SECTION III.

As it is impossible to understand properly the medical theories which occur in the Hippocratic treatises without a competent acquaintance with the Physical Philosophy of the ancients, I have thought it necessary to devote an entire chapter to an exposition of the tenets held by the philosophers regarding the elements of things. I might have been able to dispense with this labor provided there had been any modern publication to which I could refer the reader for the necessary information on the subject in question; but, unfortunately, there is no work in the English language, as far as I am aware, in which the nature of the ancient doctrines is properly described. To give an example in point: Dr. Watson, the bishop of Llandaff, in his essay “On the Transmutability of Water into Earth,” makes the following remarks on the ancient doctrine concerning the elements: “If but one particle of water can, by any means, be changed into a particle of earth, the whole doctrine of the Peripatetic sect concerning the elements of things will be utterly subverted: the diversities of bodies subsisting in the universe will no longer be attributed to the different combinations of earth, air, fire, and water,as distinct, immutable principles, but to the different magnitudes, figures, and arrangements of particles of matter of the same kind.”[278]

Now it will at once be perceived by any person who is at all acquainted with modern science, that if the ancient dogmata be as here represented, they are altogether destitute of any solid foundation in truth and nature, and we may well wonder that such a baseless structure should have endured for so long a period. But before passing this severe judgment on the tenets of our great forefathers in philosophy, it will be well to investigate their doctrines more accurately than Dr. Watson appears to have done in this instance.

In pursuing the present investigation, I shall, in the first place, give literal translations of extracts from the works of the most celebrated sects of philosophers; namely, the Pythagoreans, Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, and Epicureans. It will, of course, be readily perceived, from what I have now stated, that I do not mean to confine my inquiry to the period of ancient philosophy which preceded Hippocrates, but that I am to bring it down to a pretty late age. This course I find it indispensably necessary to follow, as I could not derive sufficient illustration of the subject were I to restrict myself to the works of the earlier philosophers, who either preceded our author or were his contemporaries. I shall first give the extracts by themselves, and then make some remarks in illustration of the doctrines which they expound. I think it proper to mention further, that I am answerable for the correctness of the translations in all cases, unless where it is otherwise stated.

“Fire being compressed produces air, and air water, and water earth: and from earth the same circuit of changes takes place till we come to fire.”[279]

“In that part of the universe where Nature and Generation exert their powers, it is necessary that there should be these three things: In the first place, that thing which being tangible furnishes a body to everything which comes into existence. This is the universal recipient and substance of impression for things generated, bearing the same relation to things which are generated from them that water does to juice, and silence to sound, and darkness to light, and materials to the things fabricated from them. For water is void of taste and quality, bearing the same relation to sweet and bitter, and to sharp and salt. The air is unformed as to sound, or speech, or melody. And darkness is devoid of color and shape, and bears the same relation towards bright, and yellow, and white. But white bears reference also both to the statuary art and that which forms figures of wax. But matter admits of another comparison with the art of statuary. For all things exist in itpotentiallybefore they are made, butactuallyafter they are made and have received their nature. In order, therefore, that there should be generation, it is necessary that there should be some one substance as a substratum. In the second place there are thecontraries, in order that they may be changes and transmutations, the primary matter undergoing passion and affection, in order that the qualities (orpowers, δυναμεις), being mutually passive, may not destroy, nor be destroyed, by one another. These (the contraries) are, heat and cold, moisture and dryness. In the third place are those substances in which these powers reside, namely, fire and water, air and earth. For these differ from the powers (qualities?) For the substances are consumed in place by one another, but the powers are neither consumed nor formed, for they are the incorporeal reasons of these.[280]Of these four, heat and cold are causes, and active; but dryness and humidity are as the materials, and passive. In the first place there is matter, the universal recipient, for it is the common subject (orsubstratum) of all things, so that it is the first sensible body in potentiality, and the original of all things: next are the contraries, such as heat and cold, moisture and dryness; and in the third place there are fire, water, earth, and air:these all change into one another, but the contraries do not change.”[281]

