Part 16

It may be said that GALEN expresses, in these passages, the Platonic dogma of an _anima mundi_. But they certainly agree with the sentiments of HIPPOCRATES; and whether he derived them from the former or the latter, matters not, as both of them have invested matter with certain qualities, which render it active, whether it be so essentially or by the act of the Creator. GALEN may be also regarded as partially an Epicurean; for he insists that there are several sorts of matter, or as we should say, several elements; but he differs from that sect again in affirming for it a passible quality. To show that there must be more than one element, or kind of matter, he says, that if there was only one element, or a unit, it would be impassible; it could undergo no change whatever. For there would be nothing by which it could be made to suffer any alteration, or into which it could be altered. Whatever is changed, is changed into something else, and whatever suffers, suffers from something extrinsic: therefore he affirms, that of necessity there must be several sorts of matter, or elements. He says, "there are only two theories on this subject deserving our attention; one of which affirms that sentient bodies are composed of elements possessing the faculty, (cum patiendi tum sentiendi,) both of suffering and perceiving an alteration;" while the other affirms that such bodies are formed (ex patibilibus, sed sensu expertibus) out of passible, but not sentient elements. Neither of these doctrines does he consider tenable, so long as only one element is affirmed, as earth, air, or fire alone, which could never become capable of that great variety of actions we witness in living bodies: but, admit several elements, and we suppose that the mutual interchange of powers would yield a compound body, capable of all the vital phenomena. Such, therefore, says he, as consider the human body to be composed of fire, air, earth, and water, mutually transmuted, alternated, and reduced to a given temperament, and thereby vested with a sentient faculty, speak reasonably; and it is evident that there must be more than one element, and that these elements are passible bodies.

PLATO had taught, that, though all bodies are formed of matter, yet matter itself is not a body; and the same idea is conveyed by ARISTOTLE, in the Lib. de partibus animal. & earum causis, II c.i. "Prima statui potest ea quæ ex primordiis conficitur, iis quæ nonnulli elementa appellant terram dico, aquam aërem & ignem: sed melius fortasse dici potest ex virtutibus confici elementorum, iisque non omnibus sed ut ante expositum est humiditus enim, & siccitas, & caliditas, and frigiditas, materia sunt corporum compositorum."

GALEN also states, that in fire there exists a perfect heat and dryness, in earth a perfect coldness and dryness, and so on of the rest of the elements. For you cannot expect to find in nature a perfectly simple and isolated element; because they are always mixed two or more together. Hence the real terram, aquam, aërem, and ignem, become rather a metaphysical abstraction, than a real entity. That is to say, matter has no real existence, but is mere quality; for earth is not the mere representation of dry or siccum; it is the representative of siccitas, or dryness: fire is not the eidolon of calidum, but of caliditas; water of humiditas, and air of frigiditas. Yet all these elements are in nature possessed of more than one property. Fire is hot and dry, earth is dry and cold, water is cold and moist, &c. If we refer, however, to his account of the soul, we perceive at once, that these inseparable qualities of the elements are the real active agents of life. He plainly declares, that the soul is the mere result of organization, and perishes with the structure in which it dwells. He thinks, "corporis temperiem censendum est." As to the active powers of the four primary qualities, he says, "At mihi quidem tam venæ, quam reliquarum particularum singulæ, ob certam quandam temperiem quam ex quatuor sunt qualitatibus nactæ, hoc vel illo modo videntur agere."--De nat. fac. I.

It is plain he thinks, that the elements consist of a materia and qualitas; but they are elemental by the _qualitas_ and not by the _materia_.

After establishing that there are four elements, which are the common and simple bases of all things, he goes on to show, that the proper proportion and admixture of these, constitute the healthy state of living bodies. If the calidum, for example, be unduly increased, the body is destroyed; if it be improperly diminished by excess of the frigidum, it will also perish. The business of the physician is to keep the proportions just and harmonious; but, as no pure element exists alone, the physician must employ the qualitas in conjunction with the materia. These (to make a phrase) substantive qualities, are found in medicines or food, which, like all objects of sense, are either cold, hot, dry, or moist, and available of course in the management of a cold, hot, dry, or moist derangement of the living body.

The elements of the human body exist in the four humours, blood, bile, atrabilis and pituita; and these four humours correspond in quality with the elements. Blood, which is the reservoir or continent of them all, is a temperate humour. Bile, being the representative of calidum, is hot and dry. Melancholy represents, in our microcosm, the element earth or siccum, and is dry and cold. But pituita, which is moist and cold, corresponds with the humidum element. Air exists in animals nearly pure, as we learn from the phenomena of the pulse and of respiration. It answers to frigidum.

