Apotheosis

“ A particular garden also was often appropriated to the apothecary, in order that he might rear in it the necessary plants, and which therefore was called the apothecary’s garden1021. Apothecaries’ shops for the use of courts were frequently established and directed by the consorts of princes; and it is a circumstance well-known, that many of the fair sex, when they have lost the power of wounding, devote themselves much to the healing and curing art, and to the preparation and dispensing of medicines. ”

“ The outlet for drink by which liquids pass through the lung under the kidneys and into the bladder, which receives then by the pressure of the air emits them, was so fashioned by them as to penetrate also into the body of the marrow, which passes from the head along the neck and through the back, and which in the preceding discourse we have named the seed. And the seed having life, and becoming endowed with respiration, produces in that part in which it respires a lively desire of emission, and thus creates in us the love of procreation. ”

“ No doubt the cambium of vegetables, the blastema of animals, and generally all protoplasmic fluids, are fertile hatching-fields for the spontaneous development of the cells and fibres of living tissues. It is thus that the first elements of the embryo show themselves in the animal ovule. And in this respect the labors of Robin, Trécul, Onimus, Legros, and a great number of other observers, are decisive; but life is the property of these protoplasms; they depend upon an organized system. ”

“ During embryological development the fertilized ovum—consisting of two fused fragments of this germinal substance—gives rise to a host of ordered and marshalled cells, which are divisible into two groups: the one forms the body with its muscles, bones, glands, digestive system, skin, sense-organs, nerve-centres, and so forth; the other forms a reserve store of germinal substance, from which are derived the ova and sperms. The former take no direct share in reproduction; they are off the line of continuous descent; they die without issue. ”

“ Hence, when he returns to organisms, it does not surprise us that he assigns to ova and spermatozoa cell-souls, to the impregnated ovum germ-soul, to plants tissue-souls, to animals nerve-souls; or that he regards man’s body and soul as born together in the impregnated ovum, and gradually evolved from the bodies and souls of lower animals. ”

“ The formation of a perfectly organized plant is made possible only through the continuous dying and replacement of its cells. Similarly, in the development of an animal, the constituent cells die for the good of the whole creature; and the more perfect the animal the greater the subordination of the parts. The cells of the human body are incessantly dying, being borne off and replaced. The epidermis or scarf skin is made of millions of insensible scales, consisting of former cells which have died in order with their dead bodies to build this guardian wall around the tender inner parts. ”

“ We find in the first paragraph of his Organic Chemistry applied to Physiology and Pathology, the following words: "In the animal ovum, as well as in the seed of the plant, we recognize a certain remarkable force, the source of growth or increase in the mass, and of reproduction or of supply of the matter consumed; a force in a state of rest. By the action of external influences, by impregnation, by the presence of air and moisture, the condition {109}of static equilibrium is disturbed. This force is called the vital force, vis vitæ, or vitality." ”

“ For every structure, therefore, there is a period of emergence from something more general. The earliest discernible germ of any part or organ may be called its primordium. In this sense the ovum is the primordium of the individual, the primitive outer tissue the primordium of all structures of the skin and nervous system, the primitive inner layer of the intestine and all structures connected with it, etc. ”

“ The fertilized egg becomes an embryo or developing animal. Many cell divisions take place. In time some cells become muscle cells, others nerve cells or blood cells, and organs such as eyes, stomach, and intestine are formed.
'The body of a human being grows in the same way, but it is much more remarkable than that of any animal, for the embryo has a human soul infused into the body by God. Human parents are partners with God in creation. ”

“ While the Physician is labouring at Theories, the Apothecary is perhaps deeply immers’d in Practice: and as all allow that nice Observation is of vast Use in Physic, while the one is searching into Causes, the other, if he improves as he ought the Opportunities he is furnished with, gains a Knowledge of Effects. Hence it appears, that an Apothecary is capable of being, not merely an useful, but a valuable Man to Society ”

“ Gradually, through the formation of new cells and by the growth of these cells after they have been formed, the body attains its full size. When growth is complete, cell reproduction is supposed to cease except where the tissues are injured, as in the breaking of a bone, or where cells, like those at the surface of the skin, are subject to wear. Then new material continues to be added to the protoplasm throughout life, but in amount only sufficient to replace that lost from the protoplasm as waste. ”

“ The life-giving germ-and sperm-cells may exist and persist for some time after the body dies, as numerous experiences and experiments have shown. Ova and spermatozoa do not die the instant the host dies. And herein appears another great mystery, that cells from the undoubtedly dead body may possess and unfold the potentialities of life when properly environed. Among the lower forms of life cells but [Pg 37] slightly differentiated go on living and even creating new organisms, though the larger organisms be dead. ”

“ The different anatomical elements of the organism are more or less sensitive to those perturbations which cause senescence, necrobiosis, and death. There are some more fragile and more exposed. Some are more resisting, and finally, there are some which are really immortal. We have just said that the sexual cell, the ovum, is one. ”

“ While the parental sacrifice in eggs or spermatozoa is minute and inconsiderable in the higher animals, the sacrifices subsequent to this initial division are incalculably greater in higher animals than in the lower organisms. We can cite no better example than the human subject. The human ovum, divided off from the maternal organism, is a minute globule of protoplasm, almost microscopic in size. The sacrifice of the mother in producing the ovum is inconsiderable, but the production of the ovum is simply the first step in the sacrifice which the maternal organism makes. ”

