existence ne v an letters tn ibewhorntnt be post lrw'ise they will certainly tut be at op auvkrtisi.no fifty cent a he firsl irtsertis r/id twenty-fice rtitarefor each insertion afterrtmrda jisement will he inserted fur less ... e l.)i.lar events will be continued until onlers t„stop them where no directions a y iriven omenta by tbe year or six months will a dollar per month for each m**v ' ; e privilege of changing the form every p mmmmmmmmmmmummmm *** m * m * m * m * m * m m m^-^*mm m m wa writer on physiology are accustomed j jg . jle of j^xong light corf to enumerate the several distinctive differ | t a]moa j , that w ences which separate the organic from the b|dfk m wh)ch , g , q fact inorganic kingdom of nature 1 lir-se are j § hf , e vyhen wl „ directsyour generally speaking wel marked and suffi j qrm to m - miigdes of arm sflm . c.e.itly understood by almost every one al u|ated thati excued by your wx l contract though almost every one might not proba ■ afl , raige ar a(:cordingly . vvhen the by oe able to give . scientific re lat.on of .^ y rf ■ gide of them to dwell upon these therefore , rf con , raci , an(l would be foreign to my present purpose j heg - { mq eft gi(je . then he but there are a few cnaractenst.cs of organ ; eugide cmtrads and pii8 , ie8it int o ic matter of such vast and immediate un ; lh(j t()en t|je aof{o con r rflc/$and pusil . poitance to all that relates to the preserva : pg ft onwar , anj gq a „ thege c(mf lion of health that i must not omit to take j orw cou!d not , of course be executed if especial note of them r were nf)t for thfi t of contr acmity one of the few attributes i shall men » lhal is the 6£/ii to con/ract tion as peculiar to organized matter is now a , ( m l|ong of lhe differen t l eal , . . „ „ , , . , parts of the body without and within are death the dunnest of all duns.'-death performed by these contra ctions and by vir sole creditor whose process doth involve j tue 0 f t 3 contractility it is the main t spring of the watch — it is the chiej wheel the luck of finding every body solvent in the machine it is the principal beam has been so often personified sometimes | t | ie f , ain prop 0 f t |, e building by it we indeed as gather our food — bv it we eat — by it we a consummation devoutly to be wished swa llow it by it the stomach sends it on but fur more frequently as something horn to lne bowels from the bowels it is car ble—some gaunt gourmand who is by ne d to the heart by tl and by it having every means to be eschewed that we are become blood it is circulated through the apt to contemplate it as though it were a body for whose nouiiahment it is destined real entity a sort of raw head-and-bloody e very ume your walcn ta k st ,|, ey sa v there bones whose chief amusement consists in j j a ono human being horn and one human stopping folk's breath hot 1 need not tell b c j nj , perished in some part of the world you that this is mere rhetorical delusion or ot(ier . b jt ,| e human microcosm in one of the poet's fine frenzies death is i ( hat little insig.iificent world called man a sheer abstraction he mere cessation of every „ ine his watch licks there are millions life as the cessation of sound is c;.lh>d 0 [ molecules of the old body dissolved and silence as the cessation of motion is called carried away and their places supplied by rest so the cessation of life is called death as many miliums of new and all this mainly death therefore beiog only the abstract i depends upon this important property of of life it is manifest that things which lies coutiactiiity whenever therefore i use er lived can dever die lue term contractility you will know that i another condition peculiar and necessary mean the power hy virtue of which the to all matter intended to live is organism several parts ofthe body ate able to move the consummation result of organisation and perform those actions which are proper organism in the common sense is that state to them of existence in which the elements mnpa a third property distinguishing organ sino the germs of matter intended to live sed fruni inorganiseo malfer is mwiuilui are held together hy a property which may this is exceedingly slippery ground and he called vital affinity or the affinity of vi rendered still rnoie dangerous hy lhe dark talily a property which enables it to resist nt " s " * n which it is enveloped i shall the ordinary agencies of chemical affinities therefore baste off the ice as quickly as to which common matter is subjected a possible iest some invisible straw or olher seed is an instance in which a germ of should trip up my heels matter intended to live for a seed does not j irritatio says glisson.'est perceptio sed live il merely possesses vitality or the ap sensatio est perceptio percept ion is that is titude to live pies rves its integrity in vir irritation is perception but sensttion is the tue of the vital affinity and in defiance perception of a perception snd i not it of the common chemical agencies a tnel was slippery ground bit dr fletcher on seed a hundred years old will grow if speaking of this definition of glisson says planted in a proper soil lor either terseness r accuracy it cannot but the term organism is not only used perhaps be improved ' to me however i to indicate a peculiar condition of the eu confess has vtry much the appearance not mcufs of matter hut also a peculiar con.ii ol splitting a hur — that's but a trifle — but lion of masses ut natter here rt signifies °' splitting tbe erj gbost ol a ban which that state of existence in which masses of a n0 trifle lol.sttui d.fines sensibility as matter grow and preserve their integrity hy fscultatem slitntilimi percipumd