On the principles and ends of philosophy

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Preface

NOTWITHSTANDING the boasted assertions which are generally made, of the high degree of perfection which in these latter days the different branches of philosophy are supposed to have attained; it will, I fear, upon a fair enquiry be found, that we continue in the very infancy of our knowledge: that, with the exception of mathematical truths, and of those arts which are founded on mathematical principles, there subsists scarcely one subject either of physics, of metaphysics, or of physiology, the science of which is clearly understood, as to the truth of which an uniformity of opinion subsists. The essential attributes which different bodies possess, and the first and most simple elements of which they are composed, and the definitions by which those elements are characterized, continue to natural

philosophers philosophers points of constant controversy and disputation.

If we extend our views from the primary and essential, to the secondary and accidental qualities of matter, to the last and most trifling branch of natural philosophy, to which the province of chemistry more especially belongs ; we shall find that although chemistry has occupied the thoughts of, and been pursued with zeal the most ardent by a great number of learned and enlightened men in every part of Europe, that we notwithstanding continue completely ignorant of the principles on which chemistry, as a science, is founded.

Without previous design, or by mere chance, as it may be called, we have, it is true, discovered, that when different substances, such as acids and alcalies, for example, are brought in contact, that an union between them takes place ; we are by experience taught, that different bodies have a stronger disposition to unite together, to the exclusion of others with which they may have

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been combined; of the cause why these separations are produced and new combinations formed— on what principle the doctrine of elective attraction, or chemical affinity is founded, we are totally ignorant.

By the Researches of Professor Davy, in the art of chemistry, a multitude of opinions, which by chemists had been received as fundamental truths, have been overturned and exposed: he has proved that a great portion of the chemical knowledge, not only of former times, but of the present day, is erroneous in some of its most essential points ; and it is now become a common observation amongst our best chemists, that in consequence of these new discoveries, chemists will be probably obliged to trace back the road of error which they have so long traversed, in order to learn afresh the first principles of their art.*

* The Monthly Marine for the present month very justly observes, " that Dr. Davy's Chemical Lectuies shew that students in chemistry have to unlearn most of what they have received as authority in that science. It may be hoped therefore

it

It is greatly to be lamented that the pursuits of the chemists, instead of being confined to their proper objects — to the examination of the qualities of matter dead and common — have been equally but improperly directed and extended to the investigation of living matter also ; hoping thereby to explore the causes of animation and of vital action from chemical phenomena, the inevitable attributes of decomposition and decay.*

It has been with this vain expectation that every solid and fluid of which vegetables and animals are composed have been analysed with the most accurate nicety ; and effects attempted to be explained from the result of decomposition and of death, which altogether depend on vitality and animation. To this total inversion of all

that we shall have no other voluminous systems of this variable science, till its elementary principles are somewhat better settled."

* In deprecating as I do experiments, it is proper that I should he clearly understood. I deprecate the application of chemistry to physiology, as much as I would deprecate the practice of employing the phenomena of death in order to explain

principles principle with respect to the relation which exists between things external to the animated system, and the animated system itself, is to be ascribed, the absolute ignorance which prevails, not only of the function of digestion, but of the operation of medicine also ; not only of every organ, but of every fluid of which the system is composed. Until physiologists are made to feel that physiology is still an art, not a science; and pathologists that the practice of medicine is altogether empirical; untill the state of eiTor and of ignorance which exists is truly and fairly represented, 1 see no hopes whatever of improvement or of reformation.

the actions of life; and more especially I deprecate the experiments made on different organs and fluids of the living system, because the natural and healthy functions of a part can never be ascertained through the medium of mutilation or extirpation ; but with respect lo the investigation of matter dead and common, experiment alone is the medium through which its properties and attributes can be attained. I think it proper to give this explanation in order that I may not have it thrown in my teeth that I reprobate experimental philosophy in general, the odium of which I am persuaded would otherwise be attempted to be fixed on me.

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Much as there is to deplore with respect to the application of physiology to practice, it is as a feather in the balance, when compared to the relation which it is supposed to bear to metaphysics. Instead of tracing the relation which the different organs bear to each other, as the means that are employed with a view to ends; instead of exploring the nature of life, and more especially of intellect or of soul, — of that principle by which man is more especially characterized from every other animal, and by the proper exercise of which he is able to abstract himself from matter and from sense ; it is to the attributes of matter alone, impelled by sensible objects, to which the existence of mind is generally ascribed, and the doctrine of materialism, in its fullest extent, attempted to be established.

