CONTENTS ΤΟ No. XLIV. ART. I. 1. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a 2. The African Committee. By T. Edward Bowdich, II. Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ ab H. Stephano constructus. III. 1. Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Recherches et Anecdotes 2. Histoire de la Magie en France depuis le commence- 3. Danske Folkesagn, samlede af J. M. Thiele. 4. Deutsche Sagen, herausgegeben von den Brüdern 5. Des Deutschen Mittelalters, Volksglauben und Hero- 6. Tales of the Dead, principally Translated from the - 273 302 . 348 IV. 1. Grundsätze der Strategie erläutert durch die Darstellung des Feldzugs von 1796 in Deutschland. 2. Principes de la Stratégie développés par la Relation 3. Geschichte des Feldzuges von 1799 in Deutschland 380 V. 1. Brutus, V. 1. Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin, an Historical Tragedy. 2. Evadne, or the Statue. A Tragedy in Five Acts. By VI. Sur l'Elévation des Montagnes de l'Inde, par Alexandre VII. A Letter respectfully addressed to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent on occasion of the Death of her late lamented Majesty. By Lysias. VIII. Travels in Nubia; by the late John Lewis Burckhardt. Published by the Association for promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. IX. Le Royaume de Westphalie-Jérome Buonaparte-sa Cour-ses Favoris-et ses Ministres. Par un Témoin oculaire. 402 415 - 430 - 437. 481 X. 1. The Substance of the Speech of the Right Hon. W. 2. Substance of the Speech of the Right Hon. George • 492 ART. I. 1. An Enquiry into the Probability and Rationality of Mr. Hunter's Theory of Life, being the Subject of the first two Anatomical Lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of London. By John Abernethy, F.R.S. &c. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College. 1814. 2. An Introduction to Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, being the two Introductory Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 21st and 25th of March, 1816. By William Lawrence, F.R.S. &c. 3. Physiological Lectures, exhibiting a General View, &c. delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons, 1817. By John Abernethy, F.R.S. 4. Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons. By William Lawrence, F.R.S. 1819. 5. Sketches on the Philosophy of Life. By Sir T. C. Morgan. 1819. 6. Remarks on Scepticism, being an Answer to the Views of Bichat, Sir T. C. Morgan, and Mr. Lawrence. By the Rev. Thomas Rennell, A.M. Christian Advocate in the University of Cambridge. 1819. 7. Cursory Observations upon the Lectures, &c. By one of the People called Christians. 1819. 8. A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Rennell. From a Graduate in Medicine. 1819. WE find our attention called by the pamphlets before us to a subject of no ordinary importance, the discussion of the doctrine of materialism: an open avowal of which has been made in the metropolis of the British empire, in lectures delivered under public authority, by Mr. Lawrence, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, in the Royal College of Surgeons. In the year 1814, Mr. Abernethy, who has long been known as a medical gentleman of the highest eminence, and one of the professors of that college, delivered two lectures on the Probability and Rationality of Mr. Hunter's Theory of Life. It can scarcely be necessary to remind our readers, in limine, that the nature of the living principle is among the subjects which are manifestly beyond the reach of human investigation. The effects VOL. XXII. NO. XLIII. Α and and the properties of life are indeed obvious to our senses, through the whole range of organized creation; but, on what they depend, and how they are produced, never has been discovered, and, probably, never will. Mr. Abernethy, however, following the steps of the celebrated J. Hunter, elucidates his views on the subject, which have the high merit of attempting to explain but little, but which seem fairly derived from the most probable conclusions to which our reason can carry us; viz. that life, in general, is some principle of activity added by the will of Omnipotence to organized structure, and that, in man, who is endowed with an intelligent faculty in addition to this vital principle possessed by other organized beings, to life and structure an immaterial soul is superadded. We perceive,' he says, an exact correspondence between those opinions which result from physiological researches, and those which so naturally arise from the suggestions of reason that some have considered them as intuitive. For most reflecting persons in all ages have believed, and indeed it seems natural to believe, what modern physiology also appears to teach, that in the human body there exists an assemblage of organs, formed of common inert matter, such as we see after death, a principle of life and action, and a sentient and rational faculty, all intimately connected, yet each apparently distinct from the other. So intimate, indeed, is the connection as to impose on us the opinion of their identity. The body springs and bounds as though its inert fabric were alive; yet we have good reasons for believing that life is distinct from organization. The mind and the actions of life affect each other. Failure or disturbance of the actions of life prevent or disturb our feelings, and enfeeble, perplex, or distract our intellectual operations. The mind equally affects the actions of life, and thus influences the whole body. Terror seems to palsy all its parts, whilst contrary emotions cause the limbs to struggle, and become contracted from energy. Now though these facts may countenance the idea of the identity of mind and life, yet we have good reasons for believing that they are perfectly distinct. Whilst, therefore, on the one hand I feel interested in oppugning those physiological opinions which tend to confound life with organization; I would, on the other, equally oppose those which confound perception and intelligence with mere vitality.'Enquiry, p. 77-79. He thus concludes. Thus my mind rests at peace in thinking on the subject of life, as it has been taught by Mr. Hunter; and I am visionary enough to imagine, that if these opinions should become so established as to be generally admitted by philosophers, that if they once saw reason to believe that life was something of an invisible and active nature superadded to organization; they would then see equal reason to believe that mind might be superadded to life, as life is to structure. They would then indeed still farther perceive how mind and matter might reciprocally operate on each other by means of an intervening substance. Thus even would physiological researches enforce the belief which I may say is natural to man; that in addition to his bodily frame, he possesses a sensitive, intelligent, and independent mind: an opinion which tends in an eminent degree to produce virtuous, honorable, and useful actions.'-p. 94, 95. Two years after the appearance of these lectures, Mr. Lawrence, who had recently been elected to the situation of colleague to Mr. Abernethy, delivered at the college his two introductory lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. Mr. Lawrence is, we understand, a young surgeon, who has acquired considerable reputation in his profession, and particularly by a diligent study of comparative anatomy, through the medium of foreign, for the most part German, writers and professors. He had been the pupil of Mr. Abernethy, and had lived for many years under his roof; and he speaks, in the warmest terms, of the invariable kindness and disinterested friendship with which that gentleman directed his early studies. After giving, in his first lecture, an excellent sketch of the objects and the history of comparative anatomy, he proceeds, in the second, to develope his ideas concerning the principle of life. Here he assumes a very different character. Forgetting the encomiums which he had just passed on his benefactor and instructor, the respect which he owed to his professional situation and character, and, we hesitate not to add, the direct object of the professional station he was then filling, (a station expressly founded for displaying Mr. Hunter's noble Museum, purchased by Parliament for the use of the College, and of illustrating his physiological investigations,) he indulges in taunts and sarcasms, not of the most modest, or mild description, against Mr. Hunter's theory as maintained by Mr. Abernethy in the former year, and the manner in which he illustrated and supported it. In explaining his own opinions, Mr. Lawrence involves himself in much perplexity and confusion; but still he inculcates, in terms too plain to be misunderstood, the portentous doctrine that the principle of life, whether sentient or intelligent, is in all organized beings the same; that, whether we look to man, the highest of the animal creation, with all his faculties of invention, memory, imagination, or to an oyster or a cabbage, the vital properties are all derived from their organic structure, and that the difference of this structure constitutes the only difference in their faculties and powers. He mentions, p. 144, as if it were a known and acknowledged truth, that medullary substance is capable of sensation and of A 2 thought.' |