{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_50170/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_50170","id":"gutenberg_50170","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50170","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Biology","Mesmerism"],"text":"THE PHILOSOPHY\n\nWHICH SHOWS THE\n\nPHYSIOLOGY OF MESMERISM,\n\nAND EXPLAINS THE\n\nPHENOMENON OF CLAIRVOYANCE.\n\nBY\n\nT. H. PASLEY.\n\nTo form a just opinion of a novel mode of philosophising, we should\nstudy the subject, and not condemn without being able to prove it\nerroneous.\n\nHe is not an Esculapian who is unacquainted with the Philosophy of the\nAnimal Economy.\n\nLONDON:\nLONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.\n\n1848.\n\nTYLER & REED,\nPRINTERS,\nBOLT-COURT, FLEET STREET.\n\n\n\n\nDEDICATION.\n\n\nThe following trite sketch of the Philosophy of Nature, dedicates\nitself to the most noble Champions of Mesmerism, Doctor ELLIOTSON\nand Doctor ASHBURNER of London, and Doctor ESDAILE of Calcutta, in\ncompliment and grateful acknowledgment for having rescued from the\nfangs of ignorance, envy, and self-conceit, the science of health and\nknowledge--the science of Mesmerism, which unfolds the hitherto unknown\nwonders of the Animal system; and will unfold the wonders of the entire\nuniverse, when the telescope and microscope are familiarly used by the\nClairvoyant.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\nIt is not the intention of the present work, that what is herein\ndescribed should be received as the philosophy of Nature according to\nthe precision of Nature; but, through exemplification, on principles\ndeduced from the Natural Inertia of Matter, to point out the mode by\nwhich the philosophy, which should govern all illustration of physical\nphenomena, is discoverable,--the Philosophy of Mechanical Nature.\n\n  JERSEY, _July 1, 1848_.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                  PAGE\n  DEDICATION                                       iii\n  ADVERTISEMENT                                      v\n  TABLE OF CONTENTS                                vii\n  MESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY               1\n  ATTRACTION                                        10\n  PHILOSOPHY, EXPERIMENTAL                          13\n  PHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTION OF THE SENSES             15\n  MATTER                                            23\n  MOTION                                            24\n  MEDIUM OF SPACE                                   28\n  MINUS-PRESSURE MATTER                             31\n  FIRE                                              34\n  MEDIUM OF FIRE                                    37\n  EXPANSION                                         39\n  OXYGEN AIR                                        41\n  THE USE OF OXYGEN IN PROMOTING COMBUSTION         42\n  COMBUSTION                                        43\n  WATER                                             47\n  SOLVENCY                                          53\n    GASTRIC SOLVENCY                                54\n  USE OF THE INSPIRED OXYGEN WITHIN THE SYSTEM      56\n    SPLEEN, ITS USE                                 59\n    DIAPHRAGM, HOW RAISED                           60\n  CORRELATIVE ELEMENTS                              61\n  MAGNETISM                                         62\n  NATURAL SLEEP                                     65\n    COMATOSE FLOW                                   66\n    MESMERIC SLEEP                                  68\n  VISION                                            70\n  TRANSPARENCY                                      77\n  OPACITY                                           77\n  THE NERVOUS FLUID                                 78\n  CLAIRVOYANCE                                      81\n    LONG VISION                                     82\n    OPAQUE VISION                                   83\n  RIGIDITY                                          86\n  PAIN                                              86\n    MESMERISM, CURATIVE                             87\n    ETHERS                                          87\n  REPORT                                            88\n  VOLUNTARY DE-ELECTRISATION                        91\n    WILL, THE NATURE AND POWER OF                   92\n  APPLICATION OF MESMERISM                          95\n  CONTINUOUS MOTION                                 97\n    ASCENDING AND DESCENDING MOTION                 99\n    CENTRIPETAL FLOW                                99\n  FORMATION OF A PLANET                            100\n    ---- AND USE OF A COMET                        103\n  TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE\n\n\n\n\nPHILOSOPHY,\n\nETC., ETC.\n\n\n\n\nMESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY.\n\n\nLong as clairvoyance has remained the riddle, jest and wonder of the\nworld, it is questioned by none why the established philosophy of\nthis superiorly enlightened age is incompetent to account for this\nor any other mesmerically produced phenomenon, or afford the least\nglimmer of light by which it were possible to arrive at the physiology.\nWhy the philosophy of Aristotle, Bacon, Newton, Des Cartes, Davy,\nLiebig--honoured names, and most justly, as the ancient and modern\nfathers in science--can afford no scintillation whereby to lessen the\nobscurity in which this most interesting subject is involved, should\nappear strange and unaccountable to all lovers of philosophy. By\nProfessors the question should be answered. To consider it unworthy\nof being looked into, would be a tacit confession that Professors are\nindifferent to the natural truth; which proves all such to be but half\nreasoners, and not philosophers, notwithstanding all their mathematical\nlearning and experimental experience.\n\nIt should have been questioned long since, whether the philosophy be\nnot untrue which leaves all mankind in the dark, in a mere physical\ncase, however mysterious the psychological result, the effect of manual\napplication, and in the power of almost every person to produce. The\nmesmerising operation and effect includes nothing of necromancy or\ntrick; is openly performed, and produced mechanically; and although the\npasses make a living being appear as if in a novel state of existence,\nthe immediate effect, polarisation of the extremities of the body, is\nthe same precisely as is effected on the iron bar when passed along\nthe poles of a loadstone. This, and numerous other physical phenomena,\nwhich to the present day remain unexplained, and as if inexplicable,\nafford much reason for at least the conjecture, that modern philosophy\nis not the philosophy of physical nature; which, if not, it must be\nfalse and misleading, inasmuch as there can be but one philosophy,\nby reason of there being but one species of matter throughout all\nnature, and but one cause of action,--_the general pressure_. From\nwhich it follows, that as the philosophy of nature is that of matter\nuniversally, there can be no physical phenomenon which it does not\nexplain. Therefore, the phenomena which modern philosophy has neither\nlaws nor rules competent to explain, are so many proofs that the\nestablished philosophy of the age is false philosophy; which is\nprovable throughout all its particulars, however rash and adventurous\nmay appear the announcement. Besides, at the present day, there are\nseveral different philosophies maintained; every profession has its\nown; which is proof of the strongest nature that not one is true,\ndissent from the truly natural being impossible, so universally is it\napplicable. Eventually it will be admitted that the philosophy of the\nnineteenth century is founded on the crude ideas of the imperfectly\nlearned in the earliest days of science, ever since adopted, and\nnever investigated, instead of being deduced solely from the INERT\nNATURE OF MATTER, the only true basis. On modern philosophy, Davy\nmakes the shrewd remark, that \"it is no better than a mere compilation\nof isolated facts and circumstances, differently accounted for, and\nleading to no general theory:\" such is not the philosophy of nature.\n\nThat matter is _inert_, is made manifest in there being nothing\nwhatever throughout the whole of inanimate nature which can act or\nmove of itself. Matter does nothing, cannot act; it is the passive\npatient of the general pressure, which alone can act; and pressure is\nuniversal, because of matter being _inert_. Matter is not only _inert_,\nbut _unalterable_; on which principles the constancy of the order\nand laws of nature depend. Inert, unalterable matter can suffer no\nchange but of a local nature--change of place, which implies motion,\nfor which there is no analogous cause but impulsive pressure. These\nunquestionable physical truisms are stated in advance, from being\nintimately connected with every physical change, in order to serve as a\nstandard of comparison from which to form an opinion while canvassing\nthe principles and laws by which the scientific world has been for\ncenturies not only governed, but misled.\n\nNewton admits the _principle_ of _inertia_, but considers it an innate\n_passive_ power, which _enables_ a body to resist against being moved;\nand when in motion, enables it _to resist_ that which would put it\nout of motion. _Inertia_, a passive power, is as death, being passive\nanimation; and _inertia enabling_ a body to _act_ against force, is\nnothing short of _active inertia_, or _vis inerti\u00e6_, which means the\nforce of inability. This monstrous perversion of a natural fundamental\nprinciple, and by such high authority, pervades the whole of the\nestablished philosophy. It makes the planets, which are but clumps of\ndeadly inert matter, gravitate themselves through space; and makes\n_inert_ atoms competent to perform attraction on each other wherever\nthey exist. A more absurd article of _belief_ has no place in the\nAthanasian code of mind-perverting dogmas; yet admitted as true by\nthe most eminently talented and highly learned of the present age.\nWhile such inconsistent principles of common-place use are gravely\ndefended, the _known facts_ of mesmerism are obstinately and ignorantly\ndenied; and only because of not being understood; that, were it not\nfor the good sense and philanthropic perseverance of the enlightened,\nnoble-minded Elliotsons, Ashburners, and Esdailes, of the British\nempire--honourable, heroic champions and victors in the cause of truth,\nhumanity and science, in despite of the self-conceit which affects\nthe knowledge of the limits of possibility; that, were it not for the\nmagnanimity of those superiors belonging to the learned profession,\nthis heaven-bestowed boon, carrying healing on the wing to suffering\nhumanity, would have been contemptuously received, ungratefully\nacknowledged, and long since consigned to the rubbish of oblivion. Yet\nall have claim to the common apology, _false scientific education_,\nexcepting those who have assented to what they have seen with wonder,\nand afterwards denied their admission.\n\nThe established philosophy cannot account for the boy's marble going\nfarther through the air than the fullest extent of the impelling\nthumb. The proposition may appear trifling and insignificant, yet is\nit worthy the consideration of the Chair of Knowledge, from which it\nhas never been explained nor there understood, as involving the cause\nof planetary motion; for, _in all nature there are not two causes of\nmotion_. That the marble \"_partakes_\" of the _force_, and \"partakes\" of\nthe _motion_ of that by which it is impelled, is an absurd idea; the\nforce and motion of a body were not, and cannot become, the force and\nmotion of any other body.\n\nThe established philosophy cannot account for the splinters of a stone\nhaving motion out of the direction of impulse, nor for having motion\nin every direction but that of the stone-breaker's impelling hammer,\nwhich appears at variance with the natural, immutable dynamic law,\nwhich says, that _as a body cannot move itself_, so must it have motion\nin the direction only of that by which it is being moved. Neither is\nthere any philosophy extant, which explains why the stone at Texteth of\none hundred tons should rise, as if of itself, six inches in the air,\nunder which the quarrymen could have shoved a hand and withdrawn it\nsafely, before the immense mass fell crushingly on the former bed.\n\nOn the other hand, what the established philosophy undertakes to\nexplain, it explains erroneously. Beside maintaining the transfer of a\nlocal casualty, in accounting for continuous motion, it teaches that\nthe power of steam consists in heat, and that cold congeals water:\nwhereas heat and cold have no physical existence; each is a sensation,\nanything similar to which it is impossible for either fire or water to\npossess. So that to the present day the power of steam, the cause of\ncombustion and of congelation has in each instance remained unknown.\n\nSo simple is nature, so few her laws, that were any one of her\nphenomena known throughout all its bearings, it would be found that\nthe knowledge includes the philosophy of the whole of matter. Of this\nAristotle was aware when announcing, that he who is unacquainted with\nmotion, is ignorant of all things in true philosophy. Motion being the\n_only effect_ producible on _inert, unalterable matter_, the knowledge\nof the phenomenon includes that of all effect. The substance of all\nthings being of the same species, and the power of Nature consisting\nin universal pressure, the formations in general nature and in the\nlaboratory of art can have but the same principles, laws, theory, and\nphilosophy. Paul may plant and Apollos water; nature germinates, the\nweather or climate grows and fructifies. The chymist's fire does\nnot burn itself; in the absence of air and its pressure there is no\ncombustion; neither is there growth, respiration, nor life.\n\nAccording to the philosophy of the astronomer, the earth has projectile\nmotion, from \"impulse once impressed, at the beginning, and not since\nrenewed;\" which is effect six thousand times, at least, greater\nthan the cause. Then, again, as motion must be in the direction of\nimpulse and cease out of that direction, the earth, from \"impulse\nonce impressed,\" goes round the sun without being impelled; or of\nits own accord, and should be centripetally attracted to the sun, if\nsolar attraction were possible. It needs no mathematical calculation\nto prove, that, from such philosophy being wholly independent of all\nconsideration of natural cause, it is untrue, and at variance with\ncommon sense.\n\nThe philosophy of the chymist is of every-day make. It assumes\ndifferent species of matter; chymical matter and matter not chymical;\nattractions innumerable, such as chymical, electric, galvanic,\ncapillary, and attraction of cohesion; likewise magnetic forces,\nchymical affinities, and affections of matter--\"while as yet there\nis none of them\"--matter being _inert_ naturally. To mechanical\nnature the entire is useless and foreign, and their value lies solely\nin being terms of professional application in the highly important\nchymical art; but to the discovery of true philosophy they are an\ninsurmountable obstacle. How chymical matter differs from the common\nmatter of the world, no chymist can say or conceive; nor is there any\ndifference in the substance and nature of inert matter: as well might\nit be maintained that motion is not always mechanical, but sometimes\nchymical. The true philosophy of chymistry is dynamic, the basis\ninertia, the laws those of quantity and relative position.\n\nThe philosophy of the anatomist and physiologist is semi-natural,\nsemi-spiritual, mechanical and vital. Life, throughout all belonging\nto the frame, does not suffice; the heart and blood have each an\nimputed, distinct, living principle; the nerves are sensitive, the\nmuscles irritable; the flesh has its susceptibility, according to\nthe modern physiology. The sainted health-preserver shudders at the\nirreligious notion of the economy being philosophised on at all; more\nespecially according to the laws of hydrostatics; it being \"impious\nbeyond measure\" to reason on the work of God's own hand, formed after\nhis own image and likeness, (malformations excepted,) as on human\nmechanism. Yet, where are any of these vitalities and living principles\nwhen respiration is suddenly stopped? Verily, these professionals\nendow, most gratuitously, the animal frame with as many vitalities\nand living principles as the lives bestowed on the tailor's--so much\nthe more unfortunate--cat. As every organ of the body is inert; no\norgan, of itself, performs the function; every function is mechanically\nperformed, and every effect analogous to impulsive pressure, whether\nconsisting in formation, intermixture, or dissolution, all depend\non elementary local change. The contrary is not in the power of the\nanatomist and physiologist to prove of inert, unalterable, atomic\nsubstance; nor should more causes be assumed than what are natural,\ncommon, sufficient, and analogous to effects. Spiritual principles for\nmechanical purposes are as little requisite for animal organism as for\nthe steam-engine, or the performances of a watch.\n\n\nThe last on the list of professional philosophies is that of the\nTherapeutist; the least misleading, from being the most concise. The\nword ACTION includes the whole. There is no inquiry to which the word\n_action_ is not the deeply-learned significant reply; being indefinite,\nit stands for a dead-stop silencer. The doctor knows best--with much\nroom for knowing better. The doctor knows, and assures from his own\ncertain knowledge, that the _action_ of the dose on the stomach\nupheaves the sac; but rather than be thought positive, allows that the\neffect may be from the _action_ of the stomach on the dose. The good\neasy man of M.D. celebrity, or mediocrity, has to learn, that the dose\nis as _inert_ as when in the tea-cup, and the stomach as _inert_ as\nwhen it has arrived at the predicted destiny, the dissecting table.\nAgain, the _action_ of the pain prevents the _action_ of the physic,\notherwise the cure would have been immediate. Such philosophy is\nharmless, if so to the patient; from its insignificance it corrupts\nneither pathology, osteology, nor dynamics. Not so the learning,\npublished on high surgical authority, to enlighten ward-walking\nnoviciates--that \"pain may exist in the _flesh_ and bones without\nbeing felt, owing to the _insensible_ sensibility of the part,\"\nwhich amounts to an excruciating, painless toothache, and, the being\nunconscious of excited consciousness. Pain is not in the diseased or\nwounded part, being the consequence of cerebral excitement; pain is one\nof the objects of perception belonging to the scenery of the sensorium,\nfrom which it cannot migrate. The disorganised part is but the apparent\nplace of pain; and wisely such, or else all remedial applications\nwould be to the brain. As to the dose and stomach _action_, it stands\ncorrected by the diagnosis; the stomach is lifted in consequence of\nthe equilibrium of pressure being destroyed by means of the dose,\nnotwithstanding its additional weight, within the stomach. Chymical\naction of the dose and self-lifting muscles are all of Esculapian\nsurmise. The faculty should cease to identify feeling, pain, sensation,\nwith organic ailments and disorganization of the flesh.\n\n\n\n\nATTRACTION.\n\n\nAttraction is the all-pervading, all-perverting sin of the established\nphilosophy, the scape-goat, on which the blunders of illustration\nare heaped. Newtonians endow every atom of matter with not only an\nattracting property, but another, as if to neutralise it--repulsion,\nwhich renders both useless; as if to make matter both active and inert,\nnaturally, and as if Nature were planned on principles of complexity,\nfrom having double the number of powers the universe is possessed of\natoms. One steam power would suffice for the whole of England, all\nappendages being feasible. How is solidity either maintainable or\nattainable, while attracting atoms are repelling atoms? The free,\nuncombined condition of the atoms of the atmosphere, as well as their\n_inertia_, proclaim their inability to attract each other; and the mere\ncrack in a pane of glass, that between bodies there is no attraction.\nWhile it is left to be conceived by the so-taught rising generation,\nthat the atoms of a bar of iron are busily employed in attracting\none another, and as busily in repelling each other at the same time;\nand that the same atoms are inert, the long-denounced aspersion\nstands good, that there is no absurdity, however great, into which\nphilosophers have not fallen; which is removable only by Philosophers,\nProfessors and Teachers coalescing to reform the erroneous doctrines\nuniversally promulgated, which cannot stand the test of rational\ninvestigation, and for which, as National Instructors, they are morally\nresponsible.