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    Nov. 15, 1851.] fffie iLtabtr. io9i

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    PROGRESS OF PHYSIOLOGY. Principles of Ph...

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    riMDHAMS KOSHUTll AND MAIiYAIl I.ANI). K...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Among The New Works Wo Hasten To Ann< J ...

    rlhe Duchesse de Maine , from Camille Despins to Madame Emile de Girardin . The necessity for limiting his articles to the exiencies of a newspaper has forced Saint Beuve to a concision both of style and exposition , which ^ eat improves his sketches ; and we know not which to admire most , the variety of his attainments or the skill of his pencil .

    While on this subject of announcements , we must not forget two new works by Heinrich Heine , a volume of poems under the title of Romanzers , and a prose work , Der Doktor Faust , which lie calls eine getanzle Tragodie ! Anything from the pen the " Dying Aristophanes , " as his friends christen him , must excite the curiosity of all German readers .

    Who has forgotten Jerome Paturot ? The author of that immense extravaganza is now publishing a similar one , Athanase Robichon , candidat perpHuel h la prhidence . The first part is very amusing , but it threatens to become wearisome before the close . Athanase Robichon is a patriotic Toymaker . He works for the glory of France . He wishes to place France above all Europe in respect of Toys . He defies Nuremberg : alone he sustains the

    combat for twenty years sustains it , often wounded , never beaten , and drawing fresh energy from the spectacle of his wounds . At last he succeeded in manufacturing a doll ; Europe adopts it ! Brilliant prospects are opening for France—her toys will become supreme ! This noble ambition , however , receives a new direction . He awakes one morning and finds himself one of the sovereign people . He

    is a sovereign ; and , as all may aspire to the Presidency , why not he ? What is to prevent him ? The duty of a President is to make the people happy ; he has all the requisites—je suis en fonds pour cela j on me verra a Vceuvre . Je Vinonderai de feiicites ce peuple , je Veti accablerai ! We cannot follow him in his course . Enough has been said to indicate the tone .

    Nov. 15, 1851.] Fffie Iltabtr. Io9i

    Nov 15 , 1851 . ] fffie iLtabtr . io 9 i

    Progress Of Physiology. Principles Of Ph...

    PROGRESS OF PHYSIOLOGY . Principles of Physiology , General and Comparative . By W . B . Carpenter , M . ' D . I'liiril Kdition . Churchill . The progress of the Science of Life , or Physiology as it is inaccurately called , rapid as it has been of late years , would have been still greater had the Method been more Scientific . Such progress as we have made has been mainly owing to an approach to this Method . Of late years we have learned how little can be done by direct observation and experiment , and how much may be done by comparison . Since we have turned our thoughts to Comparative Physiology—since we have undertaken to study Life in its less complex forms , we have become convinced that as Nature herself

    obviously proceeds from the simple to the complex , we shall best penetrate the secret processes she pursues if we study her from the simple to the complex , and commence our investigations of Life with the lowest of the organized forms , not with Man , the highest . This seems almost a truism when thus stated . The most casual inspection of physiological works will show , however , that this philosophical canon is followed but dimly when it is followed , and is mostly neglected altogether . Not only are Students introduced to Physiology , through what is called

    Human Physiology , — notonly dotliey , and professed physiolo gists confine themselves mainly to the study <> 1 Man , seeking merely illustrations in the broad field of comparative ; study—not only are they , therefore , called upon to investigate the most complex forms of life without previous knowledge of the simpler forms ( as if to begin Kuclid at the twelfth book !)—but when ( hey come to write treatises , either for Students or for advanced Inquirers , they construct theses works in complete disregard of the processional Method , seeming to imply that

