jj p 4j j 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 MEDICAL CENTER LIBRARY 
 HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 
 
 Gift 
 
 Of 
 
 Dr. Kenneth L. Duke 
 
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l>uk^ 
 
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THE 
 
 ELEMENTS 
 
.London : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 New- Street- Square. 
 
THE 
 
 ELEMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY, 
 
 BY 
 
 J. FRED. BLUMENBACH, M.D. F.R.S. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF THE FOURTH AND 
 LAST EDITION, 
 
 AND SUPPLIED 
 
 WITH COPIOUS NOTES, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ELLIOTSON, M.D. Cantab. 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ; 
 PHYSICIAN TO, AND LECTURER ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN, 
 
 st. Thomas’s hospital. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 Quasramus optima, nec protinus se offerentibus gaudeamus : 
 adhibeatur judicium inventis, dispositio probatis. 
 
 Quintilian. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1828 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 / 
 
 https://archive.org/details/elementsofphysio01blum 
 
TO 
 
 PROFESSOR BLUMENBACH. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Some few persons I do envy, and you are of the 
 number. In a green old age, still enjoying great 
 mental activity and a most cheerful disposition, living, 
 like so many of your scientific countrymen, in a little 
 village, with the utmost simplicity, a stranger to the 
 desire of wealth and the absurd ambition of worldly im- 
 portance, but holding highly responsible offices in an 
 illustrious though humble university, — you are cele- 
 brated in every country for an extensive and profound 
 knowledge of natural history, for the number of facts 
 which you have yourself contributed, for a perfect 
 acquaintance with all the writings of others, for the 
 production of numerous works, translated into various 
 languages, and distinguished by copiousness and 
 
 a 3 
 
VI 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 accuracy of information, sound opinions, and a con- 
 ciseness, perspicuity, and elegance that are seldom 
 seen; and no less for the powerful impulse which 
 you gave to the study of natural history, and espe- 
 cially of the Natural History of Man, almost before 
 the present generation existed. 
 
 To you I take the liberty of dedicating this work, 
 and with the more delight, as I know from the hap- 
 piness of personal acquaintance your liberal and 
 amiable disposition, your attachment to England, 
 and admiration of whatever is English. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Your very faithful friend and servant, 
 
 JOHN ELLIOTSON. 
 
 London, March ls£, 1828. 
 
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 
 
 Since the last publication of this work, a new 
 edition of the original has appeared. The text con- 
 tains no additions, and very few alterations, but 
 the references are augmented. According to this, 
 the present edition is re-modelled, and the whole 
 translation has been carefully revised. 
 
 The notes are doubled in amount, and indeed may 
 be almost considered perfectly new. Many points 
 are for the first time examined, former notes are 
 modified and enlarged, and the numerous and im- 
 portant discoveries lately made in physiology are 
 introduced. 
 
 Every opinion defended is that which seems to 
 me the fairest conclusion from our facts relative 
 to the subject. I can never bow to authority in 
 matters of investigation, but feel myself compelled 
 sentire qua; velirn ; and, when a necessity for ex- 
 pressing an opinion exists, I hope always to have 
 courage sufficient clicere qua; sentiam. 
 
translator’s preface. 
 
 viii 
 
 I have taken great pains to make myself master of 
 all important physiological facts, and to reason cor- 
 rectly from them ; to give every author the credit of 
 originality which he deserves ; and to be accurate in 
 my references. But after all I may frequently have 
 failed. If my inaccuracies cannot be excused on 
 the ground of the number and diversity of the points 
 examined, or my almost constant occupation with 
 another branch of medicine, both as a lecturer and a 
 public and private practitioner, I can only assure my 
 readers that the detection of any failure in reasoning 
 or inaccuracy of statement will be gratefully received, 
 and that my highest object and happiness are the ac- 
 quisition and dissemination of truth. 
 
 JOHN ELLIOTSON. 
 
 Grafton Street, Bond Street, 
 
 March 1. 1828. 
 
THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE LAST EDITION. 
 
 Whenever my booksellers have informed me that 
 a new edition of any of my works was required, my 
 greatest pleasure has been at having an opportunity 
 of correcting inaccuracies arising either from care- 
 lessness or the imperfection of human nature, and of 
 adding in some places and altering in others; in 
 short, of sending forth the production of my abilities 
 in as improved a state as possible. 
 
 In preparing this new edition of my Institutions 
 of Physiology for the press, the same anxious wish 
 has been considerably heightened by the importance 
 of the subject, and by the approbation evidently 
 bestowed upon the last edition from its translation 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 into various languages, a not to mention other proofs 
 of its favourable reception. I have endeavoured, 
 therefore, to enrich it not so much with an addition 
 of pages, as of various matter, and to render the 
 whole as useful to students as possible. 
 
 The little figure which I have th ought a very- 
 appropriate ornament for the title-page of the work, 
 viz. a representation of the human body, made by 
 Prometheus, but animated by Pallas, I borrowed 
 from the relievo of a sarcophagus in the Capitoline 
 Museum. b 
 
 May 7. 1821. 
 
 a Into German, by Jos. Eyerel. Vienna, 1789. 
 
 Ed. 2. Ib. 1795. 
 
 Into Dutch, by two writers. First, by P. J. Wolff, with a pre- 
 face by Rud. Forsten. Harderwick, 1791. Afterwards, by 
 James Vosmaer. Ib. 1807. 
 
 Into English, by two writers likewise. First, by C. Caldwell, 
 Philadelphia, 1795. 
 
 Afterwards, by J. Elliotson. London, 1815. 
 
 Ed. 2. Ib. 1817. This second edition is a curiosity in typo- 
 graphy, being the first book printed by steam. The printers were 
 Bensley and Son. 
 
 Ed. 3. Ib. 1820. 
 
 Into French, by J. Fr. Pugnet. Lyons, 1797. 
 
 Into Spanish, by Jos. Coll. Madrid, 1801. 
 
 Into Russian, by Borsuk Moiseew. Moscow, 1796. 
 
 b This the translator has thought it superfluous to insert. — J. E. 
 
THE AUTHORS PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The same considerations which led Boerhaave, and 
 after him Haller, to write their Compendiums of 
 Physiology, induced the Author to compose these 
 Institutions. 
 
 The former says, “ that a teacher succeeds better 
 in explaining his own thoughts than in commenting 
 upon a work written by another , — that his instruction 
 will be clearer , and his language generally animated ,” 
 &c. tt 
 
 The latter, “ That, although he formerly used 
 Boerhaave’s work as a text-book, he afterwards 
 lectured upon one written by himself, because anatomy 
 
 a Pref. to the Institut. Medic. Leyden. Fourth edition. 
 
Xli PREFACE. 
 
 had been so improved since the time of Boerhaave, 
 as to have become almost a new science.” h 
 
 What Haller said at that period respecting ana- 
 tomy, will be allowed to apply much more forcibly 
 at present to Physiology, by any one who considers 
 the most important parts of the science, — the princi- 
 pal purpose of respiration, animal heat, digestion, 
 the true nature and use of the bile, the function of 
 generation, &c. 
 
 More, therefore, must be ascribed to the age than 
 to the Author, if in these Institutions, after so many 
 modern physiological discoveries, he has delivered 
 doctrines more sound and natural than it was in the 
 power of his most meritorious predecessors to 
 deliver. 
 
 Whatever he can claim as his own, whether really 
 new or only presented in a new view, will easily be 
 discovered by the learned and impartial reader : 
 especially from the notes, in which he has treated 
 some of these subjects rather more minutely than 
 was compatible in the text with the conciseness of 
 his plan. 
 
 b Pref. to the Prim. lin. Physiol. Gottingen. First edition. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 He has been at great pains in arranging the 
 subjects, so that the sections might succeed naturally 
 and easily, and arise, as it were, one out of another. 
 
 He has not quoted a dry farrago of books, but a 
 select number, in doing which, he has been desirous 
 both of pointing out to students some excellent au- 
 thors not commonly known, especially those who 
 have professedly treated on particular branches of 
 the subject, and of opening, besides medical sources 
 of information, others not yet applied, he conceives, 
 to Physiology, as they deserve. 
 
 He has referred to the best anatomical plates j 
 most frequently to those of Eustachius, because he 
 would wish every medical student to possess Albinus’s 
 edition of them, as the richest and most perfect work 
 of the kind, or rather, he should say, as a treasure 
 which can never be praised sufficiently. 
 
 He has indeed given some original engravings of 
 parts either not represented at all by Eustachius, or 
 not in the same point of view. c 
 
 c These are of the heart, eye, testis in its descent, and the 
 ovum. The Translator has judged it unnecessary to have them 
 copied, as English students rarely consult Eustachius, but study 
 native anatomists, in whose works these parts are given with 
 the others of the body.— J. E. 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 His grand object has been to deliver, in a faithful, 
 concise, and intelligible manner, the principles of a 
 science inferior in beauty, importance, and utility, to 
 no part of medicine, if the words prefixed by the 
 immortal Galen to his Methodus Medendi, are true, 
 as they most certainly are : — “ The magnitude of a 
 disease is in proportion to its deviation from the 
 healthy state ; and the extent of this deviation can be 
 ascertained by him only who is perfectly acquainted 
 with the healthy state.” 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Sect. 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Of the Living Human Body in general 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 II. Of the Fluids in general, and particularly of the 
 
 
 Blood ... - 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 III. Of the Solids in general, and of the Mucous Web 
 
 
 in particular 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 IV. Of the Vital Powers in general, 
 
 and 
 
 particularly 
 
 
 of Contractility 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 27 
 
 V. Of the Mental Faculties 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 40 
 
 VI. Of Health and Human Nature 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 50 
 
 VII. Of the Motion of the Blood 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 81 
 
 VIII. Of Bespiration and its principal Use 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 110 
 
 IX. Of the Voice and Speech - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 139 
 
 X. Of Animal Heat 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 154 
 
 XI. Of Perspiration 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 172 
 
 XII. Of the Functions of the Nervous 
 
 System 
 
 in general 
 
 188 
 
 XIII. Of the external Senses in general, and of Touch 
 
 
 in particular ... 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 227 
 
 XIV. Of Taste 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 232 
 
 XV. Of Smell - 
 
 
 
 
 
 235 
 
 XVI. Of Hearing 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 -- 
 
 240 
 
 XVII. Of Sight 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 246 
 
 XVIII. Of the Voluntary Motions 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 • - 
 
 263 
 
 XIX. Of Muscular Motion 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 270 
 
 XX. Of Sleep 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - ■ 
 
 - 
 
 281 
 
 XXL Of Food and Hunger 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 294 
 
 XXII. Of Mastication and Deglutition 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 313 
 
 XXIII. Of Digestion - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 319 
 
 XXIV. Of the Pancreatic Juice - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 328 
 
 XXV. Of the Bile - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 331 
 
 XXVI. Of the Function of the Spleen 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 342 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Sect. • vage 
 
 XXVII. Of the Function of the Omentum - 348 
 
 XXVIII. Of the Function of the Intestines ... 350 
 
 XXIX. Of the Function of the Absorbent Vessels - 360 
 
 XXX. Of Sanguification 377 
 
 XXXI. Of Nutrition 382 
 
 XXXII. Of the Secretions in general .... 389 
 
 XXXIII. Of the Fat 401 
 
 XXXIV. Of the Urine 405 
 
 XXXV. Of the general Differences of the Sexes - - 411 
 
 XXXVI. Of the Genital Function in Man - 431 
 
 XXXVII. Of the Genital Function of Woman in general 452 
 
 XXXVIII. Of the Menstrua 461 
 
 XXXIX. Of Conception and Pregnancy - - - 467 
 
 XL. Of the Nisus Formativus .... 490 
 XLI. Of Labour and its Sequelae - - - 499 
 
 XLII. Of the Milk 503 
 
 XLIII. Of the Differences in the System before and 
 
 after Birth - 514 
 
 XLIV. Of the Growth, Stationary Condition, and De- 
 crease of the Human System - 521 
 
 The Translator’s Notes follow the section to which the subject 
 of each respectively belongs. 
 
 The note on the characteristics and varieties of mankind, being 
 an independent addition, is placed last, and begins at p. 539. 
 
THE 
 
 ELEMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 OF THE LIVING HUMAN BODY IN GENERAL. 
 
 1. In the living human body, regarded as a peculiar 
 organisation, there are three objects of consideration. a 
 
 The materials of its subsistence, afforded by the fluids ; 
 
 The structure of the solids, containing the fluids ; 
 
 Lastly, and principally, the vital powers, by which the solids 
 are enabled to receive the influence of the fluids, to propel 
 the fluids, and to perform various other motions ; and which, 
 as they, in a certain sense, constitute the essence of the living 
 machine in general, so, likewise, are of very different orders, 
 some being common to animals and vegetables, some peculiar 
 to animals and intimately connected with the mental faculties. 
 
 a Thus, long ago, the author of the book generally included among the writ- 
 ings of Hippocrates, Epidemic. VI. Sect. 8. § 19. said, “ Those things which 
 contain, are contained, or moved in us with force, are to be considered.” This 
 celebrated passage gave origin to the excellent work of Abr. Kaau Boerha^ve, 
 entitled, “ Impetum faciens dictum Hippocrati per corpus consentieus.” L. B. 
 1745. 8vo. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 OF THE LIVING HUMAN BODY IN GENERAL. 
 
 2. But these three, although really distinct, and, therefore, 
 distinctly considered by us, are so closely connected in the 
 living system (the phenomena, conditions, and laws of whose 
 functions, in the healthy state, are the object of physiology), 
 that no one can be contemplated but in its relation to the 
 rest. 
 
 For the materials of the body, although originally fluid, 
 are naturally disposed to become solid; and, on the other 
 hand, the solids, besides having been formed from the fluids, 
 abound, however dry they may appear, in various kinds of 
 fluid constituents, both liquid and permanently elastic, — gasi- 
 form, as they are termed ; lastly, it may probably be affirmed 
 that no fibril, during life, is destitute of vital power. 
 
 3. We shall now examine each of these separately ; and, 
 first, the materials afforded by the fluids, which form both 
 the fundamental and most considerable b portion of our 
 bodies. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Attempts have been made to specify the elementary tissues of 
 which the various organs are composed. 
 
 Dr. Carmichael Smyth, in an admirable paper upon inflammation, 
 considered the disease according to the structures which it 
 affects, — the skin, cellular membrane, serous membranes, mucous 
 membranes, and muscular fibres c Dr. Pinel, some years afterwards, 
 
 15 The great preponderance of the fluids is strikingly exemplified in an entire, 
 but perfectly dry, mummy of an adult Guanche, one of the original inhabitants 
 of the island of Teneriffe. It was sent to my anthropological collection by the 
 illustrious Banks, and, with all its viscera and muscles, wonderfully dried, weighs 
 only 7^1bs. 
 
 c Medical Communications , by a Society for the Promotion of Medical Knowledge, 
 vol. ii. 1790. Read to the Society, Jan. 178S. 
 
OF THE ELEMENTARY TISSUES. 
 
 3 
 
 adopted this arrangement, d and Bichat at length suggested that 
 all diseases might be considered in this manner, and distributed 
 the structures, or elementary tissues, into twenty-one kinds : — 
 
 1. Cellular, 
 
 2. Nervous, of animal life, 
 
 3. Nervous, of organic life, 
 
 4. Arterial, 
 
 5. Venous, 
 
 6. Exhalant, 
 
 7. Absorbent, with its glands, 
 
 8. Osseous, 
 
 9. Medullary, 
 
 10. Cartilaginous, 
 
 11. Fibrous (tendino-fibrous), 
 
 12. Fibro-cartilaginous, 
 
 13. Muscular, of animal life 
 
 14. Muscular, of organic life, 
 
 15. Mucous, 
 
 16. Serous, 
 
 17. Synovial, 
 
 18. Glandular, 
 
 19. Dermoid, 
 
 20. Epidermoid, 
 
 21. Pilous. e 
 
 This arrangement, Dr.Rudolphi remarks, is physiological rather 
 than anatomical, and he distributes the elementary tissues into 
 eight classes only : — 
 
 Cellular, 
 Horny, 
 Cartilaginous, 
 Osseous, 
 
 Tendinous, 
 Vascular, 
 Muscular, and 
 Nervous/ 
 
 The 'primary solids, of which these tissues are said to be com" 
 posed, are, the cellular fibre, the muscular fibre, and the nervous 
 fibre. s 
 
 d Nosographie Philosopliique, 1797. 
 
 e Anatomie G&nerale, t. 1. p. Ixxx. 1 Grundriss der P/iysiologie, 68. 
 
 6 See Appendix, by Dr. Copeland, to his translation of Richerand’s 1 Vouveaux 
 Siemens de Physiologie, p. 553. sqq. Many writers have asserted the globular 
 composition of various parts of the animal and vegetable frame. Lately, the cel- 
 lular, muscular, and nervous structures were described as consisting of globules, 
 and some novel views presented, by Dr. M. Edwards. ( Archives Generates de 
 Mddecine, t. 3. Paris, 1823.) But the whole results have just been denied by 
 Dr. Hodgkin and Mr. Lister, who repeated the examination with a much superior 
 microscope. Philos. Magazine, August, 1827. 
 
 Another author professes to have made still more minute discoveries than 
 Dr. Edwards. Dutrochet, Recherches, Anatomiques et Physiologiques, sur la 
 Structure Interne des Animaux et Vegetaux. 
 
4 
 
 OF THE PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE PRINCIPLES. 
 
 The proximate principles, or distinct chemical compounds of 
 animal bodies, are : — 
 
 Albumen, 
 
 Fibrin, 
 
 Colouring matter of blood, 
 Curd, 
 
 Fatty matter, ! 
 
 i stearin, 
 
 Matters found in the bile, — cho- 
 lesterin, erythrogin, asparagin, 
 picromel? 
 
 Mucus, and probably some other 
 products of glands at present but 
 little understood, 
 
 Subject to great variety 
 in different animals, &c. 
 
 J 
 
 Urea, 
 
 Cystic oxide, xanthic oxide, 
 Uric acid, 
 
 Erythric acid? 
 
 Purpuric aid, 
 
 Oxalic acid, 
 
 Acetic acid, 
 
 Butyric acid, 
 
 Formic acid, 
 
 Benzoic acid, 
 
 Sulpho-cyanic acid, 
 
 Sugar of milk, 
 
 Sugar of diabetic urine, 
 
 Not 'subject to variety; 
 uniform in all in- 
 stances. 
 
 The elements, or ultimate principles of animal bodies, .into which 
 the distinct compounds may be resolved, are : — 
 
 Hydrogen, 
 
 Carbon, 
 
 Oxygen, 
 
 Azote, 
 
 Chlorin, iodin, fluorin ? 
 Sulphur, 
 
 Phosphorus, 
 
 Potassium, 
 
 Sodium, 
 
OF THE PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE PRINCIPLES. 
 
 5 
 
 Calcium, 
 
 Magnesium, silicium ? 
 
 Manganese ? 
 
 Iron. 
 
 The ultimate principles of vegetables may be considered the 
 same as those of animals. 
 
 Vegetable proximate principles are very numerous ; the follow- 
 ing may be considered as the chief : — 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Lignin, 
 
 Gum, mucus, jelly, 
 
 Extractive, colouring matters, bitter • 
 principles, 
 
 Gluten, 
 
 Oils, fixed and volatile, 
 
 Resins, 
 
 All subject to endless 
 varietj' as occurring in 
 different plants. 
 
 The following are constant in their character, or are peculiar 
 to certain vegetables. 
 
 Various acids — Oxalic, citric, tartaric, malic, moroxylic, gallic, 
 laccic, kinic, boletic, prussic, meconic, benzoic. 
 Various alkaline bodies — Quinina, cinchonina, morphina,strych- 
 nina, brucina, delphina, picrotoxina, atropia, veratrina, 
 hyoscyamina. 
 
 Indigo, 
 
 Tan, 
 
 Suber, 
 
 Caoutchouc, 
 
 Wax, 
 
 Asparagin, ulmin, inulin, fungin, polychroite, haematin, nicotin, 
 pollenin, emetin, sarcocol, olivile, medullin, lupulin, 
 cathartin, piperin, &c. 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 SECT. II. 
 
 OF THE FLUIDS IN GENERAL, AND PARTICULARLY OF THE 
 
 BLOOD. 
 
 4. The fluids of the body a may be conveniently reduced 
 to three classes. 
 
 A. The crude ; viz. the chyle, contained in the primes vise 
 and destined to become blood ; and matters absorbed on the 
 surface and conveyed to the chyle. 
 
 B. The blood, itself. 
 
 C. Those secreted from the blood, whether inert and ex- 
 crementitious, like the urine ; or intended for certain pur- 
 poses in the economy : the latter may be permanently liquid, 
 as the bile ; or disposed to solidity, as the osseous and other 
 plastic juices. 
 