Although the doctrine of materialism is not proclaimed in our philosophical schools in word, I will maintain that it is so indeed. I will maintain that the existence of any immaterial or spiritual principle, is seldom, if ever, so much as mentioned,much less employ ed as constituting the

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cause of organization or of intellection ; on the contrary that it is to the organization alone, and to the matter of which that organization is composed, that the principles of life and of mind, as effects, are immediately referred. This evil spirit, if it dared, would even manifest itself within the bosom of our universities.— Within the last few months two members belonging to one of the principal colleges in Oxford, published a book entitled " The Necessity of Atheism" and they even had the audacity to attempt a defence of the principles it contained, before a convocation appointed to examine them: these misguided men have been very properly expelled from the university, and the wretched trash which they had written has been suppressed.*

It has been the object of my most particular solicitude to expose the errors of such pursuits,

* I think it right to mention this fact as an illustration, more than as a proof, of the truth of my assertions. Whatever blame might formerly be imputed to the laxity of University morals, or University discipline, has been corrected, and the system of education now pursued bids fair to answer the end for which it was originally designed.

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Vlll and to point out the evils to which they lead ; to shew that such a system, instead of leading to truth, not only recedes from it, but perpetuates and establishes what is infinitely worse than ignorance —erroneous principles: that instead of exploring the essential properties of matter with relation to the system of order and subordination which exists throughout the whole system of nature, secondary qualities alone obtained by artificial means, are the objects of our present pursuits: instead of contemplating the attributes of the Creator from the works of Creation, it is through the medium of unnatural phenomena alone, that natural phsenomena are attempted to be explained. I complain that the present system of what is called philosophy, is an artificial not a natural one; and that the very first dictum, or aphorism, proclaimed by Lord Bacon in his Novum Organum, is altogether violated by our philosophers. — " Homo Natura minister et interpres, tan turn facit & intelligit, quantum de naturae ordine, revel mente observaverit ; nee amplius scit aut potest"

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I complain that instead of making (as true philosophy must ever tend to do), man religious ; it is at variance with religion, and deprives him of the benefit and of the comforts which religion is calculated to bestow : that instead of leading man to God, it estranges God from man, and separates, to the utmost possible distance, (if I may be allowed the expression), the soul from the Deity. In proof of my assertions, I would appeal to the notorious neglect of public worship by those who consider themselves what the French call philosophes, as well as by a great proportion of professional men who are considered to possess, in the highest degree, the philosophy or the* science of the profession.

By them I am persuaded, I shall be viewed with derision and with scorn for having entered upon the subject of theology. I am, however, willing to suffer their reproach* with the hope that to others it may call to their recollection one of the principal ends for which they were created.

With

With respect to the chapter on Organic Life, or the means by which those ends are attained, it is for the most part a mere syllabus of my system of Physiology.*

* It was first written with a view of exposing the folly and errors of the Brunonian doctrine, which was at that time in general estimation in this country, as it still continues to be over different parts of the continent. It is not likely that any system of physiology which took for its principle the power of life and the aptitude of matter — which traced the phaenomena of vitality from organization to action, and investigated the particular organs as the instruments by which ends were obtained, would be very well received by those who begin with death, and who end with life. Notwithstanding the new opinions which it proclaimed it was generally well spoken of, and by the medical Review it was observed, " that in the execution of the extensive work before us, Mr. Saumarez is in many parts original ; it is however but justice to add, that a? passion for novelty does not appear to have led him to a hasty adoption of opinions on slight or trivial grounds. His arguments are in general well supported and his conclusions cautiously deduced. As a whole, it, certainly bespeaks the industry and genius of a writer who dares to think for himself, unfettered by prejudice and authority, &c." again, " we are not sorry to see the errors of the Brunonian system thus combated by an able champion ; it happens with this theory, more than with any former one, that its errors are not merely speculative, but lead to the greatest possible mistakes. Indeed it would be no easy matter to calculate the mischief which it has occasioned in the hands of young and inexperienced practitioners; but when we find, from Dr. Beddoes himself, the translator, its ascendency over men's miflds in different parts

Before xi

Before I conclude I may perhaps be permitted to say a few words of myself. Although incessantly employed in the discharge of the duties of my profession, it will not be imputed to me that I neglect any opportunity to acquire whatever information in it which is to be obtained. I acknowledge with thanks my obligation to those who supply me with new facts, although I feel myself compelled to deny the conclusions which are often deduced from them. I deplore, as every professional man must do, the imperfect state of medical knowledge, and the little improvement which medical science has undergone. It is from a firm persuasion that the present system is radically wrong that 1 have ventured to point out some of its errors. Many of my brethren, for whom I entertain the greatest friendship, will, I fear, reprobate my conduct in disclosing " the secrets of the prison house," and proclaiming to the world truths which of Europe, and that in the celebrated University of Pavia, there is hardly a student endowed with talents who is not a Brunonian, it is surely high time to examine its principles and refute its errors, &c. &c,