He shows us in his lib. de naturalib. facultat. that, out of the humours, all the parts are formed, and these parts are either _similar_ or _dissimilar_; i. e. simple or compound. Bone is a similar part, that is, it is a simple part; so is an artery, or vein, or ligament. Each of these is so constituted, as that it has a predominance of one element in its nature; and it is therefore dry, or cold, or moist, &c. But if an adust element be, by accident or disease, accumulated in a part naturally cold, the function of such part is morbidly affected. The natural tendency, however, of similar humours to unite, causes each part to receive its regular supply; a principle which BICHAT has since characterized as, _contractilité organique insensible_.

To show the wonderful simplicity of the Galenical system, which for plainness and easy attainment may be compared with the improved nomenclature of chemistry, we will cite a passage from ARGENTERIUS, who, perhaps, was as learned in this kind of lore as any man of his time. In his Tractatio de calidi significationibus, he says; "If any body would undertake to give a general enumeration of those circumstances, in which this term calidum and the others (frigidum, humidum, &c.) are applicable to the explanation of this warmth, he shall find truly, that they are the elements, the humours, the parts, the whole body, medicines, food, air, climate, the weather, the season of the year, and even ages; for these all are either temperate, or hot, or cold, or humid, or dry."

The animal body is moved and governed by two principles; one of them corresponds to the _vie animale_ of BICHAT, and the other to the _vie organique_. Since the power of sensation and of voluntary or elective motion, says he, is a property of animals, and since that of growth and nutrition is common both to animals and plants; the former may be called attributes of the soul, and the latter attributes of nature. Whence we say, that animals are governed by the soul and by nature, while plants are governed by nature alone.

The powers of the body are faculties; and these are either natural, vital, or animal: but they are so subdivided, that we have as many faculties as there are sorts of action. Under the class of natural faculties, we find three principal sorts; to wit, a facultas generatrix, an auctrix, and a nutrix. But if you ask, says GALEN, how many faculties there be, which result from the action of these on each other, you will find them as numerous and diverse as there are numbers and diversities of the animal parts. For example, we have an attractrix faculty, a retentrix, alteratrix, expultrix, &c. &c., all of which are variously modified, according to the nature of the similar or dissimilar parts they are exercised in, or, in other words, according to the nature of the tissues or organs, in which they reside.

Need we go further to show, that GALEN, believing all matter essentially conjoined with the hypothetical caliditas, frigiditas, &c. &c., taught that it was gifted with such a degree of inherent activity, as to render it capable under certain states of combination, of exhibiting all the phenomena of organic and animal life? It is certain that he regarded these active qualities, as the causes of all the phenomena, whether of living or dead matter.--GLISSON ought not certainly then to be regarded as the author of this dogma in medical philosophy. PLATO certainly taught it. VAN HELMONT could not get along without investing matter with what he called a "seminal likeness, which is the more inward spiritual kernel of the seed," &c. But we will let him speak for himself. "Whatsoever," says V. H., "cometh into the world, must needs have the beginning of its motions, the stirrer up and inward director of generation. Therefore all things, however hard and thick they are, yet before that their soundness, they inclose in themselves an air, which representeth the inward future generation to the seed in this respect fruitful, and accompanies the thing generated, even to the end of the stage: which air, although it be in some things more plentiful, yet, in vegetables it is pressed together in the show of a juice, as also in metals it is thickened with a most thick homogeniety or sameliness of kind. Notwithstanding this gift hath happened to all things, which is called _archeus_, or chief workman, containing the fruitfulness of generations or seeds, as it were the internal efficient cause; I say that workman hath the likeness of the thing generated, unto the beginning whereof, he composeth the appointments of things to be done. But the chief workman consists of the _conjoining of the vital air_, as of the matter, with the seminal likeness, which is the more outward spiritual kernel, containing the fruitfulness of the seed; but the visible seed is only the husk of this. This image of the master workman, issuing out of the first shape or idea of its predecessor, or snatching the same to itself out of the cup or bosom of outward things, is not a certain dead image, but made famous by a full knowledge, and adorned with necessary powers of things to be done in its appointment; and so it is the first or chief instrument of life and feeling. But since every corporeal act is limited into a body, hence it comes to pass, that the archeus, the workman and governor of generations, doth clothe himself presently with a bodily clothing. For in things soulified, he walketh thorow all the dens and retiring places of his seed, and begins to transform the matter according to the perfect act of his own image; for here he placeth the heart, but there appointeth the brain, and he every where limiteth an unmoveable chief dweller, out of his whole monarchy, according to the bounds of requirance of the parts and appointments. At length that president remaineth the overseer and inward ruler of the bounds, even until death; but the other, floating about and being assigned to no member, keeps the oversight over the particular pilots of the members, being clear and never at rest or keeping holiday."