that is vntne of a power which mav be said lo t e faculty of perceiving a stimulus you consist in the affinities of assimilation a probably know tha any thing which irri power withdrawing them from tbe influ utea or emeries any psrt oi the body to ae ence of common chemicle agencies until uoli a catn-d a stimulus i think lohstein they aball have acc mpl shed the final pause 1s r g t ' 1hi3 m beertj hy virtue of its of their organisation a power enabling contractility has the power of contracting them lo assimilate other natter their own blu ll ** hy virtue of its sensilility that it nature and suhstanccf perceives the proper nutrient for exerting another most important characteristic of **** power — the precise when to contract ; living matter is its co/if radi/ify thai is not viz mmsa u,e bl ° •«• stnnulat s it by its pres euce as it rushes into its cavities sensihtl ■ physiology is an exceeding improper term it thtiefore is that property ol otganiaed it i^s use by l he moderns to signify the science matter by which it becomes awaie of an of life animal physiology being us.d lor the unprt-ssing cause hy which it perctivei science which ileal „| he life uf annuals and w i c .„ , t , s actet ] „.„,„ llv a -^ vegetable physiology t.-iny appropna'ed to the am in the term \-'> ] yj*m life lit i im it wm 8s :) p inaiii^.iuteh to , h to an i ! h that^c h a the lau<sh if life a';d ilit'h term km h i.~h laws a life ls <| the "'■ en every i r h tl h a t.i'fb to tlanh ii th when ll h an exactly opposite re-h so muchh p r | stste the ° : l the u l things one be intliscriminate-h as the how the rea-h der to the the wii-h to him-h a:aih that loudly of iiidiscriau^aiea^b lbuse of w . j s poetry jjrile surgeon general of t he state of new york ., whv.tom he knows all things — an t m9 tmm the devil himself we may thank lll'i-v'dlagc ff'izard c of platidome !* to give thy due freedom an frede and fredoti too — q mitchell lord of granite flints doctcs in law — and wholesome dishes pr.nector of the patent splints oe of while — the friend of fishes ; m*mf — septon k phlogoboinhos m*\l shall we find to tit ye ? sprats and compost ! of militia ! hail thee ! mammoth of the state ! seam frigate ion the waves of physic — h^7]7raclicc or debate m in the nation or the phthisic of tartar dogs ! kvheat-llies and maggots that create bawl^il 1 ' naaiea ! and of mummy-chog ! ci onck-bats — lotteries and pomatum ! how low or high il is i'ivij know'st each luli and vale of g'sh iu forty-nine societies ! a lecturer in david's college — when thou diest — for life is brief try baas in all iis gathered glory 1 shine immortal as the leaf j/dtispluiue's repository croaker & co attract of the surgeon report pitblie service burning mflhtl i happy time lo get liwilier chance to show his learning : i l in consequence collected i and stew'd them in retorts ; m tion thus perfected f ijpes to shine — and so reports cessary to the production of living ac tions — that's the musicality or that par ticular mode of a fiddle's existence neces sary to the production of musical sounds viz perfect freedom from sand and tallow and all other musical impediments and is we have just seen that a fiddle may exist perfect in ail its parts and yet be wholly destitute of musicality and therefore per fectly unable to ulter sound so organised mailer may exist and yet for want of vitali ty be wholly unable to live i know a man i ho is the sole and undisputed proprietor ofa must fine and 3o.ri.bing wen situated on tiie back of his head it this wen were shaven off it would still for a time remain \ is searched authorities pn.jobo.on down to ash and shelly - that a miliua is — bbmmw he is about to tell ye ; mm — such citizens l*l»e in peace are kept campaigning j nt souls that shoulder guns ! a year go out a training perfectly organised — but it could no longer live why because il would have lost its vitality — ihat condition necessary to life — which in this instance depended upon its p'.tit being fix'd we must i think coe.es io with the man's head li would have lost its contractility and sensibility aitii again as organism may exist with out vitality so muy vitality without life seeds are an example ol this a gram of mustard seed does not live in it there is p.ir fed unto the second port — i mg—a kind of drink sir li by its action on the heart a wsmen so brave they ditto attack t i basiion at its augle salient ; ' ■ ■ a well established fact m very proverb says pot valiant neither motion nor fluid and it is utterly impossible for a moment to conceive the existence of life without both these b>it it possesses the aptitude — the ability to live — that is vitality and if you plant it in a proper soil it actually will live and become possessed both of fluid and motion a define it in a minute — |' a * e gin rum whiskey or peach bran ik dy ' bat little water in it • ls 6 ro g — now understand me : n to say that should the spirit i tft out by some careless dog — *"-' wish the world may hear it i ls flaia water and nol grog iheie nol alliance oui a een tbem ? and what are the assimilating ur nutrilivs processes or ac iio.is but those actions or changes wrought on lhe loud by wbicb us alliance lo the body is tirswn closer and closer until they beeome i itenucai r and so ii is correct to say ihat the proximate atoms uf organic germs are held toge liier by sate affinity tor this is nol equivalent lo saying ibe are brought together ny vital af titiity to say this w,ouij be to assign this at hitiiy as uie primary cause ot life ; whereas in tact tiie primary cause qf life is life itself : lor in ever ins a.u-e lb seed s ihe product ot a paitnl plaut tiie parent therefore must have att existence antecedent to the seed ; and the lite resulting iron ihe seed has tlierelore.ncces sarihj tor its cause the life uf which that need was ine product if yuu ask me tor the cause ot ihefirst life i answer your question by ano ther — what is the cause of gravitation ? — of j chemical adiruty ?