Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
Observe, first, how numerous are the effects which any marked change works
upon an adult organism--a human being, for instance. An alarming sound or
sight, besides the impressions on the organs of sense and the nerves, may
produce a start, a scream, a distortion of the face, a trembling consequent
upon a general muscular relaxation, a burst of perspiration, an excited
action of the heart, a rush of blood to the brain, followed possibly by
arrest of the heart's action and by syncope: and if the system be feeble,
an indisposition with its long train of complicated symptoms may set in.
Similarly in cases of disease. A minute portion of the small-pox virus
introduced into the system, will, in a severe case, cause, during the first
stage, rigors, heat of skin, accelerated pulse, furred tongue, loss of
appetite, thirst, epigastric uneasiness, vomiting, headache, pains in the
back and limbs, muscular weakness, convulsions, delirium, &c.; in the
second stage, cutaneous eruption, itching, tingling, sore throat, swelled
fauces, salivation, cough, hoarseness, dyspn[oe]a, &c.; and in the third
stage, [oe]dematous inflammations, pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrh[oe]a,
inflammation of the brain, ophthalmia, erysipelas, &c.: each of which
enumerated symptoms is itself more or less complex. Medicines, special
foods, better air, might in like manner be instanced as producing
multiplied results.
Now it needs only to consider that the many changes thus wrought by one
force upon an adult organism, will be in part paralleled in an embryo
organism, to understand how here also, the evolution of the homogeneous
into the heterogeneous may be due to the production of many effects by one
cause. The external heat and other agencies which determine the first
complications of the germ, may, by acting upon these, superinduce further
complications; upon these still higher and more numerous ones; and so on
continually: each organ as it is developed serving, by its actions and
reactions upon the rest, to initiate new complexities. The first pulsations
of the f[oe]tal heart must simultaneously aid the unfolding of every part.
The growth of each tissue, by taking from the blood special proportions of
elements, must modify the constitution of the blood; and so must modify the
nutrition of all the other tissues. The heart's action, implying as it does
a certain waste, necessitates an addition to the blood of effete matters,
which must influence the rest of the system, and perhaps, as some think,
cause the formation of excretory organs. The nervous connections
established among the viscera must further multiply their mutual
influences: and so continually.
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