superior light, namely, the hypothesis of waste and reparation of the human body, which error he has greatly assisted in promulgating. Doctor Gregory, speaking "de concoctione alimentorum," says, "Corpus variis actionibus, tum animalibus, tum vitalibus, brevi exhauritur, fluidis nimirum partibus dissipatis, solidis attritis, et utrisque forsitan ad putridinem sponte vergentibus. Monemur et incitamur importunissimo appetitu, et dirigimur instinctu quem juvat gustus, et olfactus, et experientia ad res ingerendas, quales idoneæ fuerint ad corpus jacturam reparandum, ejusque corruptionem arcendam et corrigendam." Thus Doctor Rees, in his Cyclopædia, article, Digestion, "The want of food arises from the necessity of obviating the losses which our body is constantly suffering in the performance of its various functions, 'tum animalibus, tum vitalibus,' and of preventing, by the reparation of these losses, (Dr. Gregory's words translated,) the fatal effects they would otherwise occasion." These instances will be sufficient, without referring to other similar assertions. 8. I shall adopt the expression of waste and reparation as intelligible and concise, and as conveying the hypothesis to be removed, in freeing the transcendent doctrine of the resurrection of the body from the intricacies already mentioned. This expression will apply to the philosophical author's premises, as well as to the physiological theory just stated; and the same facts and argumentation will be calculated for the removal of their respective assumptions, which are, in fact, one identical hypothesis. 9. Happily this foundation must be viewed as a gratuitous and false hypothetical assumption. You may fortify your mind against the notion, for experiments have proved it false. And to put the question in issue, and make the matter plain, let us here, denying the former premises,—but not objecting thereto, without pointing out what the truth really is, assume, instead thereof, the following contra-proposition to be the truth:-That there is not any such process in the human body as the loss of material substance, assimilation, or the reparation of waste,-"ad corpus jacturam reparandum ;" and assert that it is the component elements of food which waste and require renewal and not the particles of the body. Here then we have another physiological theory, instead of the former; and it is opined much better, because of its truth, as will be seen from a statement of un questionable facts, and subsequent observations. View the two propositions in juxta position. Contrast them in the light of common sense. Did not the former startle you, when to you it was first propounded? And does not the first blush of it impress the unprejudiced mind with doubt, cause the refusal of assent, and a feeling of repugnance to corporeal change, by the thought of the flesh of the grosser animals becoming by assimilation your own, seasoned also with a little of the savour of the absurd? while the latter theory is distinguished by probability, simplicity, rationality, and nature? It has been observed, that " some common notions seem connaturally engraven in the soul, antecedently to discussive ratiocination."* If there be truth in this remark, its predication may justly be applied to the notion we entertain of the primitive sameness of our bodies. 10. Let not the non-professional reader be deterred, by thoughts of its abstruseness, from instituting, so far as may be requisite, an investigation into the nature of animal economy, (which subject, I may remark, en passant, should form a part of general education, so far as its principles are adapted to the preservation of health and the pro *Hale. motion of physical and also of mental energy,) for he will find himself quite competent to pronounce a just verdict upon the evidence, particularly as he is free from any professional bias received in education in favour of the old hypothesis, and will see when he quits its penumbra, the sunshine of truth, and as he advances, will be accompanied by the correct inductions of common sense, drawn from unquestionable data, to just and satisfactory conclusions. 11. The medical faculty ought not to deem others intruders into the arcanum of their ресиliar profession, nor think them meddling for demanding by writ of habeas that the corpus of man, which they have long taken under their especial care, be brought into court, and they be required to give an account how they have exercised their guardianship of it; particularly when, at least, a co-ordinate jurisdiction exists, competent to judge of its present and ultimate good, and to investigate the matter, and receive and deeide upon the testimony of their own witnesses as to reported facts, which entirely overturn their marvellous hypothesis, which, if not examined, seems to be invested with recondite professional mystery. But the medical evidence, important as it is from the conclusions that may be drawn from the researches of eminent men since the time when waste was first erroneously inferred, does not by any means exclude the safe theological conclusions deducible from the evidence that may be advanced from Divine authority and Christian philosophy. Indeed, it is submitted, that the latter class of arguments is sufficient, without the aid of those drawn from professional experiments, to demolish the theory of waste and repair of the body, which, the reader will please to observe, has never been proved, but has existed only in hypothesis; and as no case on that side, on which lies the onus probandi, has been made out, no answer can reasonably be required beyond the bare denial of it; but as the object is to overturn that hypothesis, and elucidate and exhibit truth, which has so long been obscured in hypothetical assumption, by removing the huge unphilosophical peg on which the chain of the philosophical author's inductions was in the dark suspended, a concise summary of conclusions drawn from professional evidence, will be hereafter adduced. 12. Since the hypothesis of waste and reparation was first propounded and promulgated, chemical science has shed upon physiology a purer |