Note 18 — Chapter VII · GENERAL DIFFERENCES OF THE TWO LIVES WITH RESPECT TO VITAL POWER.

Bichat often complains in his works of the injury that has been done to the physiological sciences, by the attempts that are made to facilitate the study of them by means of physics. He was not competent to decide the question, not having sufficient data in the sciences, the use of which he reprobated; the most that he should have said, was that a bad application had been made of them. Even this reproach was too general to be just. No doubt, mankind have been led into errors by attempting to support on slight foundations a science which was still in its infancy; but even in the time of Bichat it could not be denied that it was to the progress of these same sciences, that was owing the explanation of many very important phenomena; that by it was ascertained what takes place in respiration, and by what means a living body always supports itself between certain limits of temperature, &c.