    Me co mplex may rationally take precedence of the Minple . ICven Dr . Carpenter , who has devoted , « 'iiul successfull y devoted , ho much of bis time to ' comparative Physiology , and who knows as well as one \\ n > absolute necessity of that prelude t () Human Phy . siologv , when he composes a treatise on the latter subject , the canon we allude t () is entirel y disregarded ' by him . To our astonishme nt we find him commencing with the Nervous ' ^ yHtem- -that is to say , witlAho latest and most complox form of Animal life ! From thin ho

    descends to Digestion , Circulation , Nutrition , Secretion , and Reproduction . How unscientific this arrangement is will appear from the following considerations . Taking a broad survey of all its manifestations , we find that Life has two grand divisions—Vegetative and Animal ; or , to use Bichat ' s language , into Organic Life and Relative Life . We see Plants and Animals , —the latter feeding on . the former ; but we also see that the Animal itself is only distinguished from the Plant by the possession

    of certain faculties , over and above those of organic or vegetative life , viz ., the faculties of sensation and locomotion . Equally to the Animal as to the Plant are organs of nutrition and reproduction indispensable ; and Cuvier ' s notion of an animal being able to live for a moment by its Animal Life alone , betrays a profound misconception of the Problem of Life . As in nature it is the vegetables which supply Animals with food , so in Animals it is the vegetative life which supports the relative life .

    Physiologists have not sufficiently borne in . mind that although in Man the Animal Life has a predominance over the Vegetative Life , nevertheless it is only superposed on the vegetative , and can never for an instant be independent of it . Nature presents to us a marvellous procession from the Plant , which has only organic life , to the Zoophyte , which exhibits a commencement of animal life , up through animals to Man , with a

    gradual complexity of organism , and gradual enhancement of the animal life ; so that from simple processes of assimilation and reproduction our investigation rises to locomotion , sensation , intelligence , morality , and sociality ! The great change from inorganic to organic , that is to say , the first vital act , is assimilation ; add thereto the act of reproduction , and you have the whole life of a cell , the simplest of organisms .

    " A cell , " says Dr . Carpenter , "in Physiological language is a closed vesicle or minute bag , formed by a membrane in which no definite structure can be discerned , and having a cavity which may contain matter of variable consistence . Every such cell constitutes an entire organism in such simple plants as Red Snow or Gory Dew ; for although the patches of this kind of vegetation which attract notice are made up of vast aggregations of such cells , yet they have no dependence upon one another , and the actions of each are an exact repetition of those of the rest . " The cell in short

    is a plant : minute , yet individual , and its powers of reproduction { i . e ., of throwing oil ' cells similar to itself ) is so great that extensive tracts of snow are reddened quite suddenly by the I ' rotococcws nivalis ( Red Snow ) , "in such a cell , " continues Dr . Carpenter , " every organized Jubi i \ howcrcr com * plcx , originates . The vast tree , almost a forest in itself—the zoophyte , in which we discover the lowest indications of anitnality—and the feeling , thinking , intelligent man—each springs from a germ that differs in no obvious paiticular from the permanent condition of one of those lowly beings . "

    Is it not clear , then , that to understand Life we must ascend through its . simpler to its more complex manifestations , and that to begin our study with the more complex is to violate an obvious canon of Methodology ? The point is of great importance , and in introducing Dr . Carpenters work we felt bound to insist on it ; for many a student alarmed by the bulkiness of this volume and the magnitude of the study , will be apt to ask " Why should I bother myself with Comparative Physiology ?"

    To the student , to the philosopher , nay even to the " general reader , " this work of Dr . Carpenter ' s presents itself with urgent claims . As a survey of the laws of animated beings it must interest all except the most frivolous ; and although we have many and serious objections to some of the views here set forth , yet mindful of bis preface we will estimate his work by its merits , and not by its shortcomings . The Principles of Physiology , then , is a ponderous volume of J OKO closely printed pages , illustrated by : $ 'J 1 woodcuts , and estimated merely as a classified collection of facts it would demand a

    place in every ucientific library ; it is , however , much more than that , it is a comprehensive and luminous treatise , compensating by the multiplicity of its facta and the clearness of its exposition for the want of that philosophical power which alone can render such treatises permanent . To convey a notion of its value us a reflection of the present utate of the Science we need simply repeat what we find utated in the preface , that ol the 1080 pages which compose this third