 5. Of the first and third of these classes we shall hereafter 
 speak, in treating of chylification, secretion, and the other 
 functions to which each fluid appertains. At present our 
 attention shall be devoted to the blood b — the chief and pri- 
 mary fluid — the vehicle of those successions of oxygenous 
 and carbonaceous particles, that cease with life only — the 
 nourisher of the frame — the source of almost every fluid — 
 that into which the crude fluid is converted, and from which 
 all the secretions are derived — and which, with the excep- 
 tion of some exsangueous parts, as the epidermis, the arach- 
 noid, the amnion, &c., the vitreous substance of the teeth, the 
 body of the crystalline lens, &c., is universally diffused 
 through the system ; in various proportions, indeed, according 
 
 a Suffice it, once for all, to recommend, on the chemical investigation of the 
 fluids of the human body, J. Jacob Berzelius’s Forelusningar i Diurkcmicn. 
 Stockholm, 1806 — 1808 . two vols. Svo. 
 
 b J. Hunter, Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, &c. London, 1794. 4to. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 7 
 
 to the various natures of parts, v. c. abundantly in the muscles, 
 and still more so in certain viscera, as the spleen, placenta, 
 and uterus at an advanced period of pregnancy ; very spar- 
 ingly, on the other hand, in the tendons and cartilages. c 
 
 6. The blood is a fluid sui generis , of a well known colour 
 and peculiar odour ; its taste is rather saline and nauseous ; 
 its temperature about 96° of Fahrenheit ; it is glutinous to 
 the touch ; its specific gravity, though different in different 
 individuals, may be generally estimated as 1050, water being 
 1000; when fresh drawn and received into a vessel, it ex- 
 hibits the following appearances : d 
 
 7. At first, especially while still warm, it emits a vapour 
 which has of late been denominated an animal gas, and shown 
 to consist of hydrogen and carbon, suspended by caloric. e 
 This, if collected in a bell glass, forms drops resembling dew, 
 of a 'watery nature, but affording a nidorous smell, which is 
 most remarkable in the blood of carnivorous animals, is 
 peculiar, and truly animal. Much of this watery liquor still 
 remains united with the other parts of the blood, hereafter to 
 be mentioned. (C) 
 
 8. In the mean time the blood, when its temperature has 
 fallen to about 78° Fahr., begins to separate into two portions. 
 A coagulum is first formed, from the surface of which exudes, 
 
 c It is astonishing how variously physiologists have estimated the quantity of 
 blood in a well formed adult. Allen, Mullen, and Abildgaard, make it scarcely 
 more than 8 pounds ; Harvey, 9 ; Borelli, 20 ; Haller, 30 ; Riolan, 40 ; Ham- 
 berger, 80 ; J. Keil, 100. The former are evidently nearer the truth. (A) 
 d J. Martin Butt, Dc spontanea sanguinis separatione. Edinb. 1760. 8vo. 
 reprinted in Sandifort’s Thesaurus, vol. ii. J. H. L. Bader, Experimenta circa 
 sanguinem. Argent. 1788. 8vo. 
 
 e The elements of aeriform fluids of course exist in the blood ; that they are 
 not, however, in the elastic state, as so many physiologists formerly believed, was 
 clearly shown in some experiments made by me during the year 1812, upon other 
 mammalia. I found that a small portion of the purest air, infused into the 
 jugular vein, excited palpitations, drowsiness, convulsions ; and, if the quantity 
 was a little increased, even death ensued. I have detailed these experiments in 
 the Medicin. Eiblioth. vol. i. p. 177. 
 
 The illustrious Bichat observed the same effects in his experiments. Journal 
 de Sants, <j-c. dc Bourdeaux, t. ii. p. 61. (B) 
 
 B 4 
 
8 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 as it were, a fluid of a yellowish slightly red colour, denomi- 
 nated serum : the more abundantly this exudes, the greater is 
 the contraction of the glutinous coagulum, which has received 
 the appellations of crassamentum and, from some resemblance 
 to the liver in colour and texture, of hepar sanguineum ; of 
 placenta ; and, from the circumstance of its being surrounded 
 by the serum, of insula. (D) 
 
 9. The crassamentum may, by agitation or repeated ablu- 
 tion, be easily separated into two constituent parts — the 
 cruor , which gave to the blood its purple colour, — and the 
 lymph, which on washing is forsaken by the cruor, and called, 
 from its greater solidity, the basis of the crassamentum. The 
 stronger affinity of the cruor for the lymph than for the serum, 
 is proved by the necessity of violence to effect their disunion. 
 By the removal of the cruor the lymph becomes gradually 
 paler, till it is at length merely a white tenacious coagulum. 
 
 (E) 
 
 10. Besides the watery fluid first mentioned, these are the 
 three constituents of the blood, viz. the serum, the cruor, and 
 the lymph, of each of which we shall presently treat more 
 particularly. These, however, while perfectly recent, and in 
 possession of their native heat, are intimately mixed, and 
 form an equable, homogeneous fluid. Their relative propor- 
 tion is astonishingly diversified, according to age, tempera- 
 ment, diet, and similar circumstances which constitute the 
 peculiar health of each individual. 
 
 11. The serum is a peculiar fluid, the chief cause of the 
 viscidity of the blood, and easily separable by art into dif- 
 ferent constituent principles. If subjected to a temperature 
 of 150° Fahr. a portion is converted into a white scissile sub- 
 stance, resembling boiled albumen: the rest exhibits, besides 
 the watery fluid so often mentioned, a turbid fluid of a gela- 
 tinous, or rather mucous f nature, which on cooling appears a 
 tremulous coagulum. The serum is .remarkable for the 
 quantity of soda (mineral alkali) which it contains. (F) 
 
 f J. Bostock, Medico-CItirurgical Transactions, published by the Medical and 
 Chirurgical Society of London, vol. i. 1S09- p. 46. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 9 
 
 12. The cruor has many peculiarities, in regard to both 
 the colour and the figure of its particles. 
 
 It consists of globules, which in recent blood are of a con- 
 stant form and size, and said to be T /JS| of an inch in diame- 
 ter. Their form, indeed, has been a subject of dispute, but 
 I am disposed to consider it as much more simple than some 
 writers of great celebrity have imagined. I have always 
 found it globular, and could never discover the lenticular 
 shape which some have asserted that they remarked. 
 
 It has been likewise advanced, that the globules change 
 their form while passing through a vessel of very small capa- 
 city, — that, from being spherical, they become oval ; and, 
 when they have emerged into a vessel of larger area, that 
 they resume their globular shape. 6 This, although I would 
 by no means deny it, I cannot conceive to occur during the 
 tranquil and healthy motion of the blood, but should refer it 
 to a spasm of the small vessels. 
 
 Their globular figure can be seen in a living animal only, 
 or in blood very recently drawn : for they are soon unobserv- 
 able, becoming a shapeless mass which resembles serum in 
 every circumstance excepting colour. h 
 
 13. Their colour is red, and from it is derived the colour 
 of the blood. In intensity it varies infinitely ; paler in ani- 
 mals which have been poorly nourished or have suffered 
 from haemorrhage ; more florid, when oxygenised ‘ (rendered 
 arterial, to use the common phrase) by exposure either to 
 
 6 G. Chr. Reichel , De sanguine ejusque motu expcrimenta. Lips. 1767. 4to. 
 B* 27. fig. 3. g.g. 
 
 h Consult Ever. Home, Phil. Trans. 1818. P. I. p. 172. 
 
 1 Unwilling as I am to follow the example of those who, especially in mo- 
 dern times, delight in changing scientific terms, I cannot but think that the words 
 oxygenised and carbonised may be advantageously substituted for arterial and 
 venous: because arterial blood is contained in some vessels called veins, v. c. the 
 pulmonary and umbilical ; while, on the other hand, venous blood is contained 
 in the pulmonary and umbilical arteries. In the same manner, the veins of the 
 chorion in the incubated egg contain arterial; and the arteries, venous blood ; — 
 to use these expressions in their common acceptation. But we shall treat of the 
 doctrine of the relation of oxygen and carbon to each kind of blood, in the 
 section on respiration. 
 
10 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 atmospheric air, or, more especially, to oxygen ; darker when 
 carbonised (in common language, rendered venous) and 
 placed in carbonic acid gas or hydrogen. k The redness is 
 most probably to be ascribed to the oxide of iron, 1 the quan- 
 tity of which, however, is so minute, that it has been most 
 variously estimated. (G) 
 
 14. The last constituent principle of the blood to be 
 noticed, is the plastic lymph, formerly confounded with the 
 serum. This has been called the basis of the crassamentum, 
 the glutinous part, the fibre or fibrous matter of the blood, 
 and, like the caseous part of milk, and the gluten of veget- 
 ables, been discovered by late analysis to abound in carbon 
 and azote. (H) 
 
 15. It is properly denominated plastic, because it affords 
 the chief materials from which the similar parts, especially the 
 muscles, are immediately produced ; nourishes the body 
 throughout fife ; repairs wounds and fractures in an extraor- 
 dinary manner ; fills up the areae of large blood vessels when 
 divided;" 1 and forms those concretions which accompany 
 inflammations," and that remarkable deciduous membrane 
 found in the recently impregnated uterus for the attachment 
 of the ovum. 
 
 16. Thus much have we said respecting the constituent parts 
 and nature of the blood, the most important fluid of the 
 animal machine, — a fluid which excites the heart to contrac- 
 tion ; which distributes oxygen to every part, and conveys 
 away the carbon to the excretory vessels, giving rise, by this 
 change, to animal heat ; which supplies the materials of the 
 
 k Consult, among others, J. Ferd. H. Autenreith, Experimenta et observata de 
 sanguine, prccsertim venoso. Stuttg. 1792. 4to. 
 
 1 Berzelius, Annates de Chimie el de Physique, t. v. Mai, 1817. 
 m T. F. D. Jones, On the process employed by nature in sujtpressing the he- 
 morrhage from divided, &c. arteries. London, 1805. Svo. Translated into 
 German, and supplied with notes by G. Spangenberg. Hanov 1S13. Svo. 
 
 n Such are those spurious membranes found exuded on the surface of inflamed 
 viscera, v. c. those cellular connections between the lungs and pleura after 
 peripneumony, and the tubes observed within the bronchia after croup ; such also 
 are those artificial ones, called, from their inventor, Ruyschian, and made by 
 stirring fresh blood about with a stick. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 11 
 
 solids originally, and ever afterwards their nourishment ; and 
 from which all the other fluids , with the exception of the 
 crude (4), are secreted and derived. Of the multifarious im- 
 portance of the blood, we shall speak particularly hereafter. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Most cold-blooded animals, as fishes and the amphibia, 
 have a much smaller proportion of blood and fewer blood-vessels 
 than those with warm blood, though a much greater number of 
 colourless vessels arising from the arteries. In an experiment 
 which Blumenbach made on this subject, he “ obtained from 
 twenty-four adult water-newts (lacerta palustris), which had been 
 just caught, and weighed each an ounce and a half, 3 iiiss. of blood. 
 The proportion to the weight of the body was as 24 to 36, while 
 in healthy adult men it is as 1 to 5.”° 
 
 (B) Dr. Magendie stated, in 1809, to the Institute, that this as- 
 sertion is incorrect. If air is injected rapidly, the animal screams 
 and dies in a moment : but if slowly, he informs us that no incon- 
 venience results, and that some animals bear the injection of 
 enormous quantities without perishing.P Dr. Blundel injected 
 five drams into the femoral vein of a very small dog, with only 
 temporary inconvenience, and subsequently three drams of ex- 
 pired air even without much temporary disturbance.*! Nysten has 
 established, that many gases soluble in the blood, as oxygen and 
 carbonic acid, may be thrown into the circulating system in very 
 large quantity without serious inconvenience; while danger often 
 ensues upon the introduction of those which are sparingly or not 
 at all soluble in the blood. 1 
 
 In the same way, if about 15 grains of bile are rapidly introduced 
 into the crural vein of an animal, instant death occurs ; but, if 
 slowly, no inconvenience results. This quantity may be even 
 rapidly injected into the vena portae without injury, and so likewise 
 may atmospheric air, probably because the extreme subdivision 
 of the vessel acts like slowness of introduction, — causes the com- 
 plete diffusion and dilution of the bile, and solution of the air, 
 before it reaches the heart. 
 
 0 Comparative Anatomy , ch. sii. ed. 1. p. 245. Translated by Mr. Lawrence, 
 
 p Precis Elementaire de Physinlogie. 2d edition, 1825- t. ii. p. 433. sqq. 
 
 q Med. Chir. Trans. 1818. p. 65. sq. r Magendie, 1. c. 
 
12 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 If warm water is introduced (an equal quantity of blood being 
 first removed to prevent over distension) mere debility ensues, 
 proportionate to the quantity ; but if oils, or mucilages, or an inert 
 impalpable powder, are injected, life is at once destroyed by the 
 obstruction of the minute ramifications of the pulmonary artery. 6 
 Poisons act powerfully if injected into the veins ; and, as will 
 presently be mentioned, medicines thus introduced, exert their 
 specific powers on the different organs. 
 
 (C) When blood, venous or arterial, is placed in the vacuum of 
 an air pump, 1 or coagulates in the air, n it emits a quantity of 
 carbonic acid gas. Professor Brande obtained two cubic inches 
 from every ounce of blood ; Dr. Scudamore less than half a cubic 
 inch from six ounces. The quantity is said to be much greater 
 after a meal, and much less if the blood is buffy. x 
 
 (D) Blood coagulates when it has escaped from the body, 
 whether warm or cold, in the air or in vacuo, diluted within cer- 
 tain limits, or undiluted, at rest or in motion. Within the 
 vessels, rest, which causes a cessation of intercourse betv een 
 the motionless portion and the general mass, always disposes 
 it to coagulate. Yet its coagulation, after escape from the 
 body, is said to be accelerated by motion, a high tempera- 
 ture, and a vessel calculated to preserve its temperature, by 
 a vacuum, and by the stream from the vessel being slow, 
 and vice versa : in short, by every circumstance which favours 
 the escape of carbonic acid gas, and to be proportioned to 
 the quantity of carbonic acid gas evolved ; this being evolved 
 during the coagulation, and ceasing to escape when the coagu- 
 lation is complete, y Galvanism and oxygen gas raise its tem- 
 perature and hasten coagulation, while carbonic acid gas, azote, 
 and hydrogen, have the opposite effects. 
 
 The coagulation of the blood is ascribed by J. Hunter to its 
 life: 2 by Mr. Thackrah,** on the contrary, to its death, as the se- 
 paration of a portion from the mass, b}' escape from a vessel, is 
 
 s Magendie, Journal de P/ii/siologie, t. i., and 1. c. t. ii. p. 260. 
 
 * Vogel, Annales de Chimie, t. xciii. 
 
 u Professor Brande, Phil. Trans. 1818. p. 181. 
 
 * Phil. Trans. 1820. p. 6. An Essay on the Blood, p. 107. By C. Scudamore, 
 M.D. F.R.S. 1824. 
 
 y Scudamore, 1. c. 
 
 z A Treatise on the Blood, &c. 
 
 :l An Enquiry into the Nature and Property of the Blood. By C. Turner Tliack- 
 rah. London, 1819. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 13 
 
 likely to kill it if alive; as every change likely to impair life pro- 
 motes coagulation, for example, debility, fainting ; and as blood 
 frozen, and therefore likely to be killed if alive, and again thawed, 
 instantly coagulates. But the coagulation appears, in most in- 
 stances, if Dr. Scudamore’s experiments be accurate, though 
 others have not found the same results b , attributable merely to the 
 escape of carbonic acid : and as coagulated blood or fibrine (and 
 the coagulated part of effused blood is fibrine) becomes vascular, 
 one can hardly, if the fluid is alive, regard a coagulum as ne- 
 cessarily dead. See also Sect. VI. Note B. 
 
 Large quantities of blood are found fluid in every dead body, 
 showing that simple loss of vitality is not sufficient to cause coa- 
 gulation. Indeed, the blood of the heart and vessels is found, 
 most frequently, in opposite states, fluid in one part, coagulated 
 in another, yet it is all equally dead. From all these contradic- 
 tory circumstances, I regard the coagulation of the blood as quite 
 unconnected with its vitality or lifelessness, and as entirely a che- 
 mical result. That it, however, is influenced by the vital pro- 
 perties of the containing vessels is possible, but these may ope- 
 rate upon the blood, in this respect, as a mere chemical compound ; 
 and even if it be alive, and they influence its life, still the in- 
 fluence, as far as respects coagulation, may in effect be chemical. 
 
 The blood generally coagulates in the living body on escaping 
 from its vessels, and even in its vessels if its motion be prevented 
 by ligatures ; and when it does not, its subsequent escape from 
 the body almost always produces instant coagulation. 0 It almost 
 always coagulates also in the vessels running through healthy parts 
 to others in a state of mortification, and in large vessels adjoining 
 a pulmonary abscess ; in which cases, the final cause — prevention 
 of haemorrhage, is evident. The efficient cause, however, in all 
 these examples is unknown. In all, the blood is still in contact 
 with living parts : in the two last, it is not at rest till it coagulates. 
 J. Hunter, after mentioning that after a mortification of the foot 
 and leg he found the crural and iliac arteries completely filled 
 with strongly coagulated blood, adds, that this could not have 
 arisen from rest, because the same thing ought then to hap- 
 pen in amputation, or in any case where the larger vessels are 
 tied up. d Besides, coagulation after extravasation, or when a 
 
 b Dr. Turner, Elements of Chemistry, 1827. p. 638. 
 
 c J. Hunter mentions the coagulation of blood let out from the tunica va- 
 ginalis, in which it had lain fluid sixty-five days after a wound. On the Blood, 
 p. 25. d 1. c. p. 23. 
 
14 - 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 quantity is included in a vessel between two ligatures, is not an 
 invariable occurrence. 
 
 These facts, in addition to those stated above, show that fluidity 
 or coagulation is not dependent on the simple presence or absence 
 of vitality. Whatever connection coagulation out of the body 
 may have with the escape of carbonic acid gas, there is no proof 
 of it in the case of internal coagulation. Some have thought that 
 heat is evolved during its coagulation e ; others have denied this. f 
 The latest experimenter supports the opinion.? 
 
 (E) To suppose any affinity of the red particles for either the 
 lymph or the serum is erroneous. Leeuwenhoek and Hartsoeker 
 long since proved that serum merely suspends them, for if, when 
 separated, they are triturated in some serum, part of them is 
 taken up and the serum assumes a red colour; but, if the fluid is 
 allowed to settle in a cylindrical glass, they slowly precipitate 
 themselves to the bottom, and the serum above becomes clear 
 as before. When blood is drawn, the serum easily separates on 
 the coagulation of the lymph. But the lymph coagulates before 
 the colouring particles have time to fall to the bottom, and en- 
 tangling them acquires a red colour, forming the crassamentum : 
 if, however, the lymph coagulate slowly, and is thinner 1 ', as in the 
 phlogistic diathesis and pregnancy, the greater specific gravity of 
 the cruor detaches it very considerably from the lymph, which 
 remains colourless above, constituting what is called the inflam- 
 matory coat, crust, or buff. Berzelius even believes the lymph 
 to be in a state of solution in the serum, while the cruor is simply 
 suspended in this solution. In the phlogistic diathesis both the 
 fibrin and the serum are more abundant, and the blood lighter . 1 
 
 Thinness of the blood and a disposition to slow coagulation gene- 
 rally co-exist. But the rapidity of the stream greatly affects the 
 rate of coagulation, so that one portion of the same blood coa- 
 gulates slowly that is drawn quickly, and another quickly that is 
 drawn slowly. 
 
 The appearance of the huffy coat does not arise from the slow 
 coagulation, though increased by it; because, of two portions of 
 the same blood, one has afforded no buffy coat, although it 
 
 c Dr. Gordon, Annals of Philosophy, vol. iv. 
 
 f Dr. J Davy, Journal of Science and Arts, No. iv. 
 
 E Scudamore, 1. c. p. 68. sqq. 
 
 h Hevvson, Experimental Enquiries into the Blood and the Lymphatic System, 
 P. i. p. 45. sq. 
 
 ‘ Scudamore, 1. c. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 15 
 
 remained fluid at least ten minutes after the buffy coat began 
 to be formed on the other ; k proving, too, if the buffy coat arise 
 from thinness of the fibrin, as appears from Mr. Hewson’s ex- 
 periments, the red particles continuing of their usual weight, that 
 slow coagulation is not altogether dependent on mere thinness 
 of the blood, though generally connected and proportional with 
 it. Yet rapid coagulation, by means of a slow stream when the 
 blood is thin, may prevent the buffy coat, by not allowing time for 
 the difference in the weight of the fibrin and red particles to 
 have effect. Stirring such blood has the same consequence, and 
 the slower the coagulation of thin blood, occasioned, for instance, 
 by rapid bleeding, the greater will be the buffy coat. 
 
 The different cups of blood drawn in an inflammatory disease 
 may vary as to the buffy coat, according to accidental variations 
 in the stream, but generally it is the first cup that abounds in 
 buff, and the last frequently has none. This occurs when there 
 is no difference in the stream. 1 Therefore, if the buff arise from 
 thinness of the fibrin, we must conclude with Hewson m that its 
 qualities may be changed even during bleeding. Dr. Scudamore 
 finds much more fibrin in buffy blood ; and, consequently, that 
 not merely the thinness,, as Hewson found, but the quantity, of 
 fibrin, may vary during the flow of blood. 11 
 
 The greater the strength of the patient and the intensity of the 
 inflammation, the firmer is the coagulum of fibrin and the more 
 cupped its appearance. 
 
 Dr. Scudamore did not find a buffy coat in blood drawn imme- 
 diately after violent exercise. 
 
 The blood of different brutes coagulates in different times. 
 Mr. Thackrah imagines the rapidity to be inversely as the 
 strength and size. Thus, while in health, human blood coagulates 
 in from 3 or 4 to 7 minutes, that of the 
 Horse, in from 2 to 15 
 Ox, 2 to 10 
 
 Dog, i to 3 
 
 Sheep, hog, rabbit, | to lj 
 
 Lamb, £ to 1 
 
 Fowls, £ to 1£ 
 
 Mice, in a moment, 
 
 Fish, according to Hunter °, also in a moment. 
 
 Hewson, l.c. p. 90. 1 1. c. p. 52. sqq. m 1. c. p. 56. sqq. 
 
 11 1. e. p. 96. °1. c. p. 211. 
 
16 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 (F) The coagulable part of serum is albumen ; that which 
 remains fluid is called serosity, — a name given it by Cullen, and 
 contains no gelatin as the French chemists asserted, but an ani- 
 mal matter different from both gelatin and albumen, with a mi- 
 nute portion of albumen and fibrin, and affords a little free soda, 
 muriate, lactate p, and phosphate, of soda, and muriate of potash, 
 with of water.a 
 
 If mixed with six parts of cold water, serum does not coagulate 
 by heat. 
 