\n\nTerrestrial attraction, attenuated on arriving at the moon,\nand there sufficiently strong to prevent the satellite having\ntangential flight, should be at the surface of the globe at least\ntwo-hundred-and-forty-thousand times stronger; yet here a puff of the\nbreath drives the dust into the air, and the smallest winged insect\nis not restrained by the attraction of the enormous magnet the earth\nis considered, from escaping off the surface of the globe. There is\nphilosophy in mists, as well as \"sermons in stones.\" Rain should come\ndown from above the clouds, if terrestrial attraction hold fast the\nmoon: mists and exhalations, by quitting the earth, solve the problem;\nbut we are ignorant of the philosophy, ways, and expressions of simple\nnature; hence, ours is foreign philosophy.\n\nIn attributing the fall of bodies to the ground to attraction, it is\noverlooked that the earth's greater attraction has to be exceeded by\nthe minor muscular, or explosive force, which caused the ascent. The\nforegoing plain facts, although demonstrations to the contrary are on\nrecord in the royalized TRANSACTIONS, but without reference to the\ninability of inert matter to attract, are certain proof that attraction\nis founded on a guess-work basis. Hence, that all learning is not\nknowledge is a moral certainty; and that the nature of cause is not to\nbe arrived at by demonstrating the properties of lines and angles, time\nhas sufficiently proved.\n\nHad the fall of Newton's apple been an effect of terrestrial\nattraction, there should have been some stronger attraction from\nsomewhere above the tree, to make the juices of which the apple was\nformed ascend from the ground, and capillary cannot be said to be\nstronger than terrestrial attraction. There is nothing but puzzle,\ncontradiction, and inconsistency, in human opinion, where the natural\ntruth is unknown. Oh! apples, apples, why for discord sent? the first\ncut short eternal life on earth; another turned \"heaven-born reason\" to\ninventing dreams;--that heaven-born reason which tells us every day of\nits yesterday's mistakes.\n\n\n\n\nEXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY.\n\n\nThe Baconian precept, to \"torture Nature out of her secrets,\" has been,\nand ever must be, abortive of the good intended. Nature is performing\nfreely and openly every hour, without making us wiser, and as little\nwhile she is operating in our own experiments. Her language, of which\n_inertia_ and _pressure_ are the alpha and omega, is not studied;\nnor does it mislead or flatter like our own. Experiments innumerable\nhave been performed; the _experimentum crucis_ resorted to; the screw\napplied to the utmost pinch, without either confession or concealment\non Nature's part. Hence, the experimenter is left to make his own\nphilosophy of the case, of which the next operator makes a different;\nand all are falsely interpreted that violate the principle of inertia,\nwhich all do. Aristotle, Bacon, Newton, Black, Reid, Davy, Des Cartes,\nexperimented indefatigably under the most favourable auspices,--exalted\ntalent, and the institutions of the world at command; but all on\nfalse principles; yet Nature, tortured or not, left them to their own\nmis-interpretations. Aristotle, true in his opinion of motion, was\nhimself ignorant of the cause of continuous motion, or all would not\nbe so at present. Bacon recommended experiment, without teaching the\nnatural mode of interpretation. Newton spent his valuable time, to the\nworld's great loss, in experimenting on light, in ascertaining and\ndescribing its properties, as if there were material light; instead of\nwhich, light is a mere sensible effect; hence, a physical nonentity.\nBlack and Reid called to their assistance all the powers of numbers,\nto ascertain and prove the quantity of heat in the animal system, and\nof cold in ice; but could not torture Nature out of the information,\nthat heat and cold do not belong to matter or bodies, as a knowledge of\nthe function of the senses could have informed them. Davy travelled to\nSkehallean to find from the size of the hill, a ratio of attraction,\nwhence to calculate the quantity of attraction in the entire globe of\nthe earth: at home, correctly sought, he would have found, without\nnumerical assistance and the pendulum, that the amount is zero. The\ndeflection of the pendulum was caused by the pressure on one side of\nthe bulb being greater than on the side facing the hill; which, from\nvarying hourly with the sun's altitude, should have told him that the\ndeflection is a mere weather-deviating circumstance.\n\nOn the other hand, who perceives the natural truths elicited by even\nhis own experiments! That truly great philosopher, Priestly, remained\nignorant that his own experiments on blood and air brought to light\nthe principle on which the blood is arterialized, without coming in\ncontact with the air in the lungs; of which experiments the faculty are\nreprehensibly ignorant at present; also the principle of congelation\nwithout cold. It is a general error that men must be philosophers\nbecause they are mathematicians and first-rate experimenters, yet do\nnot know what keeps the blood in motion, nor how water becomes ice.\n\nWhat experiment was ever so absurdly illustrated as that of ice formed\nin the midst of fire; which is explained by, \"evaporation generating\ncold in a red-hot crucible,\" and while maintaining that cold is only\nthe absence of heat. The _rationale_ is: the oxygen of water is the\nhindrance to congelation, which the evaporation carries off, and the\nremaining elements of the water are compressed into ice. What are the\nelementary constituents of water, has yet to be learned. Misled by\nfalse-directing philosophy, the analysis of a rotten potato, in quest\nof the cause of the vegetable epidemic, is as wise as were the same\nscientific procedure taken on the contents of a pustule to discover the\ncause of the small pox: the result in both cases must be a complete\nnew formation; and in the former, the result could be no preventive\ninformation whatever to the planter. To convince planters and remove\nall timidity, every garden owner should plant an experimental patch\nwith potato _peelings_, each having an eye; the crop is certain and\ngood, and supplies the cottager with the next year's seed at no\nexpense. The _cutting_ for seed may be of exhausted vegetating power,\nwhile the peeling of even the same potato may be as sound as ever. The\nbadly grown potatoes of the previous crop caused those of the following\nto be of imperfect growth and perishable: hence the general potato-rot.\n\n\n\n\nPHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTION OF THE SENSES.\n\n\nBy the popular expression, \"Evidence of the Senses,\" is universally\nunderstood, the perception, or seeing external bodies by the organs of\nsense: yet externals are invisible and the senses insentient. This\nmistake, common among the fathers of every age, has corrupted the\nprevalent false philosophy tenfold.\n\nThe eye is not possessed of sight; neither is colour a property\nof matter, or it must be indestructible by fire and every other\nmeans. The senses should be considered as but mechanical agents for\nexciting the brain; by which means it is we have our knowledge, the\nparticulars of the whole of which are mental, confined to the brain,\nand consist, solely, in the cerebral excited scenery of the sensorium.\nWe have no other kind or means of acquiring knowledge, that is,\nmental information. By the mere organs of sense we know nothing. The\nknowledge we have by means of the senses exciting the brain, consists\nin sensations or sensible effects, and, _we know nothing but our\nknowledge_, whatever may be thought of externals being objects and\nimmediate objects of our knowledge.\n\nIn describing what we know, it is imagined the description is of\nexternal bodies, their appearance, qualities, and properties; which,\nhowever harmless the mistake throughout busy-life affairs,--as all\nabide, judge, and are directed by the same kind of evidence,--not so\nis it in philosophy, which is a description of nature's own mode of\nprocedure; and although it is impossible to describe invisible things,\nas they are really, they should not be philosophised and reasoned\non, _as they are not_; they are not according to what we know, and\ncan have no resemblance in any manner to sensations, which are all\nwe know by means of them. Instead of knowing by the senses what\nbodies are, we know only what they _are not_; modern philosophy is\nregardless, totally heedless of this most instructive most pointedly\ndirecting information, instead of making the just allowance for mental\nappearances, it materializes every sensation, and imputes the whole\nto the bodies outside of our own, of which all we can possibly know\nis but inferential knowledge: it considers our sensations as being\nqualities of bodies or properties of matter, and maintains that some\nare physical causes by which certain physical effects are produced.\nSuch may be considered some of the principal reasons why _clairvoyance_\nis unintelligible to all the most learned; and so must it ever remain,\nor until a truer philosophy arises and rescues the great subject from\nthe darkness and errors of a perverting philosophy, the whole of\nwhich has to be abandoned before the mind is fitted for the reception\nof natural truths. We must cease to identify sensations with their\nunseen, unknown, and but _promoting_, material causes. In proof of the\nforegoing, a short review of the senses, their physiology, function,\nresult of the function and use of the result, must prove satisfactory\nand convincing.\n\nThe _physiology_ of a sense, consists in an external organ,--as the\neye or ear, its nerves of sensation which spread through the brain,\nand, the nervous fluid. To each of the senses there belongs a distinct\ncerebral organ, which, if deducted, leaves nothing to constitute the\nphysiology, but the external organ, the nerves, and nervous fluid;\nsuch may be considered the physiology of all the senses, so far as the\nexciting mental perception is concerned.\n\nThe _function of a sense_ is, to act on and excite the cerebral organ,\nwhen the nervous fluid is put into an acting state through external\ncircumstances.\n\nThe _result of the function_, is a sensation, of which we have\nimmediate cognizance, by reason of a sensation being _a recent change\nin consciousness_. The nervous fluid, not the tubular nervous _stri\u00e6_,\nis that by which the brain is excited.\n\nThe _use of the sensation_ is manifold. Emanating from the wonderful\nEconomy, is the law, that, _the sensation which an external body\npromotes, shall, to ourself, seem to belong to that body_.\n\nThe law is imperative. The sensation being apparently at, and belonging\nto, the external object or body, it is imagined the body is visible,\nseen by the eyes, and of the colour, flavour, or odour known by the\nsensation. The apparent place of the sensation directs to where the\nbody is situated.\n\nNo person thinks, when a rose promotes the sensation of colour, that\nthe object perceived is within himself: without the sensation there\nis no perception of red, and with it, nothing is perceived or seen of\ncolour or of the flower; so that, were the object coloured or not, it\nis to the spectator invisible; and as the sensation would be useless\nwere the object coloured and seen, it is obvious that the flower is\nuncoloured, therefore is not seen: the seeing an uncoloured object is a\nphysical absurdity. So is it with all sensations; they constitute the\nonly objects of perception with which we are acquainted; and, such as\nthey are in any respect, the outward objects are in no respect. Sound\nis a sensation; a sense has been provided that we should have knowledge\nof sound; there is nothing of sound or noise in the air; the function\nof the sense is not to hear, but excite the auditory cerebral organ,\nand the sensation, in which alone sound consists, _seems_ to be outside\nof us, and _seems_ to come from a bell, but which has nothing of the\nkind to part with; yet it is imagined that sound enters the ear. Thus\nis it supposed that the sensation externally exists, and is sound heard\nby the ear. The philosopher so instructed, calculates the velocity of\nthe physical nonentity sound.\n\nLuminousness, light, colour, sound, heat, cold, flavour, odour, are\nsensations,--each of the entire is traceable from the function of the\nsenses to the sensorium: deduct these, there is nothing perceived or to\nperceive; by means of the senses, respectively, we have knowledge of\neach,--and by the senses exciting the brain are the whole produced, as\nsensible effects. Outward bodies can have nothing the same or similar\nto sensible effects; and therefore nothing of the whole belongs to\nmatter or bodies, or to physical philosophy. To mechanical nature the\nwhole would be useless; to sensitive beings only are they useful; to us\nthey are substitutes for Nature's deficiency in these respects; and the\nwhole present a convincing proof of the wise, the strict economy of the\nGreat Architect in his works.\n\nThe objection is unfounded, that the external object should be like\nthe sensation, in order to produce such sensation. But where is\nthere sound in musical string or in the metal of a bell to promote\nthe sensation; or yellow in the snowdrop to promote the sensation\nof yellow, when the eyes are jaundiced or a stained lens is before\nthem: the sensation of pain is not the effect of pain; it and pain\nare one. That which in health promotes the sensation known as sweet,\npromotes that of bitter in sickness; the object is the same, the\nsensation changeable. In reason it cannot be said that fire is like\nthe sensation, or the latter should be burning hot in the brain, where\nit is excited; neither is any material thing outside of us like a\nsensation of the brain; nor does the sensation inform us of anything\nbut itself, excepting that it has a remote external cause. The common\nshow-box exhibits the same landscape picture under the different\naspects of summer, autumn, winter, and spring, according to the stained\nlens before the eyes; the picture has not all these colours, nor any,\nit is a mere black and white print, in which the stained lenses make no\nalteration. Nothing can be like a sensation but a sensation.\n\nThat the objects we perceive and their remote cause are distinct\nthings, is proved by the perception being that of a coin of the\nhalf-crown size, when the eyes are directed to a shilling and a convex\nlens before the face; if the lens be red, yellow, or blue, so is the\nperceived object, which is not the white shilling. We are invisible to\neach other; what is imagined to be a man's appearance, may be described\nas, various sensations of different colours symmetrically arranged,\nand constituting a single optically-excited mental effect. Neither\nis it the likeness of the sitter that the canvass exhibits, but the\nexcited perception within the sensorium of the limner; for the renewal\nof which it is that he directs his eyes so frequently to the sitter's\nface, which is invisible to the limner, although he feels certain that\nhe sees every feature.\n\nThose who imagine the eye-balls look and see, and that externals and\nthe perceptions they promote are the same, should, upon reflection,\nattribute sight to their spectacles; for, as sight is nothing bettered\nwhen the glasses are removed, so should the temporary improvement be\nreferred to the spectacles having sight as well as the eyes.\n\nIn consequence of all mankind being similarly organised, that which\nseems coloured, sonorous, hot, acid, or aromatic to one person, is so\nto every one else with sane eyes and senses; by which unanimity of\nopinion, in these respects, prevails throughout the great family of\nman, in the worldly concerns of active life, and the social compact is\nmaintained indissoluble.\n\nThe all-wise, benevolent dispensation of the senses, by which man's\nexistence is supplied with enjoyments not in all nature otherwise\nto bestow; and his intellectual faculties provided with means of\ncontemplating the attributes of his Maker through his knowledge, such\nas it is, of the creation, which makes known to us not only God's\nregard for his creatures, but his supreme omniscience in the economy\nmade manifest throughout all his works. Were bodies coloured as we\nimagine, there should be an element of each red, yellow, and blue\natoms; elements of sound, heat, and cold; elements of flavour and\nodour innumerable: whereas, by the substitution of sensations, matter\nwithout any such qualities, or any whatever, excepting that of being\neverlasting, is made subservient to the formation of a universe of\nworlds, teeming with beauty, harmony, and wonders; all contributing to\nthe comfort, enjoyment, happiness, edification, and future hope of its\nsojourning inhabitants.\n\nNow, when from the established philosophy we deduct gravitation,\nattraction and repulsion, which are as foreign to inert matter as\nvitality to the dead,--the host of chymicals, so repugnant to the\nprinciple of _inertia_,--the imaginary living principles, erroneously\nimputed to the mechanical organs of the animal system,--the sensations\nof luminousness, light, colour, sound, heat, cold, acidity, and of\nflavours and odours,--when the entire of these unphysical, mere\nnominals, are deducted from modern philosophy, there remains nothing\nwhatever to produce action, physical change, or motion, excepting\n_pressure_, which has been always looked upon as a mere adjunct to the\nimagined numerous powers of nature. When common sense has rejected the\nwhole, then will the philosophy of the Fathers be valued by the world,\nas would be a garment with more holes than threads.\n\n\n\n\nMATTER\n\n\nAs a general term, _matter_, means substance; with scientific\nprecision, the term is confined to the elementary state, in\ncontradistinction to the term _body_, applied to matter consolidated\ninto solids and fluids.\n\nMatter consists of atoms, which are hard, opaque, _unalterable_, of\nhomogeneous substance, of the spheric shape, and naturally _inert_,\ntherefore of inactive essence; being _inert_, various species of\nsubstance would be useless. The spherical shape admits immediate atomic\ncontact, and leaves interstices uniformly throughout all bodies.\nThere cannot be either communication or alteration of the essence of\ninert matter; and what the essence of unalterable matter may be, is\nimpossible, and would be useless, to know.\n\nAn element is any volume of atoms of the same size. There is no\ndifference between elements but in the size of their atoms.\n\nEvery element is a rarer medium to every other element of larger atoms;\nthe minor is as a partial vacuum to the major, which involves the\nprinciple of _inequality_, on which motion depends.\n\nCorrelative elements are any two, the atoms of one of which are fitted\nfor the interstices of the other, and for no other interstices. Such\nelements will naturally be together. On the correlative principle\nmagnetism depends.\n\nAll bodies consist of several elements; there is nothing simple, but\nan element. Bodies are divisible, matter is not.\n\nAll bodies include a portion of _elementary_ or _electric_ matter,\nwhich is removed without injury to their general texture.\n\nMatter can suffer no change but change of place.\n\nWeight is an accident of matter, the effect of motion: all _effect_\nconsists in motion; there is no result until effect has ended in rest.\n\nRest being natural to inert matter, is no effect, has no cause.\n\n_There is no power but impulsive pressure_; nor is there any effect\nwhatever attributable to _inertia_.\n\nThe fundamental principle of _inertia_ is that only from which the\nphilosophy of nature is deducible: all philosophy is false which is not\nconsistent throughout with this universal, all-directing principle.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Note._--The terms _electric_ and _elementary_ are of the same\nsignification, which is, _highly rare_: quality and power to act are\nwholly out of the question with the inert atoms of the elements of\nbodies and matter.\n\n\n\n\nMOTION.\n\n\nMotion admits of no definition, from being but a local casuality of\ntransitory endurance; motion is the same in all things, from an atom to\na planet, against which all difference in velocity and direction makes\nno exception.\n\nImpulsive pressure is the only cause analogous to the mechanical\neffect motion; pressure is universal because matter is inert.\n\nMotion is not natural to _inert_ matter: the term is expressive of the\nlocal condition of a body, while the body is prevented remaining where\nit is, and while the body is being passed through contiguous portions\nof space.\n\nTHERE IS NO CAUSE OF MOTION BUT PHYSICAL IMPULSE.\n\nAs effect and cause are necessarily equal, so is motion the measure of\nimpulse, in time. Therefore as long as a body is in motion it is being\nimpelled, however insensible the impelling cause. Motion must be in the\ndirection of impulse; for, as a body cannot move itself, and is the\npassive patient of impulse, so must its direction be the same as that\nof impulse; therefore when the direction of motion is changed, it must\nbe by a novel impulse in the novel direction.