Litchfield enquirer., 1830-04-22

whole figure will assume that perfectuess of form, with which beauty, usefulness and health are so intimately connected 1 -e1e-,
 -. WHERE IS LIFE
 | The replies tO this question have, from time to time, assumed a character inconsisA tent with the eanons of true philosophy. Even so late as the time of the celebrated John Hunter, the locality of the vital prin- ciple has been spoken of with much vague ness of Language, and want of precision; in respect to the legitimate principle of phi- losophising. This great man, in his re- searches on living condition, observed that part of the blood, when thrown out from in flaming vessels, but still retained in the body, became organized; that in this mass, as tho the blood was the theatre for new operations. vessels speedily shot; that these vessels. in their elongation and rapid eyo- lutions, soon came to join themselves with those already circulating the fluid in ques- ton 1, and that thus it seemed as if from blood new vessels were formed, and new parts created. 1t was further observed, than when blood was ejected from its con- taining vessels, taken from the bodys and received into a bason, a white substance separated itself from tlie general mass that this white matter seemed, cdstcris varibus, in quantity proporlioned to the energy of the living power; that moreover, the sub- stance itself resembling, in its susceptibili- ties and habits, what Is called muscle; and therefore they said, in the blood is the life otthe animal-or, as John Hunter expres- ses it. the living principle resides in the blood. 4@ +s .4
 But, were this kind of reasoning and in- ference correct and legitimate, should we not expect cxtravasated or sepGr0teN blood to manifest living properties tn a very dit. ieref1t manner from that above adverted to 2 Instead of soon falling into chymical de. composition, us it does, it ought, upon the vitalists principles, to commence series create fbre--and to do what it does, or rather what it is subservieut to doing, when connected with, or composing, an integral part of the living frame.
 1t is not the blood but the nerves, say otherss in which the properties of life re- side. Pinch, prick. or irritate a nerve go- ing to limb, and the limb immediately, by 'ts motions, shows the dependence of mo- ton, which is one of the main SOanifesta- tions of life, upon nervous influence. Let an individual have hut a faw ounces of blood thrown out upon the brain, and le shorts, becomes ii,sensible, and dies, al. though the general mass of blood still con- tinues in the vessels els-Saithough ho other cause be inoperatIot' Tor extinguishing tho vital principle. The brain, then, and its production, the nervous branches, are the parts to which the liviEg principle is att ached in other words, here is ths cs= sence and locality of life. ,s
 But suppose we do with this brain, and with these nerves, what we assume to be done with the blood viz. separate it from it's connection with other portions of the organic compages. Now, where is their life and their power of originating motion, and their vital principle ! In word, life and its manifestations, its habits, and its passions, are not in this part or in that part --they are not in the blood, or in the nerves, or tn the pineal gland, or in the py@noFdiuIn, or in the heart, or in the li. ver-but they are all circular constituents of a circular whole; and when we cease to recognise this great truth, when we run in- to notions about the Localities of life and the residence of the soul, we use words without meaning; we poetise rather than plIilosophise, and assume principles whicl, are totally baseless.-Dr. Upins % Life aud HeGlGk. Glorious uncertainty of the L0w.--A writer in the National Intelligereer has had the curiosity to examine the Reports ofthe Supreme Court of the United States, for the purpose of ascertaining what pro. portion of causes have been affirmed and what reversed. He has stated, in tabu- lar form, the results of his examination of the Reports of Dallas. Crancl,, Wheaton, and the Grst and second volume of Peters; and from his statement, it appears, that the whole number of cases in which the Supreme Court has either affirmed or re- versed the judgments of the Courts below, including the cases of 1929. is 754. Of these, 425 have been affirmed and the rest, S29, reversed. This gives an ave- rage of affirmances equal to 56l-4 per cent. The two states the decision of whose courts seem to have fared the best. arc New-Jersey and Maryland, from eacl, of which four cases were carried up, and all