Physis

“ But in man, the very first and most important organ, that of touch, which is spread over his whole skin, has been left utterly exposed to the influence of the coarser matter, not through any neglect on the part of nature, but because of her respect for us. That organ was destined by nature to touch matter immediately, in order to make it most proper to our purpose; but nature left us perfectly free to determine in what particular part of our body to locate that power of moulding matter, and what part of our body we might choose to consider as mere matter. ”

“ When the animal rises suddenly, the branchial cavity which contains the lung is heard to open with a faint, clicking sound, which is probably due to the pressure of air in the lung being suddenly liberated. Several of the species of Physa inhabit water as cold as the freezing point and they may be frequently seen in winter gliding over the bottom of a stream or pond when the surface is frozen. The little glairy, transparent masses of jelly-like matter which are seen attached to stones and the under side of sticks, are the eggs of Physa or Limnaea. ”

“ Procedure, that is proper in the sphere of logic, is out of place in psychology and theology. Concepts such as person and nature must be kept fluid, if they are not to mislead. If they are made into hard and fast ideas, into sharply defined abstractions, they will be taken to represent discrete psychic entities, external to one another as numbers are. The elusive, Protean character of the inter-penetrating realities behind them will be lost to view. The most signal defect of monophysite method is its unquestioning submission to the Aristotelian law of contradiction. ”

“ Consequently, the form of every single crystal, like the form of every single organism, is the result of the interaction of two opposing factors—the inner formative tendency, which is determined by the chemical constitution of the matter itself, and of the external formative tendency, which is dependent upon the influence of surrounding matter. Both these constructive forces interact similarly also in the organism, and, just as in the crystal, are of a purely mechanical nature and directly inherent in the substance of the body. ”

“ Overcome with surprise and admiration, Psyche stooped down to gaze more closely on his lovely features, when, from the lamp which she held in her trembling hand, there fell a drop of burning oil upon the shoulder of the sleeping god, who instantly awoke, and seeing Psyche standing over him with the instrument of death in her hand, sorrowfully reproached her for her treacherous designs, and, spreading out his wings, flew away. ”

“ Then Psyche rejoiced and took the urn from the eagle and hastened back to Aphrodite. When the goddess saw that once more Psyche had fulfilled her bidding, her brow grew black with fury.
“One more task, and one more only will I set you,” said the goddess. “Take this box and journey to the lower regions where Persephone is Queen; beg from her a bit of her beauty and bring it back to me in this box, for the Feast of the Gods is soon to be given, and I wish to adorn myself with it.” ”

“ One small section of physiology, which seems amenable to the “exact” method of investigation, has been carefully studied for the last twenty years and raised to the position of a separate science under the title of psycho-physics. Its founders, the physiologists Theodor Fechner and Ernst Heinrich Weber, first of all closely investigated the dependence of sensations on the external stimuli that act on the organs of sense, and particularly the quantitative relation between the strength of the stimulus and the intensity of the sensation. ”

“ Cast one asleep, then cut the diseased part.”
[11] “Physicke is so studied and practised with the Egyptians that every disease hath his several physicians, who striveth to excell in healing that one disease and not to be expert in curing many. Whereof it cometh that every corner of that country is full of physicians. Some for the eyes, others for the head, many for the teeth, not a few for the stomach and the inwards.” ”

“ So Nature shapes her hyaline vesicles and modifies them to serve the needs of the part where they are found. The artisan whirls his rod, and his glass bubble becomes a flattened disk, with its bull's-eye for a nucleus. These lips of ours are all glazed with microscopic tiles formed of flattened cells, each one of them with its nucleus still as plain and relatively as prominent, to the eye of the microscopist, as the bull's-eye in the old-fashioned windowpane. Everywhere we find cells, modified or unchanged. ”

“ We shall deal with those Christological errors, which, whether part of the official monophysite creed or not, are logical results of the monophysite formula.
Unreality may be predicated of Christ's human nature as a whole, or in respect of its parts. Consubstantiality with humanity may be denied of the whole of his human nature; or deficiency in one or other of the essential constituents of human nature may be alleged. We shall deal first with those errors that concern the entire nature, coming later to the errors in respect of one or more of its several parts. ”

“ Every one a Physitian to himself.Here are no professed Physitians nor Chyrurgeons, but all in general have some skill that way, and are Physitians and Chyrurgeons to themselves. Their Medicines they make of the leaves that are in the Woods, and the barks of Trees. With which they purge and vomit themselves, and will do notable Cures upon green wounds, and also upon sore eyes. ”

“ The only thing which cerebral physiology tells us, when studied with the aid of molecular physics, is against the materialist, so far as it goes. It tells us that, during the present life, although thought and feeling are always manifested in connection with a peculiar form of matter, yet by no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense the products of matter. Nothing could be more grossly unscientific than the famous remark of Cabanis, that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile. ”

“ The diaphragm separates the physical world from the animal one, just as the neck separates the animal world from the rational one, as Plato points out in the Timaeus. Primary matter originates in the physical world, and here is to be found the origin of existence. From here the seed is sent forth and the embryo produced out of the four elements. Here also God selected the parts which are used as offerings, viz. fat, blood, the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys. He selected neither the heart, nor the brain, nor the lung, nor the diaphragm. ”

