Zoonomia, Or, The Laws of Organic Life: In Three Parts, Volume 1

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Thomas & Andrews, J. T. Buckingham, printer, 1809 - Evolution - 6 pages
 

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Page 98 - Reasoning," says one of the most ingenious, and original of these, "is that operation of the sensorium, by which we excite two or many tribes of ideas ; and then re-excite the ideas, in which they differ or correspond. If we determine this difference, it is called judgment ; if we in vain endeavour to determine it, it is called doubting. If we re-excite the ideas in which they differ, it is called distinguishing ; if we re-excite those in which they correspond, it is called comparing.
Page 376 - Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new animal, but is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent, since a part of the embryon-animal is, or was, a part of the parent, and therefore in strict language, cannot be said to be entirely new at the time of its production ; and, therefore, it may retain some of the habits of the parent system.
Page 6 - The word idea has various meanings in the writers of metaphysic : it is here used simply for those notions of external things, which our organs of sense bring us acquainted with originally ; and is defined, a contraction, or motion, or configuration of the fibres, which constitute the immediate organ of sense.
Page 126 - And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
Page 399 - ... the world itself might have been generated, rather than created; that is, it might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fire. — What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE GREAT ARCHITECT! THE CAUSE OF CAUSES! PARENT OF PARENTS! ENS ENTIUM!
Page 107 - ... collect leaves and branches of trees for his food, they fix him to the ground by a length of chain, and frequently leave a child yet unable to walk, under his protection: and the intelligent animal not only defends it, but as it creeps about, when it arrives near the extremity of his chain, he wraps his trunk gently round its body, and brings it again into the centre of his circle.
Page 353 - And hence we fee one of the caufes of the periods of fever-fits ; which however are frequently combined with the periods of our diurnal habits, or of heat and cold, or of folar or lunar periods.
Page 393 - Fifthly, from their first rudiment, or primordium, to the termination of their lives, all animals undergo perpetual transformations; which are in part produced by their own exertions in consequence of their desires and aversions, of their pleasures and their pains, or of irritations, or of associations; and many of these acquired forms or propensities are transmitted to their posterity.
Page 121 - Mr. Leonard, a very intelligent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout by darting upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at Weaford, near Lichfield. The cat belonged to Mr. Stanley, who had often seen her catch fish in the same manner in summer, when the millpool was drawn so low that the fish could be seen. I have heard of other cats taking fish in shallow water as they stood on the bank. This...
Page 137 - Zoonomia, vol. i, p. 183, 1794. maggots of large flies require flesh for their food. What induces the bee, who lives on honey, to lay up vegetable powder for its young? What induces the butterfly to lay its eggs on leaves when itself feeds on honey? . . . If these are not deductions from their own previous experience or observation, all the actions of mankind must be resolved into instincts.

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