The primary matter is afterwards defined to be “the subject body, that which receives all the changes, the universal recipient, and that which potentially is the first to the touch.”[282]

“The first principles of all created things are the substratum, matter, and the reason of shape; namely, form. The bodies are their offspring, namely, fire, air, earth, water.”[283]

“Pythagoras taught that the original of all things is the monad, that from the monad sprung the duad, which is the subject matter to the efficient monad: that from the monad and infinite duad were formed the numbers: from the numbers the points; from them the lines, from these figures of superficies; from the superficies the solid figures; from these the solid bodies, of which are the elements, fire, water, earth, air:—that from these, changed and converted into every shape, is formed the world, which is animated, intelligent, of a spherical shape, comprehending in its middle the earth, which also is spherical and inhabited all round.[284]

“Pythagoras said, that none of the elements is pure, for that earth contains fire, and fire air, and water air, etc.”[285]

“Nor those which elements we call abide,Nor to this figure, nor to that are ty’d:For this eternal world is said of oldBut four prolific principles to hold,Four different bodies: two to heaven ascend,And other two down to the centre tend:Fire first with wings expanded mounts on high,Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky:Then air, because unclogged, in empty spaceFlies after fire, and claims the second place;But weighty water, as her nature guides,Lies on the lap of earth; and mother Earth subsides.All things are mixed of these, which all contain,And into these are all resolved again:Earth rarefies to dew; expanding moreThe subtile dew in air begins to soar:Spreads as she flies and weary of the name,Extenuates still and changes into flame.Thus having by degrees perfection won,Restless they soon untwist the web they spun.And fire begins to lose her radiant hue,Mix’d with gross air, and air descends in dew:And dew condensing does her form foregoAnd sinks a heavy lump of earth below,Thus are their figures never at a stand,But changed by Nature’s innovating hand.”[286]

“Nor those which elements we call abide,

Nor to this figure, nor to that are ty’d:

For this eternal world is said of old

But four prolific principles to hold,

Four different bodies: two to heaven ascend,

And other two down to the centre tend:

Fire first with wings expanded mounts on high,

Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky:

Then air, because unclogged, in empty space

Flies after fire, and claims the second place;

But weighty water, as her nature guides,

Lies on the lap of earth; and mother Earth subsides.

All things are mixed of these, which all contain,

And into these are all resolved again:

Earth rarefies to dew; expanding more

The subtile dew in air begins to soar:

Spreads as she flies and weary of the name,

Extenuates still and changes into flame.

Thus having by degrees perfection won,

Restless they soon untwist the web they spun.

And fire begins to lose her radiant hue,

Mix’d with gross air, and air descends in dew:

And dew condensing does her form forego

And sinks a heavy lump of earth below,

Thus are their figures never at a stand,

But changed by Nature’s innovating hand.”[286]

“Let us therefore say that the mother,orreceptacle of every visible, nay of every sensible production, is neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor any of the things which arise out of these, nor out of which these arise, but a certain invisible and formless being, the universal recipient, concerning which being, if we say that it is in a very dubious way intelligible, and something most hard to be apprehended, we shall not speak false.”[287]

The primary matter “admits of everything, but partakes of no shape nor resemblance to anything which enters into it. It is the substance of impression[288]to everything in nature, being moved and altered by those things which enter into it (the forms?), and by their means it appears sometimes one thing and sometimes another.”[289]

“In the first place, we see that which we call water, being compressed, become stones and earth. But being dissolved and expanded, it becomes breath and air. Air, by combustion, is converted into fire, which, being compressed and extinguished, assumes its original form. Fire and air meeting together, and being condensed, become cloud and vapor; and from the condensation of these, running water is formed.And from water again, earth and stones are formed.”[290]

Plato taught “that God, matter, and form, are the originals of all things:—that matter is increate and incorruptible, neither fire, nor water, nor any of the principles nor elements, but a substance capable of form and subject to fabrication: that when rude and deprived of every quality of configuration, God, the artificer, formed the universe from it. He taught, that matter is the original of all bodies, that it was stamped with the impression of forms, and hence were produced the elements, namely, fire, water, earth, and air.”[291]

