The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-05-08
Essentials afHeaIth.

What, then, are the chief characters
tics of the living principle-otherwise vi
tallty Or life-force? In other words, what
are the great laws that control vital oper-
ations?
First, ,Sezf-presevation. This is the
first and supreme principle in living Or
ganisms. AS an ever-opcrative instinct,
1t exists wherever life exists, never de-
sertlng an organization while life remains.
Every fact of existence demonstrates this
! truth. The male and the female will
come together: the embryo will have
nourlshment; the mother will bear heroi-
cally the often fearful pains of materni-
ty, and shelter and protect the offspring
under every hardship, because these are
the means of preserving race. But the
instinct ofself- preservation of ii'adiuidual
life is still greater. Men will labor and
endure untold hardships to gain the ma
terial for life. All that man hath will
he give for his life, not because his intel.
lect values it so highly, for, under the
spur of intellect overriding instinct, men
may destroy themselves; but wherever
instinct, as in the brute, and as in the
case of physical ailments, is supreme,
self-preservation is the all-controlling
force. Men have known to drink each
others blood, and eat each others flesh,
to satisfy the instinct of MISREPRESENTATION.
Indeed the principle is law of life as
unerrlng as the law of attraction or gray
ltatlon is in matter. just as surely as
the worlds are brought into existence,
and maintained through the force of at
traction inherent in all things, just so
surely is life brought forth and maintain
ed, through the operation of the princi
pie of self-preservation inhering in it.
They cannot be separated. IF vitality
were Indifferent to its own existence, this
world of life would be blank, and cha
os would come again.
The lag Of selfprese,vation aecessayiM
implies the laao Of 5,astiaecttce reetitude or
normal action. Vitality always points to
right action, as truly as the needle does
to the pole. If it loses the instinct of
of course that of selfpreserya-
ton is also lost. While magnetism ex-
lists. it points to the magnet; and while |
life exists, it points toward life: Either
may vary in answer to stronger infuenc- |
IS from other quarters; but these very |
prove the existence Of the in |
stlnct. If the needle did not answer to
4 stronger magnet. it would prove its own
want OF magnetism just so with life, if
t did not respond to new and stronger
Influences, this would show its loso of
living qualities. If an organism did not
show abnormal conditions, which is dis
ease, under the application of sufficiently
powerful abnormal agents. that would be
The proof that it had lost its vitality-at
east so Nature afhrms.
The tiniest seed of grass dropped into
the ground will put forth its little spear,
and thrust backward the heavy earth,
often moving weights thousand times
heavier than itself, in order that it NAV
shoot upward to the light A small sap
ing or other tree may be bent to the
ground, and its body kept in that posi-
ion; but it viii instinctively shoot its
limbs upwards, because that is its normal
condition. But if The seed or the tree
lad lost its vitality, it responds to no
but chemical affinities, and
disorganized.-Ffon. The Sci
nee Of Health.