Chapter I: Front Matter

ZOONOMIA;

OR,

THE LAWS

OF

ORGANIC LIFE.

VOL. I.

_By ERASMUS DARWIN, M.D. F.R.S._

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

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Principiò coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum lunæ, titaniaque astra,
Spiritus intùs alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.--VIRG. Æn. vi.

Earth, on whose lap a thousand nations tread,
And Ocean, brooding his prolific bed,
Night's changeful orb, blue pole, and silvery zones,
Where other worlds encircle other suns,
One Mind inhabits, one diffusive Soul
Wields the large limbs, and mingles with the whole.

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_THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED._

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LONDON: PRINTED FOR. J. JOHNSON, IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 1796.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

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DEDICATION.

To the candid and ingenious Members of the College of Physicians, of the Royal Philosophical Society, of the Two Universities, and to all those, who study the Operations of the Mind as a Science, or who practice Medicine as a Profession, the subsequent Work is, with great respect, inscribed by the Author,

DERBY, May 1, 1794.

CONTENTS.

_Preface._
SECT. I. _Of Motion._
II. _Explanations and Definitions._
III. _The Motions of the Retina demonstrated by Experiments._
IV. _Laws of Animal Causation._
V. _Of the four Faculties or Motions of the Sensorium._
VI. _Of the four Classes of Fibrous Motions._
VII. _Of Irritative Motions._
VIII. _Of Sensitive Motions._
IX. _Of Voluntary Motions._
X. _Of Associate Motions._
XI. _Additional Observations on the Sensorial Powers._
XII. _Of Stimulus, Sensorial Exertion, and Fibrous Contraction._
XIII. _Of Vegetable Animation._
XIV. _Of the Production of Ideas._
XV. _Of the Classes of Ideas._
XVI. _Of Instinct._
XVII. _The Catenation of Animal Motions._
XVIII. _Of Sleep._
XIX. _Of Reverie._
XX. _Of Vertigo._
XXI. _Of Drunkenness._
XXII. _Of Propensity to Motion. Repetition. Imitation._
XXIII. _Of the Circulatory System._
XXIV. _Of the Secretion of Saliva, and of Tears. And of the
Lacrymal Sack._
XXV. _Of the Stomach and Intestines._
XXVI. _Of the Capillary Glands, and of the Membranes._
XXVII. _Of Hemorrhages._
XXVIII. _The Paralysis of the Lacteals._
XXIX. _The Retrograde Motions of the Absorbent Vessels._
XXX. _The Paralysis of the Liver._
XXXI. _Of Temperaments._
XXXII. _Diseases of Irritation._
XXXIII. ---- _of Sensation._
XXXIV. ---- _of Volition._
XXXV. ---- _of Relation._
XXXVI. _The Periods of Diseases._
XXXVII. _Of Digestion, Secretion, Nutrition._
XXXVIII. _Of the Oxygenation of the Blood in the Lungs and Placenta._
XXXIX. _Of Generation._
XL. _Of Ocular Spectra._

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TO

ERASMUS DARWIN,

ON HIS WORK INTITLED

ZOONOMIA,

_By DEWHURST BILSBORROW._

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HAIL TO THE BARD! who sung, from Chaos hurl'd
How suns and planets form'd the whirling world;
How sphere on sphere Earth's hidden strata bend,
And caves of rock her central fires defend;
Where gems new-born their twinkling eyes unfold, 5
And young ores shoot in arborescent gold.
How the fair Flower, by Zephyr woo'd, unfurls
Its panting leaves, and waves its azure curls;
Or spreads in gay undress its lucid form
To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm; 10
While in green veins impassion'd eddies move,
And Beauty kindles into life and love.
How the first embryon-fibre, sphere, or cube,
Lives in new forms,--a line,--a ring,--a tube;
Closed in the womb with limbs unfinish'd laves, 15
Sips with rude mouth the salutary waves;
Seeks round its cell the sanguine streams, that pass,
And drinks with crimson gills the vital gas;
Weaves with soft threads the blue meandering vein,
The heart's red concave, and the silver brain; 20
Leads the long nerve, expands the impatient sense,
And clothes in silken skin the nascent Ens.
Erewhile, emerging from its liquid bed,
It lifts in gelid air its nodding head;
The lights first dawn with trembling eyelid hails, 25
With lungs untaught arrests the balmy gales;
Tries its new tongue in tones unknown, and hears
The strange vibrations with unpractised ears;
Seeks with spread hands the bosom's velvet orbs.
With closing lips the milky fount absorbs; 30
And, as compress'd the dulcet streams distil,
Drinks warmth and fragrance from the living rill;--
Eyes with mute rapture every waving line,
Prints with adoring kiss the Paphian shrine,
And learns erelong, the perfect form confess'd, 35
Ideal Beauty from its mother's breast.
Now in strong lines, with bolder tints design'd,
You sketch ideas, and portray the mind;
Teach how fine atoms of impinging light
To ceaseless change the visual sense excite; 40
While the bright lens collects the rays, that swerve,
And bends their focus on the moving nerve.
How thoughts to thoughts are link'd with viewless chains,
Tribes leading tribes, and trains pursuing trains;
With shadowy trident how Volition guides, 45
Surge after surge, his intellectual tides;
Or, Queen of Sleep, Imagination roves
With frantic Sorrows, or delirious Loves.
Go on, O FRIEND! explore with eagle-eye;
Where wrapp'd in night retiring Causes lie: 50
Trace their slight bands, their secret haunts betray,
And give new wonders to the beam of day;
Till, link by link with step aspiring trod,
You climb from NATURE to the throne of GOD.
--So saw the Patriarch with admiring eyes 55
From earth to heaven a golden ladder rise;
Involv'd in clouds the mystic scale ascends,
And brutes and angels crowd the distant ends.

TRIN. COL. CAMBRIDGE, _Jan._ 1, 1794.

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REFERENCES TO THE WORK.

_Botanic Garden._ Part I.

Line 1. Canto I. l. 105.
---- 3. ---- IV. l. 402.
---- 4. ---- I. l. 140.
---- 5. ---- III. l. 401.
---- 8. ---- IV. l. 452.
---- 9. ---- I. l. 14.

_Zoonomia._

---- 12. Sect. XIII.
---- 13. ---- XXXIX. 4. 1.
---- 18. ---- XVI. 2. and XXXVIII.
---- 26. ---- XVI. 4.
---- 30. ---- XVI. 4.
---- 36. ---- XVI. 6.
---- 38. ---- III. and VII.
---- 43. ---- X.
---- 44. ---- XVIII. 17.
---- 45. ---- XVII. 3. 7.
---- 47. ---- XVIII. 8.
---- 50. ---- XXXIX. 4. 8.
---- 51. ---- XXXIX the Motto.
---- 54. ---- XXXIX. 8.

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