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of a distinct tissue . But there reigns extreme confusion and difference with regard to the general properties of vegetative life . " The two capital functions of Vegetative Life are those which , in their constant connexion and antagonism , correspond with the definition of Life itself : 1 st . Absorption , internally , of those materials drawn from the surrounding m edium , which , after their gradual assimilation , result in what we call nutrition or growth . 2 nd . The exhalation , externally , of those molecules which are not assimilated , or are produced by disassimilation in the waste of tissues . Nd other fundamental notion enters the idea of Life , if we separate from it , as we ought , all ideas relative to animal life , which , as a more special modification , cannot , affect the general problem .
" In no organism can the assimilable materials be directly incorporated , neither at the place of absorption nor under their primitive form ; their assimilation requires a certain displacement , and a preparation accomplished during the passage . It is the same , inversely , with exhalation , which presupposes that the particles become useless to a certain portion of the organism , are finally exhaled from another portion , after having undergone , in the passage , certain indispensable modifications . In this respect , as in so many others , it seems to me that great exaggeration has been made of
the distinction between the animal and vegetable organism , the more especially when it has been attempted to make digestion an essential character of animality . For , in forming the most general notion of digestion , which must extend to all preparation of aliments indispensable to their assimilation , it is quite clear that this preparation exists in the vegetable as well as in the animal , although less profound and varied , in consequence of the simplification of the aliments and of the organism . The same remark applies to the movement of the fluids . "
To these two functions of absorption and exhalation , ( between which we must necessarily interpose assimilation , as the result of absorption , ) we must add a third , which , issuing out of Assimilation , presents three great aspects : Growth , Generation , Death ; all dependent upon cell-multiplication , and varying according to a law I hope some day to demonstrate , with the aid of my friend Herbert Spencer ' s discovery , succinctly expressed by him in the formula , individuation is antagonistic to reproduction . * In passing from the study of the functions of Organic Life to the more complex phenomena of results , we enter a new , a more difficult field ; and one in which the present state of the science is necessarily less perfect .
For to take the most immediate result , that , namely , which consists in the state of simultaneous and continuous composition and decomposition , characteristic of Vegetative Life , how can it be thoroughly analyzed , while assimilation on the one hand , and the secretions on the other , are so imperfectly studied ? Or , passing to the question of animal heat , which may be considered as a second result of the spontaneous action of bodies to maintain , within certain limits , their necessary temperature , in spite of the thermometric variations of the ambient medium;—this , also , has to be correctly analyzed . Considered under their moat gcnoral aspect , the
production and preservation of animal heat result from the ensemble of the physico-chemical acts which characterize organic life ; so that every living body presents a real chemical laboratory , capable of spontaneously maintaining its temperature , as a consequence of the phenomena of composition and decomposition , without regard to external temperature . And what is said of Heat applies equally to Electricity : the undoubted presence and participation of which in the organism , has led to so many chimerical hypotheses on the supposed identity of electricity with the Vital Force , with nervous action , &e . From the study of Organic Lift ; , we pass to that more complex and special class of phenomena called Relative or Animal Life . And in conformity with the philosophic rules already laid down , our first object must be to ascertain what are its fundamental and distinctive phenomena : they are locomotion and sensation , dependent upon two fundamental properties , contractility and sensibility , belonging to two peculiar tissues , the muscular and the nervous . In those few words the whole subject is resumed . The positive biologist recognises in contractility and sensibility two special and distinctive properties , which must 'be accepted—at any rate provisionallyas ultimate facts , no more admitting of question or of explanation , than the ultimate facts of gravity , heat , &e . The value of this distinction I cannot hope will be appreciated without some further elucidation ; and its capital importance induces me to dwell on it awhile . Comte remarks—and the remark is immensely significant—that the discovery of gravitation , the first great acquisition of positive Physics , was contemporaneous with the discovery of the circulation of the blood—the first fact which rendered positive lliology possible ; and yet what immense inequality in tin ; progress of the two sciences since ; that day when the starting point of both was reached ! Nor is this inequality solely and directly owing to the greater complexity of Uiology ; but also to tin ; philosophic Method which presided over the evolution of Physics ,-compared with the vague metaphysical Method which has not yet ceased in Itiology—a consequence , let me add , of that very complexity . No one inquires into the nature of gravitation , or into itx cause ; to detect its law is deemed sufficient ; but physiologist ' s are incessantly . inquiring into the nature and cause of contractility and sensibility , unable as they are to conceive these phenomena as two ultimate facts—properties of two special tissues . The only distinction to be drawn between these vital properties and the general
A certain vague sense of the vanity of these attempts to explain the phenomena of sensation has caused an indignant reaction on the part of the metaphysicians , and oy enlisting the prejudices of the majority against what is styled Materialism , has very seriously obstructed the tranquil path of inquiry . Every one feels an intense conviction that sensation and thought are not electricity , are not mere vibrations , are not " secreted by the brain as bile is secreted by the liver . " He knows that sensation is unlike all other things . He needs no revelation of Science to tell him that it is different from electricity ; and intimately persuaded of its speciality , he lends a willing ear to any harmoniously-worded -explanation offered by the metaphysician as to its being an " immaterial principle , " an " o ' er-informing spirit / ' a mysterious something which , whatever it may be ,
physical properties is , they are more special j but this specialit y does not make them more explicable , for it is always in exact harmony with the corresponding speciality of the structure : it is only muscular tissue that presents the phenomenon of contractility ( or , more rigorously stated , it is only Fibrine ); it is only nervous tissue that presents the phenomenon of sensibility . All those physical and chemical hypotheses that have been invented to explain contractility and sensibility , have been as unp hilosophic as the ancient efforts to explain gravitation and chemical affinity . For , as Comte truly says , after all they only represent vaguely the mechanical transmission of impressions produced on the nervous extremities , but do not in any degree explain perception , which thus remains evidentl y untouched , although it is really the most essential element of sensation .