“Earth contains water, and water, as some suppose, carries earth: air is formed from water, and from dense air fire is formed.”[292]

“There being four kinds of bodies, by the mutual changes of them the nature of the world is preserved.For water is formed from earth, and air from water, and ether from air: and then inversely, from ether, air; from air, water; and from water, earth, which is lowest in the scale.”[293]

“Those who have investigated matter, if they have formed any right conception of it, have agreed in considering it as the subject and receptacle of forms.”[294]

“Concerning the receptacle of bodies this may be said. In the first place, that there must be a certain substratum to bodies different from themselves,is demonstrated by the transmutation of the elements into one another. For that which is changed is not altogether consumed, or, if it is, a substance is changed into a non-entity. And neither has that which is born come into existence from nothing, but it has undergone a change from one form into another. For something remains which has received the new form and cast off the other. And this is shown by destruction, for it applies only to a compound body; and, if this be true, every such body is compounded of matter and form. Induction bears testimony to the truth of this, by showing, that whatever is dissolved was compounded; and analysis in the same manner, as, for example, if a phial be resolved into gold, and gold into water; and water, in like manner, when it perishes, requires to be something analogous. But the elements must be either form, or primary matter, or a compound of form and matter. But they cannot be form, for without matter, how could they be possessed of bulk and magnitude? But they are not primary matter, for it is not consumed. It follows, then, that they must consist of form and the primary matter. But form regards quality and shape, but it (the primary matter) pertains to the subject which is indeterminate, (ἀόριστονorἀόρατον) because it is not form.”[295]

“Matter of itself is devoid of form, matter is the subject of all things.”[296]

“The followers of Plato and Aristotle are of opinion, that there is a difference between the first principles and the elements. For, the elements are compounded, but the first principles are not compounded nor formed from any thing. What we call the elements are fire, air, earth, and water; but we call that a principle which has nothing from which it is formed, since otherwise it is not a principle, but that from which it is formed. But there is something antecedent to water and earth, from which they are formed; namely, the first matter which is devoid of shape and form; then there is form (which we callentelocheia) and privation.”[297]

“Plato, wishing to prove that the elements have one common matter as a substratum to all, in his ‘Timæus,’ enters into a discussion regarding their transmutation into one another. But he being well acquainted with the art of demonstration, has treated properly of the change of the first bodies into one another. But Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, and Heraclitus, assuming each that there is some one element, endeavor to prove this from their changing into one another. Yet all these seem to me to have had an obscure idea (ὀνειράττειν) of some matter, which is a common substratum to all the elements, and seeing that it is single they supposed that there is but one element. But instead of saying that this is a common element from which the others, I mean air, fire, water, and earth, are formed, they passed it over altogether and endeavored to demonstrate the same thing of some one of the elements, all proceeding upon the same mode of demonstration, although they did not all make choice of the same element.”[298]

“With regard to the old philosophers, called physical, it will be obvious to us when we read their writings on Nature, that they held the existence of a first matter which is increate and eternal, being the substratum to all created and perceptible things.”[299]

“That the elements change into one another is admitted, even by the followers of Thales, it being so apparent. Hence it is inferred that the elements have one common matter for a substratum.”[300]

Philo, the platonic Jew of Alexandria, in his treatise “On the Creation of the World,” thus expresses his opinions regarding the original state of matter. “Whoever would wish to discover the cause why this universe was framed, would not be far from the truth, in my opinion, if he said with one of the ancients, that the Father and Maker of it is good, and for that reason he spared not to impart of his most excellent nature to a substance having nothing beautiful in itself, but possessing the capacity of becoming all things. Of itself it was devoid of form, quality, and life; and was full of contrariety, confusion, and dissonance.”