 Under the influence of the galvanic pile, the soda collects 
 at the negative wire, and the albumen coagulates at the 
 positive. 
 
 (G) When venous blood acquires a florid colour by exposure to 
 oxygen or atmospheric air (and it does so even when covered 
 by a bladder, provided this is moistened r ), carbonic acid gas 
 is formed, and an equal volume of oxygen gas disappears. If 
 exposed to nitrous oxide, it becomes of a brighter purple, and 
 much of the gas is absorbed : carbonic acid gas renders it darker 
 and is a little absorbed : nitrogen and hydrogen have the same 
 effect. The dark colour produced in arterial blood by carbonic 
 acid or azotic gas takes place if blood is placed in vacuo, though 
 less rapidly and deeply than if exposed to hydrogen gas. Arte- 
 rial blood left in contact with oxygen gradually acquires the same 
 dark colour, and no oxygen will afterwards render it scarlet. 
 Berzelius finds the colouring particles only concerned in these 
 changes : and, after all, no difference of composition can be de- 
 tected between scarlet and purple blood. But Prevost and Dumas 
 found more particles, i.e. fibrin and red particles, in arterial than 
 in venous blood. 
 
 It has been generally supposed that iron exists in the red par- 
 ticles of the blood as a subphosphate. Berzelius informs us that 
 serum, although able to dissolve a small portion of the oxides, 
 not indeed of the phosphates, of iron, does not acquire a red 
 colour by their addition, and that he has never discovered iron 
 
 p Berzelius discovers lactic acid, free or combined, in all animal fluids. It was 
 first noticed by Scheele, but is generally regarded as a combination of acetic acid 
 with animal matter, and so now even by Berzelius himself. 
 
 q See Dr. Bostock’s papers in the first, second, and fourth volumes of The 
 Medico -Chirurgical Transactions, and Berzelius's in the third. 
 
 r A layer of serum or milk does not prevent this change of colour, while a 
 layer of water or oil does. Dr. Priestley, Experiments and Observations on different 
 kinds of Air, vol. iii. p. 78. sqq. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 17 
 
 nor lime in the entire blood, although both are so abundant in its 
 ashes. He concludes that the blood contains the elements of 
 phosphate of iron and of lime, and of carbonate of lime, and also 
 of phosphate of magnesia, united in a manner different from their 
 combination in the salts. But Dr. Engelhart has lately shown 
 iron to exist in blood, by the usual liquid tests, after passing a 
 stream of chlorin through a solution of red particles. 1 * * * * * 7 
 
 Mr. Hewson asserted that the particles consist of a nucleus 
 and an enveloping coloured portion. 1 " The nucleus is said to be 
 colourless ; perhaps about of an inch i n diameter, and the 
 
 whole globule nearly one-fourth larger. a MM. Prevost and 
 Dumas believe, 0 that the internal portion is spherical, but the 
 outer or vesicular, as Hewson noticed p, flattened. The inner part, 
 according to these enquirers, roils in the outer, and, in the frog’s 
 web and bat’s wing, at least, the whole particle is carried, steadily 
 balanced, in the current of blood, sometimes flat, sometimes 
 oblique, sometimes gently turning upon itself ; and lengthening 
 if driven into a vessel of diameter hardly sufficient for its admis- 
 sion: the assertion of Reichel, (12. note,) being thus corroborated. 
 Mr. Bauer has discovered a third set of smaller colourless globules 
 in the blood, of an inch in diameter. They appear to 
 
 belong to the fibrin, and are accordingly denominated lymph 
 globules. It is thought probable that the central globule of the 
 red particles is the same, and thus really fibrin. Colourless 
 globules gradually form also in serum. <i 
 
 1 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Jan. 1827. Engelhart’s Essay- 
 obtained the prize at Gottingen in 1825. 
 
 m Experimental Inquiries, part 3. p. 16. 1777. 
 
 " On these measurements consult Phil. Trans. 1818. Dr. Young’s Medical 
 Literature, p. 571. sqq. Prevost and Dumas, Annales de Chimie, Nov. 1821. 
 
 ° I.c. 
 
 p 1. c. p. 8. sq. Hewson says, that dilution with water, or a change towards 
 putrefaction, makes the vesicles globular, and that farther putrefaction breaks them 
 down. 
 
 q Phil. Trans. 1819. p. 2. sq. The globules of pus also are maintained to form 
 gradually, and it to be originally an homogeneous fluid. The globules of milk, 
 healthy pus, and chyle, in different animals, are said by Prevost and Dumas to 
 be of the same form and dimensions : and likewise those of the muscular fibre 
 
 7 9 
 
 and of albumen, when coagulated, for particles are not previously seen in it. 
 But Dr. Hodgkin finds the particles of pus to be quite irregular in size and 
 figure, and those of milk, though globules, to be some twice, some only one 
 tenth, the size of the particles of the blood. Phil. Mag. Aug. 1827. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 It was mentioned in the note to Section I. that Dr. Hodgkin 
 and Mr. Lister had lately employed a microscope superior 
 to those of former investigators, and disproved the opinion 
 of the globular composition of living structures. They, at the 
 same time, examined the blood, and though, like Hewson, they 
 found its particles flat and circular, and indeed with edges somewhat 
 raised, so that the middle of each surface was depressed, they 
 could detect no central particle ; and satisfied themselves that the 
 diameter was pretty exactly 0 f an inch. 
 
 (H) Oxygen and hydrogen also exist in fibrin. The fibrin, 
 albumen, and colouring matter, afford, on decomposition, the 
 same saline and gaseous products. Berzelius views them all 
 three as modifications of the same substance. Albumen contains 
 a greater proportion of oxygen than fibrin, and has sulphur for a 
 constituent part, which, however, cannot be detected while the 
 albumen is entire, any more than the iron while the cruor is entire. 
 The chief differences between the colouring matter and fibrin 
 are, colour ; the spontaneous coagulation of fibrin at all temper- 
 atures, while the colouring matter may be dried without losing its 
 solubility in water, and becomes insoluble only at a certain tem- 
 perature ; and the peculiarity in the latter of not diminishing in 
 volume like fibrin during exsiccation. Albumen is intermediate 
 between the two, and its only character of distinction from fibrin 
 is, that it does not coagulate spontaneously, but requires a high 
 temperature or some chemical agent. 
 
 The crystalline lens is a sort of albumen ; the epidermis, nails, 
 hair, horn, cartilage, are nearly composed of it ; of bone anu 
 muscle it is an essential part. Fibrin exists in muscles only, be- 
 sides the blood, and is indeed their chief constituent, giving them 
 form, and rendering them fibrous. Gelatine, or rather what becomes 
 so by the agency of boiling water, contains somewhat less carbon 
 and more hydrogen and oxj^gen than albumen, and although 
 not obtained from blood, is an important part of our frame : the 
 cutis, serous membranes, and tendons, are a species of it; it forms 
 the chief part of cellular membrane, and is an essential constituent 
 of bones, muscles, ligaments, hair, &c. The composition of the 
 substance of the viscera is not well known. r 
 
 r The following results are given in the Itecherches Physico-Chimiqries, (t. ii.") 
 by Gay Lussac and Thenard : 
 
OF THI2 BLOOD. 
 
 19 
 
 The blood of brutes has the same general character as our 
 own, and Rouelle obtained the same ingredients, though in dif- 
 ferent proportions, from the blood of a great variety of them. 
 Berzelius finds a larger proportion of nitrogen in that of the ox, and 
 analogy would lead us to suppose there is a peculiarity in the blood 
 of every species. Muscles look pretty much alike in various ani- 
 mals, yet when cooked they disclose the greatest diversities. 
 Transfusion, or pouring the blood of one system into another, 
 satisfies us, that the blood, whether arterial or venous, of one in- 
 dividual . , agrees well enough with another of the same species ; 
 but some late experiments of Dr. Leacock, s and subsequently of 
 Dr. Blundel , 4 render it unlikely, contrary to the opinion of 
 former experimentalists, that the blood of one species suits the- 
 system of another. Dr. Young found the large outer globules of 
 the skate to be somewhat almond-shaped, and Hewson found 
 them of different shapes in different animals, and Rudolphi ob- 
 served them to be more or less oval in the common fowl and many 
 amphibia . 11 MM. Prevost and Dumas have noticed, in their mi- 
 croscopic experiments, a great difference in the blood of different 
 animals as to the globules, and in this way explain the impossi- 
 bility of transfusing the blood of some animals to others without 
 danger to life. They assert that the quantity of the particles 
 is proportionate to the temperature of the animal, and that, con- 
 
 Gelatin, 
 
 Albumen, 
 
 Fibrin, 
 
 Carbon. 
 47.881 
 52.883 
 53 3CO 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 7.914 
 
 7.540 
 
 7.021 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 27.207 
 
 23.872 
 
 19.685 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 16.998 
 
 15.705 
 
 19.934 
 
 Besides these constituents, they, as well as the colouring matter of the blood, 
 contain a very minute portion of the earthy phosphates. 
 
 Fibrin is inodorous and tasteless, whitish, insoluble in water, alcohol, and 
 acids ; and, as already said, coagulates when separated from the body. 
 
 Albumen is inodorous, tasteless and colourless, and soluble in water, and 
 coagulates by a certain temperature, by the mineral acids, tan, and many metallic 
 salts, especially by corrosive sublimate, and by prussiate of potass, if a little dilute 
 acid is previously mixed with it. 
 
 Gelatin is inodorous and tasteless, dries into glue, is soluble in warm water, 
 and becomes solid again on cooling, and dissolves in acids and alkalies. 
 
 For minute chemical particulars, however, respecting the nature of the solids 
 and fluids, I must refer the reader to works professedly chemical. v 
 s Medico- Chirurgical Journal, 1817, p. 27 6. 
 
 1 Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, 1818. 
 u Grundriss der Physiologic, 159. 
 
20 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 sequently, most exist in the blood of birds : that the size and 
 shape also vary, although the size of the central portion is the 
 same in animals in which they are spherical, and is about of 
 an inch in diameter ; and that the shape of the external part is 
 circular in the mammalia, and elliptical in birds and cold-blooded 
 animals, thus confirming and generalising the observations of 
 others x , (and this is again confirmed by Dr. Hodgkin) and 
 the shape of the central portion correspondent with that of the 
 external, — spherical when the latter is circular, oval when ellip- 
 tical. They found, that if the blood of two animals of different 
 species, the blood of one of which was transfused into the other, 
 differed in the size only of the globules, temporary restoration 
 of energy took place ; but that if it differed in their shape, 
 convulsions and death were the result. They also find a 
 larger proportion of fibrin and red globules in warm than in cold- 
 blooded animals, and a larger in the former according to the 
 height of the temperature — (of 10,000 parts by weight ; in pi- 
 geons, 1557 ; man, 1292 ; frogs, 690): — a smaller also, accordingly 
 as animals are bled ; it thus appearing that bleeding promotes the 
 absorption of watery fluid. y The colour of the particles differs 
 in different animals : hence red and white-blooded animals.' 
 
 Hewson 1 * saw the red particles of the blood of the foetal 
 chicken and viper larger than those of the adult animal : and 
 Prevost and Dumas have observed the red particles of the 
 fcetal goat to be as large again as those of the adult ; and 
 those of the chicken to be circular, till about the sixth day, 
 when some elliptic ones are first seen ; and on the ninth, from 
 their progressive multiplication, none but elliptic ones can be 
 detected. 3 
 
 The blood of invertebral animals is colourless, but has not been 
 analysed. 
 
 The sap of vegetables corresponds to the blood of animals, but 
 is totally different ; is nearly as liquid as water ; has always an acid, 
 sometimes free, more commonly united with lime and potash. 
 It has various vegetable principles; but sugar and mucilage are 
 
 1 Hervson observed the difference of their size in different animals, and that 
 this bore no relation to the difference in the size of the animal. 1. c. part iii. 
 p. 10. sqq. 
 
 y Jnnales de Chimie, t. xviii. xxiii. 1821 and 1823. 
 
 z 1. c. part iii. p. 39. a Annales des Sciences 2\ T atitrcUes, 1824, 1825. 
 
OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 21 
 
 the most remarkable. Sometimes it contains albumen, tannin, 
 and gluten. 
 
 It soon effervesces if left alone, and grows sour, or even vinous, 
 if much sugar be present. 
 
 About forty years after the discovery of the circulation of the 
 blood, transfusion was practised upon brutes, and at length upon 
 the human subject, though some contend that the operation was 
 known to the ancients. Experiments were made upon the 
 effects of injecting medicated liquids into the blood, first by 
 Wahrendorf, in Germany. It was ascertained that they exert their 
 specific powers exactly as when swallowed, — cathartics, v. c. 
 purging, and emetics emptying the stomach. Among other liquids, 
 Dr. Christopher Wren proposed that blood should be injected, 
 and Dr. Lower first put this into practice. It was found that 
 if an animal was drained of its blood, and lay faint and almost 
 lifeless, and the blood of another was transfused into its cir- 
 culating system it soon revived, stood up, and presently ran 
 about as before, apparently none the worse for the operation. 
 If too much was poured in, the animal became drowsy, breathed 
 with difficulty, and died of plethora. An idea of curing diseases 
 in this way, by substituting the blood of the healthy for that 
 of the diseased, was immediately entertained when the possibility 
 of the operation was proved. 
 
 But the first case of human transfusion proved fatal, and the 
 unfortunate results of some careless trials caused the Pope and 
 the King of France to prohibit the practice. 
 
 The extravagant hopes of curing diseases and restoring youth, 
 at first entertained in France, were disappointed, and the operation 
 fell into complete neglect, notwithstanding that Denys, in France, 
 was declared tohave made a fool clever by a supply of lamb’s blood ; 
 a Mr. Cox, in England to have cured an old mongrel of the mange 
 with the blood of a young spaniel ; and a M. Gayant to have 
 made a blind old dog frisk with juvenile bound which before could 
 hardly stir; till Dr. Leacock brought it again into notice a few 
 years ago, and Dr. Blundel prosecuted this gentleman’s re- 
 searches. Dr. Blundel conceived it might be rationally expected 
 to be of benefit in cases of dangerous haemorrhage, and he soon 
 proved it to be void of danger in the human subject, if properly 
 performed. Many women who would probably otherwise have 
 
 c 3 
 
22 
 
 OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 perished from uterine haemorrhage, now owe their lives to his 
 disinterested zeal in establishing the practice. 
 
 I should think it applicable to many cases of exhaustion, be- 
 sides those arising from haemorrhage. The original history of 
 transfusion will be found in the early numbers of the Philosophi- 
 cal Transactions : the successful cases of its employment as a 
 remedy, in the late English journals. The double pump em- 
 ployed for emptying the stomach, or a common syringe, capable 
 of holding four or six ounces, answers very well. But Dr. Blundel 
 at present, when he has able assistants, sometimes receives the 
 blood from the blood-vessel into a funnel, the tube of which is 
 very long, and inserted into the vein of the subject supplied, so 
 that the blood enters by its gravity only. 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 OF THE SOLIDS IN GENERAL, AND OF THE MUCOUS WEE IN 
 PARTICULAR. 
 
 17. The solids a are derived from the fluids. In the first 
 rudiments of the gelatinous embryo, they gradually commence 
 in their respective situations, and differ infinitely in their 
 degrees b of cohesion, from the soft and almost pulpy medul- 
 lary matter of the brain, to the vitreous substance of the 
 corona of the teeth. 
 
 18. Besides the gelatinous (1 1) and glutinous (14) parts 
 of the solids, earth enters more or less into their composi- 
 tion, and is principally lime united with phosphoric acid, 
 whence it is commonly termed phosphate of lime. The bones 
 possess this in the greatest abundance, particularly in ad- 
 vanced age : whereas in childhood the gelatinous matter 
 abounds. 
 
 19. With respect to texture, the majority of the similar 
 parts of the body, as the ancients called them, c consist of 
 
 jibres more or less parallel. This may be observed in the 
 bones, especially of foetuses, d in the muscles, tendons, Jiga- 
 
 a Hier. Dav. Gaubius, Spec, exhibens idearn generalem solidarum c. h. partium. 
 Lugd. Bat. 1725. 4to. 
 
 b Abr. Kaau Boerhaave, on the cohesion of the solids in the animal body, 
 Nov Comm. Acad. Petropolit. t. iv. p. 343. sq. 
 
 c They divided the human body into similar, or homogeneous parts,— those con- 
 sisting of particles similar to one another, as the bones, cartilages, muscles, ten- 
 dons, &c. ; and dissimilar, — those composed of the similar, -'as the head, trunk, 
 limbs, &c. 
 
 11 The parallel and reticulated bony fibres are most striking in the radiated 
 margins of the flat bones, as we find these in new-born heads much enlarged by 
 hydrocephalus. I have, in my anatomical museum, a preparation of this kind, 
 where, in the sphenoid angles of the parietal bones, the fibres are an inch or two 
 in length, distinct, and very delicate. The hardest parts of the skeleton, — the 
 bony and vitreous portions of the teeth, exhibit a structure similar to that which 
 in the zeolite, malachite, hematite, &c., all mineralogists call Jibrous. 
 
 C 4 
 
24 
 
 OF THE MUCOUS WEB. 
 
 merits, aponeuroses, and in certain membranes, as the dura 
 mater, & c. 
 
 20. In other parts no fibres can be discovered, but the 
 texture is peculiar, has been called parenchyma from the time 
 of Erasistratus, and differs in different viscera, especially the 
 secreting, — of one kind in the liver, for example, and of 
 another in the kidneys. 
 
 21. But in all these structures, whether fibrous or paren- 
 chymatous, there is interwoven a general mucous web, e com- 
 monly styled cellular, but improperly, because it rather is 
 continuous, equal, tenacious, ductile, sub-pellucid, and glu- 
 tinous. f By handling, it is easily converted into a cellular 
 and vesicular membrane, and demands a place among the 
 most important and remarkable constituents of the body. (A) 
 
 22. For, in the first place, many solid parts, v. c. most 
 membranes and cartilages, may, by long-continued maceration, 
 be resolved into it alone. With some it is so intimately 
 united, as to afford a receptacle and support for other con- 
 stituents : v. c. the hardest bones consisted at first of cartilage, 
 which itself was a dense mucous web originally, though 
 subsequently distended by the effusion of bony matter into its 
 substance, and rendered more lax and cellular. In fact, it is 
 universally present in the solids, if we except the epidermis, 
 nails, hairs, and the vitreous exterior of the corona of the 
 teeth, in which I have never been able to discover it by em- 
 ploying the strongest acid. 
 
 23. To the muscles and membranes especially it serves for 
 separation from other parts; to the vessels and nerves espe- 
 cially for support ; and to every part it acts as the common 
 medium of connection. 
 
 24. From these facts, two inferences may be drawn. 
 
 First : That this membrane is so fundamental a constituent 
 
 e Dav. Chr. Schobinger, (Prres, Hallero) De idee Celluloses in fabrica. c. h. 
 dignitate. Gotting. 1748. 4to. 
 
 Sam. Chr. Lucse at the end of his Observ. circa nervos arterias adeunles. 
 Frar.cof. 1810. 4to. 
 
 f Gasp. Fr. Wolff, Nov. Act. Petropol. t. vi. p. 259. 
 
OF THE MUCOUS WEB. 
 
 25 
 
 of our structure, that, were every other part removed, and it 
 to retain its position, the body would still preserve its form. 
 
 Secondly : That it forms a connection and sort of passage 
 between all parts of the system, however different from each 
 other in nature, or remote in situation : — a circumstance 
 worthy of attention, as putting an end to the verbal disputes 
 respecting the continuation of membranes, and affording an 
 explanation of many morbid phenomena. 
 
 25. As most of the solids owe their existence to this mem- 
 brane, so again its origin is derived from the lymph of the 
 blood, for I have seen lymph transuded on the surface of 
 inflamed lungs, and changed into this mucous web, which, 
 by forming false membranes, unites these organs to the pleura. 
 
 26. We shall now consider some varieties of this membrane. 
 
 First: its strength is not the same in every part. 
 
 In general, it is more delicate , caeteris paribus, in man than 
 in brutes, — a distinguishing prerogative, by which our sense 
 is rendered more delicate, and our motions and other func- 
 tions more perfect. g 
 
 Among different individuals, it varies much in laxity and 
 firmness, according to age, sex, temperament, mode of life, 
 climate, &c. 
 
 Finally, it varies in different parts ; — more lax in the pal- 
 pebrae and praeputium, and behind the fraenum of the tongue ; 
 less so around the ears. 
 
 27. Besides the purposes before mentioned (22, 23,) it 
 is destined for the reception of several kinds of fluids. 
 
 Its chief use in this respect is to receive the serous halitus 
 which moistens and lubricates every part. This, when formed 
 by the blood vessels, it imbibes like a sponge, and delivers 
 over to the lymphatics, thus constituting the grand connec- 
 tion between these two systems of vessels. 
 
 27. In certain parts its office is to contain peculiar fluids; 
 v. c. in the eye, existing as the vitreous membrane, it contains 
 the vitreous humour : 
 
 6 I have treated this point at large in my work, De Generis Humani varictale 
 nativa, p, 46 . edit. 3. 
 
26 
 
 OF THE MUCOUS WEB. 
 
 In the bones, as the medullary membrane (improperly 
 denominated internal periosteum), the marrow: 
 
 In soft parts, it is in great abundance, and contains the 
 rest of the fat, of which we shall speak hereafter. (B) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Since this structure neither secretes mucus, nor consists of 
 mucus, but chiefly of what becomes gelatin by the operation 
 of boiling water, the generally-received appellation of cellular 
 membrane appears preferable to that of mucous tela adopted by 
 Blumenbach from Bordeu, h and especially in this work, as our 
 author (40) suggests the title of vis cellulosa for the contractile 
 power of the membrane. 
 
