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POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY.*
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, The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 12 , I 860 . — tnat
——— ' ~ tWrtv-three millions of individuals bound hand and foot under the I g sSSSSffi&SZM mmmmmmm \ wSVa ? only the nftural result of fifty years' unceasing political Srttffc 5 k- « S = 2 . 3 s ? agS 2 inions to reap the full harvest of the present , and he has certainly " B ^ nowfjSSofp ' ubSorietythat the position assumed hy « Jl 2 ^ & * ol te d « r ^ inF ™ cB . d » oel 8 « , h » Wn «^« ry ^ fc SS ^ PTS U ^ n ^ Tpf IS = ^| . onlv eufdingSar , their only consistency . With such examples as M Veu " lot Dom Gueranger , and the Abbe Gaume before her eyes , fo wonder that Daniel Stern should describe the Church as possess-? ne nierely " une sagesse de mots , " and as ruling " non assurement sur reS ot ^ le ccfur de la society Francaise , mais ses hdf »*»• We Kit quote many more passages proving how truthfully the anthore ™ the " Esquisses Morales " has described her own coun-Sy ^ I heV own timeout the subject is fa * P ^ ™ £ Xf and concluding bv a few extracts more universal m their apphcatwn , and tSbre more likely to arrest the notice of dispassionate readers . Saint EvreSd about two hundred years ago , wrote an essay under the sinS- title '' Que la De ' votion est le dernier des Amours ; ¦ v iffSss ^ OT s ^ no ?« ux £ Ji ^ - Wessant ? de vous donnerun conseil inutile , et de ^ vous emprunter votre *® 1 SSKESe own , positively , astonished and grieved " had we discovered , before perusing the " Esquisses Morales that Darnel Stern was not somewhat of a pessimist . The sourness and haSty sneer of the man who finds fault with everything because his own assertion of superiority is disregarded are quite repugnant to our taste ; but we have still less ^ sympathy for him who takes matters easy , " exclaims " Apres moi le d > luge ! On the part of the former there exists yet , at a 1 events , a ^ shnct though erroneous acknowledgment of merit ; whilst , according to the notions of the latter , the world offers nothing but a dead level o selfishness , ^ yi ^ nimS readers Daniel Stern ' s " Esquisses Morales . The volume , too , has been " got up" by M . Techener in a very attractive manner , and the portrait prefixed to this third edition is one of its most pleasant characteristics . , "
MR LEWES'S " Physiology of Common Life , ' after coming before the public in separate parts , is now issued m two wellprinted volumes , which will have the effect of exciting a good deal Sf thought on physiological subjects , although itis doubtful whether those who are most competent to discover its merits and defectswiU devote their attention to it . Popular in form and style , it differs materially from most pxiblications addressed to general readers , by the profuse introduction of polemical topics . The student of pliysioloffy would require a much more elaborate treatise to place him in possession of the arguments on both sides , or on all aides , of the recondite subjects that are cursorily discussed , and the man ol liberal education , desirous of obtaining a clear insight into the Kround-work of the subject , will find himself bewildered by doubts fie cannot resolve . From these remarks it will be seen that , while we are ready to concede to Mr . Lewes the credit that he deserves for writing in on entertaining and stimulating way upon subjects about which he has collected a great deal of information , we cannot altogether praise the conception of his book—if , indeed , he formed any distinct plan before he wrote it—or the execution of it , if it has been produced according to the impulse of the moment . Abe work besrins with a dissertation on hunger and thirst , which soon conducts the reader into the thick of the theories -put forward by LiBBiOt And ptbers on the nature and classification of food . Mr . Lswes very properly objects to the tendency of Libbig ' s speculations to overlook the speciality © f physiology , and to attempt to explain vital phenomena by the simple action of chemical laws , Mr . Lewes , however , goes too far . in opposition to the great German chemist , when he undervalues his division of alimentary substance ^ into nitrogenous , or plastic , and hydrogenous , or respiratory . It is qmte true that no simple formula that we can ut present arrive at , will explain the whole group of actions and effects which we have to study when we direct our attention to all that concerns nutrition , Tho Physiology of Common Life . By GHonan Hbitoy LKWB 8 . Black - wood .
