Medical inquiries and observations / by Benjamin Rush ... ; four volumes in two. Vol. I.[-II.].

  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical inquiries and observations / by Benjamin Rush ... ; four volumes in two. Vol. I.[-II.]. 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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    them discharge their pure air only while they are exposed to it.* 3. Sound has an extensive influence upon human lite. Its numerous artificial and natural sources need not be mentioned. I shall only take notice, that the currents ot winds, the passage of insects through the air, and even the growth of vegetables, are all attended with an emission of sound; and although they become imperceptible from habit, yet there is reason to believe they all act upon the body, through the medium of the ears. The existence of these sounds is established by the reports of persons who have ascended two or three miles from the earth in a bal- loon. They tell us that the silence which prevails in those regions of the air is so new and complete, as to produce an awful solemnity in their minds. It is not necessary that these sounds should excite sensation or perception, in order to their exerting a degree of stimulus upon the body. There are a hundred impressions daily made upon it, which from habit are not followed by sensation. The stimulus of ali- ment upon the stomach, and of blood upon the heart and arteries, probably cease to be felt, only from the influence of habit. The exercise of walking, which was originally the result of a deliberate act of the will, is performed from habit without the least degree of consciousness. It is un- fortunate for this, and many other parts of physiology, that we forget what passed in our minds the first two or three years of our lives. Could we recollect the manner in which we acquired our first ideas, and the progress of our know- ledge with the evolution of our senses and faculties, it would relieve us from many difficulties and controversies upon this subject. Perhaps this forgetfulness by children, of the origin and progress of their knowledge, might be remedied by our attending more closely to the first effects of impressions, sensation, and perception upon them, as discovered by their little actions; all of which probably have a meaning, as determined as any of the actions of men or women. * Organization, sensation, spontaneous motion, and life, exist only at tlie surface of the earth, and in places exposed to light. We might affirm the flame of Prometheus's torch was the expression of a philosophical truth that did not escape the ancients. Without light, nature was lifeless, inanimate, and dead A benevolent God, by producing lite, has spread organization, sensation and thought over the surface of the earth.—Lavoisier.