\n\nFrom all matter being in motion, and all effect consisting in motion,\nand because like effects everywhere are attributable to the like\nor same cause, so must there be a cause of motion as universal as\nmatter; rather than that there should be a distinct impelling cause\nfor every individual motion following after the body, to put and keep\nit in motion. In all philosophic research the golden rule of nature\nshould be held in mind, which prescribes \"the shortest mode and fewest\nmaterials:\" _to mistake on the side of simplicity is more wise than\ncensurable in the search after natural physical truths_.\n\nA universal cause of motion, it would seem, can be no other than a\nuniversal medium, a medium of pressure, one occupying the regions of\nplanetary space, competent to keep the planets in interminable motion\nand effect all terrestrial minor motion: only by such means is it\nconceivable how the earth can be under endless, ever-varying impulse,\nproductive of ever-changing direction. When impulsively pressed into\nmotion by such a medium, the direction of a planet must be orbicular,\non account of the pressure on the solar side being always less than\non the opposite, by which the projectile direction is diverted from\nrectilinear to curvilinear.\n\nNewton imagined that a medium, and however rare, occupying the regions\nof space, must retard, in time destroy, and eventually require the hand\nof Deity to restore the primeval order of planetary motion: no very\nbright idea of the great mathematician, considering the Omniscience of\nthe Projector of a _self-going_, _self-regulating_ Universe. Whereas\na medium as dense as molten gold, could produce no such disorder as\nlong as impulse is greater than resistance; which the long-continuance\nand order of planetary motion strongly seem to indicate is the case.\nWere there no medium in space, the planets must be at rest; one could\nnot possibly affect another but by its shadow: Uranus being agitated\nby the greatly remote presence of Neptune, is proof of there being a\nconnecting medium between. Gravitation is supposed to move the body\npossessed of the property, forwards,--why not every way?--to the sun or\ntowards some neighbouring planet, but not to send that body or planet\nan agitating warning of its presence. How is gravitation within one\nplanet to keep another in a state of agitation; which agitation being\nmotion--a mechanical effect--is proof of there being a medium by which\nmediate connection is maintained between the two, Uranus and Neptune.\nWithout a planetary medium there could be no _system_ of planets.\nSuppose the existence of such a medium, then its sudden removal,--must\nnot every subordinate system, which makes part of the universal system,\nbecome disjointed the same instant? Besides, from the laws of vision,\nrather of optics, there is equal proof that space contains a medium.\nThere is no light to come from a star to the eye; there is nothing of\nsight belonging to the eye-balls; and there must be something between\na star and the sense to connect the star with the sense; or how is the\nsense or brain to be so affected by the star, as that the perception\nor sensation shall be always the same when the eye-ball lenses are\ndirected to the same star; and only by a universal medium can all the\nstars of the hemisphere be in connection with the eye at the same\ntime, or the time of a few winks of the eye. Therefore until it is\nproved that constant planetary motion can be without constant and equal\ncorresponding impulse, as to direction; and that a star can affect\nthe sense of itself, immediately or with nothing between, all denial\nof planetary space being occupied by a medium of pressure, is utterly\nuntenable.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEDIUM OF SPACE.\n\n\nPressure being obviously the cause of planetary motion, so is it of all\nterrestrial motion. To produce atomic motion and transfer generally, it\nis necessary, only, that the atoms of the medium of space should be of\nless size than the minutest interstices in bodies.\n\nA universal medium must be of universal service, (as would be\nconceived, were the universe involved in a medium of water,) to be\nin accordance with nature's economy: to keep the planets and matter\nin motion, to retain atoms together, and effect their separation\noccasionally, include the whole of action required by its service; more\nin this respect it cannot effect; nor is the common general procedure\notherwise effected. Therefore in pressure, by the medium of space,\nconsists the PRIMUM MOBILE: the beginning and end of all physical cause\nof action and of all physical effect.\n\nPressure is nothing assumed, hypothetic, or unproven, like attraction\nand gravitation,--the justly dethroned imbecile usurpers of the\nimperial chair of philosophy for ages past.\n\nOn barometric evidence alone, that pressure exists all round the globe\nis fully proved; and that it is indispensable to the maintenance of\nthe existing general order, all must readily grant who reflect for an\ninstant on the fatal consequences which the cessation of the general\npressure, for only a few minutes, must cause. Hence it is no immediate\nquestion how the general pressure originated, how maintained, what\nthe confining boundaries or _point d'appui_. Most likely it is the\nconsequence of the motion of the planets themselves, surging through\nthe ocean of space. As every performance of nature has some ulterior\nobject in view, it is probable that the effect of the motion of a\nplanet on the medium of space is tributary to the motion of another\nplanet, and that the motion of the whole is a means of preventing\nthe cessation of motion of any of the parts. Most likely the medium\nof space was not in a state of pressure at first; that planetary\nmotion, however commenced, effected the state of pressure necessary\nfor its continuance, and which would be useless beyond the precincts\nof planetary evolution: where pressure is not needed, of a certainty\nthere is none. Hence the conclusion is warrantable, that the general\npressure, however commenced, is maintained by not only the motion of\nthe planets individually but in systems, through the ocean of space.\n\nThe earth may be said to swim through the medium of space, and to be\nsoaked with it as a submerged sponge is with water, and the portion\nwithin the globe of the earth, is continuous with the like medium in\nspace generally. By which all parts of the interior of the globe are\nunder the general pressure equally as the surface, and all terrestrial\nbodies subject to its vicissitudes.\n\nBy such means, only, is the great earthquake to be accounted for on\ndynamic principles. Far as the subterraneous grumbling extends, the\nphysical cause must be present, and in a state of force equal to the\nawful result. No pent-up air suddenly set free, or suddenly exploded\ngas,--both naturally forceless,--subject to attenuation and obstruction\nin the passage from the source--is competent to burst the globe and\nhurl whole cities into the engulfing chasm: nor is fire any assistant,\njudging from the absence of flame, smoke, cinders, and ashes. Dreadful\nas is the catastrophe, it is but a natural casuality and in perfect\naccordance with the laws of matter. An extraordinary rushing into the\nbody of the earth of medium of space, preceded by an equal efflux of\nelementary matter atmospherically induced, are the cause and promoting\nmeans of the extraordinary, terrific phenomenon.\n\nAll things being under the general pressure, and elementary atoms\nof all sizes everywhere present, the interstices of bodies cannot\nremain empty. From all interstices being formed by spherical atoms,\nand the atoms of the medium of space the smallest, there are always\ninterstitial spaces for medium of space to enter, pass through or\nremain within, and which _is not insulated_, but continuous with the\noutward source. Thus, has the medium of space access to every atom, and\nby the pressure from without, is enabled to act _centrifugally_ within\nthe body, as a kind of back-spring against each and the whole of its\nconstituent atoms, to produce expansion, dissolution, and elementary\ndispersion according to the medium or circumstances in which the body\nmay be placed. These general principles admit of repetition, in order,\nthat, by repeated showing, to prove their validity, against others\nmore generally known and adopted, although unfounded in nature, sense,\nor reason.\n\n\n\n\nMINUS-PRESSURE MATTER.\n\n\nTaking the maximum of pressure as a fixed quantity, or, as not being\nsubject to increase, and assuming the degree to be not less than\nequal to the tenacity of steel, there must of necessity be means of\nmitigating the maximum, so that in the scale of descent every degree\nof force should be attainable; and more, to keep the equilibrium in\na state of disturbance, without which all things must be, and remain\nin the rest of death. Were there no minus-pressure means, the solid,\nor perhaps a\u00ebriform state of matter would exist everywhere, and of\nmotion there could be none. Such means for promoting motion are amply\nsupplied, and without any addition of matter to the measured quantity\nsufficient for the formation of bodies and service of nature generally,\nin the elements themselves, of matter.\n\nAs the body which is involved in a medium of air is under less pressure\nthan in a medium of water, and still less within a medium of elementary\nmatter, so is elementary matter, and the elements generally, the\nnatural means of mitigating the maximum of pressure on and within\nbodies. All bodies within and on the surface of the earth, possess\nremovable elementary matter, which prevents superficial contact, and\nexcludes medium of space proportionally from their interior; and\nbecause the medium of space is the cause of pressure, in being thus\nrendered discontinuous, so is its force, as it were, intercepted\nor lessened. For instance, a polished needle floats on water, but\nwhen wetted or smoked is precipitated, from having its electric or\nminus-pressure atmosphere removed; from which it is obvious that with\nthe minus-pressure atmosphere, the needle is under less pressure than\nwhen without it; and the same atmosphere it is which makes the bed in\nthe water so much larger every way than the needle.\n\nThe minus-pressure principle is well exemplified in the rise of water\nwithin a tube over which fire is situated. When the fire is removed,\nthe water falls. The fire must be in the state of combustion--mere\nignition does not answer. The elements forced out of the combustible,\nas combustion proceeds, cover the orifice of the tube, and intercept\nthe general pressure, notwithstanding they are under the general\npressure. By such minus-pressure means is the equilibrium destroyed,\nand by the unaltered pressure on the water outside the lower orifice\nof the tube, the water is forced upwards. So is it that the water of\nthe sea is raised to the minus-pressure, elementary matter descending\nfrom a cloud in the shape of an inverted cone, and known as the\nwater-spout. Astronomers can best say whether the sun and moon be not\nminus-pressure means in promoting the rise of the ocean, productive of\nthe tides; a miniature representation of which is effected by holding\na charged jar over a surface of water, to which the water rises in a\nsmall cone,--which cone follows every motion of the jar, and falls when\nthe jar is discharged. Capillary ascent is promoted by the interposed\nminus-pressure electric matter which fills the caliber of the tube: the\nsame matter prevents the horizontal flow of water through such tubes;\nbut when the tubes are de-electrised, the flow is free and constant:\nboiling water, or fire de-electrises all such tubes. The electric\nmatter on a bar of iron is a hinderance to water running down, but\nwhen removed by means of fire, the water runs down the bar freely. The\natmosphere is a minus-pressure medium to the earth, and on the general\nprinciple that _interposed elementary matter renders discontinuous_ the\nmedium of pressure, which is the medium of space.\n\nMinus-pressure means exist in other than the elementary form,\nas in blotting-paper, candle-wick, pledgets of lint. Within the\ncupping-glass, which is empty of air only, it is the minus-pressure\nmatter obtained from flame which promotes the rise of blister.\nWithin the vessels of the vascular system, as mucilaginous lining,\nminus-pressure matter assists the circulation of fluids, on the\nforegoing capillary principle. The slime on deep-water fish, seems\nprovided to lessen the pressure of the water on the inhabitants of\nthose seas. Minus-pressure matter on one side only of a body, destroys\nthe equilibrium, and promotes the motion of the body; and generally,\nthe partial action, implied by motion, of the medium of space on bodies\nor their parts, is promoted by interposed minus-pressure matter in\nevery instance of physical change. Only in minus-pressure means, which\nserve as a partial vacuum in some cases, to disturb the equilibrium\nof pressure, is motion, or change of place of the elements of bodies,\nor of bodies themselves promoted: without such means there is nothing\nto promote the blowing of a wind, or to put the medium of space into\naction. Cause being given, the _General Pressure_ in the production\nof every physical effect, the sole province of philosophy consists in\ntracing out the minus-pressure means which promote the occasional and\npartial action of the medium of pressure.\n\n\n\n\nFIRE.\n\n\nFire is not hot, although it burns the flesh and promotes pain.\nMatter, which is unalterable, cannot be made hot or cold, neither\nis there anything to make it so. If a limb be made rigid, or the\nnerves of sensation be removed, or the function of the nervous fluid\nbe obstructed, the limb may be burned off unconsciously. Heat is a\nsensation effected through excitement of the brain; out of the brain\nthere is neither excitement nor heat. The fire does not excite the\nbrain, but the nervous fluid; and although the sensation is not hot, it\nis imagined that the cause must be hot, which is false reasoning. The\nchymist finds heat creviced in all things, even those which he admits\nare destroyed by heat--gunpowder and ice. How can flame be hot, when\njust obtained from the gases of decomposed ice water? or, if hot, _sui\ngeneris_, it must have been hot frozen flame in the original ice.\n\nModern philosophy adopts different kinds of heat,--_animal, culinary,\nand latent heat_. The first is our own feeling excited by means of\nfire in the sensitive centre, the brain; also by exercise and disease,\nin the absence of fire. How is the spark from the flint or from the\nsteel to saturate a bushel of coal with heat? How, again, does \"heat\ncome to an equilibrium in all surrounding bodies,\" when some portion\nof the coal may be black cold, and others red hot--using the popular\nterms--in the fire-place, at the same time, and while the air in the\nchamber is indexing zero? _Latent heat_ is of the philosopher's own\npeculiar making; and on the \"_great discovery_\" the most unbounded\npraise is still bestowed. Latent heat, \"which all bodies possess\nwithout being heated,\" which, \"heats nothing,\" and is not hot, is\ncold heat, and should be nomenclatured such, or, absurd heat. Are not\nInstructors less than half-reasoners and unnatural philosophers, who\nabide by and teach such consummate nonsense: on a par with which is\nthe discovery of \"latent dark light\"--\"of black being formed by the\nintermixture of two luminous rays at the point of intersection in\nthe spectrum,\" which is the same as feelable darkness; after which,\nthere only remains for \"_new discovery_,\" latent sound, for inking\non, thence vibrating from, a sheet of music-paper; and latent motion,\nto keep a stone at rest, the quantity of motion in the world having\nbeen already ascertained arithmetically to a fraction; the last-day\ndiscovery, the quantity of right reason, is the small remaining trifle\nto be discovered. Radiation of heat and cold by fire and ice, being\ninconsistent with the _inertia_ of _matter_, is an erroneous and\ngreatly-misleading assumption, although proved through the nicest\nexperiments, according to the experimenter's ideas.\n\nInstead of fire communicating anything to bodies, _fire promotes loss\nto everything_ in its neighbourhood. The bars of stoves, iron pokers,\nsteam-boilers; all culinary vessels; coal, wood, candles, paper, linen,\nall suffer loss by means of fire; cinders, charcoal, tinder, are but\nremains: to which it is no exception that some bodies acquire substance\nand weight in becoming oxydes; because, previous to acquiring oxygen\nfrom the air, they must have lost elementary matter to the fire to make\nspaces for the oxygen to enter, otherwise the open air should oxydize\nequally, in the absence of fire.\n\nThe loss, or matter of loss which fire promotes to fluids, appears as\nair-beads on the sides and bottom within the vessel on the fire, before\nthe water comes to ebullition: these beads cannot be made to rise in\nthe water by any manner of agitation, which is proof they have not\ncome from the fire, and through the rigid bottom, or ascent and escape\nare inevitable. When the bottom has been sufficiently de-electrised by\nthe fire, they are pressed through it to the fire; or if the vessel be\nremoved and placed on the ground, they become dispersed through the\nwater insensibly. The like spherules collect on an egg while boiling,\nwhich cannot be anything issued from the fire to the surface of the\nwater, then precipitated on the egg. On the bottom of a glass-retort\nsuspended over a lamp, the like spherules collect, from which it is\nsupposed that water never touches the bottom of any containing vessel;\nit must touch that which it wets.\n\nThat air suffers loss to fire, is made evident by the air being\ndeprived of, or losing its oxygen during combustion; and from both fire\nand flame becoming extinguished in a limited quantity of respirable\nair, in consequence of having lost its oxygen to the combustible, while\nin the state of fire.\n\nSolids, as polished metals and glass, when they experience no change\nof weight, lose to the fire imponderable elementary matter only. So is\nit when the hand is presented to the fire, it loses electric matter,\nand the loss it suffers promotes the sensation of heat: when the hand\nafterwards touches a body, supposed to be cold, it acquires elementary\nmatter from that which is touched. In every instance the body, solid or\nfluid, supposed to be _heating_, is losing elementary matter; and that\nwhich is said to be _cooling_, is acquiring the like matter; the hand\n_loses_ to the former and _receives_ from the latter electric matter.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEDIUM OF FIRE.\n\n\nA peculiar medium is formed within a fire, towards the composition of\nwhich the fuel contributes more or less of its elements; which is made\nmanifest in a piece of wood or paper when held within the fire, being\nbrought to the state of combustion, and without touching the fuel,\n(heat, be it remembered, is no more physical than shadow.) The like\nmedium is formed from the elements contributed by flame, and whatever\nof elementary matter the atmosphere may contribute beside. High above\nthe flame of a lamp combustion and fusion are effected the same as\nwithin, or in contact with the flame. Between the cupped hands this\nmedium is receivable, and may be carried from the flame of a candle to\nthe wick of a different candle just blown out, which it re-illumines.\nThere being little or none of the medium of fire attendant on a\ndetached ignited body, favours the conjecture that the fuel during\ncombustion contributes somewhat of its elements towards the formation\nof the medium of fire. Hence, although not included in the nomenclature\nof chymistry or any other, the medium of fire should have place on the\nlist of realities.\n\nAs all bodies include more or less of free elementary matter, which\nexcludes its equal in volume of the medium of space, so to admit medium\nof space in order to cause change in the constitution of a body, the\nbody must undergo previous de-electrisation: the law is general.\n\nThe medium of space being the expanding and decomposing cause, by\nmeans of its centrifugal pressure within bodies, to prevent its being\nin excess and effecting such changes spontaneously, productive of the\ndecomposition of all things, all bodies are protected or retained in\ntheir present condition by the electric matter within them, which\nexcludes the decomposing cause.\n\nWithin the medium of fire all kinds of bodies become de-electrised;\nall suffer loss of electric matter, which is succeeded by influent\nmedium of space, the centrifugal pressure of which affects the several\nchanges to which bodies are liable previous to ultimate dissolution\ninto the elementary state. In promoting the de-electrisation of every\nkind of body, and to the extreme, which no other individual medium or\nmenstruum can effect, consists the universal utility of the medium of\nfire.