Part 6

Such is the classification that I made in my Lectures on Physiology; it has evidently nothing in common with any of those that are found in physiological works; and if you reflect upon it a little, it will appear I think infinitely preferable to any of them. Observe in fine, that each class and each order have general and characteristic attributes that particularly distinguish them, and which being applicable to all the functions of that order, mark a difference between them and all the functions of any other order. I have pointed out moreover the distinctive attributes of animal and of organic life; I have shown that the organs of one are symmetrical, those of the other irregular; that there is a harmony in the functions of the first, a discordance in those of the second; that one commences sooner and terminates later, &c.

I have demonstrated, that the cerebral nerves belong especially to animal life, the nerves of the ganglions to the organic, which appears to me to be a remarkable difference, and which has induced me to make two systems of the nerves, that anatomists have united in one. The first, belonging to animal life, is composed of the cerebral nerves, the other to organic, is formed of the nerves of the ganglions, or what is commonly called the great sympathetic.

But it is the vital powers especially that distinguish one life from another. I have shown that one kind of sensibility and contractility belongs to animal life, and another to organic. Now as these vital properties are the principle of the functions, it is evident that the division of these properties demonstrates that that of the two lives is not an abstraction, but that it is nature herself that has fixed the limits, since she has made particular properties for each.

It is impossible to form a precise idea of the vital properties, without admitting the division I have made. How many disputes there have been, upon the subject of sensibility! Not one of them would have taken place, if the attributes of animal life had been properly distinguished from those of the organic. Certainly no one will hereafter confound in one view, as frequently has been done, the faculty that the heart has of being sensible to the entrance of the blood, without transmitting that impression, and the faculty that the skin, the other senses, the nerves, &c. have, not only of feeling the impression of external bodies, but of transmitting it to the brain, so that the sensation may be perceived.

If you include under one common name of irritability, the motions of muscles that contract only by stimuli, and those which the cerebral influence puts in action, it is impossible that you should be understood.

There has been much discussion during the last age, upon the point, whether sensibility is the same as contractility, or if these two properties can be separated. Each of the two opinions seem to have rested upon an equally solid foundation. But all these disputes will be done away, by admitting the distinction I have made in the vital properties. 1st. In animal life, then, it is evident, that contractility is not a necessary consequence of sensibility; thus frequently external objects make for a long time an impression upon us, and yet the voluntary muscles remain unmoved. 2d. On the other hand, in organic life, these two properties are never separated. In the involuntary motions of the heart, the stomach, the intestines, &c. there is first an excitement of the organic sensibility, and then an action of the sensible organic contractility. In the same manner, in the motions necessary to secretion, exhalation, &c. when the organic sensibility has been brought into action, immediately insensible organic contractility takes place. It is that they may be studied better, and appreciated more accurately, that in organic life, I separate these two kinds of contractility from sensibility. In the natural state they are inseparable. Hence why the passive sympathies of animal sensibility are very different from those of animal contractility, and make two distinct classes, whilst the passive sympathies of organic sensibility can never be separated from the corresponding contractilities. We suffer by sympathy, and are sympathetically convulsed in a distinct manner; these two things are almost always separate. On the contrary, sensation and motion in the organic sympathies are inseparable.

I could prove by many examples, that all the disputes, and all the diversities of opinion, upon the subject of the vital properties, proceed only from this cause, that those which preside over the functions of one life, have not been distinguished from those which put into action the functions of the other.

Let us return to my physiological division; I will now give a table of it, which, presenting it under one point of view, will give a more precise idea of the classification. This table comprehends, 1st. the prolegomena of the science; 2d. the exposition of the functions. In the prolegomena, every thing is referred to two great considerations; on the one hand to organic texture, described in a general manner, and on the other to life, considered in relation to its great attributes.

TABLE OF PHYSIOLOGY.

_PROLEGOMENA._

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ORGANIC TEXTURE.

SECTION I. │1st. Of the organic texture of animals. │2d. Of simple textures, in general. │3d. Of organs, in general. │4th. Of the apparatus, in general.[4]

[4] In a subsequent part of this work, the author defines _appareil_, which I have translated by the word _apparatus_, to be an assemblage of many systems. It will be perceived that the English word in this and some other instances is in the plural number. I should certainly have preferred some other term more conformable to the idiom of our own language if I had known any one that would so well have conveyed the sense of the author. _Tr._

SECTION II. ┌1st. Of the properties of texture. │ │2d. Division of the ┌Extensibility. │ properties of texture. └Contractility. ┌1st. By want of extension. │ └2d. By horny hardening. └3d. Characters of the properties of texture.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON LIFE.