 (B) Dr. William Hunter contended that the fat is not contained 
 in the same cells of the cellular membrane as the fluid of 
 anasarca, but in distinct vesicles : because, — 1. The marrow, which 
 strongly resembles fat, is contained in vesicles or bags ; 2. Parts 
 which are most loaded in anasarca, as the eyelids, never contain 
 fat; 3. In dropsical subjects, exhausted of the fat, the membrane 
 which contained fat appears still very different from the other, — 
 that immediately under the skin, for example, being thin and col- 
 lapsed, while that opposite the tendon of the latissimus dorsi is 
 thick and gelatinous ; 4. Parts which become filled with fluid 
 from gravitation in dropsy, as the penis and scrotum, never con- 
 tain a drop of oil in the fattest persons ; 5. Dropsical parts pit 
 on pressure ; the fluid disperses, and returns when the pressure is 
 resumed. This is not the case with parts distended by fat, 
 although it is when oil is poured into the common cellular mem- 
 brane after death. ‘ 
 
 h Recherches sur le'Tissu Muqueux. 
 
 Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. ii. p. 33. sqq. 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS IN GENERAL, AND PARTICULARLY OF 
 CONTRACTILITY. 
 
 29. Hitherto we have spoken of the solids as the con- 
 stituents of the system ; we now shall view them as endowed 
 with vitality , — capable of receiving the agency of stimuli, 
 and of performing motions. 
 
 30. Although vitality a is one of those subjects which are 
 more easily known than defined, and usually, indeed, rendered 
 obscure rather than illustrated by an attempt at definition, its 
 effects are sufficiently manifest and ascribable to peculiar 
 powers only. The epithet vital is given to these powei’s, 
 because on them so much depend both the actions of the whole 
 body during life and those which remain in some parts for a 
 short time after death, that they are not referable to any 
 qualities merely physical, chemical, or mechanical. 
 
 31. The latter qualities, however, are of great importance 
 in our economy. For instance, by physical powers, depen- 
 dent on the density and figure of the humours of the eye, 
 the rays of light are refracted to the axis; by mechanical, 
 the epiglottis is elastic ; by chemical affinity, the changes of 
 respiration are effected. But the perfect difference of these 
 dead powers from those which we are now about to examine, 
 is evident on the slightest comparison of an organised eco- 
 
 a A host of authors on the vital powers will be found in Fr. Hildebrandf, 
 Lekrhuck der Physiologic, p. 54. sq. edit. 2. 1809. To whom we may add a 
 few of a large number, G. R. Treviranus, Biologie, Oder Philosophic der lebend- 
 en A r atur, vol. i. Gutt. 1802. E. Bartels, Syslemat. Entwurf einer allgemeinen 
 Biologie. Franckfort. 1808. J. B P. A. Lamarck, Philosophic Zoologique. 
 Paris, 1809. 2 vols. 8vo. Bern. Fr. Sverman, or. de iis quce cum veteres turn 
 recentiores, imprimis Batavi et Germani, de vitas corporece principio philosophati 
 sunt. Harderv. 1810. tto. 
 
28 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 nomy with any inorganic body, in which these inanimate 
 powers are equally strong. 
 
 32. Indeed, the energy and strength of the vital powers are most 
 conspicuously manifested by their resistance and superiority 
 to the others ; v. c. during life, they so strongly oppose the 
 chemical affinities which induce putrefaction, that Stahl and 
 his followers referred their notion of life to this antiseptic 
 property; 13 they so far exceed the force of gravity, that, 
 according to the celebrated problem of Borelli, a dead muscle 
 would be broken asunder by the very same weight, which 
 it could easily raise if alive, &c. 
 
 33. As, on the one hand, the vital properties are com- 
 pletely different from the properties of dead matter, so, on 
 the other, they must be carefully distinguished from the 
 mental faculties, which will form the subject of the next chap- 
 ter : between them, however, there exists an intimate and 
 various relation, observable in many phenomena, but espe- 
 cially in the diversity of temperament. 
 
 34. The vital energy is the very basis of physiology, and has 
 therefore been always noticed, though under different appel- 
 lations. The titles of impetum faciens, innate heat, arehaeus, 
 vital spirit, brute life, head of the nervous system, active 
 thinking principle, vital tonic attraction, have been bestowed 
 upon it by different authors. 
 
 35. Nor has there been less variety in the notions and de- 
 finitions to which it has given rise ; though in this one point 
 all have agreed, — that its nature and causes are most 
 obscure. 
 
 36. As to the question so long agitated by physiologists, — 
 whether the diversity of the phenomena exhibited in the 
 similar parts of the living solid is to be attributed to mo- 
 difications only, or to distinct species, of the vital energy, we 
 think it best to establish distinct orders of the vital potters, 
 
 b “ Life is formally nothing more than the preservation of the body in mix- 
 ture, corruptible indeed, but without the occurrence of corruption.” Stahl. 
 
 “ What we call life is opposite to putridity.” J. Junker. 
 
OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 29 
 
 according to the variety of phenomena by which they are 
 manifested. 
 
 37. These phenomena are threefold. — Organic forviation 
 and increase ; motion in the parts when formed ; sensation 
 from the motion of certain similar parts. 
 
 38. The first requisite involved in the name and notion of 
 an organised body, is a determinate form designed for certain 
 ends. That species, therefore, of the vital powers is most 
 general, which produces the genital and nutritive fluids and 
 prepares them for organic nature, and which we have deno- 
 minated the nisus formations, since it is the source of all 
 generation, nutrition, and reproduction, in each organised 
 kingdom. 
 
 39. Those vital powers which are manifested hy motion, (37) 
 properly so called, in parts already formed, may be divided 
 into common and proper. The common are those belonging 
 to similar parts which are widely distributed : v. c. contrac- 
 tility to the mucous web ; irritability to the muscular fibre. 
 The proper are those possessed by some singular organs only, 
 for the purpose of peculiar and anomalous motions. 
 
 40. Contractility is as generally distributed as the mucous 
 web, which it may be said to animate ; and therefore would 
 perhaps not improperly be called the vis cellulosa. It is 
 characterised by a simple and not very perceptible effort of 
 the mucous web to contract and react upon its contents, espe- 
 cially upon its source of moisture, — the serous vapour, and 
 to propel this into the lymphatic system. 0 
 
 41. Irritability, we mean the irritability of Haller, is pecu- 
 liar to the muscles, and may, therefore, be called the vis mus- 
 cularis. It is marked by an oscillatory or tremulous motion, 
 distinguished from the action of simple contractility, both by 
 occurring far more easily on the application of any pretty 
 
 c That Haller and Theoph. de Bordeu — the chief writers on the mucous 
 tela, did not form a just conception of this vital power, is evident from the 
 latter’s Recherches sur le Tissu Mvqueur. Par. 1767. 8vo ; and from the dissert- 
 ation of the former on Irritability, in the Dictionnaire Encyclopidique d' Yverdun, 
 
 t. XXV. 
 
30 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 strong stimulus, d and by being attended with a much more 
 considerable constriction. 
 
 42. Such are the common (39) moving vital powers. But 
 some organs differ from the rest so much in their structure, 
 motions, and functions, as not to come under the laws of the 
 common orders of vital powers. 
 
 We must, consequently, either reform the characters of 
 these orders, institute new ones, and extend their limits ; or , 
 till this be done, separate these peculiar motions from the 
 common orders, and designate them by the name of vitce 
 proprice . e 
 
 As examples may be adduced, the motions of the iris ; the 
 erection of the nipple ; the motions of the fimbriae of the Fal- 
 lopian tubes ; the action of the placenta ; and of the womb 
 during labour ; and probably the greater part of the function 
 of secretion. f 
 
 43. So much in regard to the vital powers displayed by 
 motion. (37. 39 — 42.) 
 
 We have now to speak of sensibility, which is peculiar to 
 the nervous medulla communicating with the sensorium. It 
 bears the title of vis nervea , and is the cause of perception in 
 the mind when irritation is excited in parts to which it is 
 distributed. 6 
 
 44. The order which we have followed in enumerating the 
 vital powers (38 — 43) is that in which they successively arise 
 both during our formation and after birth. 
 
 J Haller, De partibus corp. hum. irritabilibus in the Nov. Comm. Soc. Reg. 
 Sclent. Gotting. t. iv. 
 
 c I have spoken of these at large both in my treatise Lie iridis motu, 1784 ; 
 and my programma De vi vitali sanguini deneganda, 1795. 
 
 f On the vita propria of the absorbent vessels consult Seb. Justin. Brugmans, 
 De causa Absorptionis per Vasa Lymphatica. Lugd. Bat 1795. 8vo. 
 
 On the peculiar vital properties of the arteries consult Chr. Kramp, Kr'dik der 
 Praktischen Arzneikunde. Leipzig. 1795. 8vo. 
 
 Many of the phenomena now mentioned are ascribed by others to an orgasm, 
 to use an old expression, struggling from the centre to the circumference, and 
 lately designated vital turgor. 
 
 E Fouquet, Dictionnairc Encyclopediquc-dc Paris, t. xv. art. Sensibi/ite. 
 
OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 31 
 
 The nisus formativus must take place before we can ascer- 
 tain the existence of the new conception. 
 
 Then contractility is exerted in the gelatinous substance of 
 the embryo. 
 
 When the muscular fibres are produced, they have 
 irritability. 
 
 Next, in those few organs whose motions cannot properly 
 be referred either to contractility or irritability, there exists a 
 vita propria. 
 
 Finally, after birth, sensibility is superadded. 
 
 45. Similar also is the order, according to which these vital 
 powers, both common and proper, are distributed to the 
 organised bodies of each kingdom. 11 
 
 The formative power must be most universal ; without it, 
 indeed, organisation cannot be conceived to exist. 
 
 Contractility likewise is common to each kingdom. 
 
 Irritability and sensibility, in the sense above explained, 
 are peculiar to animals. 
 
 Lastly, the vita propria is variously observable in some 
 organs, particularly the generative, both of certain animals 
 and vegetables. 
 
 46. It is scarcely necessary to remark that most of these 
 modes of vital energy, though necessarily distinguished into 
 orders, are intimately connected ; v. c. the mucous web, 
 forming the basis of so many organs and the seat of their 
 contractility, is interwoven also with the irritable muscular 
 fibres' and the sensible nerves. 
 
 47. Whatever may have been the opinions of physiologists 
 respecting the difference or similarity of the vital powers, it is 
 universally agreed that they exist in the similar solid parts, 
 as the ancients called them, of which the organs or dissimilar 
 parts are composed. 
 
 h Consult C. Fr. Kielmeyer, iiber die Verhdltnisse der organisclien Kr'dfte in 
 der Reike der verschiedenen Organisalionen. 1793. 8vo. 
 
 H. F. Link, -iiber die Rebenskrafte in naturhistorischer Riicksicht. Rostock. 
 1795. 8vo. 
 
 ■ See Abildgaard, rlcta Reg. Soc. Med. Havniens. t. i. 
 
32 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 But it has been disputed, and particularly of late, whether 
 vitality is peculiar to the solids, or common also to the Jluids ; 
 and, the latter being granted, whether or no the blood only is 
 so endowed. 
 
 48. As to the first question, the whole natural history of 
 each organic kingdom, as far as it has hitherto been cultivated, 
 abundantly shows that the living parts, however delicate, of 
 all known animals and vegetables, are solid; — a circumstance 
 necessarily implied in their determinate figure destined for 
 certain uses. For, not to speak of entire animals (which, 
 however simple, as worms, are, nevertheless, supplied with 
 enveloping membranes), the newly-laid egg, though at first 
 sight merely fluid, on a more careful examination is discovered 
 to consist of different membranes, of the halones, the cica- 
 tricula, &c. 
 
 Humidity is, indeed, necessary in the living solid for the 
 exertion of vitality. But that vitality exists in the solid, as 
 solid, is proved by the well-known instances of animalcules 
 and the seeds of plants, in which, although long dried, the 
 vital principle is so entire, that they again live and germinate. 
 
 49. With respect to the supposed exclusive vitality of the 
 blood , I candidly confess that no fact has been adduced in its 
 favour since the time of Harvey, which might not, I think, be 
 more easily, simply, and naturally explained on the contrary 
 supposition. 
 
 For example, the incorruptibility of the blood during life, 
 is far more explicable by the perpetual changes which it 
 undergoes, especially in respiration. 
 
 That the blood is the material from which the living solids 
 are produced, is no stronger an argument of its vitality than 
 the formation of nymphaeae, and of so many other remarkable 
 plants, would be for the vitality of river water. 
 
 It is difficult to comprehend how the coagulation of the 
 lymph of the blood when drawn from a vein can demonstrate 
 its vitality. The organisation of this lymph in generation, 
 nutrition, and reproduction, depends not upon the lymph 
 
OF THE VITAX- POWERS. 
 
 33 
 
 itself, as Ivmpli, but upon the action of the nisus formativus 
 (38) upon it. 
 
 50. Those who formerly contended that the blood acquires 
 in the lungs from the air a certain principle to be universally 
 distributed during circulation, for the purpose of imparting 
 motion, See. to the organs, were right, if they regarded that 
 principle (analogous to the oxygen of the moderns) as the 
 stimulant of the living solid ; wrong, if they regarded it as 
 vitality itself. 
 
 51. For it is on all hands agreed, that no motion occurs but 
 upon the action of stimuli, to receive which action the vital 
 powers are naturally adapted and intended. 
 
 52. These stimuli , 1 however multifarious, are conveniently 
 reduced to three classes ; — chemical, mechanical, and mental , 
 For the present, we shall say nothing of their various modes 
 of action, — in some instances direct, — in others indirect, by 
 sympathy and sensorial reaction. It is sufficient at present to 
 cite a few examples of functions, to which each class of stimuli 
 conspires ; such is the increased secretion of tears, saliva, bile, 
 &c. and the venereal turgescence of the genitals. 
 
 53. If the nature of stimuli is infinitely various, no less so 
 are their effects , according to their nature, intensity, or con- 
 tinued and repeated application to the living solid. Plence 
 they are generally divided into exciting and depressing. 
 
 54. The power of certain stimuli in increasing the effects 
 of others, is very remarkable : v. c. the power of caloric, upon 
 which probably national temperament chiefly depends.™ That 
 of joy, a most energetic mental stimulus, is similar . 11 Like- 
 
 k v. c. Dan. Bernouilli, De Iiespiratione. Basil. 1721. 
 
 “ Respiration supplies a very subtle air, which, when intimately mixed with 
 the blood, greatly condensed, conveyed to the moving fibres, and allowed by the 
 animal spirits to exert its powers, inflates, contracts, and moves the muscles, and 
 thus promotes the circulation of fluids and imparts motion to mobile parts.” 
 
 1 Laur. Bellini, De Sanguinis Missione, p. 165. 183. 
 
 Sylvest. Douglas, De Slimulis. Lugd. Bat. 1766. 
 
 m Montesquieu, De V Esprit des Lois, t. ii. p. 34. London. 1757. Svo. 
 
 n J. Casp. Hirzel, De Animi Iceti et erecti efficacia in corpora sano et evgro. 
 Lugd. Bat. 1746. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 wise perhaps that of oxygen, (50) by whose chemical stimulus 
 the vital powers, particularly irritability, are greatly excited, 
 and more disposed to react upon the impulse of other stimuli. 
 
 55. Not less considerable than the variety of stimuli, is that 
 more minute discrepancy of the different organs, and of the 
 same organs in different individuals, according to age, sex, 
 temperament, idiosyncrasy, habit, mode of life, &c., to which 
 are owing the diversified effects of the same stimuli upon dif- 
 ferent organs of the same body , 0 and even upon the same in 
 different individuals, and upon which depends what the 
 English have lately termed specific irritability . p 
 
 56. Lastly, the influence of stimuli by means of sympathy , 
 is very extraordinary : by its means, if one part is excited, 
 another, frequently very remote, consents in feeling, motion, 
 or some peculiar function. q 
 
 The primary and most extensive cause of sympathy must 
 be referred to the nerves , r and indeed chiefly to the sensorial 
 reaction;’' so that if one nervous portion is excited, the sen- 
 sorium is affected, which, reacting by means of the nerves on 
 another part, draws it into consent with the first, although 
 there exist between them no immediate nervous connection. 
 Such is the sympathy of the iris, when the retina is stimulated 
 by light; and of the diaphragm during sneezing, when the 
 Schneiderian membrane is irritated. 
 
 There are other examples of sympathy, in which the nerves 
 
 0 Called Le Tact on le Gout particulier de chaque Parlie, by Theoph. de 
 Bordeu, Recherches Anatomiques sur les Glandes, p. 376. sq. 
 
 p Sam. Farr, on Animal Motion. 1771. 8vo. p. 141. 
 
 J. Mudge’s Cure for a recent caiarrhous Cough. Edit. 2. 1779. Svo. p. 238. 
 
 Gilb. Blane, On Muscular Motion. 1788. 4to. p. 22. 
 
 J. L. Gautier, IJc irritabilitatis notione, <|-c. Hal. 1793. 8vo. p. 56. 
 
 q J. H. Rahn, De Causis Physicis Sympathize. Exerc. i. — vii. Tigur. from 
 1786. 4to. 
 
 Sylloge selectiorum opusculor. de mirabili sympathia quee partes inter diversas 
 c. h. intercedit. Edited by J. C. Tr. Schlegel. Lips. 1787. Svo. 
 
 r G. Egger (the author Lawr. Gasser), De consensu nervorum. Vindob, 
 1766. Svo. 
 
 s J. G. Zinn’s Obzervations on the different Structure of the Human (and 
 brute) Eye. Diss. ii. 1757. Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gotting. antiquiores. t. i. 
 
OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 35 
 
 have, if any, but a more remote and accessory share : 1 among 
 these must be placed the sympathy along the blood vessels, 
 strikingly instanced, especially in advanced pregnancy, be- 
 tween the internal mammary and epigastric arteries, from 
 their anastomosis ; that along the lymphatic vessels,' 1 also most 
 remarkable during pregnancy and suckling ; and again, that 
 dependent on analogy of structure and function, v.c. the sym- 
 pathy of the lungs with the common integuments and in- 
 testines. (A) 
 
 57. So much with respect to the vital powers in general. 
 They will be hereafter separately considered, under the distinct 
 heads of our subject: 
 
 The nisus formativus under the head of Generation ; 
 
 Irritability under that of the Muscles ; 
 
 Sensibility under that of the Nervous System; 
 
 The vita propria whenever occasion requires. 
 
 58. Besides our former brief remarks (40) upon contrac- 
 tility, a few more minute will at present be very appropriate. 
 
 It prevails universally, (40) wherever the mucous tela is 
 discoverable. 
 
 It is consequently most abundant in parts, destitute of 
 proper parenchyma, but composed almost entirely of mucous 
 tela, v.c. in certain membranes. For no one will deny their 
 contractility, who reflects upon the spastic motions of the 
 dartos, the male urethra, or of the gall bladder, which after 
 death has often been found closely contracted upon any calculi 
 it may contain. 
 
 It appears also in those viscera which consist chiefly of this 
 tela, v.c. in the lungs, whose external surface we have found 
 
 ' Consider the constant sympathy of heat between certain parts of some ani - 
 mals, v. c. of the hairs with the fauces, in variegated rabbits, sheep, dogs, &c. ; 
 of the feathers with the covering of the bill and feet in varieties of the domestic 
 duck. That such instances are not referrible to the influence of nerves, I 
 contended by many arguments in my Comm, de moiuiridis. p. 12. sq. ; and also in 
 my work de generis humani varietate naliva. p. 364. sq. 
 
 u Innumerable pathological phenomena will be found explained by this sym- 
 pathy in S. Th. Soemmerring, De Mortis Vusorum Absorbentiurn Diss. qua 
 premium retulit. Francof. 1795. 8vo. 
 
36 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 on frequent living dissection very contractile, but by no means, 
 as Varnier asserted, truly irritable. (B) 
 
 The presence of contractility, even in the bones, is demon- 
 strated by the shrinking of the alveoli after the loss of the 
 teeth, and by the process of necrosis, by which the new bone, 
 when the dead portion is extricated from its cavity, gradually 
 contracts to its natural size and figure. 
 
 The vitreous substance of the teeth, being destitute of this 
 tela (22), possesses no contractility, as I think appears from 
 the circumstance of its not shrinking, like the alveoli, if a 
 portion is separated by caries or fracture. 
 
 59. This contractility of the mucous tela (C) is the chief 
 cause of strength, health, and beauty ; since on it depend the 
 vital elasticity and fulness, x and indeed the tone , of parts, so 
 elegantly described by Stahl; for by its means, the mucous 
 tela, to mention one only of its functions, absorbs, during 
 health, the serous fluid (27) like a sponge, and propels it into 
 the lymphatic vessels : in disease, on the contrary, having lost 
 its, tone, it is filled with water, giving rise to oedema and 
 similar cachexies. 
 
 60. Finally, the great influence of this contractility upon 
 the other vital powers, is manifest from its universal existence, 
 and its effect in producing the peculiar constitution and tem- 
 perament of individuals ; and from its infinite varieties and 
 degrees in different persons. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) John Hunter divides sympathy into general and partial ; 
 such as pyrexia from a wound, and convulsion of the diaphragm 
 from irritation in the nose. Partial sympathy he subdivides into 
 remote, contiguous, and continuous, — Where there is no evident 
 connection between the sympathising parts, sufficient to account 
 
 x Hence, after death, even in young subjects full of juices, the back, loins, and 
 buttocks, having for some time lost their vital tone, are, if the body is supine, 
 depressed and flattened by the superincumbent weight, which now is not resisted : 
 this appearance may, therefore, be regarded among the indubitable signs of death. 
 
OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 37 
 
 for the circumstance ; as vomiting from the pregnant state : - — 
 Where there is proximity of the sympathising parts ; as tenesmus 
 when a stone exists in the urinary bladder : — and Where, as most 
 commonly, the sympathising parts are continuous ; as itching 
 of the nose and verge of the anus from worms in the in- 
 testines. y 
 
 Bichat’s division 2 cannot be understood till after the perusal 
 of Note B, Sect. VI. He considers sympathy as affecting either 
 animal sensibility or contractility, as pain of the knee in diseases 
 of the hip, or tetanus from a wound of the extremities ; or or- 
 ganic sensibility or contractility, as palpitation from disorder of 
 the stomach. 
 
 Sympathy does not arise from mere nervous connection, because 
 it frequently happens that no particular nervous communications of 
 sympathising parts are discoverable, as between the nose or eye and 
 diaphragm, although sneezing follows from a pinch of snuff in the 
 nose or the sun’s glare upon the eyes, while remarkable ones exist 
 between other parts not particularly disposed to sympathise, as the 
 neck and diaphragm. a Vegetables, which are not known to have 
 nerves, show sympathy : if a leaflet of the sensitive plant is stimu- 
 lated by a burning-glass, the whole leaf contracts and the foot-stalk 
 drops; when the branches of trees feel the warmth of summer, the 
 sap ascends in the roots ; and even in a frost it will ascend from the 
 roots through the stem, if a single branch is introduced into a hot- 
 house . 15 
 
 Sympathy of animal contractility occurs only when the nerves 
 connecting the affected muscles with the brain are entire ; w r hen 
 
 y Treatise on the Blood, <|;c. Introduction. 
 
 z Analomie Generate. T. i. p. 183. sq. 
 
 a Consult Dr. Whytt, Observations on Nervous Diseases, ch. i. 
 
 b Sir Gilbert Blane, Medical Logic. 3d Edit. p. 154. Some, as M. Du- 
 trochet, have imagined vegetables to have a nervous system, but never shown 
 it. The opinion has been thought proved by the action of certain poisons upon 
 them. We know that they are poisoned like animals ; arsenic, mercury, copper, 
 lead, and tin, destroy t^em, and are found to be taken up by their vessels. 
 Carbonic acid, azote, nitric oxide, hydrogen, when applied to the roots, are 
 equally fatal. Opium, prussic acid, belladonna, nux vomica, menispermis 
 coculus, hemlock, digitalis, alcohol, and oxalic acid, are no less so ; and because 
 these destroy the life of animals without leaving chemical traces, and affect the 
 nervous system, M. F. Marcet, whose experiments will be found in the Annales 
 de Chimie, June 1825, concludes that they must destroy vegetables by acting on 
 a nervous system in them. But although no trace be discoverable, this may 
 
 D 3 
 
38 
 
 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 they were divided by Bichat, the convulsions in the correspond- 
 ing muscles ceased. 
 
 Neither, where sympathetic muscular action arises from a sen- 
 sation, will it occur, if the nerves communicating impressions from 
 the affected part to the brain are compressed or divided, or if the 
 brain itself is unable to receive the impression : — although the 
 stomach may be thrown into contraction in an animal newly dead, 
 by mechanical irritation, no sympathetic action of the diaphragm 
 and abdominal muscles, no vomiting, occurs c ; sneezing or con- 
 traction of the iris cannot be induced in coma, by stimulating the 
 nostrils or letting the sun’s rays into the eye. Even when the im- 
 pression is not perceived, but the action is of voluntary muscles, 
 as in hiccup, the action ceases if the brain is disqualified for 
 the impression; v.c. a forcible distraction of the attention arrests 
 hiccup. The necessity for sighing after reading or listening 
 attentively arises from our forgetting to breathe fully, — not fully 
 perceiving the want of breath while our attention was so oc- 
 cupied' 1 ; and the general coughing and sneezing in church at 
 a pause in the sermon, is owing to the sensations which give rise 
 to those actions having been for a time overpowered throughout 
 the congregation by other feelings. e 
 
 The sympathies of the organic functions are not all ascribable, 
 as many might imagine, to continuity of surface; for after dividing 
 the oesophagus of a dog, Bichat produced vomiting equally as 
 before, on irritating the fauces. 
 
 Sympathy depends on the peculiarity of the sensation as well 
 as upon the part. “ When the sides or soles of the feet are 
 
 be on account of their chemical peculiarities, (and, in fact, prussic acid and 
 alcohol have been found absorbed, Annales de Chimie, Oct. 1814, and Dr. Cooke on 
 Apoplexy,) and they, as well as other poisons, affect the nervous system of animals 
 only as one part of the living body, — arsenic, besides its general deleterious agency, 
 causing particularly gastritis, even if applied to a sore of the leg, digitalis ex- 
 citing the kidneys (indeed their action on vegetables, might, on the other hand, 
 he urged as a proof of their general hostility to life) ; and the mineral ones, which 
 often leave chemical traces, also produce peculiar effects on the nervous system, 
 and often destroy life without being detected beyond the alimentary canal. 
 c Whytt, 1. c. A Darwin, Zoonomia. 
 
 e Dr. Alison’s Observations on Sympathy in the Edinburgh Med. Chirurg. 
 Trans, vol. ii. , in which is ably refuted an attempt by Mr. Charles Bell to explain 
 associated muscular contractions in certain actions by communications of nerves 
 at their roots, in his Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Human 
 Body, 1824. 
 
OF THE VITAL POWERS. 
 
 39 
 
 tickled,” says Whytt, “ the body is often thrown into convulsive 
 motions ; but nothing of this kind happens when those parts are 
 either inflamed or wounded : neither an acrid injection of a so- 
 lution of corrosive sublimate, nor the introduction of a catheter 
 into the urethra, occasions any alternate convulsive motions of the 
 accelerators urinae, although the semen, which stimulates the 
 nerves of the urethra much more gently, has this effect.” 
 
 The same cause, too, will produce the same sympathetic effect, 
 though applied to different parts. Convulsions arise from tickling 
 any part ; nausea from a disgusting smell, taste, or sight. 
 
 The same sympathetic effect, lastly, may arise from many dif- 
 ferent causes in different parts : vomiting may arise from injuries 
 of the head, a stone in the kidney, disgust, sailing, &c. f 
 
 Sympathy is of the utmost importance in health. When the 
 glans penis is irritated to a certain pitch, not only the ejacula- 
 tores seminis, but the levatores ani, are thrown into violent action : 
 when the uterus has arrived at the term of gestation, the breasts se- 
 crete milk. Sympathy often occurs, in disease, in parts which 
 showed none during health ; as pain of the right shoulder in affec- 
 tions of the liver : and new sympathies occur in parts which were 
 sympathetically connected in health, as vomiting in constipation ; 
 pain, and even secretion of milk, in the breasts, when the uterus or 
 ovaria are diseased. 
 
 (B) Our author here, as below (135), means the pulmonary 
 portion of the pleura, and very properly regards this and other 
 serous membranes, as condensed cellular substance; that is, as 
 a substance not originally cellular and now condensed, but of the 
 same nature with the cellular membrane, though much more 
 compact, s 
 
 I may mention that Rudolphi asserts that serous membranes 
 are incapable of inflammation, are not vascular, and do not secrete ; 
 but that the secretions of close sacs take place from the subja- 
 cent parts, and transude the serous membranes, which are thus 
 regarded only as a kind of cuticle; and he further asserts, that 
 they in a similar way line all the mucous surfaces. h 
 
 (C) The shrinking of cavities on the removal of the distending 
 cause (58), is referable to mere elasticity; and also, the constant 
 effort (if real) of the cellular membrane to contract upon its con- 
 tents. (40) 
 
 f See Alison, l.c. e Consult Bichat, Traill des Membranes. 
 
 h Grundriss der Physiologic, 113. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 
 
 SECT. V. 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 61. Man, whom we have found possessed of a body, an- 
 swering completely, both in matter and texture, as well as in 
 vital powers, the purposes of its formation, is endowed like- 
 wise with a mind, a “divinae particula aurae,” intimately con- 
 nected with the body, and developing by education and 
 exercise various kinds of faculties, which we shall concisely 
 enumei’ate, as far as they belong to our subject. 3 
 
 62. The sensibility of the nerves, mentioned above among 
 the vital powers, (43) constitutes, as it were, the medium 
 which propagates the impressions of stimuli upon sensible 
 parts, and especially upon the organs of sense (the functions 
 of each of which we shall hereafter examine), to the sensorial 
 portion of the brain, in such a manner that they are perceived 
 by the mind. 
 
 63. The mental faculty to be first enumerated, and indeed 
 to be placed at the bottom of the scale, is the faculty of per- 
 ception, by means of which the mind takes cognisance of im- 
 pressions made upon the body, and chiefly upon the organs 
 of sense, and becomes furnished with ideas. 
 
 64. This faculty is assisted by another of a higher order, — 
 attention, which so directs the mind, when excited, to any 
 idea, that it dwells upon that idea alone, and surveys it fully. 
 
 65. To preserve and recall the marks of ideas, is the office 
 
 3 Consult Alex. Chrichton, Inquiry into the Mature and Origin of Mental De- 
 rangement, comprehending a concise System of the Physiology and Pathology of the 
 Human Mind. Lond. 1798. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Em. Kant, AnthnmiolS0e in pragmatischer Hinsichf. Konigsb. 1798» 8vo. 
 
 Chr. Meiner, Untersuchungen iiber die Denkkrafte und jrillenskrdjle dcs 
 Menschen nach Anleitung der Erfahrung. Gott. 1806. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Gotti. E. Schulze, Psychische Anthropologic. 2d ed. Gott. 1819. two vols. Svo. 
 
OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 41 
 
 of memory — the part of the mind, that, in the language of 
 Cicero, is the guardian of the rest. 
 
 66. Imagination , b on the contrary, is the faculty of the 
 mind, that represents not merely the signs, but the very images 
 of objects, in the most lively manner, as if they were present 
 before the eyes. 
 
 67. Abstraction forms general notions more remote from 
 sense. 
 
 68. Judgment compares and examines the relations both of 
 the ideas of sense and of abstract notions. 
 
 69. Lastly Reason — the most noble and excellent of all the 
 faculties, draws inferences from the comparisons of the judg- 
 ment. 0 
 
 70. The combination of these constitutes the intellectual 
 facidty. But there is another order, relating to appetency, the 
 word being- taken in its most extensive meaning. 
 
 71. For since we are impelled by various internal stimuli 
 to provide food and other necessaries, and also to satisfy the 
 sexual instinct, and are impelled the more violently, in pro- 
 portion as we are inflamed by imagination, desires , properly 
 so called, are thus produced ; and if, on the other hand, the 
 mind becomes weary of unpleasant sensations, aversions occur. 
 
 72. Finally, that faculty which selects out of many desires 
 and aversions, and can at pleasure determine to perform 
 functions of the body for certain purposes, is denominated 
 volition. 
 
 73. Our order of enumeration corresponds with that of 
 
 h The difference, or analogy and relation, of memory and judgment, have 
 given rise to various controversies. Some celebrated psychologists have included 
 both under the word imagination taken in its most comprehensive sense, and have 
 divided it into two species ; memory representing former ideas, and the facultas 
 Jingendi, representing such ideas only as are formed by abstraction. They again 
 divide memory into sensitive (imagination in a stricter sense) and intellectual. 
 Their facultas fingendi they also subdivide into intellectual — the more ex- 
 cellent; and jdiantasy — obeying mechanical laws. Consult Feder, Grundsdtze 
 der Logi/c und Metaphysik . Gotting. 1794. p. 20. 
 
 c Of this the highest prerogative of the human mind, by which man exerts his 
 dominion over other animals, and, indeed, over the whole creation, I have fully 
 treated in my book T)e Gen. Hum. Var. Nat • p. 52. ed. 3. 
 
42 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 the developement of the faculties, and with the relation in 
 which those which were first mentioned, — common to man 
 and brutes, and those more or less peculiar to man, stand to 
 each other. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Dr. Gall gives a very different view of the mental faculties. In- 
 stead of dividing them into perception, attention, memory, judg- 
 ment, &c. as fundamental faculties ; and viewing “ the Power of 
 Taste, a genius for Poetry, for Painting, for Music, for Mathe- 
 matics,” &c. as “ more complicated powers or capacities, which 
 are gradually formed by particular habits of study or of business ;” d 
 he regards these last powers as distinct faculties, and perception, 
 attention, memory, judgment, &c. merely as modes or varieties 
 common to the action of each faculty. e He contends that when 
 we see a boy, brought up exactly lilce his brothers and sisters, 
 displaying fine musical talents or an astonishing pow r er of calcu- 
 lation, though in all other respects a child , his pre-eminence cannot 
 be explained by particular habits of study or of business, nor by 
 mere strength of judgment, memory, &c.: — That the boy has a 
 strong perception of melody, a strong memory of tunes, a strong 
 musical imagination, a strong musical judgment, or a strong per- 
 ception, memory, and judgment, of numbers; but is not clearer- 
 headed or more attentive on any other point, while men of the 
 strongest sense may have no perception, memory, or judgment, 
 of tunes, or may calculate with extreme difficultjn It is the same 
 with regard to instinct. Writers consider instinct a general faculty, 
 while it is only the inherent disposition to activity possessed 
 by every faculty, and there are, therefore, as many instincts as 
 fundamental faculties. By instinct “ the spider spreads a web and 
 ensnares flies ; the working bee constructs cells, but does not kill 
 flies to support itself ; it takes care of the young but does not 
 
 d Dugald Stewart, Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p. 10. 
 
 e Anatonxie et Physiologie du Sysleme Merveui. Paris, 1818, 1819. 
 
 Sur les Fonctions du Ccrveau et sur celles de chacune de scs Parties. Svo. Palis 
 1822— 1825. 
 
OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 43 
 
 copulate. Many male animals copulate, but take no care of their 
 young ; the cuckoo, both male and female, abandons the charge 
 of bringing up its young to other birds, although it is compelled 
 to copulation by a very ardent instinct. The castor builds a hut, 
 but neither sings nor hunts ; the dog hunts, but does not build; 
 the butcher-bird sings, builds, and preys ; the quail does not 
 mate, but copulates, takes care of its young, and migrates ; the 
 partridge mates, copulates, and takes care of its young, but does 
 not migrate ; the wolf, fox, roebuck, and rabbit, marry, and take 
 care of their young conjointly with the female : the dog, stag, and 
 hare, copulate with the first female they meet, and never know their 
 offspring. The vigorous wolf, the artful and timid hare, do not 
 burrow like the courageous rabbit and the cunning fox. Rabbits 
 live in republics, and place sentinels, which is done by neither the 
 fox nor the hare. How can these various instincts exist in one 
 species of animals and not in another? How can they be com- 
 bined so differently ? If instinct were a single and general faculty, 
 every instinct should show itself, not only at once, but also in the 
 same degree, and yet while in the young animal many instincts act 
 with great force, others are still quite inactive ; some instincts act at 
 one season, others at another. There is one season for propagation, 
 another for emigration : one season for living solitarily, another 
 for assembling in companies, and for collecting provisions. And 
 how can we explain, on the supposition of a general instinct, why 
 the different instincts do not exist merely separate in different 
 species of animals, but that many of them are even con- 
 tradictory ?” f 
 
 For my own part, when I reflect upon the various talents and 
 dispositions of persons who are all placed in the same circum- 
 stances, — how unsuccessfully some apply, with the utmost per- 
 severance, to a branch of study, in which another, under the same 
 instructors, or, perhaps, scarcely assisted at all, or even with every 
 impediment thrown in his way, reaches excellence with little 
 trouble, and, again, fails in one in which the first is, on the other 
 hand, successful, — how early various tempers are developed among 
 children of the same nursery, — how hereditary are peculiarities of 
 talent and of character, — how similar some persons are to each 
 other in one point of talent and character, and dissimilar in 
 another, — how positively contradictory many points of the same 
 
 Gall, Sur es Fond ions tlu Cervcnu, . vi. p. '115, sqq. 
 
44 . 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 character are found ; — how exactly the same is true of all species 
 of brutes, and of all individuals among them, — each species having 
 its peculiar nature, and each individual its peculiar character : — 
 
 I confess myself unable to deny that there is one innate faculty 
 for numbers, another for colours, a third for music, &c. &c., with 
 a variety of distinct innate sentiments and propensities ; and 
 that memory, judgment, &c. are but modes of action common to 
 the different faculties, s 
 
 The faculties of whose existence Gall has satisfied himself are: 
 1. The instinct of generation ; 2. The love of offspring ; 3. The 
 disposition to friendship; 4. Courage; 5. The instinct to destroy 
 life ; 6. Cunning ; 7. The sentiment of property ; 8. Pride ; 9. Vanity ; 
 10. Circumspection ; 11. Sense of things ; 12. Sense of locality, or 
 of the relations of space ; 13. Sense of persons ; 14s Sense of 
 words; 15. Sense of language; 16. Sense of the relations of colours ; 
 17. Sense of the relations of tones; 18. Sense of the relations of 
 numbers; 19. Sense of construction; 20. Comparative sagacity; 
 21. Metaphysical sagacity ; 22. Wit; 23. Poetic talent ; 24-. Good- 
 ness; 25. Faculty of imitation; 26. Religious feeling; 27. Firm- 
 ness. He has been long inclined to admit also a sense of order 
 and a sense of time, and waits only for proofs of their organs. 
 
 Gall gives various other names to each faculty, more anxious 
 to express his view of the nature of each than to quibble for 
 appellations. 
 
 For information respecting the precise nature of each faculty, 
 many of which may be ill understood from their designations, I 
 refer to the .latter part of the third, and to the fourth and fifth 
 volumes of Gall’s Fonctions du Cerveau, — portions of the work 
 which the most indolent will find entertaining. 
 
 That the faculties enumerated are not modifications of each other, 
 or of any other, but distinct and primitive, Gall considers proved 
 by the circumstance of each having one or more of the following 
 conditions. 
 
 “ An instinct, inclination, sentiment, talent, deserves,’’ says he, 
 “ the denomination of fundamental, primitive, radical: 
 
 “ 1. When a quality or faculty, (or its organ) is not manifested 
 nor developed, nor diminishes, at the same time with others. 
 
 e See the poet Cowper’s amusing account of the different characters of his 
 three hares. But all persons conversant with horses, dogs, cats, or any other 
 domestic brute, knows that every individual among them is proportionally as differ- 
 ent in its various abilities and dispositions, from others of its species, as even- 
 human being is from other men. 
 
OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 45 
 
 Thus, the instinct of generation (with its organ) is generally deve- 
 loped and manifested later than other inclinations. Thus, the 
 memory of names usually grows weak sooner than the other 
 faculties. 
 
 “ 2. When, in the same individual, a quality or faculty is more or 
 less active (and its corresponding cerebral part more or less de- 
 veloped) than the others. Thus, the greatest sculptors, painters, 
 designers, have sometimes not the least disposition to music; the 
 greatest poets little talent for mathematics. 
 
 “ 3. When a single quality or faculty is active, whilst the others 
 are paralysed (and only the corresponding organ developed). 
 Thus, persons imbecile in every other respect, are often violently 
 impelled by physical love, or have a great talent for imitation, &c. 
 
 “ 4. When, all the other qualities and faculties being active 
 (and all the other organs sufficiently developed), one single quality 
 or faculty is inactive (and one single organ not developed). Thus, 
 certain individuals cannot comprehend that two and two make 
 four ; others detest music, or women. 
 
 “ 5. When, in mental diseases, one quality or faculty only suffers, 
 or one only is entire. Thus, one insane person is mad only in 
 regard to religion, to pride, &c. ; another, although mad in every 
 respect, still gives lessons in music with great intelligence. 
 
 “ 6. When the same quality or faculty is quite differently mani- 
 fested in the two sexes of the same species of animal (and the 
 organ is differently developed in the two). Thus, the love of off- 
 spring (with its organ) is more developed in the females of most 
 animals : thus, among singing birds, the male only sings (and has 
 the organ well developed). 
 
 “ 7. Lastly, when the same quality or faculty (and the same 
 organ) always exists in one species and is deficient in another. 
 Thus, many species of birds, the dog, the horse, &c. have no in- 
 clination (nor organ) for construction, though so strikingly mani- 
 fested in other kinds of birds, in the squirrel, in the castor. Thus, 
 certain kinds of animals are predaceous, migrate, sing, take care 
 of their young, while other kinds are frugivorous, lead stationary 
 lives, do not sing, abandon their offspring.” 11 
 
 Perception, memory, judgment, &c. are modes of action of 
 these distinct faculties. “ As often as there exists a fundamental 
 faculty, a particular and determinate intellectual power, there 
 
 h 1. c. t. iii. p. 213. sqq. 
 
 \ 
 
46 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 necessarily exists likewise a perceptive faculty for objects related 
 to this faculty. As often as this faculty is active upon the objects 
 of its option, there is attention. As often as the ideas or traces 
 which the impressions of objects have left in the brain are re- 
 newed, either by their presence, or in the absence of these 
 same objects, there is remembrance, reminiscence, passive memory. 
 If this same renewal of received impressions takes place by an 
 act of reflection, by a voluntary act of the organs, there is active 
 memory. As often as an organ or a fundamental faculty compares 
 and judges the relations of analogous and dissimilar ideas, there 
 is comparison, there is judgment. A series of comparisons and 
 judgments constitutes reasoning. As often as an organ or a fun- 
 damental power creates, by its own inherent energy, wnthout the 
 concurrence of the external world, objects relative to its func- 
 tions ; as often as the organ discovers, by its own activity, the 
 laws of the objects related to it in the external world, there is 
 imagination, invention, genius. 
 
