Hahnemann called this vital principle the vital force, or the spirit-like dynamic, which seems to convey the same essential idea of corporeal vitality that Swedenborg evolved. Did Hahnemann know of Swedenborgs views regarding the animal spirit? Certainly could have known them, for he was a profound scholar of everything related to medicine. But he did not go beyond the vital force.
Perhaps he realized that all above that plane was unapproachable and beyond the sphere of medicine. It is interesting, however,that in point of time his Organon of Medicine,which contains much of his medical philosophy,was published just sixty years after that of the Economy of the animal Kingdom. Let me read the 9th paragraph of the organon. This paragraph is the basis of Homoeopathic philosophy.
In the healthy condition of man, the spirit-like vital force,the dynamic that animates the material body, rules with unbounded sway,and and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation,as regards both sensations and functions, so that our in dwelling,reason-gifted mind can freely employ this living,healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.
Here we have the trine of the material body,the spirit like dynamic,and the reason-gifted mind or rational spirit, which there seem to form the requisites of mans being as far as medicine has relation to it. It is a recognition of the fact that mans material body does not live from itself, but from something higher than itself. Hahnemann believed in God and His Divine Providence,and throughout the Organon he acknowledges Him. the next paragraph of the Organon supplements the one that has just been read. “The material organism,without the vital force,is capable of no sensation and performs all the functions of life solely by means of he immaterial being (the vital principle) which animates the material organism in health and in disease.”
These two paragraphs of he Organon cover the main features of the two paragraphs of the organon cover the ,main feature of Hahnemanns doctrine for the vital force in man when in a state of health. Nor are we concerned at this time as to its application to state for disease;although it is obvious that it the vital force the established as the essentials force in health,it logically must play a major part in disease for health it logically must play a major part in disease;for health means unimpaired vitality,m of unobstructed flow of the vital forces, while disease means obstruction and impairment.
The vital force of Hahnemann needs the clear philosophy of Swedenborg in its elaboration. Hahnemann was not very clear as to its antecedents.He seemed satisfied with the fact that it was and is. In his preface to the Organon he adds something to the which has already been quoted: It (the vital force) is “that requisite power innate in the human being, designed to direct in the most perfect manner the operations of life while it is in health,equally present in all parts of he organism in the fibres of sensibility as well as those of irritability, the unwearying spring of all the normal natural functions of the body -the maintenance of the life and health of the organism”.
This declaration is a near approach to some of Swedenborgs statements regarding to animal spirit. In n.81 on The Fibre, we read: “The vital juice or animal spirit is conceived and brought forth in the cortical substances.” And in n.86 of the same treatise,m he says, speaking of that vital juice: “Hence also is derived the life of the blood, whence is the life of the whole body.”.
Swedenborg, as far as I am aware,does not apply the exact term, vital force, to any particular entity,but he does speak of the activity of the soul, as being the force of forces,and is not the life of the soul its activity., There are, the life of the soul its activity. Therefore,the life of the soul is vital force on the spiritual plane. He also speaks of the spirituous fluid as being a formative substance and force; and that which is mediatorial agency,such as the animal spirit, which is equally of the body and of the soul, therefore vital force may be predicated of that also. I quote from the treatises on The Fibre n. 143: “As regards life and sensation-we shall be assured that it is from the marriage of the fluid with its fibre, according to their re- established relation to teach other, that we move, and sensate,and life”.
And in n 156:.
As in the arteries resides strength,is in the fibres resides the force of forces and the life of the body. But that in the fibres resides an active force, or, in the simple fibres a force of forces-For where there is no fibre,there is no must be efficient forces of strength. Hence, if here be strength in the arteries, the fibre must be the efficient or producing force.
If therefore seems quite conclusive that the animal spirit and the vital force are one and the same; and further that the operation of the soul in living forms is the vital force.
Let me quote briefly from some for the statements of modern science regarding vital force.
Is there such a thing as vital force in the animal economy? And if so,what is its nature? Most modern text-books of biology or physiology debt the existence for the vital force as distinct from energy or force in general. the late Dr.Stuart Close of New York had this to say:
Modern science, in its desire to get away from the theological idea which seems so repugnant to it, speaks no more of: God”, but only of a blind, unintelligent, dead “Energy” or “Force”, the terms being used interchangeably. It denies the existence of a life-force because it cannot identify any force in the living organism which differs in any respect from chemical or electrical force. Constructively it denies the existence of life itself as an entity; that is,as an originating or controlling power or principle; and her is the head and front of its offending. It regards and speaks of life only as a state or condition-an effect for which no c cause is assigned-ignores it altogether.
Dr. William Schwartz of Houston,Texas,evidently a reader of Swedenborg, in a recent article states: “The vital force circulates through the nervous system,which is the circulatory system of vital government, just as the blood vessels convey digested food in the form of blood.”.
Prof.Gustave, Geley, a thinker bold enough to differ from accepted teachings and logical enough to see that end,cause and effect are in separable, in his book, From the Unconscious to the Conscious, says:.
The body. . . . can no long be considered as playing the primordial and essential part that was assigned to it by classical psycho-physiology. the known facts of super-normal physiology seen to establish definitely that the diverse anatomical modalities of the organism are reducible to a unique representation-the primordial substance, which is not nervous,muscular, or assesses, etc., but is the substance pure and simple. This opens p a vast field, and the study of organic modality must be resumed on an altogether new basis.
This organic substance is built up, developed, maintained,and repaired by the higher active principle the vital dynamism which conditions it. In our study of physiological individually we have sufficiently demonstrated the reality of vital dynamism considered as independent of the organic complex, and as an organizing and directing principle. The apparent manifestation of its organizing directive and repertory powers, do not extend beyond the birth and death of the organizing directive and repertory powers, do not extend beyond the birth and death of he organization which it conditions.
By this, I understand is meant that there is a vital corporeal principle,coming at birth and leaving at death,that organizes and directs the organic complex, know as the body, but is independent of it. This independence leaves a considerable hole to be filled. But perhaps the does not want it filled, such is the fashion.
Kleinschod, in his book, entitled Inherent Law of Life,says: “Vital Force is the natural principle of animate nature or life, and is synonymous with the essential activity of life or of animate nature, while force is the natural principle of lifeless nature, or a lifeless natural structure.” This apparently is an attempt to reconcile life and nature without going in to the realm of first causes,or what is the same, into the origin of force or energy.
Prof. Virchow says: “We have I the living body two forces, the molecular forces and the stimulated and stimulating life force,by the working together of which the elemental or cell forces are formed,. which in the general sense of the word are also called life-force.”.
Now we take up another phase of the subject.
It is well know that many substances have their aura or atmosphere, and give off certain emanations, but it is not generally recognized that this is true of all substances. It maybe asked, what is an aura? And what possible relation can it have to the animal spirit or vital force? As to the first, an aura is all that sphere that flows forth from a substance and encompasses it. As to the second,I not answer it directly, but rather inferential, by quoting several recent and interesting demonstrations that may,or may not,have a significant bearing upon this subject.