\n\n\n\n\nEXPANSION.\n\n\nThe theory of expansion is of easy comprehension; it consists in\nprevious de-electrisation, succeeded by influent medium of space,\nwhich, by acting with centrifugal pressure, produces the phenomenon of\nexpansion. The general pressure is the expanding cause, by reason of\nthe portion of medium of space within all bodies being continuous with\nthe medium of pressure in general space.\n\nA bar of iron placed within the medium of fire suffers\nde-electrisation; then acquires medium of space, by which the bar is\nexpanded. When taken from the fire, it acquires electric matter similar\nto that of which it had suffered loss, which displaces the expanding\nmedium, and now becomes contracted by external pressure. The olden\nphilosophy has no contracting cause, the imputed attraction having\nbeen destroyed by the imputed heat of the fire, as the same philosophy\nstates of the imputed attraction of magnets being destroyed by the heat\nof fire, which leaves the bar to contract itself.\n\nA piece of lead on the fire becomes de-electrised and expanded. The\nportion of medium of space it has acquired separates the atoms of\nthe lead by which the state of solidity is subverted; it remains as\none of the constituents of the lead, and is as a menstruum to the\nmetal, and the atoms of the metal may be said to swim in it as the\nglobules of blood in the serum. Further de-electrisation and additional\nincrements of medium of space are productive of complete dispersion of\nthe atoms of the metal, and of a kind of efflorescent result, which\nis a subsequent formation. The air in a corked bottle before the\nfire loses electric matter to the medium of fire; and by the medium\nof space which enters the vacated interstices, the cork is exploded.\nIn the partially exhausted air-pump receiver, that decrease in the\nquantity of air should increase the expansive power of the remainder,\nand that the atoms should fly asunder with exploding force, is most\nunreasonable and impossible. The physical fact is, the more the air\nis reduced, the greater is the quantity of influent medium of space,\nconsequently of expanding and exploding force. In the condensing of\nair, as is the expression, by the piston of the syringe, the quantity\nis reduced from being forced out through the pores of the syringe; and\npressure on the bottom of the piston springs it up when the depressing\npower is removed. Under the general pressure the atoms of air must\nbe in contact; and the volume being reduced, implies reduction of\nquantity: hard unalterable atoms are incompressible beyond contact;\nand as to their being elastic, it is physically impossible; medium\nof space being forced out and re-entering, is what makes the air be\nconsidered elastic. Let the syringe be worked under water, and the\nmatter displaced appears escaping as air-bubbles, and as air-beads on\nthe outside of the syringe.\n\n\n\n\nOXYGEN AIR.\n\n\nAll airs are compounds. Medium of space is the most voluminous\nconstituent of every a\u00ebriform body, which accounts for an air or gas\nand steam being of so much greater volume than that from which it had\nbeen obtained; steam has fifteen hundred times the volume of the water\nit was produced from.\n\nOxygen air is decomposed in converting it with hydrogen to water:\nthere is no oxygen or hydrogen air in water; their _elements_ are\nthe constituents of water. Oxygen is decomposed by respiration; when\ninspired, it is not expired, but nitrogen, which must have been one\nof its constituents, and from there being nothing to constitute the\nexpiration but the previous inspiration the proposition is proved.\n\nThe constituents of oxygen are--nitrogen, _a highly rare imponderable\nelement_ and medium of space. The first is the most ponderable element\nof nitrogen air; its atoms are the largest of all others of the\nelements of matter, and, it may be said, they constitute the substance\nof the framework of all ponderable or gross formations. Davy says,\n\"the properties of nitrogen are altogether negative;\" the same applies\nto every other kind of air, all being constituted of _inert_ atomic\nsubstance, consequently of inactive essence; and all being alike in\nevery respect but in the size of their atoms. The imponderable element\nbeing highly evanescent, is never found alone, and is always connected\nwith nitrogen; hence simple nitrogen is obtainable only from bodies, or\nby deoxygenating atmospheric air. Atmospheric air is nitrogen, plus the\nimponderable element; and when the nitrogen is saturated with the same\nelement, the air is oxygen: hence, whichever is inspired, nitrogen is\nexpired.\n\nFrom nitrogen being evolved copiously from water in vacuo, and from\nice being convertible to nitrogen, according to Priestley, so is\nnitrogen a constituent of water, also of the gases into which water is\ndecomposable; but as it cannot belong to the hydrogen, owing to its\nsuperior levity, it must to the oxygen; which is confirmation of the\nabove, that nitrogen is a constituent of oxygen air or gas.\n\n\n\n\nTHE USE OF OXYGEN IN PROMOTING COMBUSTION.\n\n\nHow oxygen supports combustion no Elementary Treatise explains; but\nleaves it to be imagined, that oxygen is somewhat of a burnable nature,\nor that it generates heat when blown into a fire. The fact is, it\nsupports combustion only mechanically. The centrifugal pressure, by\nthe medium of space, decomposes the fuel; electric matter, entering\nthe ignited fuel, displaces medium of space, and the fire goes out;\noxygen prevents the entrance of electric matter, and permits the medium\nof space to enter the fuel freely, the pressure from without gives\ncentrifugal force. In this twofold manner of service oxygen promotes\nthe continuance of the kind of decomposition known as combustion. A\nlive coal is greatly _deficient_ of electric matter; when just fallen\nfrom the fire it is said to be red and hot, after a few minutes black\nand cold; all of which are but mental effects. On the hearth the coal\nacquires electric matter from the air, which displaces medium of space,\nand becomes extinguished; so would the fire were there no oxygen in the\nsurrounding air. Hence it would seem, that the interstices of oxygen\nare too diminutive for electric matter to enter, but are sufficiently\nlarge for those of the medium of space to pass through, thence into\nthe fuel. Should the utility of the nitrogen of oxygen in combustion\nbe questioned, because nitrogen alone puts an end to the combustion\nof a candle; it may be answered, that, as the imponderable element of\noxygen air, from being highly evanescent, is not obtainable without\nthe nitrogen, and as by the service of both together combustion is\nincreased, so may both be considered supporters of combustion; the\ngrosser element serving as a carrier to the minor, and, as it were,\ngiving it momentum sufficient to penetrate beyond the surface of the\nhalf-decomposed, or previously ignited fuel.\n\n\n\n\nCOMBUSTION.\n\n\nA piece of wood, like everything else when placed within the medium\nof fire, suffers de-electrisation and acquires medium of space: this\ntwofold procedure continuing, the wood becomes split or burst asunder,\nand its elements gradually forced out by the centrifugal pressure;\nsome of which are precipitated, some contribute to the medium of fire,\nothers are recombined differently and exist for a short space of time\nas flame, and others, with matter from the air, form soot. Such is the\nmost rational theory of combustion, consistent with the _inertia_ of\nmatter and the absence of heat.\n\nFriction rubs away electric matter, percussion forces it out,\ncombustion and ignition follow, and without being promoted by either\nheat or fire. The kindling matter of a coal-laid fire requires\nthe de-electrising spark at first, and the de-electrised kindling\nde-electrises the coal; the wood fire, effected by means of friction,\nis independent of even the spark of fire for its commencement, from\nhaving been otherwise de-electrised at first. Within the fire, one part\nde-electrises another, and the centrifugal pressure decomposes the\nwhole.\n\nAnimal combustion is consequent on the internal organs and flesh being\nde-electrised, the stomach first, by means of spirituous liquors,\nwhich, like fire in so doing, promote the sensation of heat. The\nstomach and adjacent organs, from being thus de-electrised, are\nprepared to receive the decomposing medium; and from oxygen, to exclude\nelectric matter, being absent, the flesh is brought to the state of\nsmothered combustion and charred: it may now be considered in the light\nof a _mortuum caput_.\n\nThe spontaneous combustion of greasy clothes, damp hay and other\nthings, is promoted by the limited quantity of air in which such\narticles are confined. To the hand the air seems warm before\ncombustion has commenced, which indicates deficiency of electric\nmatter, but which, in time, the air acquires from greasy clothes, and\nfrom damp hay, the removal of which is succeeded by the destroying\nmedium, by which the elements of the combustible become separated, set\nfree, and dispersed.\n\nIn summer, when the atmosphere is greatly deficient of what may\nbe termed winter electric matter, all woodwork is in a desiccated\ncondition; and the slight friction of limb against limb is sufficient\nto make space for medium of space to enter in excess, and convert to\nfire, tree after tree, the whole of a forest.\n\nThe combustion of a candle is well worthy the philosopher's attention.\nThe candle while burning, comprises a series of the simplest\noperations, and far beyond the powers of art to effect or otherwise\nimitate; yet from indifference to the familiar, and the paucity of\nskill required in the construction, there is nothing less noticed\nwith philosophic acumen. The mechanism and materials to be wrought\nare the same; which consist in a slender, compact, portable cylinder\nof tallow, within which is included an equal length of wick. The\nvarious operations of de-electrising, fluidifying, and gas-making,\nare performed in silent, regular succession, unretarded by friction\nand unincumbered with containing vessels, Nature furnishes the power.\nThe wick answers the purpose of service-pipes, through which the\nhalf-wrought materials are conveyed in a gaseous form to the refining\nfire, within which they remain as in a gasometer of supply, to be\ngradually diffused through the surrounding flame, and there receive\nthe finishing lustrous polish. The new formation is now a refinery to\nthe work in progress, and is curiously situated over the materials\nwhere only it could serve the numerous requisite purposes. Nor does the\ngradual consumption of the machinery derange the order of operation,\nwork and wear being carried on simultaneously to the end. The\nmany-coloured tissue wrought, of starlight shine and of expanded base,\nis tastefully tapered as if to please in appearance, as well as lighten\nour darkness. Thus by natural means, operating on almost uncostly\nmaterials, mankind are supplied with that by which darkness is turned\nto day--the candle flame.\n\nAll combustion is on the same principle, previous de-electrisation\nthe commencement, and, by the same cause continued, the centrifugal\npressure, which is on the increase from being derived from the general\npressure. Flame, or the electric spark, de-electrises the gases, oxygen\nand hydrogen, before their conversion to water takes place; compression\neffects the same. The inflammable air in mines becomes exploded from\nthe de-electrising consequence of flame, when inadvertently exposed;\nand at times the de-electrisation is effected by the atmosphere, as in\nspontaneous combustion. The mine explosion, promoted by the atmosphere,\nis a case of spontaneous detonation, if not combustion, which, from sad\nexperience taught, should be anticipated by the application of a rocket\nfired by a train. The foul air should be got rid of timely, not left\nto accumulate, and the weather dictates when. \"The Davy\" may be said\nto insulate the flame of the lamp from the electric matter of the air\nwithin the mine. The flame, when exposed, de-electrises the foul air,\nand in fluent medium of space causes the explosion.\n\n\n\n\nWATER.\n\n\nWater is the most compound of fluids, although when pure it promotes\nlittle or no sensation, which is owing to the certain proportion of its\nelements to each other. It seems to have, as constituents, a portion\nof each of the general elements; of which, when any are in excess or\ndeficiency, the fluid differs from common pure water, but still is\nan aqueous fluid. All aqueous fluids which differ from pure water,\ndo so from elementary disproportion in their constitution. Ancient\nphilosophers considered water the parent of all things, because it\ncontributes matter of substance and increase, they said, to all kinds\nof bodies, and because there is nothing elementary belonging to bodies\nwhich is not obtainable, by one means or other, from water or its\nproductions. It contributes increase to the whole of the vegetable\nkingdom, and through vegetable matter to the increase of animal flesh.\nFrom the vegetable world are obtainable, by means of art, earths,\nmetals, salts, acids, alkalies, even flame; the primitives of which\nare of the same kind as the initials of water; also of the atmosphere,\nwhich is convertible to water, but is not water, by reason of not only\nelementary disproportion, but the enormous excess of medium of space\nin which its elements are involved.\n\nThe constitution of water being unknown, and supposed to consist of\nonly the gases, hydropathy is condemned, like mesmerism, through the\nignorance and intolerance of professionals, themselves falsely educated\nat best. As alimentary, water is the most wholesome drink under\nheaven; as medicinal, far beyond comparison with extracts from metals\nand minerals, from which deduct the water, the remainder kills. The\nhydropathic perspiration cleanses the flesh from head to foot; physic,\nthe intestines and stomach only. Water is the elixir of both body and\nmind; witness the persons who are teetotallers. A patient declared to\nthe present writer, he would rather have run naked into the street,\nwere he not bound up by the wet sheets, than endure the fog and stench\nfrom his body by the cold water perspiration. Yet doctors insist that\nhydropathy is not medicinal or curative, or why not adopt the practice?\n\nWater is formed by detonating the gases, oxygen and hydrogen, by which\ntheir _elements_ become combined in the form of water; which is the\nonly formative mode pursued in the laboratory of art; whereas, in that\nof nature, it is variously formed: the number of elements determines\nthe number of modes. Suppose six the number of the natural elements,\nthen any five and the remaining one, any four and the remaining two,\nor any three and the other three, met and compressed within the\natmosphere, the product is water. On the meeting of certain clouds,\nwhere _the gases_ could not have equal elevation, water is formed;\nand on walls and wainscots, under cover, in humid weather, it is\nformed from the electric matter on their surface and the complement of\nelements contributed by the atmosphere: the same walls, in the same\nweather, would have no water, if kept de-electrised by stoves. It is\nformed similarly on furs, woollens, and the spider's web, all of which\nare retainers of electric matter; and on the leaves of plants as _dew_,\nbut on the side only which is covered with the like electric matter.\nDew-water is neither a precipitation nor exhalation, but a formation on\nthat where it is found.\n\nWater is formed on glass and metallic vessels, however closely covered,\nas long and no longer than the included water gives out electric matter\nthrough the pores of the vessel. In the air of the tropics, the dew or\nwater running down the outside of covered and uncovered vessels, cannot\nbe considered humidity of the air condensed by cold. In proof of the\nforegoing, the hitherto unexplained experiment is opportune.\n\nA plate of glass, covered on one side with tin foil, has much dew on\nthe naked side when uppermost, and none, when the covered side is\nuppermost, of equal dewy nights. The foil acquires electric matter from\nthe ground, which the glass or naked upper side receives and retains;\nbut when the naked side is next the ground, the portion of electric\nmatter it acquires is conducted off by the foil at top; and as where\nthere is no electric matter there is no dew, the upper coated side\nis dry, and under circumstances which would have left much dew on the\nglass side if uppermost.\n\nWithin the animal system various aqueous fluids and humidities are\nformed, and, as in the former instances, without oxygen and hydrogen\nbeing present; namely, hydrocephalus, the stomach juices, liquor\npericardium, water of blister, milk, tears: to these add the juices\nof fruit, the chymists' aqueous fluids, together with the variety\nof formative modes, and the complex constitution of water remains\nunquestionable. Lavoisier's experiments proved the same, by the endless\nvariety in the residue and product, from decomposing and recomposing\nthe same water several times. Davy states, that, when experimenting on\ndifferent substances, water frequently appeared, when there was nothing\nsensibly present to which it could be attributed, if not to nitrogen,\nwhich disappeared simultaneously with the water appearing: electric\nmatter is everywhere present, although not sensibly discoverable.\n\nFrom which it is obvious that the alchymists of old mistook the road\nto _El Dorado_. Instead of aiming at turning the grosser metals into\ngold, they should have alchymised on water, taking its elements as the\nmoney-changer does those of the numeration table, and by the rules of\ntransposition made the valueless stand in the place of most value.\n\nWater in the boiler loses electric matter to the fire beneath, and is\nexpanded by influent medium of space; the excess of the latter throws\nout the elements of the superior stratum, which, with an enormous\ninflux of medium of space, are the constituents of steam and the power\nof steam. The so-acquired medium of space, by the pressure from without\nwhich it is under, is the cause of the elasticity and force of steam.\nSteam is not water, nor is it ever condensed by \"cold.\" It consists\nin the elements of water, less that which the water lost to the fire:\nboth, with a reduced or proportional quantity of medium of space, make\nthe original stratum of water. What but electric matter can steam\nreceive from the pipes it may be passed through, and is discharged from\nas water? Insulated, \"centrifugally repellant heat,\" without fulcrum,\nis a most inconsiderable substitute for _the pressure of nature_ by\nthe all-pervading medium of space, and but a shadowy substitute in\naccounting for the powerful effects of steam. There is no repellant\nforce in the flame of a candle; and what but influent medium of space\ncan make a pint of water fill and overflow a quart vessel.\n\nWater loses its fluidity and is made solid or congealed, upon losing\nthe imponderable oxygenating element. Priestley through his experiments\nmade the discovery, that, \"air, purer than atmospheric, is given out\nby water at the instant of congelation,\"--which must be oxygen air.\nFrom which we learn, that oxygen is the natural hinderance against the\nwaters of the globe being solid; with which experimental practice and\nexperience agree, it being well known that oxygen added to a freezing\nsolution, retards congelation; and that, to facilitate the freezing\nof water, a smart tap is given to the side of the vessel, hitherto\nunknown why, but seems as if to shake out the oxygen. The following\nobserved circumstances exhibit the congelation of water throughout all\nits stages. The air in a chamber being favourable for the reception of\noxygen from water, the water in a cylindrical earthen pitcher became\nfrozen; a plate of ice was formed, which equalled the area of the\nvessel, and firmly fixed to the sides one full inch higher than the\nwater had been at first. The bottom of the vessel was blown out, the\nsides remained whole, and the ice not broken or moved.\n\nThe circumstances of the case admits of the following illustration.\nMedium of space, by its pressure, forced out the oxygen; additional\nincrements of the same medium entered, collapsed the elements of the\ndeoxydated stratum of water, and so forcibly expanded the rest of the\nwater as to make it explode the bottom of the vessel, all at the same\ninstant. As all excess of medium of space retired from the water, the\nlatter sunk to the original height; and had not the water escaped, it\nwould have been an inch separate from the plate of ice. A river thus\nfrozen, flows freely beneath the ice from the same circumstances. The\nbomb-shell at Hudson Bay was exploded by the expanded water, not by\nthe newly-formed ice; or else the sides, not the bottom of the earthen\nvessel, would have been exploded.