Notwithstanding the affected and euphuistic jargon of the above passages, it is evident that VAN HELMONT'S idea is very similar to that of GALEN. By seminal likeness, we are to understand an aptitude in matter to take on certain determinate forms, and this may be supposed to differ not very essentially from those laws, which govern matter in crystallization. But even this seminal likeness, as we perceive, is a sort of abstraction, very analogous to the Galenical caliditas; for it is the more inward spiritual kernel of the seed, whereby the matter is enabled to enjoy a certain degree of activity, the degree of which is much increased by the union of the air, or archeus, with it. So the caliditas of GALEN, which, after all, is matter, gives to its subject the powers which it enjoys. GLISSON, speaking of the natura seminalis, says that it is a certain or specific essence, superadded to mere elementary principles, by means of which mixt bodies adopt certain determinate forms, and acquire the faculty of performing essential operations, more noble than those which belong to naked elements.

We regret very much that we have been unable to procure a copy of GLISSON'S treatise de vita naturæ, which, so far as we know, can not be had in this country. We shall, therefore, furnish our readers with the following passage from the Biographie Medicale, from the pen of JOURDAIN.

"The name of GLISSON occupies an honourable place in the history of medicine, because to him we are indebted for the first elements of the physiological doctrine of the present day. Instead of directing his attention to movements alone, as the iatro-mathematicians, and even, to a certain extent, the animists had done, he referred to vitality all the phenomena of nature, of whatever kind, and attempted to reduce them to one, common principle. To this end he admitted, that matter is originally endued with forces inherent in it, and that living bodies in particular, are invested in their organs with a radical force, which, put in play by stimulants, whether internal or external, gives rise to all the phenomena of life. He even went so far as to assert, that sympathy may be explained by referring to the intercommunication of this force, to which he gave the name of irritability."

We shall also cite from SPRENGEL, a passage which throws some light on his theory.

"When they became unwilling, like DESCARTES and STAHL, to have constant recourse in their explanations, to the soul, they tried to find a philosophic proof of the existence of material forces, to show that matter, as mere matter, is endowed with particular forces, with which they might satisfactorily explain a great many of its phenomena. No one had hitherto sought for a similar proof; for ARISTOTLE had contented himself with an axiom, that all natural things contain in themselves the sufficient cause of their movement and rest. GLISSON and LEIBNITZ set themselves in search of this proof; but it was reserved for the immortal KANT to find it in the nature of matter itself.

"FRANCIS GLISSON may with propriety be considered as the precursor of LEIBNITZ. What he tried to demonstrate by scholastic subtlety, and by thousands of syllogisms, was developed by LEIBNITZ with a clearness and ability, which secured the suffrages, even of the unenlightened. Both of them went too far, in attributing life and sensation to matter, instead of claiming for it the two simple and primordial forces of attraction and repulsion.

"GLISSON sets out with the idea of substance, but he does not explain it with sufficient precision. Every substance has three substantial rudiments,--_fundamental_ substance, by means of which it exists,--_energetic_ substance, by means of which it acts,--and _additional_ substance, which determines its accidental qualities. All matter, as substance, must have an energetic substance or nature, which is the internal principle of movement. Therefore whatever moves spontaneously, and in virtue of an internal force, must _feel_ this motion, _and desire it_. All matter feels that it is, and that it exists by itself. It has therefore, consciousness of its own nature. Life consists in the activity of the internal substantial energetic nature. Death is the dissolution of the triple alliance of the internal energetic substantial nature, with the vegetative and animal natures, which two last belong to the _additional_ substance."[28]

In applying his theory to physiology, GLISSON'S idea is, that the fibres of the human body are endowed with a force, which he divides into three kinds; to wit, natural or inherent force, (robur insitum)--vital force, (robur vitale)--and animal force, (robur animale.)

Natural or inherent force, is a part of the constitution of the fibre, and is as much a property of its organization as are its tenacity, tensibility, &c. The sum of this force varies, in proportion as the constitution of the fibre is more or less perfect. It is strongest in athletic men and strong animals, and weaker in relaxed and debilitated persons. It may be compared with the contractilité de tissu of BICHAT.

The second, or vital force, is something superadded to the inherent sort. It is an _influxus_, derived to any fibre or set of fibres, from that greater sum of force, which arises out of a more elaborate, complex, and exalted organization. It varies in proportion as the vital spirits flow with more or less freedom; and in proportion as their quality is more or less perfect.

The third kind, or robur animale, may be supposed to depend on the organic constitution of the brain and nerves, and varies according to the state of that organization. We cannot help adverting to the resemblance between these two latter kinds, and the contractilité organique, and contractilité animale, of BICHAT; and this robur comprises, as we shall show hereafter, both the contractilité and sensibilité of the French physiologist.