SECTION I. ┌1st. Of life and its functions. │ ┌Of those relating ┌Animal functions. │ │to the individual. └Organic functions. │ │ │2d. Classification of │ ┌Functions of the male. │ functions │Of those relating │Functions of the female. │ └to the species. │Functions relating to the │ │ union of the sexes, and │ └ the product of this union. │ │3d. Of the differences and relations that exist between the two classes │ of functions. │4th. Of the differences and relations that exist between the two orders │ of the first class. │5th. Of the differences and relations that exist between the three orders └ of the first class.

SECTION II. ┌1st. Of the vital properties. │ ┌Animal properties ┌Sensibility. │ │ │Contractility. │2d. Division of the vital │ │ properties │Organic ┌Sensibility. │ └ properties │Sensible and insensible │ └ contractility. │3d. Characters of the vital properties. ┌Habit. │ │Sex. │4th. Of the causes which modify the │Climate. │ vital properties │Seasons. │ └Age, &c. │ │5th. Of the peculiar differences of the vital ┌Of that which is called │ properties, in each simple texture, in each └ individual life. │ individual │ ┌Of temperament. │6th. Of the general differences of the vital │Of the passions. │ properties in different individuals └Of the character. │ │7th. Sympathies of vital properties. ┌Animal sympathies ┌Of sensibility. │ │ └Of contractility. └8th. Division of sympathies │ ┌Of sensible └Organic sympathies │ contractility. │Of insensible └ contractility.

OF THE FUNCTIONS.

FIRST CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE INDIVIDUAL.

ORDER FIRST.—_Functions of Animal Life._

GENUS I. _Sensations._ ┌1st. Of the general sensations, or feeling, ┌external. │ └internal. │ ┌Hearing. │ │Seeing. │2d. Of particular sensations │Smelling. │ │Tasting │ └Feeling. └3d. Of pleasure and of pain.

GENUS II. _Cerebral Functions._

┌Of perception. ┌1st. Relative to sensation │Of imagination. │ └Of memory. │ ┌Of attention. │ │Of the ideas. │2d. Relative to the understanding │Of the judgment. │ └Of the reasoning faculty, &c. │ │ ┌Of the will, ┌the ┌Of the │3d. Relative to motion │which is │ judgment. │ opposition │ └determined by │the │ of these two │ └ passions. └ causes. │ └4th. Connexion of the cerebral functions with life ┌Of concussion. └Of apoplexy, &c.

GENUS III. _Locomotion._ ┌on the feet Standing. ┌ │on the knees. │1st. Of the immoveable attitudes │on the pelvis. │ │on the head, &c. &c. │ └—Prostration. │ │ ┌ ┌ Prepulsion. │ │ │ Repulsion. │ │Of the superior │ Diduction. │ │ extremities. │ Pressure. │ │ └ Elevation, &c. │ │ ┌Walking. └2d. Motion │Of the inferior │Running. │ extremities. └Leaping. │Of the trunk. Support, raising weights. │Of the whole body. Swimming. │ ┌1st. Gestures of the face. │Of gesture considered │2d. Gestures of the head in │ as an auxiliary │ general. └ to the voice. │3d. Gestures of the superior └ extremities.

GENUS IV. _Voice._ ┌1st. Of the voice of brutes Dumbness. │2d. Of speech. ┌Of stuttering. │ └Of lisping, &c. │ │3d. Of singing ┌true. │ └false. └4th. Of declamation.

GENUS V. _Nervous transmission._ ┌1st. Transmission to the brain of sensations ┌general. │ └particular. │2d. Transmission of motion ┌to the locomotive organs. │ └to the vocal organs. └3d. Mode of transmission.

OF THE INTERMISSION OF THE FUNCTIONS OF ANIMAL LIFE.

_Sleep._ ┌partial ┌of the senses. ┌ 1st. natural. │ │of the brain ... Of sympathetic sleep. │ │ └of the muscles. │ └general. │ 2d. unnatural. └ 3d. Dreams and somnambulism.