— of matter 18 general ?— of ! creation tsell what but lhe ** causacausu ! mm of the heathen philosopher — the cause of all causes — the deitv himsefl this argu ment cannot be turned lhe other way j it cannot be sani that because the plant is always the pro duct ofa 6eed that therefore ihe seed must have a prior existence : for the seed is produced by the same economy in the plant which products the leaves flowers sjrc ; and to suppose that j ihe seed could exist before the plant is to sup pose ihat the leaves ana flowers could exist be 1 toie the plant besides in every created be ing whether animal or vegetable except man the production of seed appears to be the final cause of existence : and ihe eod cannot exist ■ before the means the ihing lo be achieved be ■ fore the means necessary to achieve it gruin of sand on the contrary possessing neither organism nor vitality will remain a grain of sand lor ever — plant it in what soil you please at least it can undergo no chang es hut such as are purely chemical or me chanical i precisely fix'u what grog is y reas'nitig sir that question settles h r i iiiu^t ascertain what prog is — w p ro < m vulixar phrase is victuals : w *** ersbrae all kinds of food i weh on the smoking board can charm l i gestion furnish blood ; st;;ual in an army ! as vitality is not life then so neither is it organism but merely a condition of the latter necessary to the existence of the for mer life then being neither organism nor vitality what is it life snys richerand consists in the ag gregate of those phenomena which mani fest themselves in succession for a limited i trust my dear john there are now be no permanent condition of matter except the clearly depicted on the canvass of your inorganic all organised matter was made scb mitid four distinct and well defined ideas »*« to the laws of fermentation and putrefaction .- _-? r.r,ir a r.»ilitv upnsi whose office it ia to destroy its organism and represent ng organism cont " c x j ensi bring it back to iu inorganic condition 8 but if his bility and stimuli and that you plainly hld 8n au thk wa9 § 0de lheobj6c u for which perceive their intimate connexion with ma(ler had heen organised could never have been each other and the necessary co-operation accoa piisbed ; for do sooner would matter have of all in order to produce the phenomena become organic than it would instantly have bs ofiife as to stimuli when you consider gun io be duorg^uixed again by virtue of ths the literal meaning of the word you will laws f fermentation and putrefaction ta which ll have no difficulty in understanding that j«^^^s"iv«iw^tt modified sense in which t is used in the j 1 *™? jjffi.y of exigence ia a perfect language oi science it means literally a j rf orgtn j bm , for a detsrminats period it long suck with a sharp poiut with which wm nec8m1 ry f therefore that there ahould be husbandmen were wont to goad their oxen anotne r contrivance in order to withdraw organ alon in times and countries where oxen lse d beings beyond the lnfloeoes of ths laws i of were used for agricultural purposes putrefaction and fermentation for a definite tune now these properties contractility and that is until the purpeset for which it bad ... 1 • _ . i oa been organised be accomplished the pbenom sensibility--these important property j ****** - number of upon which it is manifest life depends ( pheootaena sat op io order to with i and without a healthy condition ol mmm . lne phenomena of fermentation and patn [ which tiie health of the body can no more ; m , on for a limited period bot sines the pba i be preserved than the true motions of a n0 mena of life result from contractility and be < watch can be maintained with a broken or cause contractility can only reside in lull mmtrri ' otherwue injured mainspring the ptopw ty ia very rtctnt orgtaiwd matter it u m time in organised beings life says dr fletcher in one ofthe most erudite elegant and ingenius works ' that ever fell from the press — lifa consists in the sum ofthe characteristic actions of organised beings performed in virtue of a j specific susceptibility vitality acted on i by speci6c stimuli these two definitions i are peifectly consentaneous with each oth j er and to them i have nothing to add life j like death is not an entity lt is merely j an aggregation of effects to say what life j is is only to enumerate all the actions of | which a living being is capable — not only ] the visible actions as of the members but also the molecular actions as those invisible motions among the proximate molecules of the matter of which be is composed and by wbicb his nutrition is effected life is to organism contractility sensibility and ij j a p shall all be swallowed wsrm ' ***** digestiofl much facilitates ; i a tonic and d..es barn §.*** lw.y sir debilitates y*s.lhcp is lo raise as hut 4^p<>ss,b;e a corna of cook i v j 11 them daily from the last lt u0d8 of w y c °° ker >' b °^ ks '• '• ij^inio english aud likewise into croaker &. co t u e , nameof lhe dr country-seat fit island sound f i0 odh nime g ' ven by our learne w r l0 llie steam s h>p upon 8 launched during the laie war t it is perfectly coned to call the assimilating processes by the term of " affinities of assimila tion for what is affinity but an alliance or relation t and is there not a relation between the food and the body hieh it nourishes ia