“ Harvey proved that the blood circulates, but left undiscovered what keeps in motion the inert fluid, except the systole, which the inert heart cannot effect on itself. No organ can do anything of itself, the whole being composed of inert substance, and nothing else; even the life of the body, whatever it may be, leaves the function of every organ, not excepting that of the brain, dependent on the general pressure. ”

“ This spontaneous fission, which we have seen to be, in all cases, more or less destructive of individual life, is simply a cessation in the co-ordination of actions. From the single cell, the halves of whose nucleus, instead of continuing to act together, begin to repel each other, fly apart, establish distinct centres of assimilation, and finally cause the cell to divide; up to the Annelidan, whose string of segments separates, after reaching a certain length; we everywhere see the phenomenon to be fundamentally this. ”

“ If we treat Physiognomy as the science of interpreting expression by means of the muscular anatomy of the face, that is a different matter; but the real Physiognomy deals with bones as well as with muscles. If there is doubt as to whether the shape of the bones of the face are indicative of character, there is no doubt that the flesh and muscles of the face form what we call expression of the countenance, and that this can be interpreted with some degree of accuracy. ”

“ Physiologists are gradually proving the statement that these and all other vital changes are, in ultimate analysis, changes in the protoplasm of the body, and that they are not brought about by any peculiar vital force, but are the direct outcome of the physical and chemical structure of the protoplasm itself; so that vital changes, considered simply as changes, must not be regarded as peculiar, and fundamentally unlike the changes of inorganic matter. ”

“ They are provided with organs of the senses; nearly all of them have eyes—an immense progress in organization as compared with the animals which have hitherto engaged our attention. Their respiration is effected by the skin—another instance of the economy of Nature. The apparatus of their circulation is indistinct, but they have a nourishing fluid analogous to the blood in vertebrated animals. Vibratile cilia and stinging hairs often cover the entire surface of the Polyps. ”

“ A firm grasp of catholic Christology in its entirety is the cure for this squeamishness. To obscure the fact of His Manhood is not the true reply to a denial of His Deity. A true presentation of Christ must give full weight to the facts that He had a human body, human mind, human feelings and human will, that His body was in space normally subject to physical law, that His consciousness and subconsciousness conformed to psychic law. Wherever a denial of these facts is found, there is monophysitism. Wherever they are obscured or neglected, there are monophysite tendencies. ”

“ Then Psyche asked if she might speak with Eros, but the goddess answered harshly, “Eros has no wish to see you. You deceived and wounded him so that he fled to me for comfort. But I will set you a task to prove you, and if you can perform it, then perhaps I will speak of you to Eros and plead with him to forgive you ”

“ Physiognomy teaches, not only to read in the face and external appearance, the story of a life which is written there in characters which only experience may decipher, but also to realize when the patient employs physiognomical expressions to hide what we persistently seek ”

“ This being true, the best we can say for Physiognomy is that it helps us to interpret character by showing us tendencies. That is, given a face the chin of which denotes firmness, and the mouth tenacity, [Pg 56] we may be reasonably certain that the individual will have a strong tendency to do thus and so under certain conditions, provided those characteristics are not over-balanced and offset by other characteristics. That the tendency is not conclusive, is apparent: for the person may be born with a nose which, according to Physiognomy, denotes criminal propensities ”

“ The threads are ‘spun’ by several species of Limnaea, Physa, and Planorbis, by Bithynia tentaculata, and several of the Cycladidae. They are anchored to the surface by a minute concavity at the upper end, which appears to act like a small boat in keeping the thread steady. The longest threads are those of the Physae, which have been noticed to attain a length, in confinement, of 14 inches. They are always spun in the ascent, and as a rule, when the animal descends, it rolls the thread up and carries it down as it goes. ”

“ He would have had considerable difficulty in explaining this apparent discrepancy between his scheme of philosophy and his life as a man, had Phyllis asked him to do so; and Phyllis would certainly have asked him to do so had she become acquainted with the contents of his letter to her friend Ella; though Phyllis’ father, having acquired some knowledge of men as well as of phrases, would not have asked for any explanation, knowing that a man’s philosophy is, in its relation to a man’s life, a good deal less important than the fuse is to a bomb. ”

“ And if in the case of the crystal we say that the whole aggregate exerts over its parts a force which constrains the newly-integrated molecules to take a certain definite form, we seem obliged, in the case of the organism, to assume an analogous force. ”

“ Wherefore, if a disease happen in those dayes, we feare not to open a veyne divers times, and often, as also to prescribe more strong purging medicines.
Wherefore away henceforth with the scrupulous conceit, and too nice feare of the Dogge-dayes, and let their supposed danger be had no more in remembrance among us. And if any will yet remaine obstinate, and still refuse to have their beames pulled out of their eyes, let them still be blinde in the middest of the cleare Sun-shine, and groape on after darkness; and let all learned Physitians rather pitty their follies, then envy their wits. ”

“ A much more complex type of luminous organ is to be found in the suborbital organs of Pachystomias microdon, of which there are two on each side, appearing as conspicuous white masses, one in front of the other, and situated just below the eye. ”

“ If, however, we anticipate the results of future researches, and admit that an organism only consists of adaptations, based upon an ancestral constitution, it is obvious that nothing remains to be explained by a phyletic force, even though the latter be presented to us in the refined form of Nägeli’s self-changing idioplasm. ”

“ But when able and skilfull Physitians shall come, whose knowledge can make the right experiment and use of the vertues of those simples that grow there, they will no doubt finde them more efficatious, and prevalent to their healths, then those they bring from forraine parts. ”