ORDER SECOND.—_Functions of organic life._

GENUS I. _Digestion._ ┌1st. Of hunger and thirst. │2d. Of aliments. │3d. Of taking of aliments ┌solid. │ └fluid. │4th. Of mastication, of lubricating with saliva and deglutition. │ ┌in the œsophagus. Action of the liquor of the │ │ œsophagus. │5th. Alteration of │in the stomach. Action of the gastric liquor. │ the alimentary mass. │in the small ┌Action of the bile. │ └ intestines │Action of the pancreatic liquor. │ └Action of the intestinal liquor. │ │6th. Separation of the substances that are nutritive from those │ that are not. │ ┌the lacteals. │7th. Absorption of the nutritive substance; │the mesenteric glands, │ course of the chyle in │the thoracic duct. │ └the blood vessels. │8th. Excretion of the non-nutritive ┌Of the peristaltic motion. │ substance │Of the fecal matter. │ └Of the intestinal gas. │ ┌the pharynx and œsophagus. │ │the stomach. └9th. Of vomiting, as it has its seat in │the small intestines. │the large intestines. └—Sympathetic vomiting.

GENUS II. _Respiration._ ┌1st. Of the air. │2d. Mechanical phenomena ┌Inspiration. │ └Expiration. │3d. Chemical Phenomena relative ┌to the air. │ └to the blood. └4th. Connexion of respiration with life. Of asphyxia, &c.

GENUS III. _Circulation._ ┌Circulation of red blood. │Circulation of black blood. ┌1st. general │Action of the heart. │ │Action of the arteries. │ │Action of the veins. │ │Connexion of the circulation with life. │ └ Of syncope, &c. │2d. abdominal. │ ┌phenomena of the motion of the blood. │ ┌general └change of red to black. └3d. capillary │ ┌its relation with the general. └pulmonary └change of black to red blood.

GENUS IV. _Exhalations._ ┌of their agents. ┌1st. in general │of their phenomena. │ │of their alterations. │ └—Sympathetic exhalations. │ ┌serous. │ │cellular ┌of fat. │ │ └of serum. │2d. in particular. │synovial ┌in the grooves of the tendons. └ Exhalations │ └in the articulations. │ ┌in the middle of the long bones. └medullary │in the extremities of the long bones, └ in the short and flat ones.

GENUS V. _Absorptions._ ┌Of their agents. ┌1st. in general │Of their phenomena. │ │Of their alterations. │ └—Sympathetic absorptions. │ ┌serous. │ │cellular ┌ of fat. │2d. in particular. │ └ of serum. └ Absorptions │synovial ┌ in the grooves of the tendons. │ └ in the articulations. │ ┌ in the middle of the long bones. └medullary │ in the extremities of the long bones, └ in the short and flat ones.

GENUS VI. _Secretions._ ┌Of their agents. ┌1st. in general │Of their phenomena. │ │Of their alterations. │ └—Sympathetic secretions. │ ┌lachrymal. │ │salivary and pancreatic. │ │hepatic. └2d. in particular. Secretions │renal. │mucous. └sebaceous.

GENUS VII. _Nutrition._ ┌1st. Of the double nutritive motion. │ ┌Nutritive matter, ┌ the chyle. │2d. Composition of organs │ considered in ...│ the blood. │ └—Assimilation. └ the organs themselves. │ │3d. Decomposition of organs. │4th. Causes that modify nutrition. │ ┌infancy Of increase in height. │5th. Of nutrition considered in │youth Of increase in thickness. │ │adult age. │ └old age Decrease. └ 6th. Of natural death.

GENUS VIII. _Calorification._ ┌1st. Phenomena of animal heat. │ ┌respiration. │ 2d. Entrance of caloric by │digestion. │ └absorption. │ 3d. Its latent state in the blood. │ 4th. Its disengagement in the capillary system. │ 5th. Its exit from the body. └ 6th. Of the sympathies of heat, and of sympathetic heat.

SECOND CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SPECIES.

A COMPARISON OF THE TWO SEXES. HERMAPHRODISM.