“Moses, the chief of philosophers, and instructed in many of the most comprehensive secrets of Nature by oracles, was aware that it was most necessary that there should be in the universe an active cause and a passive subject. That the active is the most pure and perfect soul of the universe, more excellent than virtue, more excellent than knowledge, more excellent than even goodness and beauty. That the passive is of itself without life and motion, but being moved and figured, and enlivened by mind, it was changed into a most perfect work.”[301]

His opinion regarding the elements may be collected from the following passages:—“Fire being extinguished is converted into thick air, and air being compressed subsides into water, and water being still more compressed is changed into earth, the densest of the elements.”[302]

“Nothing that is pure can be comprehended by the senses.”[303]

“The elements are inanimate matter, of itself devoid of motion, and subjected to the artificer, by whom it is transformed into all kinds of shapes and qualities.”[304]

I shall venture to give under this head the opinions of one of the Arabian medical authors.

“It is to be kept in mind that the elements which are perceived by the senses, namely, fire, air, earth, and water, are by no means the pure elements, but such as are comprehended by the mind. These are not to be perceived by the senses. None of the others is pure, nor without some admixture.”[305]

Aristotle defines the first matter as follows: “I call matter the first subject of everything, all things being formed from it existing in them not accidentally; and when anything is destroyed, it comes to this at last.”[306]

In his Logical work he thus defines his ideas regarding the first substances, namely, mind and matter. “The first substances being the subjects of all other things, and as every other thing may be predicated by them and exists in them, are called the prime substances.[307]“We must distinguish the first bodies from matter, for we must suppose concerning them that they have a first principle and origin, namely, matter, which is inseparable from them, and is the subject of the contraries. For heat does not furnish the materials to cold, nor it to heat, but the subject to both. So that we have first the sensible body in potentiality, the first principle; then we have the contraries, I mean cold and heat; and thirdly, fire and water, and the like. These change into one another, and not as Empedocles and others say of them.[308]

“Thematerialof all bodies, great and small, is the same. This is apparent; for when air is formed from water, the same matter, when it becomes another thing, acquires nothing new, only that which formerly existed in capacity now exists actually.”[309]

The following extracts will show the opinions of his most celebrated commentators:

“Air and fire have one common character, namely, heat; therefore they readily change into one another. Air and water readily change into one another, for they have a common character, namely, moisture. In like manner, water and earth, for they have an alliance, namely, coldness.”[310]

“The physical philosophers analyze any substance, as, for example, a man into head, hands, and feet; and these into bones, flesh, and nerves; and these into the four elements; and these again into matter and form.”[311]

“Water is formed from air, and air from water, and fire from air, because they all have one common substratum, matter.”[312]

The next two extracts will show the opinions entertained by Aristotle’s successor in the Peripatetic school of philosophy.

“Of the simple substances, fire has peculiar powers.For air, water, and earth, admit only of changes into one another, but none of them can produce itself.”[313]

“The nature of those substances called simple is mixed, and existing in one another.”[314]

“The Peripatetics divided Nature into two things, the one of which is efficient, and the other that which furnishes it with the materials from which anything is made. Power exists in the one, and matter is the essence of the other.”[315]

“The first principles are air, fire, water, and earth, for from them are formed all living things and the productions of the earth: they are therefore called elements; of these, air and fire have the power of moving and forming the others (I mean water and earth), of receiving or suffering. Besides these, Aristotle thought that there is a fifth element, from which the stars and the souls of individuals are made; but that all these had for a substratum a certain matter devoid of form and quality, from which all things are framed, a substance which has a capacity for all things, and admits of all changes, that when it perishes it is not reduced to nothing, but into its parts, which can be cut and divided infinitely, since there is nothing in Nature that is not divisible.”[316]

“They are of opinion that the first principles of all things are two—the active and the passive: that the passive is matter, a being devoid of all qualities; the active, or efficient, is the reason (λόγος) residing in it, that is, God. That he, being eternal, fabricates all things from it all (all matter?). That there is a difference between the first principles and the elements—that the former are increate and indestructible, whilst the elements are destructible by burning (ἐκπύρωσιν).—That the first principles are bodies devoid of form, whereas the elements are possessed of form. That God and Mind, Fate and Jupiter, are one and the same being under different appellations; that he formed the four elements, fire, air, water, earth.”[317]