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Xll many of them will think ought to be concealed. I nevertheless feel that my motives are beyond the reach of impeachment, and that the ignorance which I impute to them I acknowledge to participate myself. In the sincere hope that I may do some good in correcting much error, and more especially that I may be instrumental in diverting some of the younger part of the profession from the system of materialism, to which the science of physiology at present unquestionably tends, I am willing to bear the criticism and derision which I must expect. I have no private motives to answer ; I have only in view the general good. The facts which 1 have assumed for principles, and the conclusions which I have deduced from them are fair objects of animadversion. I have made the attack and shall be ready to enter upon my defence: I nevertheless have to request indulgence from the reader, not only for the hurried style evident in many parts, but for many verbal and typographical errors, which often obscure the meaning ; the most material of these will be corrected in the leaf of errata at the beginning of the

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book. It is now my intention to proceed with the second part of the subject, and to give the physical or natural history of common matter: it will not be so much my object to add new facts to old principles, as to give new principles to old facts.*

I shall endeavour to prove that the matter of fire, instead of being simple and elementary is compounded and factitious ; instead of according to the Newtonian hypothesis of light and colours viz. that the colour of a body proceeds from the rays which are repelled, and not absorbed, I shall show that the colour of every body proceeds from the matter of light having united with the body from whence it is reflected and by becoming tinged and dyed with it, the colouring matter is conveyed to the eyes; and that black and white instead of being negatives or non-entities, are as absolute and positive as any other colours that exist, and that it is by the

* It may be proper to observe to the unscientific reader that the word physics does not mean medical but natural, and when I speak of the physical proportion of bodies, I mean those that are natural and essential, not such as are ?ncdicinaL

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XIV union of the solar rays with atmospheric matter that the different prismatic colours for the most part are produced. That the solar matter, as far as we have any cognisance of it, is altogether different in its nature from any matter belonging to our mundane system, that it is destitute of fire and colour altogether, but possesses the essential attributes alone of transparency and motion; that instead of having gravity or weight, it moves with the most incredible velocity in every direction, in opposition to the laws of gravitation, which to the sun are so hypothetically ascribed ; that the hypothesis which concludes that the sun is a gravitating body, attracting by its gravitating matter the whole of the planetary system, is founded on false assumptions, not only without proof but contrary to proof. That it is by the energy which is imparted to different bodies by the solar rays, that the processes of vaporization and gasification are carried on in a natural state; that the essential properties of every gas is that of expansibility, by which it dilates and expands in every direction from a centre to a circumference; that the weight which is ascribed to gaseous matter is an artificial not

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a natural property ; and that the degree of expansibility not of weight is the standard by which its powers ought to be meted or measured; and I shall shew by the most simple, and yet the most decisive experiments, that the elevation of the mercury in the torricellian tube, as well as other fluids in exhausting pumps, are not caused by the weight or gravity of the atmosphere, and consequently that the term Barometer, so universally employed is an erroneous one.

I shall endeavour to shew that although water forms one of the constituent materials of which gases are composed; that gases are nevertheless not the constituent materials alone, of which water is formed, that although it is frequently decomposed and deposited out of them, it is

* When I first began this book I merely intended to confine myself to this part of the subject; I however found, as I went on, that the different branches of physical knowledge are so intimately woven with each other, that it is difficult to understand any one point properly without some knowledge of the whole. I found it necessary, for example, to distinguish mere capacity, or passivity from flexibility ; flexibility from elasticity; and finally elasticity itself from expansibility, subsisting as an inherent power. This explanation will, I hope, excuse me for the arrangement in one part being somewhat different from what I should otherwise have made.

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not caused by them ; and finally that gravity, gravitation, or weight, is a relative, not a positive or absolute term ; that the gravity or weight of a body altogether depends on the nature of the medium in which it is placed; that instead of extending beyond, is altogether confined to it. I hope therefore to shew, that the ipse dixit of Sir I. Newton, which constitutes his fourth law of nature, is altogether unfounded, viz. that allbodiesaremutually heavy and gravitate towards each other; that this gravity is 'proportionate to the quantity of matter \ and at unequal distances is inverstely as the squares of the distances" Although I am nearly prepared, I nevertheless think it more prudent to delay publishing this second part until the present one has gone through the ordeal which it must suffer. I have only to add that, whilst on the one hand I shall feel grateful and thankful for fair and liberal criticism, I shall however be ready to repel, and to give the " retort courteous," to those who impatient of contradiction, consider any innovation in long established systems as deserving of condemnation, however contrary to common sense they may be demonstratively proved.

