"It was, however, the comparing the mechanism of the hand and foot that led Galen, who they say was a sceptic in his youth, to the public declaration of his opinion that intelligence must have operated in ordaining the laws by which living beings are constructed. That Galen was a man of a very superior intellect could readily be proved, were it necessary. I have often known the passage I allude to made a subject of reference, but not of quotation, and therefore I recite it on the present occasion, and particularly because it shows that Galen was not in the least degree tinctured with superstition. 'In explaining these things,' he says, 'I esteem myself as composing a solemn hymn to the great Architect of our bodily frame, in which I think there is more true piety than in sacrificing whole hecatombs of oxen, or in burning the most costly perfumes; for, first, I endeavour from His works to know Him myself, and afterwards by the same means to show Him to others, to inform them how great is His wisdom, goodness, and power[58].'"
"Those bodies which we call living are chiefly characterized by their powers of converting surrounding substances into their own nature, of building up the structure of their own bodies, and repairing the injuries they may accidentally sustain[59]."
IN REPUDIATION OF CRUELTY AND EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS.
Very important in our view. The objection was very new at that time, and has made very little way yet. We have already referred to this subject. Considering the period of these Lectures (nearly forty years ago), Abernethy's objections, though cautious, are very sound, and, for him, very positive. We know that he felt still more strongly.
"Mr. Hunter, whom I should not have believed to be very scrupulous about inflicting sufferings upon animals, nevertheless censures Spalanzani for the unmeaning repetition of similar experiments. Having resolved publicly to express my own opinion with respect to this subject, I choose the present opportunity to do it, because I believe Spalanzani to have been one of those who have tortured and destroyed animals in vain. I do not perceive that in the two principal subjects which he sought to elucidate, he has added any important fact to our stock of knowledge; besides, some of his experiments are of a nature that a good man would have blushed to think of, and a wise man ashamed to publish, for they prove no fact requiring to be proved, and only show that the aforesaid Abbé was a filthy-minded fellow."