 “ Whether, now, we consider perception, attention, memory, re- 
 miniscence, recollection, comparison, judgment, reasoning, imagin- 
 ation, invention, genius, either as gradations of different degrees 
 of the same faculty, or as peculiar modes of being of this faculty, 
 it still remains certain, that all the fundamental faculties which 
 have been demonstrated, are endowed, or may be endowed, w r ith 
 perception, attention, memory, recollection, judgment, imagin- 
 ation ; and that, consequently, it is they which ought to be con- 
 sidered intellectual and fundamental faculties, and that the 
 pretended mental faculties of my predecessors are only common 
 attributes. Here, then, is a perfectly new philosophy of the 
 intellectual faculties, founded upon the details of the natural 
 history of the different modifications of human intellect. The 
 same may be said of the appetitive faculties or rather qualities. ”» 
 
 “ When a person has the talent for music, poetry, construction, 
 judging of distance, &c. in only a weak degree, he will not have a 
 very decided inclination for those objects. If, on the other hand, 
 the organs of these fundamental forces are more energetic, the 
 person feels a pleasure in the exercise of their functions ; he 
 has an inclination for these objects. When the action of these 
 organs is still more energetic, he feels a want to occupy himself 
 
 * 1. c. t. vi. p. 405. sqq. See also t. iii. p. 131. sqq. 
 
OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 47 
 
 with them. Lastly, when the action of these organs prepon- 
 derates, the person is impelled towards these objects ; he finds 
 his happiness in them, and feels disappointed, unhappy, when he 
 cannot follow his inclination; he has a passion for these objects. 
 Thus it is that certain individuals have a passion for music, 
 poetry, architecture, travelling,” &c. k 
 
 “ ‘ You shall not persuade me however,’ ” Gall fancies it will be 
 said to him, “ ‘ that the faculties acknowledged by philosophers as 
 faculties of the soul, are chimaeras. Who will dispute that under- 
 standing, will, sensation, attention, comparison, judgment, me- 
 mory, imagination, desire, liberty, are not real operations of the 
 soul, or, if you please, of the brain?’” “Yes,” replies Gall, 
 “ without doubt these faculties are real, but they are mere ab- 
 stractions, generalities, and inapplicable to a minute study of a 
 species, or of individuals. Every man, who is not imbecile, has 
 all these faculties. All men, however, have not the same intel- 
 lectual or moral character. We must discover faculties, the 
 various distribution of which determines the various species of 
 animals ; and the various proportions of which explain the 
 varieties among individuals. All bodies have weight, all have 
 extension, all have impenetrability ; but all bodies are not gold 
 or copper, all are not any plant, or any animal. Of what use to 
 the naturalist would be the abstract and general notions of weight, 
 extension, and impenetrability ? If we confined ourselves to 
 these abstractions, we should still be in the most profound 
 ignorance of every branch of physics and natural history. 
 
 “ This is exactly what has happened to philosophers with their 
 generalities. From the most ancient period down to the present 
 day, one has not made a single step farther than another in the 
 precise knowledge of the true nature of man, his inclinations and 
 his talents, or of the source of his motives and determinations. 
 Hence we have as many philosophies as soi-disant philosophers ; 
 hence the vacillation and uncertainty of our institutions, especially 
 of those which relate to education and criminal legislation.” i 
 
 Gall does not pretend to have discovered the ultimate nature 
 of all the fundamental faculties which he has pointed out. The 
 poet s faculty, for example, he regards as distinct and fundamen- 
 tal, because it has the conditions of a fundamental faculty above 
 
 k 1. c. t. vi. p. 408. 
 
 1 1. c. t. i. p. 49. sq. See also t. vi. p. 392. sqq. 
 
• 1-8 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 enumerated, but what are the ordinary functions of that part of 
 the brain, which, when greatly developed, produces the poet, he 
 dares not determine. m 
 
 Neither does Gall pretend to have enumerated all the funda- 
 mental faculties of the mind. “ Probably,” says he, “ those who 
 follow me in the career which I have opened, will discover some 
 fundamental forces and some organs which have escaped my 
 researches.” n 
 
 He doubts, however, whether so many will be discovered as 
 some apprehend. A modification of a faculty must not be mis- 
 taken for a faculty, nor the result of the combined action of 
 several faculties for a particular faculty. “If’’ he says, “we 
 reflect on the number of possible combinations which may result 
 from the twenty-seven or thirty fundamental faculties or qualities, 
 from the reciprocal action of as many organs, we shall not be 
 surprised at the infinite number of shades of character among 
 mankind. How many different combinations result from the ten 
 ciphers, from the twenty-four letters .” 0 
 
 This view of the mental faculties may be considered quite in- 
 dependently of the peculiar doctrines of Gall respecting the 
 cerebral organs of each faculty, and even quite independently of 
 the fact of the brain being the organ of the mind. It may be 
 examined precisely like the metaphysics of Locke, Reid, Stewart, 
 Brown, &c. P 
 
 m 1. c. t. v. p. 243. 
 
 0 l.e. t. v. p. 406. Gall’s late pupil and assistant, Dr. Spurzheim, thinks he has 
 discovered distinct faculties and organs for conscientiousness and hope, and for 
 judging of weight and size. ( Phrenology , or the Doctrine of the Mind, by 
 J. Spurzheim, M.D. London, 1825. 3d edit.) In Edinburgh, they think they 
 have discovered a faculty and organ for concentrating the action of the other 
 faculties, (r! System of Phrenology, by George Combe, 2d ed. Edinb. 1825, and the 
 Phrenological Journal , published quarterly at Edinburgh.) They have also an organ 
 for judging of differences, a new portion of brain for the sense of the ludicrous, 
 and make several other refinements, the foundation for which requires much 
 further investigation. 
 
 ° 1. c. t. v. p. 406. sq. 
 
 p It is remarkable, that nearly every one of these faculties has been admitted 
 by one metaphysician or another. See Mr. G. Combe s Letter in replv to Mr. 
 Jeffery, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, reprinted in the Phrenological Journal 
 of Edinburgh, 1827. 
 
 Notwithstanding, too, that memory, like judgment, attention, &c., was con- 
 sidered a distinct and fundamental faculty, some writers taught that there were 
 
OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 49 
 
 It, however, derives its great proofs from the fact of the indivi- 
 dual faculties being, cseteris paribus, strong in proportion to the 
 development of particular parts of the brain, as we shall see in 
 Sect. XII. ; and these facts suppose the other general fact of 
 the brain being the organ of the mind. 
 
 On the subject of paragraph (73), I shall speak in the Note 
 (F), Sect. XLIV. 
 
 Every sentiment and propensity was given us for a good pur- 
 pose, and it is only when one or more are excessive, or defective, 
 or too much or too little excited by external circumstances, or by 
 disease, that error occurs ; and on this subject the profound 
 metaphysical sermons, preached at the Rolls Chapel by the exem- 
 plary Bishop Butler, a and an essay on the constitution of man by 
 Mr. George Combe, * 1 ' highly deserve perusal. The natural tend- 
 ency of all our united faculties and feelings, the Bishop proves, is 
 to virtue ; and Mr. Combe ably and beautifully shows, by nu- 
 merous illustrations, that obedience to the laws of nature, in 
 strict accordance with phrenology, is the only source of virtue and 
 of the happiness of individuals and nations. 
 
 three sorts of memory ; one for facts ( memoria realis), one for words (me- 
 moria verbalis), and one for places ( memoria localis). See Gall, 1. c. t. iv. 
 p. 380. Some, that there are four ; a memory for words, another for places, a 
 third for time, and another for cause and effect. See Gall, 1. c. t. ii. p. 353. 
 
 q Serm. i. Upon the social nature of Man. Serm. ii. iii. Upon the natural 
 supremacy of conscience. 
 
 r Essay on the Constitution of Man, and its Relation to External Objects. Edinb. 
 1827. 
 
 Upon the subject of metaphysics or the science of mind, all our knowledge, 
 
 I think, m'ay be found in Dr. Gall’s works, — Sur l' Anatomie et Physiologie du 
 Systeme Nerveux, and his Fonctions du Cerveau ; and the admirable Lectures on 
 the Philosophy of the Human Mind, by Thomas Brown, M, D., Edinb. 1826, 4 
 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Brown is not only among the ablest metaphysical writers, but is the 
 latest, and his work approaches as near to phrenology as was possible without the 
 aid of Gall’s method of investigation. 
 
50 
 
 SECT. VI. 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 74. Since health , a which is the true subject of physiology, 
 depends upon such an harmony and equilibrium of the matter 
 and powers of the system, as is requisite for the due perform- 
 ance of its physical functions, it is very evident how the four 
 principles, examined above, contribute to its support. 
 
 75. Fluids properly prepared are the first requisite; in the 
 next place, solids duly formed from the fluids ; then the invi- 
 gorating influence of the vital powers upon the solids ; lastly, 
 a sound mind in this sound body. 
 
 76. These four principles act and react perpetually upon 
 each other. The fluids are stimuli to the solids ; these again 
 are calculated by their vital powers to experience the influence 
 of these stimuli, and to react upon them. In reference to the 
 intimate union of the mind with the body, suffice it at present 
 to remark, that it is far more extensive than might at first 
 be imagined. For instance, the influence of the will is not con- 
 fined within the narrow limits of those actions designated 
 voluntary in the schools of physiology; and the mind, on 
 the other hand, is influenced bv the affections of the body, in 
 many other ways than by the perceptions of sense, properly 
 so called ,b 
 
 77. From the endless variety and modification of the con- 
 ditions belonging to these four principles, it may be easily 
 
 a Theod. G. Aug. Roose, iiber die Krankheiten der Gesunden. Gotting. 
 1801. 8 vo. 
 
 G. Chr. Klett, Tentamen evolvendi notionem de sanitate honunis. V irceb. 
 1794. 8vo. 
 
 b Galen, quod animi mores corporis temperaturas sequantur. 
 
 St. J. Van. Geuns, De corparum habitudine aniuue hujusque viriitm isdice ac 
 Hnrderv. 1789. 4to. 
 
 MOBERATRICE. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 51 
 
 understood what great latitude c must be given to the notion 
 of health. 
 
 For since, as Celsus long ago observed, almost every one 
 has some part weaker than the rest, Galen may in this sense 
 assert with truth, that no one enjoys perfect health. 
 
 And even among those who, in common language, we say 
 are in good health, this is variously modified in each indi- 
 vidual. 11 
 
 78. Upon this endless modification is founded the differ- 
 ence of temperaments ,- e or, in other words, of the mode and 
 aptitude of the living solid f in each individual, to be affected 
 by stimuli, especially the mental ; and again, of the mental 
 stimuli, to be excited with greater or less facility. 
 
 79. So various are the differences of degree and combin- 
 ation in the temperaments, that their divisions and orders may 
 be multiplied almost without end. We shall content our- 
 selves with the four orders commonly received : s — The san- 
 guineous, — excited most readily, but slightly; The choleric , — 
 excited readily and violently ; The melancholic , — excited 
 slowly, but more permanently ; And the phlegmatic, — excited 
 the most slowly of all, and indeed with difficulty. (A) 
 
 This division, although built by Galen upon an absurd 
 foundation derived from an imaginary depravation of the 
 
 c Galen, De sanitate tuenda, 1. i. 
 
 d W. F. Ad. Gerresheim, De sanitate cuivis homini propria. Lugd. Bat. 
 1764. 4 to. 
 
 e Lavater, Physiognomische Fragmente, t. iv. p. 343. 
 
 W. Ant. Ficker, Comm, de temperamentis hominum quatenus ex fabrica et 
 structura corporis pendent. Gotting. 1791. 4to. 
 
 J. N. Hall6, Mem de la Soc. Midicale d’Emulat. t. iii. p. 342. 
 
 f To the numerous arguments by which the moderns have overthrown the 
 doctrine of the ancients, and proved that the temperament depends on the living 
 solids rather than on the nature of the blood, I may add the celebrated example 
 of the Hungarian sister twins, who, at the beginning of the last century, were 
 born united at the lower part of the back, and attained their twenty-second year 
 in this state. They were, as is well known, of very different temperaments, 
 although dissection discovered that their sanguiferous systems anastomosed so 
 considerably that the blood of both must have been the same. 
 
 E Kant, 1. c. p. 257. sq. 
 
 E 2 
 
.52 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 elements of the blood, appears, if made to stand alone, both 
 natural and intelligible. 
 
 80. The predisposing and occasional causes of the diver- 
 sity of temperaments are very numerous, v. c. hereditary ten- 
 dency, habit of body, climate, diet, religion, mode of life, and 
 luxury.' 1 
 
 81. Besides the variety of temperaments, circumstances 
 to which every individual is exposed, increase, by influencing 
 the number , as well as the energy and vigour , of the functions , 
 the latitude (77) in which the term health must be received. 
 In regard to age, the health of a new-born infant is different 
 from that of an adult ; in regard to sex it differs in a mar- 
 riageable virgin and an old woman past child-bearing, and 
 during menstruation and suckling ; in regard to mode of life, 
 it is different in the barbarous tribes of North America and in 
 effeminate Sybarites. Moreover, in every person, custom 
 (whose great power has obtained for it the title of second 
 nature) has an extraordinary influence 1 over every function, 
 v. c. sleep, diet, &c. 
 
 82. The more functions flourish simultaneously in the 
 body, the more considerable is its life ; and vice versa. Hence 
 life is the greatest when the functions have attained their 
 highest exaltation in adult age ; and least when the functions, 
 although very perfect according to the course of nature, are 
 fewer and more sluggish, v. c. in the newly conceived embryo ; 
 life is for the same reason less vigorous during sleep than 
 during the opposite state, &c. 
 
 83. The functions have been long divided by physiologists 
 into four classes. 11 This division, although not unexception- 
 
 h Feder, Untersuchung iiber den menscldichen Willen. T. ii. p. 49. 
 
 ■ Galen, De Consuetudine. 
 
 G. E. Stahl, De consuetudinis ejjlcacia generali in actibus vitalibus. Hal. 1700. 
 4to. 
 
 H. Cullen, De Consuetudine. Edinb. 1780. 8vo. 
 
 C. Natorp, De vi consuetudinis. Gott. 1808. 4to. 
 
 k The very acute Gilbert Blane’s classification of the functions of the animal 
 economy according to the powers which direct them, surpasses all other modern 
 attempts of the kind. Elements of Medical Logic. London, 1819. Svo. (p. 14. sqq. 
 of the vernacular version.) 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 53 
 
 able, nor exactly conformable to nature, 1 may assist the me- 
 mory. 111 
 
 1. The first class comprehends the vital functions, so 
 termed, because their uninterrupted and complete perform- 
 ance is necessary to life ; such are the circulation of the blood 
 and respiration. 
 
 2. The second comprehends the animal functions, by which 
 animals are chiefly distinguished from vegetables ; such is the 
 communication of the mind with the body, especially sense, 
 and muscular motion. 
 
 3. The third is the natural, by means of which the body is 
 nourished. 
 
 4. The fourth, the genital, intended for the propagation of 
 the species. 
 
 We shall now examine each of these separately ; beginning 
 with the vital. (B) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 ( A) The sanguineous temperament is denoted by a full habit, 
 and rather soft fibre, a delicate skin, with large veins, a fresh 
 complexion; often red or yellow, and, occasionally, darkish hair; 
 great sensibility, a quick pulse, free secretions, and a cheerful 
 disposition. 
 
 The melancholic, on the contrary, often by a spare habit, by a 
 firm fibre, a thick, dark, hairy skin, black hair and eyes, and a 
 dark complexion : a slow pulse, little sensibility, sparing secre- 
 tions, and a gloomy cast of character ; great perseverance in all 
 pursuits, and constancy of passion. 
 
 The choleric lies between the two, and is marked by a softer 
 fibre, a more irritable habit, a less dark and hairy skin, a more 
 
 1 See Platner, Qucest. Physiol, p. 31. Ith, Versuch einer Anthropologie. t. i. 
 
 p. 108. 222. 
 
 m J. J. Bernhard, Versuch einer Vertheidigung der alien Eintheilung der 
 Functionen, und einer Classification des organisirten ICdrper nuch denselben. Erf. 
 
 1804. 8 vo. 
 
 E 3 
 
54 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 florid, countenance, a quicker and stronger pulse, and a more irrit- 
 able mind than the melancholic. 
 
 The phlegmatic is characterised by a lax and weak habit, a 
 pale smooth skin generally destitute of hair, very light hair upon 
 the head, a slow weak pulse, small blood-vessels, languid secre- 
 tions, and dulness of mind and feeling. n 
 
 The cheerfulness of the sanguineous temperament, and the 
 gloom and constancy of the melancholic, are subject to great 
 exceptions, as they depend entirely upon the developement of 
 certain parts of the brain. ° 
 
 A new view of temperaments has lately been published by Dr. 
 Thomas, of Paris, p He arranges them according to the predo- 
 minance of the head, chest, or abdomen, — the mental, circula- 
 tory, or digestive organs : so that we have, — 1. The cranial or 
 encephalic temperament: 2. The thoracic: 3. The abdominal: with 
 their combinations, 4. The encephalo-thoracic: 5. The encephalo- 
 abdominal : 6. The thoracico-abdominal ; and, lastly, 7. The mixed, 
 in which all three are equally blended. Men of genius or enter- 
 prise are of the first, Hercules may represent the second, Bacchus 
 the third, and the Apollo Belvidere the last. 
 
 According to the relative bulk of the three regions, will 
 be the relative energy of the mental, muscular, or abdominal 
 functions. 
 
 The idea is exceedingly ingenious, and capable of extensive 
 application q ; but evidently does not interfere with the established 
 view of temperaments. For every individual is, throughout his 
 frame, of the sanguineous, or melancholic, &c., and at the same 
 time has a particular proportion of each of the three regions to 
 each other. 
 
 (B) The consideration of a division, as ancient as Aristotle, 
 and by some considered preferable to that which Blumenbach 
 adopts, will perhaps form an useful note to the eighty-third 
 paragraph and the greater part of the fourth section. 
 
 In this, the functions are arranged in two classes : — the animal 
 constituting one peculiar to animals; and the vital and natural 
 
 n See Dr. James Gregory’s Conspectus Med. Theoretic <e, cap. xxiii. 
 
 ° Upon the independence of the character upon the temperament, see Gall, Sur 
 les Functions du Cerveau , t. ii. p. 142, sqq. 
 
 p Physiologic des Temperamens ou Constitutions, par F. Thomas, M.D. 
 Paris, 1826. 
 
 q See the Phrenological Joui'nal, Oct. 1827, 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 55 
 
 united into another, common to vegetables and animals, under 
 the title of organic or vital. The generative, relating in their 
 object to the species rather than to the individual, and of but 
 temporary duration, are thrown into a separate and inferior divi- 
 sion, but in fact, except the animal passion, are part of the organic. 
 
 We owe the revival of this classification, and our knowledge 
 of the characteristics of each class of functions, to Dr. Wilson 
 Philip, r and Xavier Bichat , 3 although the latter, from having 
 published a work expressly on the subject, has received the whole 
 honour, both in Great Britain and on the Continent. 
 
 The animal functions prove us feeling, thinking, and willing 
 beings : they are the actions of the senses which receive impres- 
 sions; of the brain which perceives them, reflects upon them, and 
 wills ; of the voluntary muscles which execute the will in regard 
 to motion ; and of the nerves which are the agents of transmission ; 
 The brain is their central organ. The vital or organic functions 
 are independent of mind, and give us simply the notion of life : 
 they are digestion, circulation, respiration, exhalation, absorption, 
 secretion, nutrition, calorification : The heart is their central 
 organ. 
 
 The organs of the animal functions are double and correspon- 
 dent, there being on each side of the median line of the body, 
 either two distinct organs, as the eyes, ears, extremities ; or two 
 correspondent halves, as is the case with the brain, spinal marrow, 
 nose, tongue, &c. 
 
 The organs of the vital or organic functions, are, in very few 
 instances, double, or situated with their centres in the median 
 line, and possessed of symmetrical halves ; v. c. the heart, 
 stomach, liver. There are, indeed, two kidneys, but they con- 
 tinually differ in size, figure, and situation : the two lungs are 
 very dissimilar. 
 
 Hence Bichat infers, that in the animal functions a harmony of 
 action in each organ, or in each half of the organ, is indispensable 
 to perfection, when both organs or sides act together ; and that 
 if such harmony do not occur, it is better for one organ or one 
 
 r Treatise on Febrile Diseases, ch. iii. sect. 3. First edition. 1799. Paper 
 read to the Royal Med. Society of Edinburgh, 1791 or 1792, and inserted in its 
 Records. Essay on Opium. 1795. Edinburgh Med. and Surgical Journal, 
 July, 1809. p. 301. sq. 
 
 s Recherclies Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort. 1305. 
 
 E 4 
 
56 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 half to act alone. This certainly appears true of the eye, 
 and ear, and even of the brain. It certainly does not hold good 
 in the actions of the voluntary muscles, nor in the operations of 
 the brain or spinal marrow in willing those actions. From the 
 duplicity of the organs it also happens that one side may cease 
 to act without detriment to the function of the other ; while, in 
 the vital or organic class, no harmony of action is possible, and 
 the derangement of any one part of an organ generally affects the 
 whole of it, — an obstruction in the colon disturbs the functions 
 of all the alimentary canal. 
 
 The animal functions experience periodical intermissions — 
 sleep. The organic or vital continue incessantly, suffering merely 
 remissions : — the blood constantly circulates, the perspiratory 
 fluid is constantly secreted, the stomach has no sooner digested 
 one meal than we commit another to it ; yet we shall hereafter 
 see that the actions of the heart, lungs, &c., have intervals of 
 remission. 
 