“Our Stoics say, that there are two principles in Nature from which all things are formed, namely, cause and matter. That matter lies inert, a being prepared for all things, but inactive, unless some one move it.—That cause, that is, reason, forms matter, and changes it at will. There must be somethingbywhich everything is made andofwhich it is made: the former is the cause, the latter the matter.”[318]

“Some of our sect are of opinion that air, being changeable into fire and water, etc.”[319]

“We are of opinion that earth is changeable. To this we may add that all things are formed from all things—air from water—water from air—fire from air—air from fire;why, then, should not earth be formed from water, and water from earth?Earth is formed from water—why then not water from earth?”[320]

“The Stoics divided Nature into two things, the one of which is the efficient, and the other that which furnishes itself as the materials from which anything is made.”[321]

Suidas says, regarding the first principles: “The first principles of all things are two, the efficient and the passive. The passive, then, is a being devoid of qualities—earth, matter. The efficient is the reason residing in it, namely, God. The principles and elements are different, inasmuch as the former are increate and indestructible, while the elements are destructible by burning. Besides, the first principles are without body and form, but the elements have form.”[322]

“Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, the Citiensian, taught that there are two principles, God and matter, the one efficient and the other passive; and that there are four elements.”[323]

“The Stoics maintain that the first principles are two, God and matter; not that they consider God as an element, but as the active principle, whilst matter is the passive.”[324]

“Always remember the saying of Heraclitus,that the dissolution of earth is to become water, and the dissolution of water to become earth; and the dissolution of air to become fire, and conversely.”[325]

“Contemplate the courses of the stars as if carried about with them, and frequently revolve in your mind the mutual transmutations of the elements into one another.”[326]

“Acquire the habit of contemplating the transmutation of all things into one another.”[327]

“Fire, air, water, earth, were so formed by Nature as to furnish aliment by turns to one another.”[328]

“Therefore all those who teach things took their birthFrom simple fire, or water, air, or earth,Lie under palpable mistakes. And thoseThat teach from doubled elements they rose,As air and fire, as earth and water joined,Or all four, earth, air, water, fire combined:Thus sung Empedocles.*****If all things from four elements arose,And are again by death dissolved to those:What reason we should rather fondly deemThem principles of things, than things from them?For they alternately are changed and showEach other’s figure and their nature too.”[329]

“Therefore all those who teach things took their birth

From simple fire, or water, air, or earth,

Lie under palpable mistakes. And those

That teach from doubled elements they rose,

As air and fire, as earth and water joined,

Or all four, earth, air, water, fire combined:

Thus sung Empedocles.

*****

If all things from four elements arose,And are again by death dissolved to those:What reason we should rather fondly deemThem principles of things, than things from them?For they alternately are changed and showEach other’s figure and their nature too.”[329]

If all things from four elements arose,

And are again by death dissolved to those:

What reason we should rather fondly deem

Them principles of things, than things from them?

For they alternately are changed and show

Each other’s figure and their nature too.”[329]

The following passage will show the opinions of Democritus, the contemporary and friend of Hippocrates, from whom Epicurus took his system of physics.[330]“He taught that the atoms are infinite in magnitude and number, that they revolve in all space, and that thus they formedthe compound bodies fire, water, air, earth; for that even these are composed from the atoms, which are impassive and unchangeable owing to their hardness.”[331]

