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    notice ) . The third chapter details the opinions of those who , since the revival . of learning" in Europe , have treated of the causes of organization , and ascribed the principal phenomena of life to -organic structure . These comprise -the distinguished names of Paracelsus , Fray , Darwin , Leibnitz , Priestley , Haller , Buffon , Needham ,

    JVkupertuis , Robmet , Blumenbach , Gas-^ endi , Cuvier , Lawrence , Cabanis , Des Cartes , &c . The 4 th chapter particularizes the opinions of those who suppose a living internal principle distinct from , the body , and likewise the cause of organization ; comprehending the celebrated names of Harvey , Willis , Hunter , Abernethy , Deleure ^ ind Grew .

    To enter into any separate examination of these various theories is impossible : they compose a Babel of hypotheses ; and , as Dr . Barclay remarks in his summary view , all physiological writers , both ancient and modern , seem to be agreed , that the causes of life and organization are utterly invisible , whether they pass under the

    name of animating principles , vital principles , indivisible atoms , spermatic powers , organic particles , organic germs , formative appetencies , formative propensities , formative forces , formative minuses , pre-existing monads , semina rerum , plastic natures , occult qualities , or certain unknown chemical affinities !

    The theological part of this controversy , as connected with our own country , forms no part of the present review ; and , indeed , a most impartial history of it has been compiled by

    Archdeacon Blackburne , in his " Historical View of the Controversy concerning an Intermediate State , and the Separate Existence of the Soul : 2 nd ed ., 1772 . "

    We pass over altogether the many absurd theories which might amuse our readers , though not instruct them ; and which have abounded in the last century , from the opinions of Bishop Berkley to animal magnetism , inclusive , and not forgetting the hypothesis of the celebrated modern French

    chemist , Delamctherie , who affirms that the Deity is nothing more than a crystallization ! Bishop B . pretended to disbelieve the evidence of his senses , and to doubt the existence of matter : he contended , that sensible , material

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    -objects , as tbey < afre called , are not ex ternal to the mind , but exist in it , aad are nothing more than impressions or shadows inade upon it by the imme « diate act of the Deity . To re ason with any of these visionists would be to fall to a level with them in

    absurdity . The pens and ink with which they wrote their paradoxes , were their refutation - r as the works of those ultraorthodox which contend against the use of reason in matters of religion by their very arguing disprove the position . We shall confine ourselves

    therefore , to the question at issue , as relating to the principle of vitality in man considered as matter and a body . And , to arrive at a simple definition , we shall borrow the definitions of an author whose work , though on a

    department of Natural History of confined interest , we have lately read with great admiration of his power of abstract reasoning , and of the truly philosophical liberality with which , though an Immaterialist , he states the arguments of Materialism . *

    " Particles of matter when collected together in a mass of any degree of size or compactness form a body . An organic body is a mass of matter of which the component molecules are or have been in motion on being collected together by intussusception . Such a body is said to

    live or to have lived . By the terra Hft we would express that faculty which cer ^ tain combinations of material particles possess , of existing for a certain time under a determinate form , and of

    drawing while in this state into their composition , and assimilating to their own nature , a part of the substances which may surround them , and of restoring the same again under various forms . "

    Mr . Macleay goes on to observe : " How this faculty is acquired , what is its immediate cause , or , in other words , whether there may not be several mediate causes betweeu it and the Primary Cause , are questions to the solution of

    which we are totally incompetent . It s to the organic body what the expansion of steel is to a watch , or that of steam is to the engine ; but if we ask what is expansion ? what is life ? we can get no answer but a recital of their effects . "

    We have thus borrowed this clear description of mail as the most con-* Horae Entomological : or , Essays on the Anoulose Animals ; by W . S . Macleay , Esq ., A , JM . k \ L . SL

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    173 Jleview + ~~ Receftt <} imtr < mer ^ y wn Mii 4 erialitm .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/46/