 The animal functions are much influenced by habit; the vital 
 or organic are considered by Bichat as removed from its influence. 
 The power of habit over our sensations and voluntary motions 
 is manifest : yet I think it equally great over the organic func- 
 tions. The operation of food and of all descriptions of ingesta 
 is most remarkably modified by habit ; through it poisons become 
 comparatively innoxious, and divers bear a long suspension of 
 respiration. 
 
 Bichat regards the passions as directly influencing the organic 
 functions only, and springing from the state of the organs of 
 that class. Here he is to me perfectly unintelligible. Vexation 
 indeed disturbs the stomach, and fear augments the quantity of 
 urine ; but does not vexation equally and as directly disturb the 
 mind, — confuse the understanding, and occasion heat and pain 
 of the forehead ? Are not, in fact, the passions a part of the 
 mind? — a* part of the animal functions? They powerfully affect, 
 it is true, the organic or vital functions, but this shows the close 
 connection merely between the two classes of functions. ( 
 
 1 Bordeu, also Buffon, Cabanis, the anatomist Reil, placed the passions in 
 the thoracic and abdominal viscera, &c. ; the two first in the diaphragm particularly. 
 Gall has shown the absurdity of these authors in his Fonct. du Ceneau, t. ii. 
 p. 93. sqq. We might as well consider the cheeks the seat of the feeling of 
 shame, because in shame we blush. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 57 
 
 This connection is conspicuous in respiration, the mechanical 
 part of which belongs to the animal functions, the other to the 
 organic ; and in the alimentary functions, in which the food is 
 swallowed and the faeces rejected by volition, and digestion, &c. 
 performed, independently of our influence, by the powers of 
 simple life. So close indeed is this connection, that every organ 
 of the animal class is the seat of organic functions; — in the vo- 
 luntary muscles, the organs of sense, and even in the brain, 
 circulation, secretion, and absorption are constantly carried on. 
 This connection is likewise apparent in the property of sensibility. 
 In the language of Bichat there are animal sensibility and contrac- 
 tility, and organic sensibility and contractility, besides the common 
 extensibility of matter, which he terms extensibilite de tissu, and 
 common contractility upon the removal of distension, — con- 
 tractilite par defaut d' extension, confounded by Blumenbach 
 (58. clause 5 and 6) with purely vital contractility, and, indeed, 
 greater during life than afterwards. 11 Animal sensibility is accom- 
 
 u The following is Bichat’s table of the properties of the living body : 
 
 
 Classes. 
 
 1 
 
 Vital 
 
 2 | 
 (Structural • 
 
 Genera. 
 
 Species. 
 
 Varieties. 
 
 1 f 
 
 1 
 
 Animal 
 
 
 Sensibility < 
 
 2 
 
 . Organic 
 1 
 
 • Animal 
 
 
 2 , 
 
 1 
 
 Contractility ' 
 
 \ 2 < 
 
 ’ Sensible 
 
 { 
 
 1 
 
 - Organic < 
 
 ) 2 
 
 Extensibility 
 
 2 
 
 Contractility 
 
 
 _ Insensible 
 
 Such as the motion of the 
 heart and alimentary 
 canal. 
 
 Such as the motion of the 
 
 capillaries. 
 
 Although these are the general properties of the living frame, and sensibility, 
 or more properly excitability, is at the bottom of all the other vital or organic 
 properties except the active power of contraction, yet each part has also some 
 peculiarity, altogether inexplicable, not in the least, I think, to be accounted for 
 on Bichat’s supposition of each part possessing a certain degree of organic sen- 
 sibility in relation to its fluids. What causes the vessels of muscle to produce 
 muscle ; of bone, bone ; of membrane, membrane ; what causes the secreting 
 vessels of the liver to form bile, and of the testes semen, we know not. The 
 cause of these circumstances may be called by Blumenbach, after Bordeu, vita ? 
 proprice ; but it must be carefully remembered, that this expression simply denotes 
 an unknown cause of a fact, and affords no explanation. 
 
 Feeling (I use the word for want of another to embrace consciousness and 
 perception) is in the same manner at the bottom of all the mental properties 
 
58 
 
 OF HEALTH ANI) HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 panied by a perception in the mind, as in seeing, hearing, tasting, 
 smelling, feeling : animal contractility is excited by the volition 
 of the mind conveyed to the voluntary muscles by means of the 
 
 except the active power of willing, but it alone will not explain them. All 
 matter is probably the same ; but its modifications also are so various, that at 
 present we are compelled to speak of distinct kinds of matter. 
 
 The operation of agents on the system is analogous. As far as they all afl'ect 
 the living solid, they may be all called stimuli ; but they differ in something more 
 than degree of stimulus. Each affects particular parts more than others ; each 
 affects in a peculiar way ; some directly depress life, and many occasion opposite 
 results in different parts. 
 
 When organic sensibility is heightened in one part, it sinks in another, and 
 vice versa ; unless the change of it should be such as to extend generally, and 
 even then it is still frequently found in the opposite state in some particular part : 
 v. c. we notice coldness and paleness of the feet, and heat and fulness of the head, 
 together ; blisters relieve internal inflammation, and irritate the more difficultly 
 in proportion to the violence of the internal disease. The same phenomena are 
 observable in animal sensibility and in the mind at large : — 
 
 “ Tut, man ! one fire puts out another’s burning. 
 
 One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish ; 
 
 Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning ; 
 
 One desperate grief cures with another’s languish ; 
 
 Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 
 
 And the rank poison of the old will die.” 
 
 Shakspeare. Romeo and Jidiet, act i. sc. ii. 
 
 The effect of vicissitudes of temperature, and a large number of other patho- 
 logical phenomena, are principally explicable on the derangement of the balance 
 of excitability, and for the most part, consequently, of circulation. (Sect. XX. (B.)) 
 
 Notwithstanding it is a general law (53) that the effects of a stimulus diminish 
 the more frequently it is applied, and vice versa, as shown on the one hand, in 
 the large quantities of spirituous liquors which persons at length bear, and on 
 the other by the violent inflammation excited by the application of warmth to 
 parts exposed to intense cold ; yet, if a stimulus is applied so energetically as to 
 leave the sensibility heightened, especially if to the point of inflammation, its 
 subsequent power is greatly increased. Immense potations of spirituous liquors 
 may gradually be borne, but if the increase is too great, the sensibility of the 
 stomach may become such that a single glass will prove violently irritating. 
 
 The general law, to which the effects of stimuli, in proportion to their previous 
 application, is referable, appears to be this ; — that a stimulus acts according 
 to the difference between its strength and the strength of the former application. 
 Thus, if the right hand be immersed in water of 30°, and the left in water of 50°, 
 and both are removed to water of 70°, the effect of the water at 70° upon the 
 right hand will be greater than upon the left, on account of the difference be- 
 tween 30° and 70° being greater than between 50° and 70° ; and this explains the 
 glow of the cold bath, as, during immersion, there is less stimulus, and, on emerg- 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 59 
 
 nerves. Organic sensibility is attended by no perception, and is 
 followed by contraction totally independent of the will : — the 
 
 ing, the temperature of the atmosphere, and the readmitted blood into the super- 
 ficial vessels, though stimuli absolutely of the same strength as before immersion, 
 are, comparatively, more powerful than what the system experienced during 
 immersion. 
 
 The specific action of one agent frequently prevents or destroys that of another : 
 v.c. small pox and measles very rarely occur together ; the former disease is ge- 
 nerally prevented for ever by the cow-pock ; bark cures the effect of miasmata. 
 It in some cases destroys its own power in future, as is exemplified in those 
 diseases which occur usually but once during life. 
 
 The effects of rare or frequent stimulation may relate to stimulation in general 
 or by particular agents. A very high or low excitement may influence the effects 
 of all subsequent stimuli ; but the rare or frequent application of a particular 
 stimulus in less intensity may influence its own effects only, as exemplified in 
 acquired capability of smoking or taking snuff, while other vapours or powders 
 affect no less than usual. 
 
 While moderate excitement is necessary to maintain action and excitability, 
 and excitement by one stimulus, within due limits, augments the effects of an- 
 other, (54) violent excitement wears out the power, and very violent may suddenly 
 destroy life altogether : according to the verses, 
 
 Nutritur ventis, vends extinguitur ignis, 
 
 Lenis alit flammas, grandior aura necat. 
 
 Dr. John Brown, seizing the undeniable general facts respecting the effect of 
 rare or frequent application upon the power of stimuli, and naming all agents 
 stimuli, founded a system of pathology and practice at once absurd and destruct- 
 ive. ( Elementa Meclicince). Exhaustion, from excess of stimulus, he termed 
 direct debility ; torpor, from deficiency of stimulus, indirect debility ; and how- 
 ever inflammatory a disease, if it arose from a stimulus, it was to be treated by 
 violent stimuli, to prevent the excitability from falling too low. 
 
 In the first place, he abused the word stimulus, by confounding it with the 
 word agent, forgetting what has been just advanced respecting the peculiar pro- 
 perties of every agent, — that some depress, and thus, though agents, are not 
 stimuli ; and some affect different parts differently ; and some have a specific 
 power upon certain parts and certain diseases, and against other agents. 
 
 In the second place, he forgot what has been just said respecting the necessity 
 of a certain degree of excitement to maintain excitability ; the effect of one sti- 
 mulus, within due limits, of increasing the effect of others ; and the fact of a 
 stimulus producing so much excitement, that morbid sensibility occurs, far less 
 stimulus than was at first applied causing ten times the effect, and this being 
 reducible only by lessening all stimuli, — the temperature, the quantity of blood, &c., 
 and stimulating distant parts. He forgot, also, the effect of sympathy and specific 
 action. 
 
 His error was in keeping in view some general laws, which all know and ac- 
 knowledge, to the exclusion of others of at least equal importance. 
 
60 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 heart is said to feel — (physiology has no proper term for the 
 idea, but excitability would answer the purpose) — the stimulus of 
 the blood, and, without our influence, forthwith contracts ; the 
 lacteals to feel the stimulus of the chyle without our knowledge, 
 and they then propel it without our assistance.* But although we 
 never acquire the least direct voluntary power over the actions of 
 organic contractility, — over the peristaltic motion of the in- 
 testines or the contractions of the heart, yet every organ of 
 the organic functions may have its organic sensibility height- 
 ened into animal sensibility, as inflammation, for instance, of the 
 pleura and the joints, daily demonstrates; indeed, in some organs 
 of that class of functions, we invariably have sensation; — the 
 stomach is the seat of hunger, in the lungs we experience an un- 
 easy sensation nearly as soon as their air is expelled. 
 
 The nerves of the animal functions run to the brain or spinal 
 marrow ; those of the organic chiefly to ganglia ; but, as might 
 be expected, the two nervous systems have abundant commu- 
 nications. 
 
 The animal functions have not only a shorter existence than 
 the organic, from their necessity of alternate repose, y but they 
 flourish for a shorter duration, — they do not commence till birth, 
 they decline, and in the natural course of events, terminate, 
 earlier, v. c. the organs of sense and the mental faculties fail before 
 the action of the heart and capillaries. But the decay of the 
 animal functions must, in truth, be only the consequence of the 
 decay of the organic, because there are fundamentally in every 
 part organic functions, — circulation, nutrition, &c.; and the perfect 
 performance of these in the organs of the animal functions is in- 
 dispensable to the perfect performance of the animal functions. 
 
 x There is no proof of feeling. There can be no feeling. We see them act 
 in consequence of the stimulus, and say they feel. The expression is only 
 admissible figuratively, but as all figurative terms in physiology are continually 
 accepted literally, and establish the most absurd notions, especially among the 
 vulgar, it had much better be explained by a mere expression of the fact, by 
 the word excitement. 
 
 y It is said that the heart has the same repose as the brain, the auricles 
 and ventricles acting in succession, and a pause occurring before their ac- 
 tion is renewed. But while these parts are not acting, their functions continue, 
 because they are becoming distended by the blood. The function, therefore, of 
 the heart constantly goes on, while that of the brain entirely intermits in sound 
 sleep. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 61 
 
 Hence the impairment of these organic functions, even to a small 
 extent, must derange or diminish the animal functions, and the 
 decline of the latter is really owing to the decline of the former, 
 although these still remain vigorous enough to appear unimpaired. 
 
 We thus find in every living system a class of functions, not 
 in themselves dependent upon mind, as perfect in the vegetable 
 as in the animal, and pervading everj' part of the system. In 
 animals there further exist certain parts which, when endowed 
 with the common life of other parts, — with the organic pro- 
 perties, — are able to perform peculiar functions which give us the 
 notion of mind : the organ of these functions is termed brain, and, 
 by means of nerves and medullary prolongations, it maintains a 
 correspondence with the whole machine, influenced by and 
 influencing the most distant parts. The phenomena of the mind 
 have been metaphysically considered in the fifth section ; they 
 will be examined as functions of the nervous system in the 
 twelfth. 
 
 The organic functions depend on life, in the proper accept- 
 ation of the word. The word life should be regarded, like the word 
 attraction or repulsion, as merely an expression of a fact. In this 
 point of view it may be as easily defined as any other expression. 
 By life we generally mean the power of organised matter to pre- 
 serve its particles in such chemical relations as to prevent other 
 chemical relations from inducing disorganisation, or even to 
 increase or decrease by internal appropriation and separation ; 
 to produce peculiar matters for its own purposes ; to preserve, in 
 some measure, a temperature distinct from that of the surrounding 
 medium ; to move certain parts of itself sensibly (as muscles) or 
 insensibly (as the capillaries) independently of mere impulse, 
 attraction, or repulsion : or if not organised (as the fluid which 
 becomes the embryo, the blood,) the power of matter produced by 
 an organised body endowed with the properties above mentioned, 
 to resist the ordinary chemical influences, and even directly form 
 (as the embryotic fluid) an organised system so endowed, or 
 directly become (as the fibrin, when it is secreted from the blood or 
 blood is effused, becoming vascular, and its new vessels inosculat- 
 ing with those of adjoining parts), the organised substance of an 
 already formed system so endowed. 
 
 That fluids as well as solids are susceptible of life, I cannot 
 doubt. There is no reason why they should not be so, although 
 
62 
 
 OF HEALH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 a person who has not thought upon the subject may be as unable 
 to conceive the circumstance as a West Indian to conceive that 
 water may by cold become solid. It is impossible to deny that 
 the male or female, or both, or united, genital fluids are alive, be- 
 cause from their union, or one influenced by the other, a living 
 being is produced which partakes of the vital qualities of each 
 parent. Accordingly Blumenbach, in his Commentatio de vi vitali 
 sanguini deneganda, grants both male and female genital fluids to 
 be alive 2 , notwithstanding that he fancies his victory over the 
 defenders of the blood’s life so complete, that like that of the un- 
 fortunate Carthaginian Dido, as he says, “ in ventos vita recessit.” 
 It is as easy to conceive the blood to be alive as the genital fluids. * 
 
 Many facts adduced as arguments of its life are certainly explic- 
 able without such a supposition. Its freedom from putrefaction while 
 circulating may be owing to the constant renovation of its particles, 
 for the thinness of hybernating animals at the end of their torpid 
 
 2 “ In universum sane post omnia quse super hoc argumento sive meditando 
 sive experiundo hactenus elicere licuit, nulli humorum nostri corporis genuina 
 vis vitalis tribuenda videtur, si unice a genitali utriusque sexus latice discesseris, 
 utpote cui jam ante quam uterino cavo exceptus et intime mixtus in foetus forma- 
 tionem abit, vitales inhaerere vires formativas, praeter alia paterni vultus in nepotes 
 propagata similitudo, aliaque id genus phenomena haud infitianda demonstrare 
 videntur.” Comment. Soc. Reg.Societ. Gotting. vol. ix p. 12. 
 
 3 The doctrine of the life of the blood was maintained by Critias and his sect 
 among the ancients (Aristotle, De anima, cap. 2. ), Harvey (Exercit. L. De 
 Generationis ordine, &c.), Glisson (De ventriculo et intestinis), and Albinus. (Blu- 
 menbach’s Commentat. 1. c.) I am surprised that Moses should have been adduced 
 by Harvey as authority for this opinion. When he says ( Leviticus , ch. xvii. 1 1.14.), 
 “ For the life of the flesh is in the blood” — “ For it is the life of all flesh,” — he 
 can only mean, that, when it is withdrawn, life ceases, — that it is necessary to the 
 life of animals. He also says (v. 14 .) “ the blood of it is for the life thereof.’ 
 The construction which would make Moses assert that the blood is alive, involves 
 the absurd assertion that the blood only is alive. Indeed, before the time of 
 Moses, the expression was used to Noah. In Genesis (ix. 4.) we read, “ Flesh 
 with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.” The whole 
 of the matter appears to be, that the Jews, like other neighbouring nations, were 
 in the habit of tearing limbs and cutting flesh from living animals, and eating 
 these portions raw. Saul’s army after a battle did this. ( Samuel , xiv. 32. 33. ) 
 To prevent this horrid cruelty, they were forbidden to eat flesh before the animal 
 had been drained of its blood, and thus deprived of life ; and what is, in our own 
 version of the Bible, rendered, “ flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood 
 thereof,” is said to be rendered by the best interpreters, “ flesh or members torn 
 from living animals having the blood in them.” See Bruce, Travels to discoi'cr 
 the Source of the Nile, vol. iii. p. 297. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 63 
 
 season, shows it has received accessions even in them and from 
 the absorption of fat. Its inability to coagulate after death from 
 arsenic, opium, and some other narcotics, and from lightning 
 and electricity (though Dr. Scudamore found it to coagulate as 
 usual in the latter case), from hard running, anger, or a blow on 
 the stomach, all three of which deprive the muscles of their usual 
 stiffness, may depend upon chemical changes. The admixture of 
 opium with the blood has been said to prevent its coagulation, 
 and this by destroying its life. But Dr. Scudamore found that the 
 admixture of prussic acid and belladonna, both strong poisons, 
 has no such effect, and that many mere salts, as common salts, 
 weaken or prevent its coagulation, and these are not likely to kill 
 it, but to act chemically. Its accelerated coagulation by means of 
 heat, when frozen by cold, and some other circumstances, and the 
 reverse, were believed to depend upon an affection of its vitality, 
 but are, perhaps, referable to the escape or detention of its car- 
 bonic acid gas. Its earlier putridity when drawn from young than 
 from old persons may arise from its inferior qualities. Parts die 
 if deprived of a supply of blood, yet, though necessary as a 
 material and agent to maintain the life of parts, it is not, therefore, 
 necessarily itself alive. But the circumstance of it freezing more 
 readily, like eggs, frogs, snails, &c., when once previously frozen, 
 (which change may be supposed to have exhausted its powers, 1 *) 
 is, if really the case, an argument in favour of its life, as 
 these are certainly endowed with life. The organisation of 
 extravasated blood, c and the inosculation of new vessels with 
 those of surrounding parts, shows ' 1 that the solidified lymph 
 is now endowed with life ; and one may more easily believe it to 
 have been alive in the mass of blood, than that it should have 
 acquired vitality after its effusion. Indeed Sir Everard Home 
 declares that a coagulum of blood becomes vascular out of the 
 body and may be injected; e but if the vessels are formed by the 
 
 b Corrie, on the Vitality of the Blood, p. 45. 
 
 c J. Hunter, Treatise on the Blood, fyc. p. I. ch. 1. 
 
 d Dr. Thomson believes, that when blood has been effused between divided 
 surfaces, its coagulum is absorbed, and secreted lymph only coagulates and be- 
 comes vascular. Lectures on Inflammation, p. 214. Yet at page 216 he does 
 not deny the occurrence. 
 
 e Phil. Trans, vol. cviii. p. 188. sq. 
 
64 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 mere extrication of carbonic acid gas, as he contends, their mere 
 formation is no proof of life. 
 
 John Hunter believes that the chyle is alive, and some that 
 vivification commences even in the stomach, and Albinus grants 
 life even to the excrement. But the excretions must be regarded 
 as dead matter, useless and foreign to the system, and they all 
 run with the greatest rapidity into decomposition. In operating 
 for retention of urine, the surgeon finds this fluid abominably 
 foetid; the faeces become so when not discharged in due time; 
 and the neglect of washing the surface is the source of filth and 
 disease. 
 
 The essential nature of life is an impenetrable mystery, and no 
 more a subject for philosophical inquiry than the essential nature 
 of attraction or of heat. To attempt explaining the phenomena 
 of life by a vital fluid is only increasing the intricacy of the 
 subject by an unfounded hypothesis , and always reminds me of 
 Mr. Dugald Stewart’s remark, — “ That there is even some reason 
 for doubting, from the crude speculations on medical and chemical 
 subjects which are daily offered to the public, whether it (the 
 proper mode of studying nature) be yet understood so completely 
 as is commonly imagined, and whether a fuller illustration of the 
 rules of philosophising, than Bacon or his followers have given, 
 might not be useful even to physical inquirers.” f We see matter 
 in a certain state possessed of a certain power which we term life, 
 and the object of physiology is merely to observe its effects, just 
 as it is the object of chemistry to observe the circumstances of 
 the affinity of different bodies and of physics to observe other 
 phenomena of matter, without vainly speculating on the essence 
 of affinity or the essence of matter, to comprehend which our 
 faculties are, in their nature, incompetent. By attributing life, 
 the power of attraction, &c. to subtle and mobile fluids, we not 
 only do not advance a single step, for we have still to explain 
 what these fluids are, and how they obtain then powers, just as we 
 had before in regard to common matter ; but we make the addi- 
 tional mysteries of their being united with ordinary matter, and 
 so united that life appears a power possessed by it. The editors 
 of a medical review have in vain searched John Hunter’s works 
 
 f Elements of the Philosophy o f the Human Mind, vol. i. p. 8. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 65 
 
 for such an hypothesis , f and Mr. Lawrence has had no better 
 success, s so that I apprehend his meaning has been misunderstood 
 by those who constitute him its patron . 11 Granting for a moment 
 that life depends upon a peculiar, fine fluid, we have still to 
 account for mind, because life is not mind, — a cabbage is as much 
 gifted with life as the wisest man. Yet those whose faith makes 
 life a subtle fluid strangely imagine that the doctrine of a soul is 
 thereby advanced. The life of a brute requires a subtle fluid as 
 much as the life of a man, and of a cabbage as much as the life of 
 a brute. 
 