These extracts prove clearly that the great philosophers of antiquity stand acquitted of having held the erroneous opinions generally ascribed to them respecting the elements of things, and that nothing can be farther from the truth than the account of the Peripatetic doctrines given by Dr. Watson. Instead of maintaining, as he carelessly represents, that “earth, air, fire, and water are distinct, uncompounded, immutable principles;” they taught, on the contrary, as we have shown, that all the elements are modifications of one common substance called the primary matter, and consequently they held, like himself, that “the elements are different magnitudes, figures, and arrangements of particles of matter of the same kind.” This primary matter they demonstrated to be devoid of all quality and form, but susceptible of all forms and qualities.[332]In the language of the Peripatetics, it is everything in capacity, but nothing in actuality. They held that there are two original principles, both increate and indestructible; the one matter, the universal passive principle[333]—the materialfromwhich all things are formed; and the other, the efficient causebywhich all things are made:—that the one is possessed of universal privation, and the other of universal energy:—that it is the one whichimpresses, and the other whichreceivesthe forms of all things. They maintained that the original materials out of which all objects in the universe are composed being the same, bodies owe their characteristic qualities not to their substance, but to their form. The elements, then, according to the notions of the ancient philosophers, are the first matter arranged into certain distinguishing forms by the efficient cause. That form with which solidity is associated they call earth, under which they ranged all metals, stones, and the like, for all these they held to be allied to one another in nature, as well as in the form under which they are presented to our senses. The next arrangement of created substances is that which constitutes fluidity, and is called water, under which term they comprehended not only the native element, but every other modification of matter which assumes a similar form, namely, all juices of vegetables and fluids of animals.[334]Some of their earliest speculators in philosophy maintained that all the materials which compose the universe existed at one time in this form; and it is curious to reflect that modern geology has reproduced nearly the same doctrine. The third form of matter, as presented to our sense of touch, is air, under which the ancient philosophers comprehended all matter in an aërial state, such as water converted into vapor, and what are now called gases. Whether or not they believed the atmosphere which surrounds this earth to be a homogeneous substance, in nowise affects the general principles of their philosophy; for it is the same thing, as far as regards their classification, whether they held that the atmosphere consists of one or of several distinct combinations of the primary matter with form. As they were well aware that several distinct modifications of matter are comprehended under each of the other elements, it can hardly be doubted that they inferred the like of air; and, indeed, it is quite apparent from the works of Galen that he knew very well that some kinds of air are favorable, and others unfavorable to respiration and combustion.[335]But those phenomena which we ascribe to oxygen gas, they, without doubt, would have attributed to the operations of some modification of the element fire. By fire, they meant matter in its extreme state of tenuity and refinement. Of this elementary principle, Plato[336]and Theophrastus[337]have enumerated many varieties, and have speculated regarding their nature with great precision and acuteness. The ancient philosophers believed that fire is universally diffused through the universe, being sometimes in asensible, and sometimes in alatentstate; or, as Aristotle expressed it, heat exists sometimes in capacity, and sometimes in energy.[338]They attributed the phenomena of lightning to an unequal distribution of this elemental fire.[339]This is the element with which they supposed life to be most intimately connected; and, indeed, some of them would appear to have considered fire as the very essence of the soul. “I am of opinion,” says the author of one of the Hippocratic treatises, “that what we call heat is immortal, and understands, sees, and hears all things that are or will be.”[340]This doctrine, which, to say the least of it, is not very judiciously expressed in this passage, is thus corrected by the great master of logic and philosophy: “Some,” says Aristotle, “improperly call fire or some such power the soul; but it would be better to say that the soul subsists in such a body, because heat is, of all bodies, the one most obedient to the operations of the soul; for to nourish and move are the operations of the soul, and these she performs by the instrumentality of this power (orquality?). To say that the soul is fire, is as if one were to call a saw or a wimble the artisan or his art, because his work is accomplished in co-operation with these instruments. From this it appears why animals stand in need of heat.”[341]And in like manner he says, in another of his works: “Some are of opinion that the nature of fire is plainly the cause of nourishment and of growth; for it appears to be the only body or element which nourishes and increases itself. Wherefore one might suppose that it is this that operates both in plants and in animals. Yet it is but the co-cause (συνάιτιον); foritis not, properly speaking, the cause, but rather the soul. For the increase of fire is indeterminate in so far as it is supplied with fuel. But of natural substances there is a certain limit and reason (λόγος) of magnitude and increase. This belongs to the soul rather than to fire, to the reason rather than to the matter.”[342]

