ART. XVI. An Inquiry into the Nature of Sleep and Death, with a view to ascertain the more immediate causes of death, and the better regulation of the means of obviating them. Republished by permission of the president and council of the Royal Society, from the Philosophical Transactions for 1827, 29, 31, 33, and 34: being the concluding part of the author's experimental inquiry into the laws of the vital functions. By A. P. W. Philip, M. D., F. R. S., L. & E. 8vo, pp. 254. London, 1834.

This is almost wholly a republication of seven of the author's papers, published originally in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London; only two of which, the last, have an immediate reference to the chief subjects of the title. The first is "on the functions of the nervous system, and the relation which they bear to the other vital functions;" the second consists of "some observations on the effects of dividing the nerves of the lungs, and subjecting them to the influence of voltaic electricity;" the third is devoted to "Some observations relating to the function of digestion:" the fourth is "on the sources and nature of the powers of circulation:" and the fifth "on the relation which subsists between the nervous and muscular systems in the more perfect animals, and the nature of the influence by which it is maintained." On the subjects of all these papers the views of Dr. Philip have been long known. They could not fail, indeed, to be impressed upon the memory, from the variety of shapes in which they have been presented to the reader; their clearness is, however, by no means enhanced by the repeated references which he makes to other of his contributions to science. From a review of all the facts contained in his paper on sleep, the author arrives at the following conclusions:

"1. That in the brain and spinal marrows alone reside the active parts of the nervous system.

"2. That the law of excitement in the parts of these organs, which are associated with the nerves of sensation and voluntary motion, is uniform excitement followed by proportional exhaustion, which, when it takes place to such a degree as to suspend their usual functions, constitutes sleep; all degrees of exhaustion which do not extend beyond them and the parts associated with them, being consistent with health.

"3. That the law of excitement in those parts of the brain and spinal marrow which are associated with the vital nerves is also uniform excitement, but which is only, when excessive, followed by any degree of exhaustion, no degree of which is consistent with health.

"4. That the vital, in no degree partaking of the exhaustion of the sensitive system in sleep, only appears to do so from the influence of the latter on the function of respiration, the only vital function in which these systems co-operate; in consequence of which its organs, without being in any degree debilitated, are less readily excited.

"5. That the law of excitement of the muscular fibre, with which both the vital and sensitive parts of the brain and spinal marrow are associated, is interrupted excitement, which, like the excitement of the vital parts of these organs, is only, when expressive, followed by any degree of exhaustion; and

"6. That the nature of the muscular fibre is every where the same, the apparent differences in the nature of the muscles of voluntary and involuntary motion depending on the differences of their functions, of their relation to the brain and spinal marrow, and of the circumstances in which they are placed." p. 150. The peculiarities of dreaming, Dr. Philip ascribes to the partial operation of the causes of disturbance, and some of the sensitive parts of the brain being capable of excitement without disturbing the others: "and thus

it is that the more near we are to awaking, the more rational our dreams become, all parts of the brain beginning to partake of the excitement; which has given rise to the adage, that morning dreams are true."

In a preceding paragraph he observes, that when we awake we are conversing, and are thus obliged to employ words, the usual incongruities of dreaming do not occur. The ideas are sufficiently detailed to enable us to correct the suggestions of the imagination. "No man," he says, “ever dreamt that he was telling another that he had been flying through the air:" -in which the author is assuredly in error. It has happened to us to do this very thing, that no man ever did do; and every inveterate dreamer could give instances in opposition to the conclusions of Dr. Philip.

In his last paper, Dr. Philip divides the forms of death into five classes. In the first, he places the only natural death, that from old age, where all the powers of life, in consequence of the operation of the agents, which excite their organs, gradually decline, and death is only the last sleep, characterized by no peculiarity, in which these powers, partly from their own decay, and partly from the lessened sensibility increasing the difficulty of restoring the sensitive system, become incapable of this office, in consequence of which the individual awakes no more.

Secondly. The death which he considers to resemble most nearly that from old age is that from excessive exhaustion of the sensitive system, "from the operation of stimulants of greater power than this system can bear, notwithstanding the intervals of such imperfect repose as their continued operation admit of, without the supervention of disease; which, not being capable of relief from the continued action of the vital parts of the brain and spinal marrow, by sympathy spreads to them, the affection of each system increasing that of the other, till all the powers of the sensitive system are destroyed."

Thirdly. The death, in which disease of the sensitive system arises, not from causes over exciting, but directly debilitating it, the debility which they induce being of the same nature with that from excessive excitement, and running the same course as in the second stage of the preceding form. Fourthly. The death which arises from the privation of the natural stimulants of the organs of life: and

Fifthly. That which arises from diseased states of those organs, analogous to the states produced in the organs of the sensitive system by the causes which make their impression on them. p. 226.

