Defence of the doctrine of vital affinity / by William Pulteney Alison.

  • Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Defence of the doctrine of vital affinity / by William Pulteney Alison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    XXIV. — Defence of the Doctrine of Vital Affinity. By William Pulteney Alison, M.D., &c. &c., Professor of the Practice of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. (Read 15th March 1852.) Having expressed a decided opinion that there are, in all living bodies, che- mical as well as mechanical phenomena, which, in the present state of our knowledge, ought to be designated as Vital, and referred to the operation of laws, distinct from those that regulate the chemical changes of inanimate matter, and observing that this opinion is controverted, and that the view of the chemical phenomena of life which I have maintained, is rejected as unphilosophical and delusive by two authors of high scientific reputation—Baron Humboldt and Dr Daubeny,—and that the judgment of other authors of acknowledged character on this subject is not clearly expressed, and seems to me to involve it in unneces- sary obscurity, I am led to hope that some farther explanations may be of some use in establishing the first principles of a Science which, as it appears to me, has suffered, in several instances, not so much from want of facts, as from hypo- thetical and erroneous inferences, drawn from facts that are already known. When I first undertook, above thirty years ago, to deliver lectures on Phy- siology, I ventured to express an opinion, that “ a discovery would be made, connecting the ingesta into the animal body with the nourishment of the different textures, and with the nature of the different excretions, equally important as illustrating the obscure chemical phenomena of the living body, and the intention of the different secretions, as the discovery of the circulation of the blood was, in illustrating the movements going on in its interior, and the use of the organs con- cerned in effecting them.” It did not occur to me, nor do I know that any one had then conjectured, that these chemical phenomena, like the movements of the animal fluids, partook of the nature and formed part of a circulation, but of one of such extent and complexity, that the atmosphere, the soil, and the vegetable kingdom, furnish the other great links in the circuit, and that all the elements of the ancients, fire, air, earth, and water, are literally and essentially concerned as agents in maintaining it. It appears, however, from the following passage in one of the earlier writings of Sir Humphry Davy, that he was aware of, and had duly reflected on, the most VOL. xx. part III. 5 M