is assuredly not " blind unconscious matter . I confess that I have always had great scorn for what is called " Materialism" equal , indeed , to that I felt for " Immaterialism "; ami I have often called the quarrel a frivolous and Vexatious dispute about words . But it was more than that . Though men squabbled about words , there were fundamental ideas working under them antagonistically ; and , on the whole , I think the metaphysicians had more reason on their side than we on the other gave them credit for . Absurd as their " immaterial principle superadded to the brain" must be pronounced , it had this merit , that it kept the distinctive speciality of the phenomena of sensation in view , and preserved it from the unscientific coarse hypotheses of some materialists .
That " blind unconscious matter" could not think , was held as a victorious argument , in spite of the assumption implied in the epithets ( for the aphorism amounted to this , —blind matter cannot see , unconscious matter cannot be conscious . ) To any one who looks steadily at the question , however , it may be shown that , as a matter of fact , the nervous tissue , and that only , being sensitive , the biological proposition simply is , that " sensitive matter can be sensitive . " To claim for this tissue any
superadded entity named Thought , is to desert the plain path of observation for capricious conjecture . Why not call Strength an immaterial principle superadded to muscular tissue , if you are to call Thought one ? The muscular action , and the nervous action , are two special phenomena belonging to special tissues . Science can tell you no more . If your mind is dissatisfied therewith , and demands more recondite explanation , invent one to please yourself , and then invent one for heat , for attraction , for every phenomenon you conceive ; the field is open ; imagination has widesweeping wings ; but do not palm off on us your imagination as science ! h
What the metaphysician says in respect of the essential speciality of te phenomena of thought and sensation—their complete distinction from other physical phenomena—is therefore to be admitted as true . He builds on this basis an absurd superstructure ; but the basis we cannot destroy . On . the other hand , what the physiologist says respecting the identity of thought and nervous action is equally indestructible . That is his basis . Combine the two school ! into one , and you have the Positive Philosopher who says , " Sensibility is an ultimate fact , not explicable , not to be assigned to a knowablc cause , but to be recognised as the property of a special
tissue—the nervous . " As far as the religious application of this scientific conception is concerned , Locke long ago pointed out how it was as easy to conceive God endowing matter with thought as spirit with thought . All that the metaphysicians claim is the speciality of the phenomena of thoug ht—their difference from the phenomena of inorganic matter—and this the positive biologist claims also . ^ — - "^ ~~~—" \
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AMID THE EETtNS . Umkukon somewhere notices the noothing ofl'uct of Nature upon man . nfl he iHHiicH from the turn nil , and cares of life , and sees her prooesflOH goinf , on ho quietly ; sh <; seemH to Hay to him , " Wh y ho hot , little Sir " Lying aui ' id Uio ferns , half inrevorie , and half in philosophic ob servation , that Hentencc wbh recalled to me . Wo were two errant p hilosophy rambling , in Rcnrch of health and ponce . 11 did not appear to mo that i theatres , with vert / legitimate netoi-H , or the openm with the thorinonu , ^ at Hiich altitude , wen ? likely to give me peace ; ho I quitted London , - companied l > y a friend , and buried inyHelf in the Hylvan Bolitudon Windsor . 1 allude to thin for the sake of urging the unhappy ««* " •'' forced to summer in London , to follow our example , and Hnatch a Hatim y > Sunday , and Monday , ( more if ho can , Jobs if li <» « an't ) in a wine , p lonHan . and healthful walk . There in no such going to church ns this 1 ¦» Cathedral of Jmmenwity , your iace towards the sky , your body lassuy
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* ttw Iuh Thtori ) of J ' ojmfation , an ohniiv reprinted from I ho H ' l'stmintitcr Jloviexv , Rivinur tlio outUno of an oluboruto work upon ' wl"t- U J'o luitf long boon onimmxl .
Clie M\S.
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[ that 762 THE LEADER . Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1852, page 762, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1946/page/22/
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