"If," says the author, "the foregoing include all the modes of decay, the physiological nature of death, in its various forms, is referable to very simple principles. In the natural decay, the excitability of the organs of both the sensitive and vital systems is gradually impaired by stimulants, which, whether existing within our bodies, or making their impression from without, belong to inanimate nature: for it is by the impression of such stimulants alone that the functions of life are maintained. In the different kinds of violent death, with the exception of the death which arises from a failure of the natural stimulants of the vital organs, which is comparatively rare, and extremely simple in its nature, we find the excitability of one or both of these systems, or some parts of one or both of them, capable of influencing all the others, more quickly destroyed by the continued operation of causes which either stimulate beyond the limits of health, or applied beyond the limits of their stimulant operation, destroy the powers of life, either by directly destroying the powers of the sensitive system, or depriving it of those powers by which it is maintained. All these causes, it is evident, tend to the same effect; the extinction of the sensibility, which constitutes death ac

cording to the common acceptation of the term, the immediate cause of which, therefore, exists in the sensitive parts of the brain and spinal marrow." p. 228. In another passage, Dr. Philip remarks, that the last feelings, in natural death, are necessarily of the same nature as those that precede sleep. It is only when the course of our decay is disturbed, that suffering of any kind attends it. It appears to us, however, that, physiologically speaking, the difference between sleep and death is sufficiently appreciable. During sleep a process of renovation is going on in the organs of animal life, which adapts them for subsequent activity, and contrasts signally with the annihilation of the functions that constitute death; hence the marked difference between healthy sleep, and the state of coma or stupor induced by a morbid cause, from which the patient is aroused languid and exhausted, instead of active and recruited. The idea of the intense suffering immediately preceding dissolution is, and has been, so general, that the term "Agony" has been applied to it in many languages. In its origin, the word means nothing more than a violent contest or strife, but it has been extended so as to embrace the pangs of death and any violent pain. The agony of death, however, physiologically speaking, instead of being a state of mental and corporeal turmoil and anguish, is one of insensibility. The hurried and laboured breathing, the peculiar sound on inspiration, and the turned up eye-ball, instead of being evidences of suffering, are now admitted to be signs of the brain having lost all, or almost all, sensibility to impressions. Whilst the brain is possessed of consciousness, the eye is directed as the will commands, by the appropriate voluntary muscles of the organ; but as soon as consciousness is lost, and the will no longer acts, the eye-ball is drawn up involuntarily under the upper eye-lid. All the indications, then, of mortal strife are such in appearance only: even the convulsive agitations, occasionally perceived, are of the nature of the epileptic spasms, which we know to be produced in total insensibility, and to afford no real evidence of corporeal suffering. An easy death-euthanasia-is what all desire; and, fortunately, whatever may have been the previous pangs, the closing scene in most ailments, is generally of this character. In the beautiful mythology of the ancients, Death was the daughter of Night, and the sister of Sleep. She was the only divinity to whom no sacrifice was made, because it was felt that no human interference could arrest her arm: yet her approach was contemplated without any physical apprehension. The representation of Death, as a skeleton covered merely with skin, on the monument at Cannæ, was not the common allegorical picture of the period. It was generally depicted on tombs as a friendly genius, holding a wreath in his hand, with an inverted torch;-as a sleeping child, winged, with an inverted torch rest*ing on his wreath; or as Love, with a melancholy air, his legs crossed, leaning on an inverted torch,-the inverted torch being a beautiful emblem of the gradual self-extinguishment of the vital flame.

The disgusting representations of Death from the contents of the charnel-house were not common until the austerity of the 14th century, and are beginning to be abandoned. In more recent times, Death seems to have been portrayed as a beautiful youth; and it is under this form that he is represented by Canova, on the monument which George the IV. of England erected in St. Peter's at Rome, in honour of the Stuarts. R. D.

ART. XXI. Philosophie de l'Histoire Naturelle ou Phénomènes de l'Organisation des` Animaux et des Végétaux. Par J. J. VIREY, Docteur en Médecine de la Faculté de Paris, et Membre titulaire de l'Académie Royale de Médecine, &c. &c. In nova fert animus.-OVID. Paris, 1835. 8vo, pp. 512.

Philosophy of Natural History, or Phenomena of the Organization of Animals and Vegetables. By J. J. VIREY, Doctor of Medicine of the Faculty of Paris, &c. &c.

The author of the "Philosophy" has been long known as one of the most prolific writers of the times. An active and useful member of the Société de Pharmacie of Paris-busily engaged, too, in the exercise of his calling, he has yet found time and inclination to discuss voluminously, and at the same time, most fancifully, many interesting and intricate points of anthropology. Early in his career of authorship, he selected moral rather than physical man for the object of his investigations; but, of late, his inclinations appear to have led him more to the cultivation of the natural sciences. Seven and twenty years ago, he published a treatise in two volumes "On the Art of improving Man;”—in 1817, “Medico-philosophical Researches on the Nature and Faculties of Man," in one volume;-in 1820, a "Natural History of Medicines, Aliments, and Poisons," in one volume;—in 1822, a "History of the Manners and Instinct of Animals," in three volumes;-in 1823, a volume "on the Vital Power;"-in 1824, his "Natural History of Mankind," in three volumes;-in 1825, a second edition of his work on "Woman," in one volume; in 1830, the second edition of his "Philosophical Hygiéné;”—in 1833, the third edition of "Treatise on Pharmacy," in two volumes; and, lastly, the work before us. Besides these separate publications, the pages of the "Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle," of the "Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales,” and of many of the periodicals of the day, contain numerous evidences of the author's industry and zeal in the cultivation of his profession. Every thing that emanates from him indicates research, and almost all exhibit vivid, we might perhaps say, boundless imagination. The predominance, indeed, of the latter quality detracts largely from the value of most of his productions, and has acquired him the character, with some, of being the most fanciful of anthropological speculators.