From these observations, coupled with the information supplied in the preceding extracts, it will be perceived that, although there be, at first sight, a great discrepancy among physical doctrines of the ancient philosophers, they differed, in fact, much less than they would appear to do, only that some of them expressed themselves more scientifically than others in handling the subject of the elements. Thus, although Thales seems to holdwater, and Anaximanderair, and Heraclitusfire, to be original principles, we have every reason to believe that, as Galen says (l. c.), even they had an idea that these are not simple substances, but merely modifications of one unformed principle, the first matter, from which they conceived that all bodies in the universe are constructed. Contrary, then, to what is very generally supposed, it would appear that there was at bottom no very great difference of opinion between the philosophers of the Ionic school and those of the other sects, namely, the Pythagoreans, Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, and Epicureans; and further, that, from the earliest dawn of philosophy, down to the time when it fell into neglect and came to be misunderstood, the physical doctrines of the philosophers underwent but little variation.

From the elements, then, constructed in the manner now explained, out of the primary matter, the ancient philosophers taught that all the secondary bodies in the universe are formed, and as they maintained the transmutability of the elements into one another, so, in like manner, they did not hesitate to proclaim it as a great general truth “that all things are convertible into all things.”[343]The possibility, then, of such permutations will not, I presume, be questioned by any one who has formed correct ideas of the powers of the Great First Cause, and the capacities of the first subject, Matter, and that such permutations do actually take place in the course of Nature may be inferred from many phenomena of daily occurrence in the vegetable and animal world. It cannot have escaped the most careless observation what changes the great pabulum, water, undergoes in the process of vegetation—how it is converted into various woods, and barks, and leaves, and flowers, all of which are resolvable, by the process of decay, into air, or reducible into earth. It is also well known that, although a more unfrequent occurrence, all the solid parts of a tree may undergo a mutation into rock, that is to say, may become petrified. But it is in the higher classes of animals that these changes of simple matter admit of the greatest variety. Let us contemplate for a moment some of the most remarkable mutations which any article of food (as, for example, flour-bread), which has been presented to the stomach, is destined to undergo in the animal frame. We know that the vital powers of the stomach will convert the starch, of which it principally consists, into a fluid state, that is to say, into what is called first chyme, and afterwards, when it has undergone some further change, is denominated chyle by the physiologists. Having been thus changed, it passes, by a process about the nature of which physiologists are still strangely divided in opinion, into certain vessels; and then, in some manner still less understood, it is converted into a fluidsui generis, called blood, abounding in globules of a singular construction, all fabricated, no doubt, from the food, but, by some occult process, which has hitherto defied the skillful manipulation of the chemist, and the accurate observation of the microscopist, to explain in any satisfactory manner.[344]And so complete is the transformation that scarcely one particle of the original food can be detected in the new product by all the vaunted tests of modern science. But blood is soon after converted into many other fluid and solid substances—into bones, cartilages, muscles, and vessels, and into bile, mucus, and other recrementitious matters, all differing greatly from one another, both in their appearances and in their properties.[345]And when all the component parts of the animal frame are constructed, and each seems to have acquired a determinate structure, should the vital actions by which they are formed become deranged, we may see the fair fabric undergo the most wonderful mutations, so that arteries are converted into bones, and bones into flesh and jelly.[346]So many and so extraordinary are the changes which a simple alimentary substance may undergo in the animal frame! And if we admit, with the ancient philosophers, that every such substance is resolvable into one or more of the elements, and that all the elements are but different modifications of one common matter, how wonderful a thing must Form be, since it imparts such varied appearances and qualities to one common substratum?