. in * if was a areat advance to obtain a classification of iood v ^ n fir tb SngSst them according to the effects they we * mP etent to produce . No clear ideas could be obtained ^ by calling near and beef " nutritious , " without in- any way indicating the er ^ es they were capable of rendering to the *^*^* £ & * s a decided ' gain bottfto pure science and the practical ^ art , of feeding iifferent creatures—the human creature included—when we nave arrived aUhe conclusion that the muscle-producing power of food is aistnctly related to its nitrogenous character , although die . mere : pre-Knee of nitrogen does not indicate the fitness of a substance to become food , nor , taken alone , afford an absolute measure of its ^ M ^ Lew ^ s has done good service in constantly keeping in view fch , £ mpE 3 ? y ofvital phenomena , an idea not necessarily assocxat ! d with obscurity , and which is essential to the formation of a sound hypothesis , and the avoidance of that delusive « iypli « Jfr which wars to explain what has never been rightly appvehended . He also scatters many delusions that have become popular t rough the misconceptions of scientific men , as when he shows that lire does not suppress chemical or other laws , but offers such combinations as givVa direction to tlie various forces compatible with the functions that a living organism has to perform . ^{ Won Having left the food question in perhaps rather more conUision than was ^ necessary , Mr . Lewes treats learnedly of the Wood the circulation , the movements of the heart and the P ^ cesso f ^ pna tion ; after which , he passes to feeling , thinking , and othei funotiou of the nervous system , maintaining all through a ceasekss sg . ite with ordinarily received teachers and their views . He differs entirely from those physiologists who follow Bell , Mabshj ^ H ^ and others , in distinguishing between neryes of sensai ^ on a ^ nerves of motion , and decries the whole doctrine of reflex actions To sustain the theory which he has e * V ™ \* ° ™ £ a ™ n ' that unless ari impression-on the sensory nerves exctes a ' Benmtion in the centre , no motion whatever takes place . Such an . argument turns very much upon the meaning of *»« Z'llS ^ S ' an ^ the explanations Mr . Lewes offers are far from cleat ^ J ± e thinks it remarkable that physiologists should ascribe sensibility to Ses , and then reject what he calls the inevitable . consequence , tnat all nervous centres in action , give rise to sensation ^ nd ^ ttn « furnish elements to the general consciousness ; 4 Jf /^ . f ' he says , " difficulty in admitting that contraction is the active state of contractility in a muscle , but that sonutioit 8 ^ W ] £ active state of sensibility in a nerve centre does not seem to them so clear . " This language is metaphysicul and confusing ; the Avoid contraction expressed a fact that the parts of a certam ™^«* have approached closer together , and no dear ti ^ V * ^ Jracf describing it as the " active state of the ability to contiaot , ( contractriity ) . We might as well call it the active state of the contSttrrir 5 ic « pto / nna Bo follow the school which Mr . Lewes condemns . In the second instance , the words ^ ensation and sensibil ty would not be used in the collocation Mr . Lewes supposes by anybody who did not adopt hw-view , nor would they by cleai writers be used at all in the position in which he places t . ; em We shall soon see the object of this method of state . nent ;> b « t must first n t . ip . ml to the meanin g attached to " consciousness . Mi .-bBTras says " to have sensation and to be conscious of se ™^^* ™ l and the same thing . To have a sensation and to *»«» ' ^ JJ have it , are two things , not one thing . Knowledge cannot exist without consciousness , but consciousness may and often does exist without knowledge / ' Not seeing that he is committing the very fault himself M ? . Lewes continues : " Insensibly writers are led in ? o tl e glar ng contradictions of unfelt feelings and unconscious consciousness . For example , the chest expands and contracts in reSaUoi ' and if we attend to it a peculiar sensation is perceived accompanying the process ; but if attention be ; l ~ >~ J ~*^? the sensation is not perceived . Now we know , that in both cases a sensory stimulus , playing on the respiratory centre , was reflected as a motor impiilse on the muscles , and we are , therefore , forced to adopt one of two alternative *—either the sensation was evoked m both cases , although perceived only in the first j or attention is itsolf the creator of tho sensation . " Surely there is here some confusion of thought . A sensation which is not felt is no sensation at all . If the mind cannot " perceive" the sensation , wliat prooMs there of its existence , or rather how . can it exist at all / vve should not have chosen tho word perceive , but it is clear m what . Bcnse it is used by Todd and Bowman , from whom Mr . Lewes derived it . Mr . J . S . Mil * says , " a feeling nnd a state ot consciousness are , in the language of philosophy , equivalent expressions ; everything is a feeling of which the mind is conscious . Mr . Lewes appears to imagine a kind of sensation which is not felt , and of which the mind is not conscious . His alternative is logically vicious . What he calls " attention" may bo necessary to the existence of i \ sensation without being the creator ot it . lo bite boef with teeth , it is necessary that there should bo teeth , but wo do not think that Mr . Lewes , in snpport ... of .,. l » w , tft . yp ™ . hypbthesis , would , therefore , assume the teeth to be the creutors of too beef . Attention is a voluntary directing of the mind or of an organ to a particular object . By this process we can feel an impression too small to be felt when it is allowed to be overwhelmed by stronger impressions ; or we may , ' within certain limits , become insensible to one or more ranges of sensation , by concentrating ;; our power ot consciousness in another direction . Some impressions are , however , too strong to permit our ignoring theinr nnd wo' are not obliged to direct any attention to our finger to know that it is burnt by lire . Unless disease has disturbed tho ordinary action of our nervous system we cannot fail to bo Impressed with the sensation aucii an
Popular Physiology.*
POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2347/page/14/
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