SUBMITTED TO THE EXAMINATION OF CHARLES ALEXANDER WARFIELD, M. D. The President, and Medical Faculty OF THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE OF MARYLAND. FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHYSIC. By Henry Curtis ... of Virginia , VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BALTIMORE MEDICAL SOCIETY. ... The spacious earth, And all the teeming regions of the world, Hold not an object to the curious flight Of knowledge, half so tempting, or so fair, As man to man. AKENSIDE. Baltimore: PRINTED BY BENJAMIN EDES. Corner of South and Market-

As a subject for my inaugural dissertation, I am induced rather to offer some general opinions on the state of the animal system, than to enter into particular disquisitions on given points. The time allotted, in general, for the production of inaugural essays, and the peculiar circumstances under which I have to write, preclude the hope of my advancing the science of medicine; I am therefore chiefly anxious not to embarrass its progress by hasty conclusions or fanciful chimeras. The opinions I

The capacity and aptitude for motion, observable in man, naturally lead us to an enquiry into the general principle of his corporeal functions. To a disquisition of which I devote the following pages. Aware of the intricacy of my subject, and that the operations of the animal body necessarily embrace agents not within the range of our senses, I cannot indulge in the hope that I shall be altogether successful in an examination of the laws of its economy. Where so many enlightened and able intelle