ORDER FIRST.—_Functions peculiar to the male. Phenomena of puberty in man._

GENUS I. _Production of the semen._ ┌1st. Secretion in the testicle. │2d. Residence in the vesiculæ. │3d. Excretion Of erection and its phenomena. │4th. Of the semen. └5th. Of eunuchs.

ORDER SECOND.—_Functions peculiar to the female. Phenomena of puberty in woman._

GENUS I. _Menstruation._ ┌1st. Of its seat. │2d. Of its periodical return. │3d. Of its alterations. └4th. Of its cessation.

GENUS II. _Production of milk._ ┌Difference of this secretion from others. ┌1st. Secretion in the breast └Relation between the breast and womb. │ │ ┌spontaneous. │2d. Excretion └by suckling. └3d. Of the milk.

GENUS III. _Of the fluids of women proper for generation._ ┌What these fluids are. └What is their influence.

ORDER THIRD.—_Functions relative to the union of the sexes, and the product of this union._

GENUS I. _Generation._ ┌1st. Sexual intercourse. │ ┌Its phenomena ┌in the womb. └2d. Conception │ └in the tubes and ovaries. └Hypotheses.

GENUS II. _Gestation, relative_ ┌1st. to the mother ┌General state of her functions. │ └State of the womb. │ ┌Of its animal life; it is almost nothing. │ │Of its organic life ┌Functions that it wants. └ 2d. to the fœtus │ └Activity of assimilation. └Of monsters.

GENUS III. _Parturition and subsequent phenomena_ ┌1st. Causes and mechanism of parturition. │2d. Of the lochia. │ ┌Development of its animal life. └3d. Phenomena of the new born infant └Functions added to its organic.

This is a sketch of the general plan that I have adopted in my lectures. Those who have attended them, will find here some changes in one part, and additions in another. But they can easily arrange under it all the facts that are contained in this work, if they wish to refer them to a physiological classification, instead of distributing them according to the anatomical order in which I present them here.

Though a line of demarcation separates each order of functions, it is not necessary, however, to take, in too exact a sense, the divisions pointed out above. Each order is connected with the others, more or less intimately. For example, in the first class, when one order ceases, another is soon annihilated. It is thus that I have shewn elsewhere that the heart, which is the principal agent of organic life, being interrupted, the brain, which is the central organ of animal life, is immediately stopt for the want of excitement, and the functions over which it presides are destroyed. It is thus also, as I have shown, that the brain, having under its immediate superintendence, respiration, by the means of the diaphragm and intercostals, which receive the cerebral nerves, has the circulation directly under its control, and thus the whole of organic life, which ceases when its action is interrupted. It is on this account that I have considered respiration as the link that connects animal with organic life, and have proved that a fœtus without a brain, or without something to supply its place, cannot live out of the womb of its mother. Every thing is connected, every thing is united in the animal economy. We live without and within in a distinct manner, but one life cannot be preserved as a whole, independent of the other. Thus, though the functions should be studied abstractedly, we should always have in view their connexion, when we consider the whole of them as simultaneously in operation.

It will be seen that in the Descriptive Anatomy, I have adopted a classification analogous to that of physiology. The one differs, however, a little from the other, because the same organs often serve for many functions, and especially because certain functions, such as exhalation, nutrition, calorification, have not, to speak correctly, any distinct and determinate organs.

GENERAL ANATOMY.

SYSTEMS

COMMON TO ALL THE APPARATUS.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The organized systems of the living economy may be divided into two great classes. One, generally distributed and every where present, concurs not only in the formation of all the apparatus, but even in that of the other systems, and offers to every organized part a common and uniform base; this includes the cellular, arterial, venous, exhalant, absorbent, and nervous systems. The other, on the contrary, placed in certain determinate apparatus, foreign to the rest of the economy, has a less general and oftentimes an almost insulated existence; this embraces the osseous, cartilaginous, fibrous, muscular, mucous, serous systems, &c. &c.

The first part of this work will be devoted to the examination of the general systems, of the generative systems, if I may so express myself, systems which are not however of such importance that all the organized parts are necessarily provided with these six. In fine, in some there are neither arteries nor veins; in others nerves; in some but little cellular texture; but they concur to form the greatest number, and some are always found where others are wanting. Thus in the tendons, in the cartilages, &c. which are deprived of blood, there are exhalants, absorbents, &c.