matter from falling into dissolution—for dissolution immediately takes place when matter is deprived of it; the second is its being the principle of action. These are two very different properties, though they arise from the same principle."
Barclay[1] observes that, "in every living organized
structure there is plainly a power that preserves,
regulates, and controls the whole; directing, at first,
the different processes in forming one part of the
organs, afterwards employing the assistance of the
organs which it has formed to produce more, till at
last it completes the whole of the system in such a
manner as to suit its future conveniences and wants.
This power, or rather this agent, physiologists have
named Vital Principle; though not a few are inclined
to suppose it to be the effect, rather than the cause,
of the organization. But in all operations that are
performed without either volition or consciousness, it
appears subordinate to a much higher power—to that
Almighty and Omniscient Being, who dispenses his
laws to the boundless Universe, and whose laws, ex-
cept by himself, can never be improved, altered, or
abrogated."
Bichât[2] makes Vital Principle to be "the assemblage of the functions which resist death;" and this
