AN INAUGURAL ESSAY ON THE SEAT OF ANIMAL LIFE. AN ATTEMPT TO INVESTIGATE THE SEAT OF ANIMAL LIFE. SUBMITTED TO THE EXAMINATION OF CHARLES ALEXANDER WARFIELD, M. D. _The President, and Medical Faculty_ OF THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE OF MARYLAND. FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHYSIC. [Illustration] _By Henry Curtis ... of Virginia_, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BALTIMORE MEDICAL SOCIETY. [Illustration] ... The spacious earth, And all the teeming regions of the world, Hold not an object to the curious flight Of knowledge, half so tempting, or so fair, As man to man. AKENSIDE. Baltimore: PRINTED BY BENJAMIN EDES. Corner of South and Market-Streets. 1812. TO WILLIAM FOUSHEE, SENIOR M. D. AND TO JNO. H. FOUSHEE, M. D. _OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA_. GENTLEMEN, _Actuated by the finest feelings of gratitude, I embrace with peculiar pleasure this opportunity of acknowledging and making, in some degree, public, my many obligations to you, who, with parental care, directed the gradual unfoldings of my mind through the morning of youth, and kindly afforded those means of improvement, calculated to raise industry to eminence, and crown it with success._ _Should this first effort evince an advancement in the knowledge of the profession to which I devote my life. Accept its dedication as a tribute of grateful respect, from_ _Your much obliged_, H. CURTIS. _To the zealous and able friends of science_, JNO. B. DAVIDGE, A. M. M. D. _and_ JAMES COCKE, M. D. _Joint Professors of Anatomy, Surgery, &c. In the College of Medicine of Maryland; These pages are inscribed as a Sincere testimony of Respect and esteem, By the AUTHOR._ [Illustration] _The necessity of publication, will apologize, to my friends, for the form this essay has taken._ PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.