\n\nIce is deoxygenated water, and abounds with electric matter, hence it\nfloats; and ice-water is at the minimum of density from being deficient\nof oxygen. Ice, in a Florence flask, hung over a lamp, yields\nabundance of electric matter, towards the formation of lamp-black\non the outside of the bottom of the flask, which, to the miniature\npainter may be preferable, from being the freest of grit. In all cases\nof combustion, the elements of lamp-black are present; so that, in\ncombustion of the diamond, the same kind of soot being formed, affords\nno information of the constituents of this highly-prized crystal.\nWith more reason than that of pure carbon, (which is but another name\nfor the electric matter which is the principal constituent of ice,\nand lamp-black) being the base of diamond, it may be assumed, that,\ndiamond is a crystalized oxyde of water. The electrician's opposite\ncharacteristics of the two, diamond and ice, accord with the suggestion.\n\n\n\n\nSOLVENCY.\n\n\nThe menstruum is supposed to _act_ by \"chymical attraction,\" from\nhaving \"chymical affinity\" on the involved \"chymical solid,\" which\nenables it to draw out the elementary atoms of the solid: whereas the\n_inert_ menstruum does nothing; it is but an interstitial recipient for\nthe atoms to be forced into, as they become centrifugally forced out\nof the solid. And because the atoms of a body are of different sizes,\nsome make novel interstices, and thus expedite the dissolution. Only by\nincreasing the number and kind of interstices, can diluting a menstruum\nwith water increase what is imagined to be its solvency. Neither\nchymical properties, nor chymical strength of a fluid, if it had any\nsuch, could be increased by dilution, and the stronger should dissolve\nthat which the weaker is said to dissolve. The contrary supposes that\nthe force which breaks a stone is too strong to break a nutshell.\nMechanical dissolution by the centrifugal pressure is independent of\n_chymicalities_.\n\n\n_Gastric solution_ is effected similarly: the juice has none of the\nchymical properties of Liebig, nor does ingestion stand in need of the\nliving principle of Coombe; the former are imaginary, the latter is\ndenied from gastric solution taking place in a tea-cup. The gastric\njuice is an interstitial receiver of the elements of the pulp, when\nforced out by the centrifugal pressure into the gastric menstruum,\nas those of soap into water. The pulp and its _stri\u00e6_ are disunited,\nmechanically decomposed, not abraded: some of its elements escape\ninto the air within the stomach, which, by disturbing the equilibrium\nwithin, promote irregularity of pressure on the outside of the sac,\nwhich causes the _pli\u00e6_ to be in the peristaltic motion, supposed to be\ncaused by the stomach stimulating itself. The same circumstances take\nplace within and without the intestines. The whole process of digestion\nis dynamic, in which the only stimulant is pressure.\n\nOf the various conjectures on the origin of the gastric juice, there\ncannot be any more unreasonable than that which considers it a fluid\n_sui generis_, and as having origin out of the stomach. All fluids are\ncompounds; and those belonging to the body may be said to be formed\nout of, or by commixture with others. To suppose for an instant, that\na fluid, which is _destructive of all flesh_, should have existence\nout of the stomach, and remain harmless in some _fleshy_ vessel as\nlong as the stomach is empty of food, or until food is required to\n\"stimulate\" its flow from without through the _papill\u00e6_ of the villous\nlining into the stomach, is a most strange physiologic oversight. Why\nnot rather conclude at once, that the flesh-destroying juice exists\nonly where it is required and for immediate service, and where only\nthere are preventive means, the peristaltic motion, against it proving\ninjurious to the flesh of the stomach; and to the vessels of secretion\nit would be injurious, hence, not as the juice but chyme it is passed\nout of the stomach into the system. Under such circumstances, the\nsuggestion is nothing unreasonable, that, _there is no gastric juice\nout of the stomach, nor within, but while there is food present to\ncontribute one or more of its elements to the other juices, including\nthe saliva, towards effecting its completion as a fit interstitial\ngastric menstruum, for receiving the elementary constituents of the\npulp under mechanical decomposition by the centripetally disuniting\npressure of the medium of space_. Like the all de-electrising medium\nof fire, which exists only where and while it is being formed, the\ngastric juice should be looked upon as if _designed to be of difficult\nformation_; made more so by depending on the food for its completion,\nwhich is not a matter of \"observation\" within the stomach, or in the\ntea-cup: neither is the perfect juice, which may be sponged or syringed\nfrom the bottom of the stomach, any proof that as such precisely it\ncame from the _papill\u00e6_, as some suppose. As to the papillary flow\nbeing _stimulated_ by the food, with as bad philosophy it might be\nsaid, charmed; or that clockwork is _stimulated_ by the weights. The\nflow is promoted by the pulp, as were the latter a piece of sponge. And\nthat the papillary flow is but a constituent, not the flesh-destroying\njuice, in promoting ingestion, is evident from the hunger pain it\npromotes while harmlessly accumulating out of the stomach, indicating\nthe stomach being empty; and the relief experienced at its source when\ndischarged into the stomach, it is, which has given rise to the idea,\nthat certain organs _sympathise_ with the stomach.\n\nSuch metaphorical expressions may pass for the poetry of pathology, but\nhitherto have stood in the way of deep research. Ingestion is expedited\nby sleep, in consequence of the accumulation of minus-pressure matter\nin the gastric region and stomach at the time; and sleep is promoted\nby imperfect mastication causing a deficiency of saliva in the stomach\nwhich is compensated by minus-pressure matter of the thus provoked\ncomatose flow. The pollparrot masticates but little, if at all, and\nsleeps regularly after breakfast.\n\n\n\n\nUSE OF THE INSPIRED OXYGEN WITHIN THE SYSTEM.\n\n\nThere is none of the inspired oxygen returned to the lungs by the\ncirculation. What becomes of it, or what its use within the system, has\nnot been written for our learning. It is not retained in the blood,\nnor is it animalised; nothing yields less oxygen than animal matter.\nTo convey \"carbon\" out of the system, and somehow purify the blood, is\nthe supposed service; but if so, should it not be included in every\nexpiration and of the inspiration quantity? but which is not the case.\n\nHarvey proved that the blood circulates, but left undiscovered what\nkeeps in motion the _inert_ fluid, except the systole, which the\n_inert_ heart cannot effect on itself. No organ can do anything of\nitself, the whole being composed of inert substance, and nothing else;\neven the life of the body, whatever it may be, leaves the function of\nevery organ, not excepting that of the brain, dependent on the general\npressure.\n\nBy the general pressure the air is forced into, but not through or\nbeyond the lungs which it inflates, and inflates nothing else. Within\nthe blood-vessels it would prove fatal; and although from it the blood\nderives that by which it becomes arterialised, yet the blood and air do\nnot come in contact, extravasation and pulmonary rupture must happen,\ndid the lungs permit the blood and air coming together, or in immediate\ncontact. Of the air of an inspiration, the oxygenating imponderable\nelement only can permeate the pulmonary tissue. This element it\nis which imponderably arterialises the blood; the nitrogen of the\ninspiration constitutes the immediate succeeding exspiration.\n\nThe oxygenating element promotes the circulation on the same principle\nthat it promotes combustion; its diminutive interstices exclude\nelectric matter, which coagulates, and admits the propelling force,\nmedium of space, which is the only cause of motion, to enter the blood.\nThe oxygenated blood being propelled, or pressed, by the medium of\nspace it includes, from the lungs into the ventricle, the collapse, or\nsystole, takes place, and the blood is forced out of the ventricle,\nthrough the auricle, into the aorta, thence through the several\nbranches of the arterial system, to and through the capillaries, into\nthe veins. Thus, from the medium of space within the blood being\ncontinuous with the medium of space generally, it is manifest that the\nblood is circulated not by the systole, but by the general pressure. To\nproduce the systole, there is nothing but the normal pressure on the\noutside surface of the heart; nor, to lessen the normal pressure on the\nparietes of the ventricle, is there anything but the arterialising,\nminus-pressure, imponderable element of the blood just received into\nthe ventricle.\n\nThroughout the entire of the arterial flow, the blood is losing the\narterialising minus-pressure matter to the different organs, as the\nmeans by which the functional action of each is promoted. Without\nsuch means, there is nothing to disturb the equilibrium of pressure\non an organ to produce organic motion, action, or function. Hence, it\nappears, that the use of the inspired oxygen consists in promoting the\ncirculation of the blood and the functional motion or action of the\ndifferent organs within the frame.\n\nBefore entering the veins the blood is fully deoxygenated; within\nthem it acquires gradually electric matter, productive of the livid\nor coagulating appearance; at the same time the blood-propelling\nmedium is lessening in quantity; but which is compensated in the\nmucilaginous lining of the veins, which assists the venous flow on the\nminus-pressure capillary principle; capillary attraction would collapse\nthe vessels. The electric matter collected by the venous blood is got\nrid of in the lungs, and expired with the nitrogen and a remnant of the\noxygenating element of the last inspiration; hence the small portion of\ncarbonic acid gas obtained from the expiration.\n\nAfter all organic service, the arterialising minus-pressure matter\nis insensibly transpired, which is inferable from the supply being\ncontinued through respiration; which, although constant, yet, from\nbeing intermitting, might, perhaps, cause corresponding stoppings in\nthe round of organic action; hence it would seem that, against such\nintervals or interruptions taking place, the liver has been designed to\ncollect for casual distribution a portion of the same minus-pressure\nmatter. The great surface of the liver may stand comparison with the\nplate, or cylinder, of the electrifying machine, and the organs as jars\nwhich receive electric matter from it, as each stands in need.\n\n\n_Use of the Spleen._--The SPLEEN, from being an organ common to\nthe human frame, must have an allotted service to supply; although\nconsidered useless by some, to all of unknown utility, it may be _a\nlateral channel of arterial blood direct from the heart, to supply the\nvessels lying in a portion of the body not traversed by the arteries\nbelonging to the great arterial system_; those of the diaphragm\nfirst; thence through the umbilical cord to the fetus, in which the\ncirculation is indispensable, from being the only means of conveying\nand dispersing throughout the body, in the absence of respiration,\nthe minus-pressure matter which the organism of the fetus requires\nto promote the several functions, without which life would become\nextinct if commenced. In this supply of motion promoting elementary\nmatter, consists all that can be considered _aeration_ of the blood,\nand all that the blood of both the fetus and the _adult_ requires,\nor can possibly receive. In the chirping chick, while within the yet\nunbroken shell, aeration is _prevented_ by incubation of the mother\nbird; but the arterialising elementary matter is amply provided within\nthe larger, apparently empty, end of the shell. To keep out electric\nmatter, which would exclude the blood-moving medium, is the object of\nthe hen sitting on the eggs, and oven-hatching is effected on the same\nprinciple.\n\n\n_How the Diaphragm Is Raised._--The _diaphragm_ cannot rise of itself,\nand has no self-acting, self-lifting nerves or muscles, all flesh being\ncomposed of _inert_ atoms. The rise is proof positive that pressure is\ngreater on the posterior than anterior surface of the membrane, and the\nunchanged normal pressure beneath indicates reduced pressure above; the\nlatter is promoted by minus-pressure matter imparted by the splenic\nblood to the diaphragm, while passing through the vessels of the\ndiaphragm. This arterialising matter being highly evanescent, escapes\nfrom the diaphragm and upwards, and during the escape mitigates the\npressure, intercepts it in some degree from the superior surface; then,\nby the normal pressure beneath, the rise of the diaphragm is effected.\nAs the escape, or separation, is becoming complete, the equilibrium is\nbeing restored, and the diaphragm depressed to the normal level. If\nthis be not the rationale of diaphragmatic motion, it will be little\nimproved by the substitution of muscular energy, leverage, or muscular\nvitality, while leaving out _muscular inertia_, which should not be\nomitted, but included, in accounting for every muscular action and\nmotion.\n\n\n\n\nCORRELATIVE ELEMENTS.\n\n\nAny pair of the general elements, the interstices of one of which are\nthe only interstices for receiving and retaining the atoms of the\nother, or that can be occupied by the atoms of any other of the general\nelements, such elements are correlatives.\n\nElementary co-relation is conspicuous in the opposite polarities\nof the loadstone, magnet, and crystals, and all bodies subject to\npolarization, which includes the animal frame. Similar co-relation is\nevinced between the galvanic fluids, those of the pile, and those named\nelectricity; likewise between oxygen and hydrogen, the oxygenating\nelement and nitrogen, acids and alkalies and all mutually neutralizing\nsubstances. Still it is not meant that all the general elements are so\npaired; doubtless, there are several ratios of size between the atoms\nof the different elements, for the purpose of multiplying variety among\nformations, the substance of which is of the same species throughout.\nPossibly the correlative principle gave rise to the ideal scale of\n_chymical affinities_, subsequently refined to _affections of matter_.\nNaturally, correlative elements will be found together, as are nitrogen\nand the imponderable element; also the magnetic fluids common to iron.\n\n\n\n\nMAGNETISM.\n\n\nWere attraction a property of the atomic substance of the loadstone, it\ncould be neither transferable, receivable, nor liable to be destroyed\nby fire. A magnet is a work of art, the substance is inert, it can\nno more attract than think. Magnetism is an accident of matter; it\nconsists in the correlatives of an iron bar having become separated,\nand drawn one to each end of the bar: separation and transition to\nthe extremities of the bar, are what the rubbing on the poles of the\nloadstone effects.\n\nTwo paving-stones hanging a short distance asunder and touched by\nnothing but the tranquil air, remain at rest; but should attract\neach other had \"every atom in creation\" the property. Were a vacuum,\npartial vacuum or air much rarer than atmospheric, now placed between\nthe suspended stones, each would be in motion towards the other the\nsame instant. Here both _causes_, the general pressure, and the\nminus-pressure, or motion _promoting_ means, are given; the latter are\nsensibly present, and the absence of attraction is as evident as the\ninutility of anything of the kind to effect the mutual approach of the\ntwo bodies. Not so is the approach of two magnets understood, because\nthe intermediate minus-pressure means _present_ are not sensible. That\niron magnets do not move together by attraction, or that attraction is\nnot the cause of the phenomena imputed to it, is proved in the case of\niron-filings dropping from a bar, when the connection of the bar with\nthe galvanic battery is broken; and it will not be contended that the\ngalvanic current is attraction.\n\nIn order to arrive at a knowledge of wherein consists the means which\nsubvert the equilibrium between two suspended magnets, reference\nhas to be made to the artizan's mode of operating in converting the\nunmagnetised bar to a magnet. He holds the bar in the middle, and\ndraws one half along the pole of a loadstone; then draws the other\nhalf along the other pole, and after a few such alternate _rubbings_\nagainst the poles, the bar is a polarized magnet. From which it was\nformerly supposed, that iron contains a magnetic fluid which the\nloadstone rubbings divide, and draw half to each end of the bar. But\nwere such the fact, the ends or poles should be _equals_, whereas they\nare magnetic opposites. Now, with more reason, it is considered that\niron includes two different, removable elements, (correlatives,) which,\nby the manipulation on the loadstone, are drawn one to each end of the\nbar, and there remain as polar atmospheres, and constitute what are\ntermed the polarities, or opposite polarities of the bar; the latter\nopinion is somewhat confirmed by the corresponding manner in which iron\nfilings, while being scattered on a sheet of paper, become arranged\nround the poles of a magnet lying under the paper.\n\nThe magnetic relation, which the polar atmospheres of any iron magnet\nbear to those of every iron magnet, being the same as exists between\nthe polar atmospheres of every individual magnet, makes manifest, that\na certain pair of correlative elements is common to all magnetisable\niron; but without concluding that, by the same kind of correlatives,\nthe polarities are produced in bodies not ferruginous, which, if the\nphysical fact, so may the animal correlatives be different in some\ninstances. From which it follows, that no one mesmeriser can affect\nmesmerically every person, nor any one person be so affected by all\nmesmerisers. Neither are all persons \"nervous\" alike, which should\nmoderate the war cry against mesmerism generally because of failure in\nsome cases; and should awaken the philosophic mesmeriser, willing to\nmake perfect the science, to investigate the cause of exceptions and\ndifficulties.\n\nNow, as respects the interposed minus-pressure means or matter, which,\nby destroying the equilibrium, promote the approaching motion of two\nsuspended magnets; there is nothing whatever to refer to, but the\nmagnets themselves, that is, their polar atmospheres, which, together\nor facing one another, make a rare or minus-pressure medium between\nthe proximate ends, into which both magnets are moved by the greater\npressure on their remotest ends. It lies with the previously-instructed\npatient, while clairvoyant, through questioning by the mesmeriser,\nto make close observation, and report all circumstances respecting\nthe magnetic lights; also, those attached to and proceeding from\nthe mesmeriser, towards elucidating this most of all recondite\nsubjects--magnetism, in the philosophy of physics. The mesmeriser\nshould hold in mind, that, probably the air between the facing ends of\ntwo magnets is magnetically affected, that is, made a magnet in the\nseries by the other two; which seems to be the case when the patient is\nmagnetised at a distance from the mesmeriser by means of the pointed\nfinger, and by the _effect_ of will at a much greater distance.\n\n\n\n\nNATURAL SLEEP.\n\n\nThat sleep is not at the command of will is certain, or why undergo\nthe tedium of a restless night? Before the state of sleep can obtain,\nthe body has to experience an _electro-physico_ change, by which\nthe extremities are left polarised and the body an animal or living\nmagnet. That the extremities are polarised during sleep, is admitted\nby all physiologists; for the effecting of which there must be a pair\nof correlative elements concerned. While the elementary transfer,\nproductive of the polarities, is taking place, so is drowsiness; when\nsleep has obtained, the natural magnetising procedure has terminated;\nhence from the degree of polarity, the mesmeriser can determine the\nstage to which the patient has been brought between the comatose and\nclairvoyant states, and know the capability of his patient for being\nmade clairvoyant or not; this polar index should be well noticed.\n\n\n_Comatose Flow._--It must have been observed by many persons while\ndozing and the body in a sitting or leaning posture, that an agreeable\nwarm glow arises in the chest, which increases while passing sensibly\nthrough the pectoral towards the gastric region, and which terminates,\ninsensibly, in the consummation of sleep; from the feet upwards a\nsimilar, but less perceptible, flow takes place. Of this twofold\n_comatose flow_, the immediate consequence is polarisation of the\nextremities; sleep is a remote, but not the remotest consequence,\nwhen effects similar to those by the flow are mesmerically effected.\nThus it appears that the theory of sleep and magnetism is the same.