GLISSON, in his chapter de Irritabilitate fibrarum, commences by remarking that a motive faculty existing in any fibre, unless it were of an irritable nature, would leave such fibre in one of the two following states: 1. It would either never cease from action, or 2ndly, being once at rest, its motion could never be reproduced; but the varieties and differences which we see in the actions of fibres, clearly demonstrate them to be possessed of irritability: i.e. if a fibre may be by turns in a state of action and repose, it is evidently possessed of a quality, whereby it can be induced to move if in a state of rest; this quality he terms irritable, or irritability. The next inference from this power of alternate activity and repose is, that the fibre is possessed of a faculty, whereby it can _perceive_ an irritation offered to it; but this perception of irritation further implies an _appetence_ for a change of its actual state, before the motion can really take place. Perception, appetence, and motion, make a triunit. "In the mean time, says he, as sensitive appetence, and sensibility, are frequently confounded with natural perception, in this irritation of the fibres," he divides it into three kinds, viz. Natural Perception, Sensitive Perception, and Perception regulated by animal appetency.

Natural Perception is that principle whereby a fibre perceiving any alteration offered to it, whether pleasing or displeasing, is excited either to accept that change, or to avoid it, and moves accordingly.

Sensitive Perception, is that kind, in which a fibre, perceiving a change effected in some other organ, is impelled ad aliquid appetendum, and to move conformably.

The third sort, or Perception regulated by animal appetency, is that in which the brain directs from within, such movements of the muscular fibres, as are requisite for the execution of any purpose.

"Some persons," says GLISSON, "may doubt whether there really exists a natural perception of irritation in the fibres; but we have elsewhere asserted in general the reality of natural perception, to wit, in my work, de Vita Naturæ; and whoever has known it, will readily admit this quality in fibres imbued with inherent, influent, and vital spirits. We do not expect, in this place, to establish it as a general principle; but if any proof, derived from a knowledge of the structure, uses, and actions of the fibres, can be adduced, it may be here attempted."

"It is indubitable that the fibres are alternately at rest and in motion; for, during sleep, they are all relaxed, with the exception of such as subserve the functions of respiration and circulation, and even these are by turns quiet and active. During waking again, they are all in a state of moderate tonic motion; and moreover, during all movements of the limbs, the antagonist muscles yield spontaneously, the abductors being active, while the adductors are relaxed, and vice versa. Hence it is manifest, that the fibres are alternately quiescent and active: but, since they are not _principal_ or sui arbitrii agents, it is necessary, in order to the new movement, that they should be irritated from some source: for, it is impossible that a fibre in repose, can be set in action without an irritating cause; nor can we conceive of a part being irritated without _perceiving_ the irritation. It is like speaking to a deaf man, or trying to awaken a dead one."

"If you say, fibres are possessed of sensibility, and can be excited by virtue thereof, I confess that they are sensible parts, and may thereby perceive some, not all irritating causes; but whether sensation excites them immediately, or rather, is transmitted to the brain, and irritates the animal appetency; and further, whether the animal appetence, effects a movement in them directly, and to what sort of perception this irritation may be properly and immediately ascribed, is detailed in order below, when we come to explain sensitive perception, and perception à phantasia imperata."

"Let us now go on to point out those cases, in which no suspicion of _sensation_ can be entertained. The pulsation of the heart is neither effected nor affected by sensation; its fibres, in virtue of the irritation occasioned by the blood in its ventricles, are excited to contract, and thus occasion the pulsation, but when the irritation is remitted they relax, and recover the natural state. Now it cannot be denied that this is an evident case of irritation of the fibres, for according as is the irritation, so is the rythm of the pulsation, which varies at times, as in febrile and other affections: nor is it right to pretend that there is any sensation in this case; because this perception of irritation _per vices_, is exercised as well during sleep, when the senses are all locked up, as in the waking condition. The fibres do not, therefore, _perceive_ in these actions by a sensitive, _but by a natural perception_, the irritation of the vital blood, which animates them to alternate contraction and relaxation. This is corroborated by those tumultuous irregular motions which continue in animals after decapitation; so also the intestines when still warm in a recently opened animal, move and twist about; the muscles in dead animals also, excited by the perception of cold, contract with a strong tonic movement, and render the body rigid. The hearts of some animals too, when torn out of the body, and even when dissected, continue their endeavours to pulsate. Is there any further evidence wanting? We may hence infer with sufficient confidence that the fibres (without the aid of the senses) may _perceive_ irritation, and move themselves conformably."

In the next place he examines the nature of sensitive perception of fibres, and goes on to show how an impression made on an external part, or a natural perception, becomes converted into sensation, and thus made known to the sensorium. But his disquisition is not only very long but very dark, and we shall therefore pass it by with the exception of the following.

"Natural perception includes within itself a _rationem positivam_, and a _negationem formalem_.