“ It is particulate; constitutes the material basis of heredity; is mainly lodged in highly specialized cells; is nevertheless also distributed throughout the general cellular tissues, where it is concerned in all processes of regeneration, repair, and a-sexual reproduction; presents an enormously complex structure, in that every constituent part of a potentially future organism is represented in a fertilized ovum by corresponding particles; is everywhere capable of virtually unlimited multiplication, without ever losing its hereditary endowments ”

“ From the outer layer, or epiblast, are developed the permanent epidermis and its out-growths, the nervous system, and the organs of sense. From the introverted layer, or hypoblast, are developed the alimentary canal and those parts of its appended organs, liver, pancreas, &c., which are concerned in delivering their secretions into the alimentary canal, as well as the linings of those ramifying tubes in the lungs which convey air to the places where gaseous exchange is effected. ”

“ This germ-plasm is very often subjected to all sorts of unfavourable conditions, especially those of alcohol and toxins, and such conditions have been acting upon it more or less for an immense number of generations, and yet the resistance to modification at the hands of these internal factors is so great that all the processes which follow upon the fertilisation of the ovum, all the thousand complications which thereafter ensue in the building up of the young embryo are hardly ever interfered with. ”

“ He will much inlarge Materia Medica, Chymistry and Pharmacy, and discover the grounds of them, and wherein the efficacy of remedies lyes, and thereby lay open a whole Ocean for new discoveries, and by the by observe many useful products and Phenomena of Nature, to the great improvement of his Art, and sound Natural Philosophy, which are not taken notice of by Apothecaries, and their Servants; for all which they have neither will nor skill. ”

“ But as the somatic cells relatively increased, the body became of more importance as compared with the reproductive cells, until death seems to affect the whole individual, as in the higher animals, from which our ideas upon the subject are derived. In reality, however, only one part succumbs to natural death, but it is a part which in size far surpasses that which remains and is immortal,—the reproductive cells. ”

“ While the above-described introversion is taking place, and before the inner surfaces of the resulting epiblast and hypoblast have come into contact, cells, or amœboid units equivalent to them, are budded off from one or both of these inner surfaces, or some part of one or other; and these form a layer which eventually lies between the other two—a layer which, as this mode of formation implies, never has any converse with the surrounding medium and its contents, or with the nutritive bodies taken in from it. ”

“ After impregnation the fertilized oosphere immediately surrounds itself with a cell-wall and becomes the oospore which by a process of growth forms the embryo of the new plant. The endosperm-nucleus divides rapidly to produce a cellular tissue which fills up the interior of the rapidly-growing embryo-sac, and forms a tissue, known as endosperm, in which is stored a supply of nourishment for the use later on of the embryo. ”

“ To the physician, the surgeon, the scientist, the mystery of life remains as much an unsolved problem as it ever did. It is true they claim to have traced it down to its beginning; they say it originates in a substance known to them as protoplasm; that a single cell of this wonderful substance has the peculiar power of producing another cell, and this one still another. ”

“ All prepared too are the hooks, or spikes, or gummy secretions, needed to anchor it to the ground, and so to give a purchase to the embryo shoot when the time comes for it to heave its tombstone and come out to the light. Even its centre of gravity is so adjusted that, in falling from the sheath, the germ is in the very best position for its future growth. If it is torn out of the husk a day too soon, all this marvellous preparation will be wasted and come to nothing. ”

“ In suppression there is from the first an absolute deficiency of a particular organ. In degeneration the part is present, but in a diminished and perverted condition. In abortion it exists, but in a stunted and dwarfed, but not otherwise permuted state.
Abortion of axile organs.—When the main stem is arrested in its growth, the habit and general appearance of the plant are materially altered, as in the so-called stemless plants, plantæ acaules. ”

“ He may teach the Patients facile and easie Remedies, as to make a Clyster, apply Blisters, or Medicines to the feet, where they are needful, &c. and in many Cases may cure by well ordering his Patient only, without any Remedies at all, or but very few, being free to act for the Patients Health, without the grumbling of the Apothecary; and many other ways he may daily meet with, very advantageous to the Patient.
He will have little use of Conserves, Syrups, Lohocks, &c. a greater part whereof Sugar makes up, which doth more hurt to most persons, then the other ingredients do good. ”

“ I, A. B. do solemnly promise and swear [or, being one of the people called Quakers, do solemnly affirm] , That I will faithfully, impartially, and honestly, according to the best of my skill and knowledge, execute the trust reposed in me by the master, wardens, and Society of the art. and mystery of Apothecaries of the city of London, as an Examiner, in the examination of every person who shall come before me to be examined as to his fitness or qualification to act as an apothecary, or assistant to an apothecary, as the case may be, and that without favour, affection, prejudice, or malice. ”

“ The protoplasm represents the material from which in the course of development the cells forming the body of the individual are derived, while the deuteroplasm serves for the nutrition of the ovum during the earliest stages of development. ”

“ For since the construction and preservation of the organism, and of every organ in particular, is owing to specific scents, we may fairly look upon disease in general as a disturbance of the specific scent of the organism, and upon disease of a particular organ of the body, as a disturbance of the specific scent pertaining to that particular organ. We have been hitherto in the habit of holding the protoplasm responsible for all phenomena of disease. We have now come to learn that what acts in the protoplasm are the scents ”

“ When called to a patient upon the recommendation of the family apothecary, you are to consider him one of your best friends, and pay court to him accordingly; on the contrary, if you are engaged upon the spontaneous opinion of the patient, or his relatives, you have every reason to conclude the abilities of the apothecary are held in very slender estimation, and you may safely venture to display as much of your own consequence and superiority, as circumstances will admit. ”