\nThe magnetising procedure, however, has this difference; the magnetic\ncorrelatives are drawn from the middle to and out of the extremities of\nthe bar; those of the body of the patient recede from the extremities\nto the central region, leaving one, the correlative of the other, at\neach extremity, in both cases.\n\nThe foregoing theory of sleep is described from immediate personal\nobservation. While leaning over a table, the doze heavy, the comatose\nflow distinctly felt in its agreeable downward progress through\nthe chest, when, just at the instant of forgetfulness, the violent\nslam of a door drove away all chance of sleep under the following\ncircumstances: a sensible and sudden revulsion upwards, a few seconds\nof giddiness, and a smart painful stroke on the stomach took place,\nall in quick succession; which may be accounted for thus: the slam\nprevented the correlative fluids from the opposite extremities meeting\ncentrally; each gushed irregularly back, and depolarized its extremity,\nthe suddenness of which caused the giddiness. The stroke is the true\nelectric shock, inflicted by the medium of space suddenly rushing\nor falling on the stomach, from which the matter of the comatose\nflow had been as suddenly displaced. Taking all circumstances into\nconsideration, it is manifest that the state of sleep is the result of\na natural magnetizing operation.\n\nBefore the fire, while reading, the superior extremity loses electric\nmatter to the fire, which leaves it polarized and promotes the\ncomatose flow. The lower extremity becomes polarized simultaneously\nwith the upper as a correlative consequence. Sleep is supposed to be\nexpedited by heat; hence the afternoon's nap is seconded by a silk\nhandkerchief thrown over the head, but which is only a hindrance to\nelectric matter, similar to that of the comatose flow entering from\nthe air and depolarizing the extremity. The handkerchief, from being a\nnon-conductor, only prevents the coming sleep being retarded; it could\nneither generate nor multiply heat.\n\nNaturally it might be questioned, why the body should become somnolent\ndaily; and, by what means the comatose flow is naturally effected;--of\nitself it could not take place. The languor removed, and renovation\nof muscular strength through sleep, may satisfy in the first instance.\nNext, it would seem, that, as the functions of the several organs\ndepend on the presence of minus-pressure matter for unequalising\nthe pressure on each organ, so must there be waste, loss, and daily\ndeficit of minus-pressure matter; which, from being made good by means\nof sleep, leaves it inferable, that the daily quantity derived from\nrespiration may be little more than sufficient for the continuance\nof animation under the minimum of bodily exercise; but as man is\nnecessitated to follow laborious avocations, so is it designed,\nthat the loss by service and waste shall be the means whereby the\nnecessary re-supply is to be furnished. The loss leaves the extremities\npolarized; and as greater waste towards total exhaustion approaches,\nthe matter of the comatose flow becomes needed and is employed in\nprolonging the functions of the different organs, and before exhaustion\nis complete the body is in the state of sleep; during which, from\nevery inspiration being far more lengthy than ordinary, the body is\nresupplied to repletion with the respirable minus-pressure matter,\nby which the extremities are depolarized, and the sleeper is awake,\nrefreshed and invigorated. From which it may be said, that a man toils\nhimself to sleep, and sleeps himself awake; and that, not \"balmy\nsleep,\" but respiration, is \"tired Nature's sweet restorer.\"\n\n\n_Mesmeric sleep_ may be considered forced sleep. It is effected\nwith little or no comatose flow, which renders replenishing by\nlong breathing unnecessary; and the patient, on being awakened by\ndemagnetising the extremities, is rather debilitated than refreshed.\n\nEvery finger of the mesmeriser is a magnet to the magnetic correlatives\nwithin the extremities of the patient; and the passes polarize after\nthe manner of the comatose flow in the case of natural sleep. From\nthere being no mesmerically-effected comatose flow, there is reason to\ninfer, that _the contents of the nerves of sensation only are what the\npasses polarize_ and what only are polarized in natural sleep, although\nexpressed by the word, _extremities_.\n\nRepetition of the passes separates, or de-electrises more completely\nthe nerves of the extremities, than for the production of natural sleep\nis requisite. Hence it may be said, that the body of the _mesmerised_\npatient is in magnetic advance, and hence the series of surprising\nconsequences which bring to light more and more the wonders of the\neconomy.\n\nThe passes should be conducted on magnetising principles; that is, from\nthe extremities to the gastric region to bring on somnolency, and from\nthe same region to the head and feet or extremes to awaken; from head\nto foot is unscientific, and might be prejudicial; the central region\nof the body should be considered _the mesmeric insuperable line_. Cross\npasses having been found efficient are not anomalous, by reason of the\nnerves and branches lying in all directions.\n\n\n\n\nVISION.\n\n\nAccording to the popular opinion, which governs the philosopher,\nand with which the established philosophy agrees, vision is an act\nperformed by the eye, which is said to be endowed with the faculty of\nsight, by which it is enabled to look into, through space, and see\nexternal bodies made visible when covered with solar or day light;\nnothing of which is true. The eyeball is not possessed of sight; to\nsee is not the function of the sense; externals are not visible; there\nis no material light; light is a sensible or mental effect consequent\non the chromatic organ of the brain being excited by the fluid of the\noptic nerve. All we know by means of the optic sense, consists in the\nsensation of light or coloured light, accompanied with the idea of\nform. The object which promotes the sensation being, seemingly, the\nplace of the sensation, all imagine the sensation is the colour of the\nobject to which the eye is directed, and hence, that the object or\nbody is seen by the eyes. These general mistakes are made evident and\nstand corrected by reference to the sense itself, its physiology and\nfunction, as previously stated and advised.\n\nThe medium of space is the visual medium; not, however, for looking\nthrough, as is supposed, but by reason of it forming the link or\nintermediate means by which the object is connected with the sense.\nNow, as the medium of space is present everywhere, and as it promotes\nvisual or optic perception, the question naturally arises, why do we\nnot see in the night as well as day, in all places and at all times; in\na word, why do we not see in the dark? The clairvoyant does \"see\" in\nthe dark.\n\nThe nervous fluid excites the sensation of colour; the medium of space\nconnects mediately the object with the nervous fluid, which fluid\nacts on the optic cerebral organ by pressure and degrees of pressure.\nThe nervous fluid, nor anything else, acts essentially, that is, by\nmeans of properties and qualities; and its acting on the brain is\ncaused by external agency, the fluid itself being _inert_. It may\nwell be supposed that the exquisite construction of the brain, from\nbeing competent to produce psychologic effects, although excited by\nmaterial agency, requires but the most simple means, such as a simple\nimpulse or impression, to be actuated into excitement; and as the\nportion or line of the medium of space which is continuous from the\nexternal object, through the pupil, to the nervous fluid within the\nretina, is that which puts the nervous fluid into functional action on\nthe brain, it is fairly assumable that only by pressure, degrees, and\nchanges of pressure, the nervous fluid can by possibility act on and\nexcite the brain; which equally applies to the nervous fluid of all\nthe senses. Taking, then, the maximum of optic pressure as productive\nof no sensation; so, from there being no object to perceive, it is\nimagined we are surrounded with darkness; and taking the minimum as\nexciting the sensation recognised as luminous, light, or white, to\nintermediate degrees of cerebral pressure are to be attributed the\nsensations of red, yellow, blue and of colours generally. According to\nthese terms of the colorific scale, all optically-excited perceptions\nare consequent on the cerebral pressure being in degrees on the scale\nof descent from the maximum.\n\nFor the reduction of optic pressure, there are different minus-pressure\nmeans, namely, the sun, flame, electricity, phosphoric substances;\nand the daily electric matter, which is constant in the atmosphere at\nthe eastern hemisphere of the globe, and which keeps pace with the\nsun; because the rarest elements of the atmosphere will be in greater\nquantity on the side facing the sun. As this daily electric matter\nemerges before the sun is above the horizon, the general optic pressure\nexcites the sensation supposed to be the light of day-break; and while\nfollowing, after sunset, the sensation is known as twilight. Any such\nminus-pressure matter lying in the visual direction, shortens the\nvisual line, and intercepts the continuity of that line of the medium\nof space which makes one with the axis of the eye, and thus effects the\nreduction of optic pressure.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Note._--The terms here made use of, from being unknown in the olden\nphilosophy, need explanation.--_Axis line_: that line of the medium\nof space which is as the axis of the eye produced to, and terminated\nby the external object. _Visual line_, the same. _Visual continuity_;\nthe line which is continuous _angularly_ with the termination of the\naxis line. From the termination of this _continuous_ line, there may\nbe another angular continuity or _line_, as from mirror to mirror.\nAll lines continuous from the axis line and terminated by _the\nobject_ supposed to be seen, and however irregular, are _lines_ of\n_vision_: the angular point, _the point of_ (first, second, or third)\n_continuity_. The reader should make a diagram for each case as he\nproceeds.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWithin the window-closed room, a lighted candle is supposed to fill\nthe entire space with light radiated from the flame: the perception is\nnamed light, and is thus wise excited. When the axis line is terminated\nby the flame, the pressure on the nervous fluid is lessened to the\ndegree which promotes the sensation of luminousness, which seems to be\nthe physical appearance of the flame itself. Again; when, in the same\nroom, the eye is directed to a mirror the like perception is excited,\nbecause the visual line is continuous from the point of continuity, or\ntermination of the axis line, to the flame as before. When the axis\nline is terminated by a piece of furniture, the point of continuity\nbeing imperfect and the visual continuity thence to the flame irregular\nor indirect, the optic pressure on the brain by the axis line excites\nthe sensation of colour, which is imputed to the object, chair, or\ntable.\n\nIn the celebrated OPTICS, the visual lines are mistaken for rays of\nlight radiated from the flame, and reflected from the other objects;\nwhich rays are supposed to enter the eye, and (as if possessed of\nintelligence) arrange themselves on the back of the eye or on the\nretina, in the precise form, but of a different size, of the object\nto which the eyes are directed, as the means by which externals are\nseen before the face. In cases wherein the visual line is indirect,\nas when lying through media of unequal density, the supposed rays are\nsaid to be refracted: and, because the curtained iris excludes the\nvisual medium, except through the pinhole pupil, thence along the axis\nthrough the lenses of the eyeball, the _optics_ inculcate, that the\neye has been formed to see only in straight lines. Finally, by Dr.\nReed it is taught, that the use of the sensation and of the image on\nthe _back_ of the eye, is to make the external object _opposite the\nface_ be seen; all which has to be rejected and forgotten in being\nguided by the natural, real function of the sense, against which there\nis no appeal. There are no rays concerned; the medium of vision is\nquiescent; there can be neither radiation, reflection, nor refraction\neffected by passive inert bodies; there is no image on any part of the\neye or retina; and externals could not be made visible, or seen by\ntheir images. Such absurdities, all of which are maintained in modern\nphilosophy, have prevented, more than any thing else, the science and\nphenomena of Mesmerism being understood.\n\nAccording to the interstitial composition of the surface of a body,\nso is the point of visual continuity at or beneath the surface; which\ndetermines the degree of pressure on the axis line; which determines\nwhat shall be the resulting sensation, or apparent colour of the\nsurface of the object to which the pupil of the eyeball is directed.\nThrough a pane of glass, or through the clear atmosphere, the axis line\nmay be said to be uninterruptedly continuous, and the perception is as\nif the glass were away. Through an ignited sheet of iron the visual\ncontinuity is imperfect, and may be said to be continuous only halfway\nthrough the sheet. An ignited bar, at first, is said to be brown, then\nignited to redness: colours are sensations. Within the bar the axis\nline is continuous in zig-zag order, which causes the optic pressure\nto excite the sensation of red: it is a prismatic case. The _spectra_,\nby means of the prism, are only in the sensorium; the skreen itself is\nunseen. When the direct axis line terminates at the apparent red on the\nskreen, the continuity thence is maintained through some particular\npart of the prism; when terminated by the yellow, through a different\npart; when by the blue, through another different part; and through\neach part the continuity is somewhat curvilinear, hence the pressures\nand perceptions are different. Through the air, when the perception is\nof the many-coloured rainbow, the visual continuity is as through the\nprism: there is no coloured bow out of the sensorium.\n\nWhere there are no minus-pressure means for lessening the optic\npressure, as in mines, caves, and window-closed rooms, there can be no\nperceptions of light and colour. From the sensation ceasing the same\ninstant the last window-shutter is closed, it would seem, that, the\n_daily_ minus-pressure matter is in constant flow eastward through the\nglobe. The rheumatic sufferer fears sun-down, as if the daily matter\nenters and protects the nerves from the nightly. The meteorologist has\nto resolve the problem for the philosopher in tracing the magnetic\nmeridian.\n\nThe objection is unfounded against pressure being the cerebral exciting\ncause. It is objected, that, from two stars equally distant, one\nconsidered red, the other blue, the pressure cannot be changed along\nthe visual lines in the small space of time the eye takes to direct\nitself from one to the other star. There is no changing of pressure on\neither line. The existing pressure on the sense by each is different,\nand what it is, depends on the constitution of the external object, as\nin every other instance, and just as on that of the ignited bar already\nstated. The imputed colours of the stars being different, so is the\ncontinuity of axis line beneath the surface of the atmosphere of each\nstar, also the degree of pressure and the sensitive result.\n\nNeither is it maintainable that the medium of space cannot be the\nmedium of vision, because \"from being all-pervading, it should excite\nvision through all kinds of bodies, as through a block of rock crystal,\nbut does not through so thin a substance as a leaf of blotting-paper.\"\nBy clairvoyance it is proved that the visual continuity is maintained\nthrough stone walls; and by reason of the _visual and auditory_ medium\nbeing the same, that is, medium of space, the \"hearing\" through\nstone walls, makes the \"seeing\" possible. The bell must be connected\nmediately with the auditory sense, as is the object with the visual\nsense; and through stone walls there is nothing continuous but the\nmedium of space. Sound is no more a transmissible object than colour;\nneither belongs to the external object. In all such cases of sensations\nwhich are different, although the promoting means are the same for all\nthe senses, that the organs of sense may not be equally susceptible,\nor capable of being put into functional service by the same degree of\ncerebral pressure, should be held in mind, or else it might be asked\nwhy all the senses are not excited at the same time.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSPARENCY.\n\n\nA transparent body, is one through which the visual line is\nuninterruptedly continuous from an object to the sense. The materials\nfor glass-making are opaque, and the natural opacity of their\nelementary atoms is unalterable. Hence in some novel arrangement of\nthe atoms towards promoting the direct continuity of the medium of\nspace through them, consists the object of vitrifying and principle of\ntransparency.\n\n\n\n\nOPACITY.\n\n\nThe principal obstacle to transparency is interposed electric matter.\nIn the earliest stages of glass-making an immense volume of electric\nmatter is got rid of by means of the furnace fire, which becomes sooty\nsmoke while ascending and passing through the furnace funnel; and to\nprevent all return of the like, it is, that solid oxygen is added to\nthe materials when fused, the interstices of which, in the vitrified\nmass, secure the direct continuity of the visual medium. Priestley\nmade black wax and brass filings transparent, by only removing all\ninterposed electric matter. The body of a living man, by being\nde-electrised, has been made transparent. In these instances the\ntransparency is of short continuance, and the opacity is restored by\nreturning electric matter. Fire, in de-electrising gems and crystals,\ndestroys all partial opacity. The clearest water is made cloudy on\nreceiving the charge from the electrifying jar; by uncustomary electric\nmatter, the atmosphere is made foggy, and is transparent again when the\nelectric matter becomes a constituent of rain-water. These instances\nshow, that, electric matter lying in the way of the medium of space\nand vision, interrupts its regular continuity, consequently, its\ndirect pressure; yet not wholly,--clairvoyance and sound make manifest\nthat the continuity is maintained through the most opaque bodies. The\nprinciple bears strongly on the physiology of clairvoyance.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NERVOUS FLUID.\n\n\nWere there a distinct fluid belonging to the nerves of sensation, and\ninsulated, it could not be affected by external circumstances, nor\nits cerebral excitement be productive in the least of any knowledge,\nrelative or inferential of external bodies. Were the fluid not\ninsulated, it should be subject to waste like the lachrymal fluid, and\nmust excite the brain differently at different times, even under equal\ncircumstances; which must make it impossible to identify the same body\nafter its removal out of the axis-of-vision direction.\n\nA distinct fluid, not insulated, has to be in contact with the line of\nmedium of space which the external object terminates, which adds to the\ndifficulty of waste, in the possibility of the nerves becoming flooded\nwith an abnormal fluid, medium of space. Much more likely is it,\nthat, _the cerebral exciting fluid, of the nerves generally, consists\nin medium of space_, received from without through the cuticular\ninsertions and orifices of the nerves as streamlets from the great\nocean of space, subject to neither ebb nor flow, and liable to change\nof pressure occasioned by external agency. According to this idea, the\nobject and brain are the terms of the visual line; and medium of space,\ncontinuous from the object through the nerves to the brain, is the\nconnecting link.\n\nFurther; although medium of space is the nervous fluid and immediate\ncerebral exciting cause, (which entitles it to be named the TRUE\n_nervous fluid_,) there are strong grounds for concluding that, with\nthe true fluid, the nerves include a pair of correlative elements.\nBecause of the mesmeric effected polarities being without the comatose\nflow, which leaves nothing to look to for the polarizing means but the\ncontents of the nerves. Next, as clairvoyance is a cerebral effect,\nsomething connected with the nervous fluid must be concerned in its\nproduction, or why not clairvoyance take place without the magnetic\npasses. Finally, the true fluid, or any single fluid, is incapable\nof being polarized; and the true fluid might be rendered immovable\nat times, were there no electric or minus-pressure matter within\nthe nerves, also to prevent its increase, and to retain the normal\nquantity of the true fluid. All extremes being prevented, and the\npolarities of the extremities productive of increased lucidity, are\nconsistent with idea of the nerves including magnetising correlatives,\nwhich, beside, serve as an elastic break against the fluid exciting the\nbrain indistinctly, irregularly, or exquisitely; and only, as it were,\nmuffled, to prevent the sensibility of the cerebral organs being worn\nout prematurely.