    edition , not above 150 belong to the previous edition . It is in fact a new work , As editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review , Dr . Carpenter is necessarily well informed of all the discoveries which Continental inquirers are making , and in this respect alone his work will be a most valuable indication of the condition of each problem . : . The arrangement is philosophical—showing how when treating the whole subject he was naturally led to follow Nature ' s order . After the preliminaries on the general characters of organized structures , the nature and conditions of vital phenomena and the tissues , he describes the distinctive characteristics of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms . He next passes in review the details

    of the Vegetable Kingdom from the Cryptogamic to the Phanerogamic Plants ; this is followed by a similar survey of the Animal Kingdom from Zoophytes to Mammalia . A chapter on the general plan of organic structure and development concludes this portion . The second portion is devoted to special and comparative Physiology . He begins with Aliment , passes to Absorption in vegetables and animals , thence to circulation , thence to respiration , thence to exhalation of aqueous vapour , and to Nutrition and Secretion . The evolution of Light , Heat , and Electricity is then considered . Next we have Reproduction , which concludes the phenomena of vegetative life ; those of animal life , viz ., sensible motions , and the functions of the nervous system , being rightly left till the last .

    We are not insensible to the value of such writers as Dr . Carpenter : men in whom an inordinate appetite for facts has been developed somewhat at the expense of the philosophic power ; and it is not by way of diminishing our praise of his work that we note in passing a want of power . There is no such work in our language , so that were it tenfold less estimable we should feel bound to recommend it . Let the student draw his own conclusions—there are the facts in abundance , well grouped and well stated . If the reasonings do not always strike him as very cogent , let him pass on : it is not as a speculative book that it should be read ;

    yet even as a speculative book" he will find it quite equal to many of great reputation—the very variety of Dr . Carpenter ' s studies having guarded him against the narrow views resulting from the absurd " division of labour" carried on in science . We are stating in general terms our deliberate opinion . This is not the place for a detailed examination of the opinions Dr . Carpenter sets forth . We thank him for his work ; the public also has reason to thank him . In the face of so much that is excellent it would be worse than churlish to fasten on defective details . What book , as Martial says , is without its good , bad , and mediocre parts ? " Suntboiiii , siuit quyediim mediocria , « unt mil ; i plura , Qua ; lc gis : all tor nou lit , Avite , liber !"

    Rimdhams Koshutll And Maiiyail I.Ani). K...

    riMDHAMS KOSHUTll AND MAIiYAIl I . ANI ) . Kossut / i mul Altixyttr , Land <> r , 1 ' ersimul s / tlreitturrs during the . If ' ar in llmr'nry . It y Cli . u l « n I'ridh . im , Kr-q , IS . A ., "l . tto concspoiKlonl . ol Ihc Timrs in Hungary . Madden . T iik reader of this book will be somewhat puzzled when he considers the two striking facts it presents of Mr . Pridham ' s enthusiasm for Kossuth , and his position as " Times correspondent . " Did the rimes , when it sent out a gentleman of such decidedly anti-Austrian views , intend to favour Kossuth ? We cannot imagine that journal employing Mr . Pridham in ignorance of his opinions ; did it wish to have correspondents of both colours , in order to be ready to side with the victor , as it usually does ? 15 e that as it may , Mr . 1 ' ridhain is in no sense to

    be understood as taking the Times view of the Hungarian struggle , and that makes it more provoking to find nothing really about Kossuth 01 the Hungarians in this hook . He deserves a severe reprimand for tmch a misleading , catchpenny title ; but severer than any reprimand will be the effect produced upon the render , who , disappointed at not finding what was promised , will fail to appreciate what really is amusing in the book . Had Mr . Pridham contented himself with the title of " Personal Adventures , " lie would haye gained a pleased audience ; but be has made a false step at the outset , and must bear the weight of a frustrated reader ' s indignation .

    " For the fastidious reader , " Mr . Pndhaui says , " who demands and i . s satisfied only with tho supreinest elegance of diction , this little book neither was , nor could be written . " We are satisfied with something Iiikh than the " supreinest elcgiuice of diction , " but yet , without being over-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1851, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15111851/page/15/