Chapter I 3n T The Principles Of Physical Science

JlN order to prosecute to a successful termination any branch of science, it is of the utmost importance, that we should be in full possession of the first principles on which that science depends, as causes from whence the effects proceed, and that the definitions employed should be determinate and precise, expressive of the thing signified. * This previous and antecedent knowledge not only comprehends the existence of the subject itself, and the terms by which its

b existence existence is known ; as that a human being is a a biped, a horse a quadruped, &c. but the various attributes belonging to it ; these attributes are either inherent and essential, or accidental and transient : these by some have been called accidents, by others secondary qualities. If the nature of them were examined it would be found that they owe their existence more to the agency of external things than to any property resident within them. It is not from the accidental colour of the skin which different beings possess, whether pallid or red, by which the species in general is characterized. The external colour may be imitated by art on a lump of clay, or a block of wood, upon a dead almost as perfectly as on a living subject. It is to those permanent and indelible attributes of organization and of form of action, and of power, by which every individual is known to be what it really is, and through which it is distinguished from every thing else.

Such was the state of barbarism and ignorance which filled the human mind for more than a thousand sand years, and which has been in consequence denominated the period of the dark ages, that knowledge, if knowledge it maybe called, was confined to the schoolmen : the erroneous practice in general, at that period, of reasoning without facts, and drawing conclusions from false principles, became at length apparent to that great luminary of our country, Lord Bacon.

The accumulation of error was at that time too extensive to be corrected by any individual, however mighty in intellect he might be supposed. Instead of unravelling the gordian knot he cut it. Instead of amusing himself with solving the most absurd and ridiculous propositions that can be conceived; with calculating, for example, how many millions of angels could dance upon the point of a needle, he determined to accumulate facts only, before he generalized them, and the art of induction was raised on the ruins of false syllogism.

It is greatly to be deplored that the plan which he himself pursued, has not been adhered to by

b 2 his his followers in general; that attention is not so much paid to the simple observation of natural phenomena as to those which are the results of sophisticated experiments. I do not decry experiments in general, it is the abuse not the use of them which I reprobate and condemn. It is through the agency of experiment that the useful arts have obtained such a high degree of elegance and perfection; that chemistry, and what is called experimental philosophy, in general, are in a constant state of improvement, and that the certainty of many uncertain things is ascertained. Let it not, however, be supposed that it is the result of experiment alone on which the whole of our knowledge depends, or that it was so considered by Lord Bacon himself; he expressly ranks natural history to be the result of simple observation, and classes it before experimental history. He considered it to be the . iirst means which ought to be employed to accomplish the grand instauration, as he calls it, which he had in view ; from induction, through the medium of analysis, to establish principles; from the individual to form the species, and from

the the species the genus ; from history by analysis to obtain definitions, and proceeding from effects to arrive at causes.

Had he been desirous to appeal to experiment alone, he would have excluded the facts which are the result of simple observation only ; if such had been his principles of learning it would have led, as it has been well observed, to the unwarrantable length of supposing that knowledge could only be obtained through an artificial, rather than through a natural channel, assisted by the furnace and the crucible in the laboratory, to make no use of our eyes unless with a candle in our hands and spectacles on our nose, and forced to withdraw our senses from the knowledge which they convey to the mind of the uudisturbed appearances of nature.

Instead however of appealing to simple observation for the apprehension of natural phenomena, few phenomena are at this time supposed or admitted to be true, unless proved by the test of experiment; unnatural effects generally

r 3 preferred preferred before such as are natural and unso* phisticated. The phenomena of disease are adduced to explain the actions of health ; the chemical changes which dead and common matter undergo are often assumed in order to account for the causes and phenomena of life.

The error of endeavouring to account by chemical, by hydraulic, and other mechanical principles, for the phenomena of vital action, as well as the principle of vitality itself, may be assigned as the reason for the barbarous state which physiology is in at the present day.

To the late Mr. J. Hunter, to Dr. Goodwin, Spallanzani, and a few others we are eminently indebted for many valuable facts obtained through the medium of experiment performed on living animals : these facts acquire their intrinsic worth, in consequence of exposing to our view internal operations, which were before concealed, and thereby manifesting the natural condition of things without altering it.