\n\nAnother object may be attained by the included electric correlatives,\nnamely, restricting the exciting pressure to certain degrees, so that\nthe sensation shall be defined and directing, but otherwise useless\nand misleading. Another may be, that of regulating the degrees of\npressure on such a scale, as that, by the same senses, sensations shall\nbe excited as different from each other as those of red, yellow, and\nblue by the optic sense, heat and cold by the feeling sense, sweet and\nbitter by the gustory sense. To which the conjecture may be added, for\nthe purpose of anatomic and physiologic inquiry, that, as not even an\nelementary interstice is without design, so may the orifices of the\nretina be of regulated diameters, to ensure such definite degrees of\npressure on the brain as shall excite the sensations recognised as\nprimitive colours.\n\nOn the principle that the nervous fluid is derived from without, the\nquestion is decided as to the cuticular termination of the nerves,\nwhich is objected to by some, in consequence of a few of the nerves\nbeing observed to have \"inward bending.\" And is it not a matter of\ncommon observation, that \"feeling is most sensible at the tips of the\nfingers\" or apparent place of the sensation.\n\n\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE.\n\n\nAll mesmerically-produced phenomena are the consequence of the passes.\nThe immediate effect of the passes is de-electrisation of the nerves,\nthat is, of their contents, which leaves them polarised (as is the\ncase in natural sleep), but more intensely than is effected by the\ncomatose flow. In the ordinary condition, the contents of the nerves\nmay be likened to milky water in a barometer tube; in natural sleep, to\nthe same, with a less degree of milkiness--the latter subsiding from\nthe ends to the middle portion of the water; and in the clairvoyant\ncondition of the nerves, to the milkiness having so completely\nsubsided as to leave the water above and below the middle of the tube\ntransparent. In the ordinary condition, the nervous fluid is clogged,\nas it were, with intermixed electric matter, which, by marring the\nregular continuity of the fluid from without to the brain, reduces in\nsome degree the exciting pressure on the brain, which prevents the\nfunction of the fluid being employed to its utmost. In this encumbered\nstate, the fluid may be said to act on the brain, as the clapper when\nmuffled on a bell. Still the excited pressure is sufficiently strong,\nand the mental result sufficiently distinct for all human purposes.\nWhen to the clairvoyant degree the nerves have been denuded of impeding\nelectric matter, the nervous fluid is enabled to act on the brain as\nif unmuffled; and as its continuity from the orifices of the retina\nthrough space is not in any manner altered, so, to the altered electric\ncondition, mesmerically effected, on the contents of the nerves between\ntheir orifices and the brain, we must attribute all mesmerically\nproduced phenomena; and without supposing that the brain is quickened\ninto a higher degree of sensibility, or that any one of its various\norgans has acquired some exalted degree of psychologic ability.\n\nThat _long vision_ and _opaque vision_ should be consequences of\ncleansing, as it were, the nerves of intercepting minus-pressure\nmatter, is nothing surprising, it is as removing dust from the window\nto better our vision: the physiology is traceable, and the psychology\nnot more incomprehensible than its hourly occurrence in a minor degree,\nto which, as sensible effects, we are indebted for all we know, and by\nwhich we abide, without inquiry into their nature or origin; so perfect\nis the design of Nature in our make for supplying all that is requisite\nto the comfort and enjoyment of man in his present state of existence.\n\n\n_Long vision_, during the clairvoyant state, or the recognition of\nobjects greatly remote by the sensation each promotes, has its wonder\nmuch more in the _nature of the medium of space_ than in the familiar\nmental effect. The optically promoted sensation is proof that the\nexternal object, were it at the antipodes, is in mediate connection\nwith not only the nervous fluid of the retina, but the brain. Long\nand ordinary vision have the same theory: in both states the same\nchromatic cerebral organ is excited by the nervous fluid; in both the\nnervous fluid is continuous from the brain to the external body; and in\nboth the object perceived is the sensation of colour. That the eye-ball\nlenses are concerned in long and opaque, as in short vision, however\nin the two former, the eyes may be bandaged (to satisfy the desire of\nspectators, otherwise useless, if not worse,) is obvious, from the\nknowledge of form being connected with the sensation, as in every\ninstance of optically-excited perception.\n\nBy the passes, the nervous fluid is freed from the visual intercepting\nelectric matter; which matter, like the colouring matter in stained\nglass, renders the continuity of the visual medium or fluid within the\noptic nerve impaired.\n\nTo account for the phenomenon of much longer than ordinary vision,\nthere is nothing in the mesmeric case to effect the difference, or\nrefer to, but the de-electrised condition of the nervous fluid. From\nwhich it would seem that the visual line from the most remote object,\nis always as continuous to the brain as from one within arm's length\nbefore the face; and that the degree of cerebral exciting pressure\non the longer line is rendered equally efficacious, _now_, that the\nelectric impediment has been removed from the nervous fluid; hence,\nthat the normal intermixed quantity of electric matter with the nervous\nfluid prevents us being clairvoyant at all times, is reasonable to\nconclude.\n\n\n_Opaque vision_, or the \"seeing through opaque bodies,\" is not the\nabsurdity so generally imagined when judged and reasoned on according\nto the true principles of visual perception: the facts of clairvoyance\nplace the absurdity on the denier.\n\nAs the medium of space furnishes all the nerves with the true and only\ncerebral exciting fluid, which is necessarily all-pervading, and proved\nto be so by the auditory sense, or \"hearing through stone walls,\"\nthe possibility of seeing through such bodies is made manifest, and\n_clairvoyantly_, has been proved. Misled by the idea that the eye-balls\nlook through solid glass, yet cannot look through a stone, to doubt and\ndeny is pardonable; yet nothing else is requisite, than that the visual\nmedium shall be continuous from the object to the brain, no matter how\nmany opaque objects lie between, for the perception being excited, and\npromoted by the remote object: the object perceived is the sensation\nof this or that colour, as in transparent vision. It is no ordinary\ncircumstance, that of \"seeing through opaque bodies;\" neither is it\nan ordinary circumstance, the extreme de-electrised condition of the\nnervous fluid, _on which the extra-ordinary of the phenomenon depends_.\nIn removing the partial opacity of a crystal by means of fire, the\nhindrance to the visual continuity, electric matter, is displaced;\nbut as no such electric displacement from a stone wall is effected or\npracticable, while to the clairvoyant the continuity is as were there\nno electric impediment in the wall, is proof additional that the medium\nof space, the common cerebral exciting cause, pervades all things, the\nhuman body included, and hence the being in _Report_.\n\nNow that mesmeric practice and proof have stifled all open opposition,\nby the influential ignorant, to the surprising truths of the science,\nthat all persons cannot be mesmerised to the clairvoyant stage, is in\nnowise prejudicial to mesmerism, or to the SCIENCE OF THE ECONOMY being\nintimately connected with medical practice; neither are occasional\nfailures by the clairvoyant, especially in trial tests, some of which\nexhibit samples of complicated confusion, as if for the purpose of\nsuppression, instead of laudably exalting the all-important science of\nmesmerism. Had the very liberal offer of a hundred pounds been under\nless complicated conditions, the bank-note most certainly would have\nbeen deciphered and changed hands. Had the note been spread open,\nwhile enclosed between two plates of sheet-iron, and then read by the\nclairvoyant, the test would have been sufficient to convince the most\nsteady, sturdy, staunch unbeliever, and the _d\u00e9nouement_ affirmative\nto every dispassionate observer. But from being folded line upon line,\nletter on letter, at least three deep, the misarrangement destroyed\nmost effectually all reading order. A Newtonian would say, that,\n\"the commixed rays proceeding from the several overlaid typographic\ncharacters, and from the lines placed tier over tier, could never\nform the image of even a single letter on the retina, with anything\nresembling legible clearness;\" therefore the trial must fail most\ninevitably.\n\n\n\n\nRIGIDITY.\n\n\nNone deny that rigidity of the limbs can be effected mesmerically;\nbut all mistake who impute the phenomenon to muscular ability,\nirritability, or energy. All flesh is _inert_; all muscular fibrine is\nflexible, bends from its own weight when held horizontally, and over\nit the will has neither power nor influence. Then, how is a muscle or\nnerve to stiffen itself, and where is the mechanical arrangement within\nfor such purpose? The power is derived from without, and consists in\nmedium of space. The de-electrising passes make entrance-room for\ninfluent medium of space, which is the cause of the limbs becoming\nrigid. As in Bramah's pump, water serves the purpose of an iron piston,\nso, within the nerves and muscles, medium of space in excess and under\nthe general pressure, is an equally rigid piston, and the cause of all\nmuscular strength and of rigidity. The depolarizing passes bring back\nelectric matter, which displaces all excess of medium of space, and\nwith it the physical cause of rigidity.\n\n\n\n\nPAIN.\n\n\nPain is not removed but prevented by means of the passes. It is not\nexcited in the mesmerised patient during severe surgical operations,\nbecause the movements of the brain, as is said of a watch with the\nfinger on a wheel, are stopped.\n\nGeneral insensibility being effected by pressure of the surgeon's\nfinger on the brain of a fractured skull, so is it mesmerically\neffected by the nervous fluid, which has suffered increase as the\nnerves have been de-electrised by the passes.\n\n\n_Curative Mesmerism._--The curative principle of mesmerism seems to\nconsist in correcting occasional irregularities in the _electric\ncirculation_. By the passes, electric matter in excess is removed,\nwhich, from being noxious to the part, might contribute to the\nformation of mucus to become concrete, or otherwise injurious to the\nflesh: or, the passes may transfer the excess to supply deficiency\nelsewhere,--as in the case of gout, a disease of the sufferer's own\nmaking, from excess of de-electrising food and drink, which uncoats\nand unlines the nerves, and thus leaves the nervous fluid, from casual\ncircumstances, to almost lacerate the brain. Stomach coating aliment,\nnot denuding physic, is the cure: as electric matter may become a\nconstituent of the humidities of the different organs, so may it of the\nserous fluid, which is indispensable to wholesome flesh. In all such\ncases mesmerism is curative.\n\n\n_Ethers._--From inhaled _ethers_, producing insensibility without\nrigidity, it would seem that they contribute a kind of electric matter\nto the interior of the nerves, but which, from being uncongenial,\nis happily soon displaced. All excess being the more prejudicial,\nthe quicker the displacement the better. Any ether imparted to the\nfluids of the nerves, may effect reduction in the quantity of the true\nfluid through the cuticle orifices; or make breaks in what is left,\nso as to leave the nervous fluid incompetent to produce excitement\nof the brain; hence the insensibility of the patient, if that can be\nconsidered insensibility, when there is nothing of pain of which to be\ninsensible.\n\nEtherising by external application, but which may not amount to\nmesmerizing, is nothing new. A Dublin apothecary, sixty years since,\ncured the poor daily of nervous complaints, headaches especially, by\npressing a folded handkerchief on the forehead, taken from a wide-mouth\njar, concealed with professional delicacy, behind the counter, but\nlong since discontinued; the learned in the laws of life and living,\nconsidering that short-hand work is a forbidden practice,--that\nsomething newest in the last _Pharmacopoeia_ is better than the best,\nfor all parties. Tobacco-smoking brings on a degree of insensibility,\nand mesmerically conduces to sleep, which exertion frustrates. The\nsmoke of the fire in London stayed the plague in the year 1666. The\nsubject is worthy of consideration by the mesmerizing physician, in\ncase of epidemics especially.\n\n\n\n\nREPORT.\n\n\nThe being in report one with another, the mesmerised with the\nmesmeriser, is proved possible, and from being effected by the passes\nis proved also to be natural,--not satanic or supernatural, the weakest\nof all ideas. Within Nature there can be nothing supernatural; nor out\nof Nature, or of the other worlds, anything in the power of living man\nor poor human nature to command or imitate. However, as believers\nare not reasoners, except in the arithmetic of funds, to the reformer\n_Time_, must be left the conversion to Reason.\n\nThroughout the whole of Nature there is nothing insulated, not even\nan atom. Involved in a universal medium of pressure, all things must\nbe in contact, mediate or immediate. The atmosphere is a universal\nconnecting link. As by the sea the most distantly-situated islands are\nin mediate connection, so are all mankind by means of the atmosphere.\nStill this atmospheric connection is limited to margin with margin,\nsurface with surface. By the all-pervading medium of space, the\ninterior of all living beings is in mediate connection, equally as the\ninterior of submerged sponges by the water. As \"light\" would pervade\nand connect our bodies were they glass, so does the medium of space.\nBut were mankind so left, it is difficult to conceive how the organic\nfunctions could possibly take place, and impossible to say how personal\nindividuality could be, as at present, an independent animal privilege.\n\nAlthough the medium of space is continuous through all bodies, the\nregular continuity is impaired by the elements of the atmosphere\nbetween each. The atmosphere not only protects all living bodies\nagainst the maximum and all excess of pressure, but in some\nconsiderable degree insulates the bodies of persons from each other,\njust as fog and small snow intercept the visual continuity and would\nrender \"rays of light\" interruptedly continuous; so do the intermixed\natoms of the atmosphere the regular continuity of the medium of space\nbetween person and person, as respects surfaces. Within the body,\ninsulation is still more complete: here, electric matter and air\nabound to the exclusion of all excess of medium of space; by which the\ndifferent organs remain, in a manner disconnected, or so far, as that\nthe functional action of each organ has its distinct period, instead of\nthe action of the whole being simultaneously performed. Beside these\nmeans and degrees of insulation, the non-conducting coating and lining\nof the nerves insulate more completely their elementary contents, by\nwhich the nerves are not only tubes of separation but insulation, and\nare direct conducting channels of the nervous fluid through the body\nfrom its external source to the brain.\n\nAlthough man is thus isolated from man, the isolating means do not\nprevent the medium of space being continuous through all, and from one\nto another; which is manifested by the clairvoyant, who has the like\nof the sensation excited in the brain of the mesmeriser repeated or\nexcited in his own brain; as when the mesmeriser masticates and the\nsensation of the same flavour is known by the mesmerised. The sensation\nis nothing transferable; taste is not by the tongue; hence, by the\nsensation being excited in succession in the brain of each person,\nis the only conceivable mode, in reason, why the second should know\nwhat the first is masticating. The nervous fluid of the two may be\nsupposed to be derived from the medium of space between them; then,\nby the medium of space lying between, the nervous fluids of the two\nare rendered continuous one with the other, and is so at all times,\nbut only when the nervous fluid is mesmerically de-electrised is it\nproductive of clairvoyant perceptions. Community of sensation, or\nthe _same_ sensation being perceived by different persons, is an\nimpossibility. The first sensation is only where it has been excited,\nin the brain of the mesmeriser; and supposing the matter of the nervous\nfluid continuous direct from his brain to that of the patient, in\nit, what has the latter to perceive?--nothing; neither is perception\nseparable in idea from the result of cerebral excitement. It is to\nbe hoped that the desultory ideas here advanced may tend to a better\nknowledge on this singular mesmeric discovery. Even the foregoing may\nbe objected to with apparent reason, on consideration of what is termed\n\"community of thought,\" wherein there is no previous sensation to be\nrepeated. To account for which requires more cerebral information than\nhas as yet been brought to light; when satisfactorily known it may\nshow, whether or not community in dreaming may be effected. Report\nwould be impossible were there not intimate connection of brain with\nbrain.\n\n\n\n\nVOLUNTARY DE-ELECTRISATION.\n\n\nEvery motion of the limbs being effected by pressure, to promote the\nlocal change minus-pressure matter has to be displaced. That the assent\nof will is indispensable is evident, inasmuch as there is no _ordinary_\nlimb motion, if not previously assented to by the will. Yet will is no\nmechanical power, nor anything having a distinct existence. Will seems\nto be, the mutual accordance of the cerebral organs to act together\nso as to effect, or rather assist, the accomplishing of a present\nintention. The act may be likened to that of suction, voluntarily\nperformed by the brain to de-electrise itself, in order to make room\nfor and receive that which lies in the way of the desired object being\neffected. The voluntary act by the brain cannot be on anything far\naway, or not in contact with the brain, and that which is acted on\nmust be continuous to the place of the removable impediment. If, then,\nthe brain does de-electrise itself, and that by so doing it receives\nelectric matter from the nerves which are continuous from the limb\nto the brain, such removal of electric matter is effected within the\nnerves of the limb, as makes space for medium of space to enter in the\nrequisite quantity to move the limb according to the required velocity.\nIt is not to be overlooked, that, previous to the self de-electrisation\nof the brain, thought may be concerned in promoting the cerebral\nde-electrising act. So far as the foregoing may be true, the like\ncircumstances take place when the mesmeriser wills into report with\nhimself the far-off patient, the electric matter in the space between\nbeing affected with as much facility, as the transfer of similar matter\nfrom the trough to the utmost extent of the galvanic wire, which may be\nconsidered instantaneous, considering the hundreds of miles distance\nbetween.\n\n\n_The Nature and Power of Will._--The power of effecting, voluntarily,\nthe transfer of electric matter from one part of the interior of the\nbody to a different, seems to belong, in some necessary degree, to\nall bodies possessed of life. The object is to make space for medium\nof space to enter, and by its pressure to put the animal in a state\nof locomotion. The snake, worm, and snail do so to be pressed onward\nalong the ground; the oyster, to have the shells firmly collapsed; the\nlimpit, to be pressed against the rock; and each, cerebrally wills\nthe replacement of electric matter to displace the cause of pressure,\nmedium of space, for the grovelling reptile to be at rest--the oyster,\nthat the shells may be opened; the limpit, when willing to fall into\nthe water. The fly, lizard, and walrus, so de-electrise the body, as to\nreverse the direction of what is supposed to be their natural weight,\nby which means each becomes pressed upwards, and walks with the back\ndownwards--which, to be consistent with the established philosophy,\nshould be considered _repellent gravitation_. The goat voluntarily\nde-electrises his body to have it pressed with double force against\nthe slippery rock; the lynx, to have mesmeric long vision; the cat, to\nhave opaque vision, or \"see through the dark;\" the fire-fly, to effect\nreduction of the optic pressure productive of sensations of colour. The\ncarrier-pigeon effects self de-electrisation to the clairvoyant degree,\nby which the external object, the turret at Constantinople, promotes\nthe sensation which indicates at once the shortest direction of flight\nfrom London to the birth-place of the bird. The eagle de-electrises\nitself inwardly, the same as if by the mesmeric passes, to promote\nolfactory lucidity, by which to ascertain the presence of carrion on\nthe ground. Fishes effect internal de-electrisation, somehow by means\nof the contents of the swim, for influent medium of space to propel\nthe body with a velocity superior to the power of the short, flexible\nfins. The flight of birds is not effected by wing motion, or wing\npowers. The crow, eagle, and kite sail in all directions on extended\nmotionless wing, and the odd wing-flap now and then given, is only\nto assist in keeping the body in the necessary electric condition.