An enquiry into the probability and rationality of Mr. Hunter's theory of life : being the subject of the first two anatomical lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons, of London

William Lawrence and the English Ophthalmology Textbooks of the 1830s and 1840s

“…Abernethy gave 2 such lectures in 1814 and 1815. 4 They were in praise of the concepts of "vitalism" that he had been taught by John Hunter. Vitalism had been popular in England in the late 18th century, but Lawrence considered it to be hopelessly old-fashioned.…”

“…Abernethy, whose conservative position went down well with most of the English medical community and with the Church of England, was outraged at Lawrence's scandalous ideas and arranged to publish his own RCS lectures. 4 Unlike Abernethy, Lawrence found that he rather favored the French idea that physics and chemistry should be applied to understanding the human body and its functions. He pointed out that if the brain itself were malformed or injured, it usually did not work very well, and the patient might have little or no mental activity; thus, the mind (call it the soul if you must) is a product of the brain, and it must therefore be part of the body.…”