Cruel

Cruel and horrible as were these experiments if they cannot be justified it is hoped that they will find considerable palliation in the motive which led to the execution of them ; — the earnest hope which a few of these gentlemen entertained of bringing light out of darkness, and that the sufferings of the brute might ultimately prove beneficial to man.

Although humanity feels a pang at the recollection of such pursuits, they ought neverthelss to be tolerated to a certain degree, when performed by those who having an end in view, are anxious to prove, by the fact of experiment, the truth or error of the principles of physiological science, which they may entertain.

To that numerous class of pretenders to physiology, to those minpws in science, who without end or design, are impelled by blind chance and mere curiosity to inflict the most barbarous cruelties in cold blood on warm blooded animals, there is no excuse; more than for those who mutilate and extirpate different organs out of

b 4 the a

the living system, in order to ascertain the na-^

tural functions which those organs are intended

to perform, and the use which they are intend-* ed to serve. I do not mean in other points to

depreciate the merit of many of those gentler

men; I value it because in many respects they

are entitled to praise.

When I hear, however, some of them arrogate the claim of furnishing to the world all the phy^ siological knowledge in it, and as if alone qualified to discuss a physiological question, receiving with slight, and considering as mere drivellers those who take natural rather than aiv tificial phenomena, and whom they call, as a mark of contempt, closet philosopher, I confess to feel amused with the folly of such conceits.

In order to appreciate the whole merit to which they are entitled, it ought to be examined, and I am persuaded it will be found that the reason of this conceit and pride arises in consequence of mistaking art for science, the man who carries the hod for the architect who

designs, designs, and confounding the labourer and bellows-blower with the physiologist and metaphysician,

I do not include the man who from a supe-r riority of intellect, possesses a knowledge of cause, foresees and foreknows the effects which will inevitably follow, and is nevertheless anxious to put his science to the test, and to prove the truth of it by experiment. A philosopher such as this is seldom qualified for the task of performing it, he rather delegates the execution of it to others than perform it himself. What are the qualifications, I would ask, which are requisite for the experimentalist in chemis try, who is Ho accomplish the trial? There is not, I am persuaded, an experienced artist in any of our manufactories, who is not able to mix the different ingredients which are intended to be employed, to blow the. bellows, and even to decide on the result that ensues, as well as the best chemist that has ever existed.

The

The same limited means are alone wanting in physiology ; there is not a lad of twenty years of age, who comes from the country to any of our hospitals in town, and who after passing with common industry two seasons in any of our anatomical schools, is not perfectly competent to perform any physiological experiments; in addition to a precise knowledge of position, the only requisites wanting are a steady hand, a sharp knife, a tolerable good pair of eyes, and an unfeeling heart.

To rip open the flanks of a dog as well as of a calf, to drag any particular organ out of its situation, to paw and to squeeze it, to decide whether it swells or contracts, whether it causes presure or not on surrounding parts, to tie a ligature upon the vessels or tubes with which any organ is supplied, or to extirpate the organ altogether, and finally cut the animals throat and strip the skin for the sake of the leather, can, I am persuaded be performed as perfectly by any carcase butcher in any slaughter house, as by the generality of physiologists ; and 1 am of opinion that

the the execution of a job such as this, which is performed in less than an hour's time, which requires neither genius, judgement, or skill, would be most amply remunerated by the receipt of one shilling, and perhaps a pint of small beer as an act of generosity.*

* In order to justify myself from exaggeration, and to enable the reader to decide for himself, how far I am justified in saying that the degrees of talent necessary to perform an experiment are very trifling, and that it is generally done with a degree pf qold blooded apathy which is shocking to humanity, I shall relate one, amongst a multitude of similar experiments, that were made on living dogs, in order to ascertain the change of colour which the blood underwent during the process of inspiration. " I procured several large dogs," says one of the gentlemen, " and after removing the sternum or breast bone of each, and exposing to view the trunks of thepulmonary arteries and veins, &c. &c." by another, and he by far the most eminent of all, after going through the preliminary operation of cutting the parietcs of the thorax, and sawing the ribs, and exposing to view the organs which it contains, says " I have repeated this experiment several times upon several animals, and commonly for half an hour at a lime; which was sufficient to allow me to make my observations with coolness and accuracy; it was curious to see in the first part of the experiment, the coronary arteries turn barker and darker; but on blowing air into the lungs the blood gradually resumed the florid red. 1 cut and sliced offa piece from the lungs, and found that the colour of the blood which came from the wound corresponded with the above effect."