In detailing these opinions of the ancient philosophers, it is not my present business to determine whether they be true or not; my task is fulfilled, if I have given a distinct and faithful exposition of them, so that their real import and meaning may be readily comprehended by the medical reader. I may be allowed to remark, however, that, strange although that Protean being, the primary matter, may appear to be to such men of science as are not disposed to recognize the existence of any substance which cannot be subjected to their senses, and who refuse to admit the legitimacy of every process of analysis, but what is conducted in the laboratory of the chemist, opinions similar to those of the ancient philosophers have been held by some of the most profound thinkers and distinguished experimentalists of modern times. Thus Lord Bacon, the reputed father of the inductive philosophy, appears to admit all the tenets of the ancients regarding the first matter, which, like them, he considers to have been embodied in the Homeric fable of Proteus.[347]He says, in reference to it, “that under the person of Proteus is signifiedMatter, the most ancient of all things, next to the Deity; that the herd of Proteus was nothing else than the ordinary species of animals, plants, and metals, into which matter appears to diffuse, and, as it were, to consume itself; so that, after it has formed and finished those several species, (its task being, in a manner, complete,) it appears to sleep and be at rest, nor to labor at, attempt, or prepare any species farther.”[348]That learned and accomplished scholar, Mr. Harris, in his work on “Philosophical Arrangements,” writes thus on the subject we are now treating of: “Here, then, we have an idea (such as it is) of that singular being, the Primary Matter, a Being which those philosophers who are immerged in sensible subjects know not well how to admit, though they cannot well do without it; a Being which flies the perception of every sense, and which is at best, even to the intellect, but a negative object, no otherwise comprehensible than either by analogy or abstraction.

“We gain a glimpse of it by abstraction, when we say that the first matter is not the lineaments and complexion which make the beautiful face; nor yet the flesh and blood which make these lineaments and that complexion; nor yet the liquid and solid aliments, which make that flesh and blood; nor yet the simple bodies of earth and water, which make those various aliments; but something which, being below all these, and supporting them all, is yet different from them all, and essential to their existence.

“We obtain a sight of it by analogy when we say that, as is the brass to the statue, the marble to the pillar, the timber to the ship, or any one secondary matter to any secondary form; so is the First and Original Matter to all forms in general.”[349]

Nay, the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton would seem, in the following extract, to countenance the profound speculations of the ancient philosophers with respect to the elements, and the transmutations of these substances into one another. He says, “Are not gross bodies and light (orether) convertible into one another?—and may not bodies receive much of their activity from the particles of light which enter into their composition? The changing of bodies into light and of light into bodies is very agreeable to the course of Nature, which seems delighted with permutations. Water, which is a very fluid tasteless salt, she changes by heat into vapor, a sort of air; and by cold into ice, which is a hard, pellucid, brittle, fusible stone, and this stone returns into water by heat, and vapor returns into water by cold. Earth, by heat, becomes fire, and by cold returns into earth.”[350]

I may further mention that all the late researches of chemical philosophers have tended to confirm the tenets of the ancients regarding the Elements. Thus in that very singular performance “The Elements of Physiophilosophy,” by Dr. Lorenz Oken, the productions of the mineral kingdom are classified, very much in accordance with the ancient arrangement, into four classes, namely, into Earth-earths, Water-earths, Air-earths, and Fire-earths.[351]It is also well known that chemical experiment has lately established that several animal and vegetable substances, such as albumen, fibrin, and casein, which were formerly looked upon as distinct substances, are all but modifications of one substance, which is now regarded as the original of all the tissues; and further, that protein, in every respect identical with that which forms the basis of the three aforesaid animal principles, may be obtained from similar elements in the vegetable kingdom.[352]And if every step which we advance in the knowledge of the intimate structure of things leads us to contract the number of substances formerly held to be simple, I would not wonder if it should yet turn out that oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen are, like what the ancients held the elements to be—all nothing else but different modifications of one ever-changing matter. But I will not indulge further in such speculations, especially as I have reason to apprehend that I may be thought to be wandering from my own proper sphere in thus prosecuting researches which may be supposed to have but a distant bearing on the subject now in hand. I must, however, be allowed again to repeat my declaration that it is impossible to comprehend the theories contained in the Hippocratic treatises without a proper acquaintance with the Physical Philosophy of the ancients, and that these principles have been misapprehended and misrepresented most unaccountably by modern writers, so as to occasion corresponding mistakes with regard to ancient medicine. I trust, then, that my present labors will not be ineffectual in preventing such mistakes in future; though, at the same time, knowing, as I well do, the practical bent of British science at the present day, I cannot but be apprehensive that a certain portion of my readers will lend a deaf ear to speculative opinions, of which they cannot recognize the importance, and will be disposed to discard the doctrines of the ancient philosophers, before they have rightly comprehended their import:

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