\nThe swallow is darted most rapidly through the air with closed\nwing, and changes acutely, without way, the direction of flight, by\nchanging instantaneously the direction of impulse. With the greatest\nwing-agitation the hawk remains at times stationary in the air. The\nfish, bird, and bullet are impelled by the same cause, pressure, by the\nmedium of space on the de-electrised rear.\n\nThe cow and goat voluntarily de-electrise the cud, for medium of space\nto enter and press it upwards through the food-passage which the cud\npresses against, instead of being raised by nerves or muscles of the\nesophagus. In parturition also, and the discharge of the feces, the\nsame principles are maintained. The \"throes of Nature\" are consequent\non the natural pressure being made intermitting, by electric matter\nreturning to and escaping from the birth at intervals. The physiologist\nmay refer to muscular action; but where are the delivery muscles? The\nstage-dancer makes de-electrising efforts to receive medium of space,\nby which to be lifted above the boards and supported a few seconds\nin the air. Muscles at full stretch in opposite directions, and the\nfulcrum, if any, being carried by them, is out of all dynamic rule. All\npersons make a de-electrising effort previous to the leap-spring, and\nwhile continuing to stand or run and tiptoe, without being aware of\nthe reason; and the fatigue is not muscular, but in keeping the body\nfittingly de-electrised.\n\nThe _gymnotus electricus_ kills the distant prey instantaneously, which\nreceives nothing whatever of missile from the enemy; nor could the\nlatter be accessary to the death-stroke, were there nothing between to\nconnect one with the other: nothing passing and no connecting means,\nno outstretched arm or instrument touching that which is to be acted\non, is a mechanical absurdity, and is attributing an effect to that\nwhich, it may be said, is an absent cause. The eel voluntarily performs\nthe cerebral operation on the electric matter which is continuous from\nitself through the air to the marked prey, which effects instantaneous\nremoval of the same matter from the prey; which permits medium of space\nat the same instant to give the de-electrised part the death-blow.\n\n\n\n\nAPPLICATION OF MESMERISM.\n\n\nFirst. A National Asylum, to be named, THE BRITISH MESMERIC\nINSTITUTION, should be founded and endowed. England should take the\nlead. A Professorship of Magnetism should be founded. All Sanatory\nAsylums to be obliged to furnish their experience periodically, and\nbe under control of the Institution, which should be possessed of\npower to undiploma the medical practitioner who refuses to mesmerise.\nSelf-mesmerising to Clairvoyance, to be taught, which is as teachable\nas ventriloquism; the principle is the same of both,--the theory is\nthat of sound.\n\nThrough self-mesmerising, the blind and eyeless would be extricated\noccasionally from the shadow leading to the valley of death and\nbe enabled to follow some useful calling. Some blind, illiterate\nclairvoyant, may have superior _connoisseurship_, entitling him to fill\nthe academic chair. Through mesmerism the resuscitating process can be\nbrought under rules of science. Through clairvoyance the geography of\nthe globe may yet be improved; the northern passage discovered; the\nastronomer assisted in his stellar speculations beyond the possibility\nof mere telescopic discovery. On ship-board, the voluntary clairvoyant\nmay make discovery of the haze-hidden lighthouse and wave-hidden shoal.\nIn the hands of the clairvoyant the telescope and microscope, will, in\ntime, make us acquainted with other worlds, other beings, and other of\nthe wonderful works of the GREAT GOD OF NATURE!\n\nThe Seeker after God from the book of God's own composing, the holy\nvolume of his own works, through voluntary clairvoyance, will feel\nhimself in the enjoyment of a second nature, the fit inhabitant of\nan intellectual world, in which the powers of thought are without\nlimits. And who can say what discovery of abstract truths may not be\nelicited from the conversation of two or more clairvoyants in mutual\nreport, all of exalted talent and superior education? Other worlds,\nere this be past, may open to our view, and their inhabitants become\nclairvoyantly familiar to human observation. The idea is pregnant\nwith hope; it presumes that we are not inhabitants of only the earth,\nbut the universe; which may be considered a natural, _never_-dying\nhope. Why, then, should the science be opposed which has already been\nso beneficial to our species, and promises to make known the never\nyet discovered wonders of the animal economy? Surely they will be\nyet ashamed of having done those things, the fruit of which is the\nbitterness of remorse.\n\n\n\n\nCONTINUOUS MOTION.\n\n\nThe motion which continues after the body has ceased to be in contact\nwith the _sensible_ impelling cause, is named continuous motion. The\nbody impelled receives neither force nor motion from the impelling\ncause: neither force nor motion is anything transferrable or anything\ncommunicable; forcible velocity and change of place are but accidents\nof matter, and but local, casual circumstances of bodies. Being\n_inert_, the body cannot move itself. Motion, therefore, is but a\nphysical effect, and must have a cause equal to the duration of the\neffect: motion after impulse has ceased, would be effect without\ncause--which is an absurdity and impossibility; therefore impulse\nis constant as motion, however insensible the impelling cause.\nThese dynamic principles cannot be too frequently brought to mind,\nconsidering the general erroneous opinion on the subject which\nmaintains, that \"a body continues in motion because it cannot stop\nitself;\" which is effect without its equal of cause.\n\nA body in motion is under unequal pressure on opposite sides, greater\non the rear than front. The air in front resists, that in the rear\nmay be said to recede from the body; therefore neither impels the\nprojectile. Under such circumstances there remains but the alternative,\nthat of the electric constitution of the body being changed by the\nprevious impulse, by which medium of space accumulates on one side,\nor decreases on the opposite. The phenomenon admits of being thus\nillustrated:\n\nThe first, previous or sensible impulse, effects de-electrisation of\nthe body on the rear or side of impulse; influent medium of space\nimmediately occupies the vacated rear, and by its pressure impels the\nbody through the air. The velocity of the previous impulse, gives\nmomentum to the body greater than the included freely-removable\nelementary matter can obtain; of consequence the latter is left behind\nin the air, and the pressure of the acquired medium of space in the\nrear, is the continuous impelling cause. Thus is the mistake of Dugald\nStuart made evident, that \"motion is the immediate and only effect of\nimpulse.\"\n\nIt is not the air's resistance which makes the motion of a projectile\ndecline and end. Taking impulse as ten, resistance four, there remains\nsix degrees of unresisted impulse, which should impel the body for\never through the atmosphere. The decline and cessation of impulse is\nthat which brings the projectile to rest.\n\nFrom the instant the body has ceased to be in contact with the sensible\nimpelling cause, electric matter is re-entering the rear, which\ndisplaces gradually the impelling medium; and as are the increments of\nthe former, so are the decrements of the latter, and so is the decline\nof motion.\n\n\n_Ascending and Descending Motion._--The rear of the vertically-impelled\nbody becomes vacated of minus-pressure matter, and replaced with medium\nof space; by the latter, and general pressure, the body is forced\nupwards as a cork by water. While ascending, the rear is acquiring\nelectric matter and losing the impelling medium,--the velocity of\ncourse declines; and when at the highest, the body is at rest in the\nair for an instant, then is precipitated to the ground. During the\nentire of the descent, electric matter is vacating the rear and medium\nof space entering, consequently the fall is accelerated. Now as the\nbody cannot fall of itself; as descending motion is of increasing\nvelocity, while motion in every other direction is retarded; and,\nbecause all descent has the same _centripetal_ direction, so should\nthere be some distinct cause to produce these conspicuous effects,\nwhich, to trace, suggest the following hypothesis:\n\n\n_Centripetal Flow._--The different motions of the globe affect all\nbodies on its surface, so as to appear to the inhabitants as if the\nwhole were at rest; supposing thence, that the centre of the earth\nis the centre of motion, the following may be considered probable\nconsequences:--The general pressure being less at the centre and axis\nthan on the surface of the earth, obliges the medium of space to\nflow through the atmosphere and entire surface, _centripetally_, to\nthe centre, thence along the axis, carrying with it electric matter,\nand has exit at the poles, which polarizes the globe and produces\nthe boreales. The centripetal flow retains the atmosphere to the\nearth; precipitates bodies from the air in a centripetal direction;\naccelerates the descent; and retards all motion not in its own\ndirection: it prevents vertical ascent being equal to impulse, the\ndifference being employed in bearing against the flow. The flow makes\nbodies ponderate or have weight, causes the dip and direction of the\ncompass-needle.\n\n\n\n\nFORMATION OF A PLANET.\n\n\nThat cannot be considered a chaotic state from which the eternal order\nsprung; nor that a created body, the substance of which previously\nexisted, which was and is common to all bodies. Hence it may be\nconcluded that a planet is a natural production, equally as the\ninstantly-formed ponderous atmospheric a\u00ebrolite, supposed to have come\nfrom the moon.\n\nFrom the elementary to the a\u00ebriform, thence the aqueous state, seems\nthe simplest and primeval order of atomic combination. Hence it is\nconceivable, that, were an immense volume of the general elements\ncollected together in the regions of space, and subjected to extreme\npressure, the result would be an aqueous sphere, with an attached\nresidue of the same elements to serve as a primeval atmosphere to\nreceive increase from future mists and exhalations. While aqueous\nand with one side only of the sphere facing the sun, the elements of\nthe water cannot avoid being in a state of constant disturbance and\ntransfer, productive of combinations, formations, and precipitations\nuntil the equilibrium has obtained, leaving ultimately the solid masses\nso formed, as they would now appear were the ocean away: the original\nwater, from having contributed the elements of the newly-formed solids,\nbeing reduced in quantity and changed in quality, is left as the ocean\nis at present, saline. During the intermediate plastic state, and as\ninduration increased, the endowed fertility may have produced _kinds_,\nmany of which have become extinct.\n\nIt may be further assumed, that deep within the planet the elements\nabound in neither kind nor quantity as at the surface and in the\natmosphere; and if the imponderable oxygen element be absent, an\nimmense mass of ice would form the nucleus of the earth, the occasional\nmelting at the surface of which, in the neighbourhood of sulphurous and\nferruginous masses, may cause those volcanic eruptions from which no\nregion of the earth is free. Thus it would seem that a planet may be\nthe natural formation of an instant, requiring time for completion, and\nmay be an everyday circumstance in space.\n\nThe strict inquirer into terrestrial magnetism has to ascertain,\nwhether the non-conducting central ice be not the means, some how,\nof separating the correlative fluids which the centripetal flow\ncarries with it along the axis through the Poles, and which make the\nPoles magnetic opposites; or, whether, of these fluids, one only is\ntransmissible through ice.\n\nA planet may be subject to wear and the fertility to decrease, thence\nto be uninhabitable, as Herschel describes the very probable condition\nof the moon, owing to the rapid motion through space, solar effects\nand cultivation. The idea is neither gloomy nor a threatened dread.\nMan was born to leave this world, and live where GOD has pleased. Some\nanticipate the night, when we shall see \"our God in terror, and our\nworld on fire!\"--\"undoing all, as all had never been,\" or made in vain.\nBut He who blessed and never cursed his works, whose mercy and goodness\nendureth for ever, and who will \"save both man and beast,\" is not a God\nof terror!\n\nWhy the planets are moved round the sun, all in the same direction,\nexcites speculation in the absence of demonstration. Let it be supposed\nthat the inequalities in a newly-formed planet prevent the body being\nat rest under the general pressure; in which case the planet is put\ninto its primeval motion, and in the direction of the strongest\nimpulsive pressure. But as the like inequalities precisely, cannot\npresent in every new planet, neither could the motion of all be in\nthe same direction, which gives room for conceiving the probability\nthat the portion of the medium, however extensive, in which the\nsolar system is involved, revolves round the sun, or round the orbit\nof the sun, and that its motion is promoted by the sun in the solar\norbit,--which orbit may probably be promoted by the rarity of the\nelements in the solar regions. The medium of space so revolving,\ndetermines the direction of all the planets, which by the hypothesis\nmust be the same as that of the revolving medium.\n\nBy some such means only is it conceivable how solar matter can arrive\nat Neptune, the Earth, or even Mercury,--the _inert_ sun being\nincapable of radiating anything from itself, and solar atoms requiring\na physical impelling cause, in motion, and acting on the rear of each\nfrom the sun to the extreme of planetary space. A circulating medium of\nconstantly-increasing radius, appears indispensably necessary for the\npurpose of conveying solar matter through the regions of space, and for\nthe maintaining all planetary motion in the same uniform direction. The\nsubject is open to all, and worthy of notice: what is now advanced will\nbe passed over, from having no mathematical appendage, but which, makes\neven false causes pass for the demonstrated truth. The mathematical\nscience has not to this day demonstrated the cause of planetary\nmotion,--a subject wholly indifferent to modern astronomy, in which the\nfalse, self-gravitation, in connection with _inertia_, satisfies all as\nlong as the astronomer remains self-satisfied.\n\n\n_Formation and Use of a Comet._--A _Comet_ may have been a planet by\nformation, and impelled, before completion, immeasurably far beyond\nthe sun. The tail is probably the primitive atmosphere, left behind and\npressed after the body as towards a sheltering wall; the _coma_ may be\nelectric matter collected on the front, and subject to increase, which,\nby lessening pressure on the side facing the direction of motion,\nand without increased pressure on the opposite side, may cause the\nvelocity of the planet to be subject to acceleration, or prevent the\nmotion being equitable: the reticulated tail may serve to collect all\nredundant solar matter in space, after planetary use, for deposit in\nthe solar regions, or the sun as the heart of the system, for future\ncirculation. Were the tail to approach the earth sufficiently near,\nthe waters of the sea would be pressed upwards as towards an immense\nwater-spout; in which case the rivers must become drained; and as the\nComet recedes from the earth, the fall of the immense column would\nproduce _another general deluge_ over one hemisphere, at least, of the\nglobe! The deposits from a comet's tail may occasion those nebulocities\nnamed solar spots.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE END.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTyler and Reed, Printers, Bolt-court, London.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER'S NOTE.\n\n\nArchaic, dialectical and unusual spellings and usage have been\nmaintained. Obvious typos have been fixed as detailed below.\n\nTable of Contents entries with no corresponding centered title in the\noriginal book have been indented and the titles have been inserted\ninline.\n\n\n  Page vii:\n  DEDICATION      iii\n  ADVERTISEMENT      v\n  TABLE OF CONTENTS      vii\n  MESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY      1\n  In the original book:\n  PHILOSOPHY, THE ESTABLISHED      9\n\n  Page vii: THE USE OF OXYGEN IN PROMOTING COMBUSTION      42\n  In the original book: ----, ITS USE IN COMBUSTION     42\n\n  Page vii: USE OF THE INSPIRED OXYGEN WITHIN THE SYSTEM      56\n  In the original book: USE OF OXYGEN IN RESPIRATION      56\n\n  Page vii:\n  NATURAL SLEEP     65\n  COMATOSE FLOW      66\n  MESMERIC SLEEP      68\n  In the original book:\n  SLEEP, NATURAL     65\n  ----, MESMERIC      68\n  COMATOSE FLOW      66\n\n  Page viii:\n  TRANSPARENCY      77\n  OPACITY      77\n  In the original book:\n  TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY      77\n\n  Page viii:\n  MESMERISM, CURATIVE      87\n  ETHERS      87\n  In the original book:\n  ETHERS      87\n  MESMERISM, CURATIVE      87\n\n  Page viii:            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE\n  In the original book: (inserted)\n\n  Page 10:              an excruciating, painless toothache, and,\n  In the original book: an excruciating, painless toothach, and,\n\n  Page 24:              velocity and direction makes no exception.\n  In the original book: velocity and direction makes no exeption.\n\n  Page 41:              constituent of every a\u00ebriform body\n  In the original book: constituent of every acriform body\n\n  Page 42:              In this twofold manner of service\n  In the original book: In this two-fold manner of service\n\n  Page 43:              suffers de-electrisation and acquires medium\n  In the original book: suffers de-electrisation and acquiries medium\n\n  Page 55:              within the stomach, or in the tea-cup\n  In the original book: within the stomach, or in the teacup\n\n  Page 56:              the accumulation of minus-pressure matter in\n  In the original book: the accumulation of minus pressure-matter in\n\n  Page 56:              which is compensated by minus-pressure matter\n  In the original book: which is compensated by minus pressure-matter\n\n  Page 58:              the arterialising, minus-pressure, imponderable\n  In the original book: the arterialising, minus pressure, imponderable\n\n  Page 58:              losing the arterialising minus-pressure matter\n  In the original book: losing the arterialising minus pressure matter\n\n  Page 59:              the venous flow on the minus-pressure capillary\n  In the original book: the venous flow on the minus pressure capillary\n\n  Page 59:              _Use of the Spleen._--The SPLEEN, from being an\n  In the original book: The SPLEEN, from being an\n\n  Page 60:              _How the Diaphragm Is Raised._--The _diaphragm_\n  In the original book: The _diaphragm_\n\n  Page 66:              _Comatose Flow._--It must have been observed by\n  In the original book: It must have been observed by\n\n  Page 72:              above the horizon, the general optic\n  In the original book: above the horiozn, the general optic\n\n  Page 87:              _Curative Mesmerism._--The curative principle of\n  In the original book: The curative principle of\n\n  Page 87:              _Ethers._--From inhaled _ethers_, producing\n  In the original book: From inhaled _ethers_, producing\n\n  Page 88: Pharmacopoeia\n  In the original book the oe ligature was used.\n\n  Page 92:              _The Nature and Power of Will._--The power of\n  In the original book: The power of\n\n  Page 103:             _Formation and Use of a Comet._--A _Comet_ may\n  In the original book: A _Comet_ may","title":"The Philosophy Which Shows the Physiology of Mesmerism and Explains the Phenomenon of Clairvoyance","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":26906}