The work before us is divided into four books; the first of which is entitled "General Physiology, or Principles of Organization, animal and vegetable:"-the second is on "the origin and formation of beings as regards their destruction;"-the third, on the "developements of organic forms and their functions;"-and the fourth on the "reproduction of beings, animal and vegetable."

In respect to the theory of the formation of living bodies, M. Virey is a decided univocalist. All philosophers are so, as regards the beings highest up in the scale; but many distinguished naturalists, amongst whom may be mentioned De Lamarck, Raspail, Treviranus, Burdach, Gruithuisen, and Wrisberg, conceive it probable that spontaneous or equivocal generation may occur in the lowest divisions of living bodies.

M. Virey, however, considers, that facts, gradually developed in the wonderful progress of the natural and anatomical sciences, are'sufficient to annihilate "the monstrous hypothesis of the spontaneous life of matter, and the pretended formation of organized beings, by blind inorganic substances." p. 30.

His views on the difference between organized and inorganic bodies are singularly fantastic, and often by no means intelligible. Witness the following extract:

"Different progressive degrees of animation may be observed in organic substances. First a simple gelatinous liquid offers the first framework of all organization. Subsequently, an albuminous substance, susceptible of concretion, passes successively to the form of the more or less solid tissues. The fibre constitutes the more or less hard wood of vegetables, or the muscular flesh of animals. Lastly, the nervous pulp contains, during life, the most striking excitative faculties of the whole economy.

"These four principal elements, gelatine, albumen, fibrine, and nervine, enjoy properties more or less active, as contractility, which is the attribute (apanage) of the muscular fibre, and sensibility, with which the medulla of the nervous cords is endowed. The substance, composing the muscular fibre, and the neurilemma, (the membrane enveloping the nervous element,) are more soluble in acids than in alkalies. The nervine or pulp of the nerves is soluble in alkalies, and not in acids. The contained is thus found in a state opposite to that of the containing. The latter is the anelectric (cohibant) of the former: their reciprocal polarity is therefore contrary or inverse."

"Moreover, there is a great analogy in composition between the nervine and the seminal matter of animals. Both hold phosphorus in combination, a very energetic agent of stimulation on the other living parts, a principle eminently combustible, or the most opposed to the burnt (carbure) and heveral state." p. 43.

In its general character the work before us is liable to all the objections that apply to M. Virey's works in general. Perhaps, indeed, there is a greater admixture of obscure psychology, or what he would doubtless term "philosophy," in the present than in his preceding publications. Of this we have a signal example in what he calls his "Terminal Propositions," which conclude the text of the work, and embody, as it were, his leading principles of organization.

"1. Is the DIVINITY the intellectual principle, the vital force of the world, (in the universal encephalon,*) analogous to the nervous fluid, or to the celestial Ether?"

"2. IS NATURE like the general nervous apparatus, distributing to all parts of the spheres movement and life, for the organization and developement of animal and vegetable beings?"

3. Are the MASSES, called INORGANIC and ANORGANIC, materials constituting the different bodies which compose the worlds, either in the permanent mineral and chemical condition, or in the transitory condition of organization, through the influence of the vivifying principle?"

"4. DO ORGANIZED BEINGS, in their individual and transitory existence, emanate as temporary productions from the great tree of life?"

"5. Is each of its different BRANCHES OF STOCKS of SPECIES attached to a common trunk by paternal connexions, in their genera and families, according to the general law of life, reproduction, and destruction?"

"6. Do all ANIMATED SPECIES (without excepting the human race, terminal or regulating (terminale ou regulatrice,) on our planet) undergo, like their individuals, the law of developement, increase, vigour, and multiplication, and afterwards of old age and death, to accomplish the orbit of transformations or modifications in accordance with those of the star that nourishes, and causes them to expand and fructify?"

7. Do not all the organized beings of our world aspire by successive developement, and by a more and more complicated evolution, to rise progressively towards the pinnacle of perfection, in order to approach the organism of man? The vegetable, which is at first the most imperfect, tends to attain a higher rank from its birth and to its complete developement, as man from the primitive embryonic point (infusory animalcule?) runs through all the steps of the zoonomic

⚫ "Sensorium universale, of Isaac Newton and of Samuel Clarke.

No. XXXV.-MAY, 1836.

15