The causes of life which I have delivered will receive considerable support by contrasting them with the causes of death. This catastrophe of the body consists in such a change induced on it by disease or old age, as to prevent its exhibiting the phenomena of life. It is brought on,
1. By the abstraction of all the stimuli which support life. Death from this cause is produced by the same mechanical means that the emission of sound from a violin is prevented by the abstraction of the bow from its strings.
2. By the excessive force of stimuli of all kinds. No more occurs here than happens from too much pressure upon the strings of a violin preventing its emitting musical tones.
3. By too much relaxation, or too weak a texture of the matter which composes the human body. No more occurs here than is observed in the extinction of sound by the total relaxation, or slender combination of the strings of a violin.
4. By an error in the place of certain fluid or solid parts of the body. No more occurs here than would happen from fixing the strings of a violin upon its body, instead of elevating them upon its bridge.
5. By the action of poisonous exhalations, or of certain fluids vitiated in the body, upon parts which emit most forcibly the motions of life. No more happens here than occurs from enveloping the strings of a violin in a piece of wax.
6. By the solution of continuity by means of wounds in solid parts of the body. No more occurs in death from this cause than takes place when the emission of sound from a violin is prevented by a rupture of its strings.
7. Death is produced by a preternatural rigidity, and in some instances by an ossification of the solid parts of the body in old age, in consequence of which they are incapable of receiving and emitting the motions of life. No more occurs here, than would happen if a stick or pipe-stem were placed in the room of catgut, upon the bridges of the violin. But death may take place in old age without a change in the texture of animal matter, from the stimuli of life losing their effect by repetition, just as opium, from the same cause, ceases to produce its usual effects upon the body.
Should it be asked, what is that peculiar organization of matter, which enables it to emit life, when acted upon by stimuli, I answer, I do not know. The great Creator has kindly established a witness of his unsearchable wisdom in every part of his works, in order to prevent our forgetting him, in the successful exercises of our reason. Mohammed once said, “that he should believe himself to be a God, if he could bring down rain from the clouds, or give life to an animal.” It belongs exclusively to the true God to endow matter with those singular properties, which enable it, under certain circumstances, to exhibit the appearances of life.
I cannot conclude this subject, without taking notice of its extensive application to medicine, metaphysics, theology, and morals.