The Project Gutenberg EBook of Zoonomia, Vol. I, by Erasmus Darwin

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Title: Zoonomia, Vol. I
Or, the Laws of Organic Life

Author: Erasmus Darwin

Release Date: April 25, 2005 [EBook #15707]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ZOONOMIA;

OR,

THE LAWS

OF

ORGANIC LIFE.

VOL. I.

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

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

* * * * *

Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum lunae, titaniaque astra,
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.--VIRG. AEn. 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.

* * * * *

_THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED._

* * * * *

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

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

* * * * *

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._