 We have reason to believe that life never originates, but began 
 at the creation, and is communicated to assimilated matter and 
 propagated from parent to offspring (XLII. D). It is the property 
 of organised systems, producing various effects by various kinds 
 of organisation, but is not quite peculiar to organised matter, 
 because capable of being possessed by matter in a fluid state . 1 
 
 The animal functions demonstrate mind. This is seated in 
 the brain, to which the spinal marrow, nerves, and voluntary 
 muscles are subservient. Mind is the functional power of the 
 
 f Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 1817, p. 373. In the Treatise on the 
 Blood (p. 89. sq.), John Hunter says, “ Life is a property (not a subtle fluid) 
 we do not understand.” This property he conceives to reside in a certain matter 
 similar to the materials of the brain ; diffused through the body and even con- 
 tained in the blood. “ The brain,” he adds, “ is a mass of this matter, not 
 diffused through any thing, for the purpose of that thing, but constituting an 
 organ in itself.” This materia vitce is, therefore, not subtle, but pretty solid, and 
 no other than medullary matter ; and Vauquelin says he has lately discovered a 
 fatty matter in the blood, and which M. Chevreuil thinks he proves to be the 
 same as the substance of the brain and nerves. But the subtle-fluidists would 
 not tolerate gross fatty matter, and J. Hunter calls life a property. 
 
 6 Lectures on the Physiology, Zoology, and Natural History of Man, p. 84. 
 
 h J. Abernethy, Lectures delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons. 1814. 
 
 1 As the fluids which form the embryo must be endowed with life, organisation 
 cannot be the cause of life ; but in truth, organisation is the effect of life, although 
 when produced it becomes an instrument of life. The erroneousness of the 
 French doctrine, — that “ life is the result of organisation,” was refuted in the 
 Annals of Medicine and Surgery. (1816, Sept. p. 346. 386.) The error appears 
 to have arisen in some measure from the want of definition, — the word life 
 being used sometimes properly for the power, sometimes improperly for the 
 result. Even if the result of life, — the functions of a part, should be called its 
 life, life could not be said to be the result of organisation, but of a power to 
 which organisation is an instrument. The Greeks had distinct appellations for 
 the cause and the result ; the former they termed j the latter foil/. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 living brain. As I cannot conceive life any more than the power 
 of attraction unless possessed by matter, so I cannot conceive 
 mind unless possessed by a brain, or by some nervous organ, 
 whatever name we may choose to give it, endowed with life. 
 (XLIV. F). I speak of terrestrial or animal mind ; with angelic and 
 divine nature we have nothing to do, and of them we know, in the 
 same respects, nothing. To call the human mind positively a 
 ray of the divinity, ( Divince particula aurce, k Ex ipso Deo decerp- 
 tus, Ex universa mente delibcitus ■) appears to me absolute non- 
 sense. Brutes are as really endowed with mind, — with a con- 
 sciousness of personality, with feelings, desire, and will, as man. m 
 Every child is conscious that it thinks with its head, and common 
 language designates this part as the seat of mind. n Observation 
 shows that superiority of mind in the animal creation is exactly 
 commensurate with superiority of brain (XLIV. F);° that activity 
 
 k Horace. 
 
 I Cicero, Dc Seneclute <$• Qucest. Tuscul. 
 
 111 See Gall, 1. c. t. 1. p. 56. sqq. Aristotle no sooner asserts that a share of 
 divinity is bestowed on man “ only of all animals,” than he is obliged to retract, 
 and say “ or most of all animals,” — t) pdXurro. iravTwv. De part, animal, l.ii. c. 10. 
 
 II A stupid person is honoured with the expressions numb-scut/, thick. /icar/, 
 zAUXe-pated, shaliow-pato!, badly furnished in the upper story ; a clever person 
 with strong -headed, \ong-headed , having plenty of brains ; a madman is said to 
 be wrong in the head, touched in the noddle, &c. A person w hose memory or 
 power of attention is impaired, says he has no head. Sec. When a catarrh chiefly 
 affects the head, we complain of stupidity, because “ we have such a cold in the 
 head," &c. 
 
 ° “ The same progression which exists in the gradual perfection of animal 
 organisation, as far as regards vegetable life only, is observed in the gradual 
 perfection of the nervous system, and of animal life which depends upon it. 
 Comparative anatomy has followed the gradual perfection of animals, from the 
 most simple absorbent vessels to the most complicated apparatus of mastication, 
 deglutition, and digestion, — to the most perfect circulation. With every fresh 
 viscus, every fresh apparatus for sensation, is discovered a fresh function, and 
 this function is more complicated in proportion as the organisation of the viscus 
 or apparatus of sensation is more perfect. The stomach, kidneys, lungs, heart, 
 eyes, ears, are the more complicated as their functions become so. 
 
 “ The same gradation may be demonstrated in the structure of the brains of the 
 different species. I have demonstrated in the preceding chapter, that the exist- 
 ence of each moral quality and intellectual faculty, depends solely upon the 
 presence of certain determinate cerebral parts, and not upon the whole mass of 
 brain. It follows, that the number of the faculties is in direct proportion to 
 the integrant parts of the brain. In insects, Ash, and amphibia, the nervous mass 
 contained in the cerebral reservoir, is still divided into several distinct masses. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 67 
 
 of mind and of brain are coequal ; and that as long as the brain 
 is endowed with life and remains uninjured, it, like all other 
 
 The greater part of these are not integrant parts of the brain, properly so called ; 
 they are ganglia, from which arise the nerves of smell, hearing, sight, &c. The 
 two hemispheres, properly so called, are placed behind the two ganglia of 
 the olfactory nerves, and are the more complicated as the industrial instincts 
 are more numerous ; the cerebellum in these animals generally forms a hollow 
 pouch, sometimes placed horizontally, sometimes folded together. 
 
 “ In birds, the two hemispheres are already more considerable, although distinct 
 convolutions cannot be discerned. The cerebellum still consists merely of its 
 middle or fundamental part ; but already appears composed of many rings placed 
 side by side. 
 
 “ In the small mammalia, the shrew-mouse, mouse, rat, squirrel, weasel, &c. 
 convolutions are not yet discoverable. But as they are already distinctly found 
 in other larger rodentia, the beaver, kangaroo, Sec., we may suppose that they 
 equally exist in them. 
 
 “ In the larger mammalia, the cat, pole-cat, marten, fox, dog, ape, the 
 convolutions are more distinct and numerous, but their form varies according to 
 the species. 
 
 “ In the dolphin, elephant, and man, they are more numerous and deep than in 
 the beaver, kangaroo, cat, &c., and their form and direction vary completely ac- 
 cording to the species. 
 
 “ In all the mammalia, the cerebellum possesses, besides the middle or funda- 
 mental part, two lateral parts, which are more or less complicated, according to 
 the species ; and as the soi-clisant pons varolii, or the soi-disant cerebral ganglia, 
 i. e. the transverse layers of nervous bands are only the commmissure or junction 
 of the lateral parts of the cerebellum, they are found in all the mammalia, and 
 in none of the ovipara. 
 
 “ The number of the integral parts, or of the convolutions of the brain, varies 
 equally in the different species of mammalia ; in some, the anterior lobes of the 
 hemispheres are larger or more elevated ; in others again, the inferior parts of 
 the anterior lobes are nearly wanting. The middle lobes, and the other con- 
 volutions, present similar varieties. 
 
 “ In this way, the integrant parts of the brain augment in number and develop- 
 ment, as we pass from a less perfect to a more perfect animal, till we arrive at 
 the brain of man, who, in the anterior-superior, and in the superior region of the 
 frontal bone, possesses several parts of which other animals are deprived, and by 
 means of which he is endowed with the most eminent qualities and faculties, 
 with reason, and the feeling of religion and the existence of God.” Gall, 
 1. c. t. ii. p. 364. sqq. “ Some pretend to discover a striking resemblance 
 between the brain of an orang-outang and that of man. But, in the first 
 place, the difference of their volume is as five to one ; their convolutions differ 
 considerably in number and structure; the anterior lobes, especially, , are con- 
 tracted into a cone, flattened above, hollow below, &c. ; and the difference is still 
 more remarkable in other simite.” t. vi. p. 298. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 organs, can perform its functions, and mind continues ; but, as 
 in ail other organs, when its life ceases, its power to perform its 
 function ceases, and the mind ceases ; when disease or mechanical 
 injury affects it, the mind is affected, — inflammation of the stomach 
 causes vomiting, of the brain delirium, a blow upon the loins 
 causes nephritis or haematuria, a blow upon the head stuns ; if ori- 
 ginally constituted defective, the mind is defective ;P if fully 
 developed and properly acted on, the mind is vigorous ; accordingly 
 as it varies with age, in quality and bulk, is the mind also varied, — 
 the mind of the child is weak and very excitable, of the adult 
 vigorous and firm, and of the old man weak and dull, exactly like 
 
 p See Gall, l.c. t.i. p. 196. sqq., and t.ii. p.822. sqq. “ Willis has described 
 the brain of a young man imbecile from birth ; its volume is scarcely £th 
 part of that of an ordinary human brain. M. Bonn, professor at Amsterdam, 
 has two little crania of idiots, and the brain of an imbecille who attained his 
 twenty-fifth year. He was so stupid, that he was shown for money as an 
 African savage, &c. “ I have observed heads equally small in many living 
 
 idiots from birth. All these crania and heads are 13 or 14 inches in circum- 
 ference, and 11 or 12 inches from the root of the nose to the foramen occi- 
 pitale.” “ With from 14 to 17 inches in circumference; and about 10 or 12 
 from the root of the nose to the foramen occipitale, we have more or less stupidity, 
 a more or less complete incapacity to fix the attention upon one object ; uncertain 
 and transitory feelings and passions ; confusion of ideas, &c.” “ Heads of 18 or 
 
 18§ inches in circumference, are still small, although they permit a regular exer- 
 cise of the faculties ; they possess but a sad mediocrity of talent, a spirit of servile 
 imitation, &c. ; an extreme deficiency of seizing the relation between cause and 
 effect ; a want of self-government, and often few desires. Still some qualities or 
 faculties may be considerable, because particular organs may be greatly developed, 
 forming a striking contrast with the mediocrity of the rest. But as we approach 
 larger brains, we see intellectual faculties of greater magnitude, till we arrive at 
 heads 21 or 22 inches in circumference, — the dimensions at which men obtain 
 the height of intelligence.” 
 
 “ The dimensions of the brain,” says Dr. Magendie, “ are proportioned to 
 those of the head. In this respect there is a great difference in individuals. 
 The volume of the brain is generally in direct proportion to the capacity of 
 the mind.” “ It is rarely found that a man distinguished by his mental faculties 
 has not a large head.” Precis de Physiologie, t. 1. p. 184. 
 
 Dr. Marshall, an anatomical lecturer in London from two-and-forty to six- 
 and-twenty years ago, taught that the brain was the organ of mind, its original 
 defective conformation a source of idiocy, its disease the cause of insanity; and 
 gave many dissections of maniacs, and an excellent sketch of the varieties of the 
 disease. Morbid Anatomy of the Brain, <Jt. collected from the Papers of the late 
 Andrew Marshall, M.D., by S. Sawrey, London, 1815. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 69 
 
 the body;’ and the character of the mind of an individual agrees 
 with the character of his body, being equally excitable, languid, 
 or torpid, evidently because the brain is of the same character as 
 
 ’ If of children it is said, 
 
 “ Inter se quas pro levibus noxiis iras gerunt? 
 
 Quapropter? quia enim qui eos gubernat animus, infirmum gerunt.” 
 
 Terence, Hecyra. 
 
 The old man, — “ Res omnes timide gelideque ministrat, 
 
 Dilator, spe longus, incrs — ” Horace, Ars Poetica. 
 
 or, in the plainer language of Shakspeare, “ Old men have grey beards, their 
 faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and they 
 have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.” 
 
 Hamlet, Act 2. Sc. 2. 
 
 Mr. Dugald Stewart allows that “ In the case of old men, it is generally found 
 that a decline of the faculties keeps pace with the decay of bodily health and 
 vigour. The few exceptions that occur to the universality of this fact, only prove 
 that there are some diseases fatal to life, which do not injure those parts of the 
 body with which the intellectual operations are more immediately connected.” 
 Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p. 233. 
 
 “ Prasterea gigni pariter cum corpore, et una 
 
 Crescere sentimus, pariterque senescere, mentem.” Lucretius, lib. i. 
 
 “ In new-born children, it is difficult to discern, without maceration in spirits 
 of wine, any traces of fibres in the great collections of grey, reddish substances, 
 or the great cerebral ganglia which supply, reinforce, and perfect, or which, ac- 
 cording to the opinion of others, give activity to, the hemispheres. The nervous 
 fibres are more visible in the middle and posterior lobes than in the anterior. 
 The fibrous structure of the white substance of the cerebellum also becomes 
 apparent gradually, and in proportion to its development. All the nervous 
 fibres are at this period still so involved in the more or less reddish and gelatinous 
 substance, and in blood-vessels, that all the brain looks like a nervous pulp or 
 jelly. 
 
 “ The only functions of the infant, at this age, are very imperfect, and are those 
 of the five senses, of voluntary motion, hunger, the sensation of being comfort- 
 able or uncomfortable, and the want of sleep. 
 
 “ After some months, the parts of the brain situated near the anterior-superior 
 region of the forehead, grow more rapidly than the other parts. The forehead, 
 from being flat, becomes prominent, and the child begins to fix its attention upon 
 external objects, to compare, and form abstract ideas, — to generalise. 
 
 “ The whole brain is developed in succession, until, at the age of from twenty to 
 forty, it has attained its full growth relatively to each individual. The cerebellum, 
 likewise, which is smaller than the cerebrum in proportion as the subject is 
 younger, is developed and perfectly formed towards the age of from eighteen to 
 twenty. The youth, the young man, and the young girl, take an interest in 
 each other; and the talents and inclinations are exercised and perfected till they 
 obtain maturity. From thirty or forty years of age, the cerebrum and cerebellum 
 
 F 3 
 
70 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 the rest of the body to which it belongs, — the female mind ex- 
 ceeds the male in excitability as much as her body ; r the qualities 
 of the mind are also hereditary, s which they could not be, unless 
 they were, like our other qualities, corporeal conditions ; and the 
 mind is often disordered upon the disappearance of a bodily com- 
 plaint, just as other organs, besides the brain, are affected under 
 similar circumstances, — the retrocession of an eruption may affect 
 the lungs, causing asthma, the bowels, causing enteritis, or the 
 brain, causing insanity, — phthisis and insanity sometimes alter- 
 nate with each other, just like affections of other organs; the 
 laws of the mind are precisely those of the functions of all other 
 organs, — a certain degree of excitement strengthens it, too 
 much exhausts it, physical agents affect it, and some specifi- 
 cally, as is the case with other functions, for example, narcotics. 
 The argument of Bishop Butler, that the soul is immortal and 
 independent of matter, because in fatal diseases the mind often 
 
 remain nearly stationary till the fiftieth or seventieth year, according to individual 
 constitution. The same is the case with the moral and intellectual powers. 
 Certain parts of the brain, however, especially those in the anterior-inferior region 
 of the forehead, have at this time already begun to diminish ; the memory is less 
 faithful, and the imagination less ardent, and hint to us the approach of old age 
 and the decline of our faculties. 
 
 “ At length all the cerebral mass gradually loses its nervous turgescence; it 
 diminishes, wastes, shrinks (“ the convolutions lie farther from each other 
 t. i. p. 192.) ; the consistence of its two substances undergoes alteration. The 
 moral and intellectual powers sink in proportion ; the inclinations, the talents, 
 disappear, the affairs of the world assume a gloomy aspect, the past only is 
 considered good ; and, at the age of decrepitude, there remains only imbecility, 
 the weakness of a second childhood.” Gall, 1. c. t. ii. p. 1.56. sqq. Also 
 t. iii. p. 28. sqq. Dr. Magendie allows that “ the brain is almost liquid in the 
 foetus, firmer in infancy, and still more so in manhood:” (Pr/cis dc Physiologic.) 
 that above the age of seventy, the weight of the brain is on the average T ' :> less 
 than in the prime of life ; and that the convolutions are then often distant half an 
 inch from each other, and their surface very distant from the cranium, as Co- 
 tugno had observed. Joum. de Physiol, t. vii. p. 5. 87. 
 
 r “ Mulieres sunt, ferme ut pueri, levi sententia.” — Terence, Hccyra. 
 
 s “ Parentibus liberi similes sunt non vultum modo et corporis formam, sed 
 animi indolem, et virtutes, et vitia. — Claudia geus diu Romae floruit impigra, 
 ferox, superba : Eadem illachrymabilem Tiberium, tristissimum Tyrannum 
 
 produxit : tandem in iramanem Caligulam et Claudium, et Agrippinam, ipsum- 
 que demum Neronem, post sexcentos annos desitura.” — Gregory, Conspectus 
 Medicines Theorelicce. So true is the verse 
 
 Et patrum in natos abeunt, cum semine, mores. 
 
OE HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 71 
 
 remains vigorous to the last,' is perfectly groundless, for any 
 function will remain vigorous to the last if the organ which 
 performs it is not the seat of the disease, nor much connected 
 by sympathy or in other modes with the organ which is the seat 
 of the disease, — the stomach often calls regularly for food and 
 digests it vigorously, while the lungs are almost completely con- 
 sumed by ulceration. All the cases that are adduced to prove 
 the little dependence of the mind upon the brain, are adduced in 
 opposition to the myriads of others that daily occur in the usual 
 course of nature, and are evidently regarded as extraordinary 
 by those who bring them forward. An exact parallel to each 
 may be found in the affections of every other organ, and each 
 admits of so easy an explanation that it may be always truly 
 said, “ Exceptio probat regulam.” u 
 
 1 The Analogy of Religion, natural and revealed, to the Constitution and Course 
 of Nature. By Joseph Butler, LL.D. Lord Bishop of Durham, p. 33. 
 
 u I will not insult the understanding of my readers by showing that we have 
 no authentic instance of the real absence of brain in the cranium of a being 
 possessed of a mind. The records of medicine no less teem with wonders than 
 those of theology. The miracles of the Fathers and of the Romish Church may 
 be matched by cases not only of mind without brain, or some similar organ, but 
 of human impregnation without males, or by males without testes, and of human 
 foetuses nourished without communication with the mother. 
 
 In most cases where the mind is said to have been vigorous when the state 
 of the body at large, or of the brain alone, rendered the perfect performance of the 
 cerebral functions improbable in the eyes of the relaters, I believe the mental 
 power has been greatly overrated, — that, because the individual merely talked col- 
 lectedly, he was imagined sufficient for the exertions of his best health. 
 
 The part of the brain affected by disease may have been one whose function is 
 not intellectual, but merely relating to the feelings, or may have related to 
 intellectual faculties whose state was not noticed by the narrators. In truth, the 
 narrators give us no satisfactory account of the feelings and intellectual powers of 
 the patients, nor of the exact portions of the brain affected ; nor could they, being 
 unacquainted with phrenology; and they also forget that the cerebral organs are 
 all double. (See Gall, 1. c. t. ii. 188. sqq., 2 46. sq. ; and a paper by Dr. Andrew 
 Combe, on the effects of injuries of the brain upon the manifestation of the 
 mind, in the Transactions of the Phrenological Society, Edinb. 1824.) 
 
 If after insanity no trace of disease is sometimes discoverable in the brain, lec 
 us remember that the same is sometimes the case after epilepsy and various un- 
 doubted diseases of the brain, and sometimes with respect to the stomach after 
 chronic dyspepsia. Diseases maybe functional only. Nay, when our senses are 
 not nice enough to discover structural affection of the brain in insanity, &c. we 
 have generally strong presumptive evidence of its affection, in the thickening or 
 excessive secretions of its membranes, — points more easily ascertained than equal 
 changes in the delicate texture of the brain. 
 
 v 4. 
 
72 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 I have placed the preceding arguments alone, but to them may 
 be subjoined another equally demonstrative as any, — that the 
 strength of the various intellectual powers and inclinations ac- 
 cords with the size of the various parts of the brain; that ex- 
 actly as the various parts of the brain are successively developed 
 is the character developed, and as they shrink with age does the 
 character again change. 
 
 In contending that the mind is a power of the living brain, and 
 the exercise of it the functions of that organ, I contend for merely 
 a physical fact, and no Christian who has just conceptions of the 
 Author of Nature will hesitate to look boldly at Nature as she is, 
 lest he should discover facts opposite to the pronunciations of 
 his revelation ; for the word and the works of the Almighty cannot 
 contradict each other. Lord Bacon accordingly, in a very memor- 
 able part of his writings, directs the physical enquirer to be unin- 
 fluenced by religious opinions, x as the more independently truth 
 is pursued the sooner will it be gained, and the sooner will the 
 real meaning of the divine statement of natural things, and the 
 conformity of this to physical fact, be established. 
 
 The assertion, however, that the mind is a power of the living 
 brain, is not an assertion that it is material, for a power or property 
 of matter cannot be matter. 
 
 Those who thus attempt to prove the substantial distinctness of the mind and 
 brain, forget that their facts, or rather arguments, are equally strong against what 
 they all admit, — the necessary connection of the mind and brain in this life, and 
 are therefore grounded on what, if true, were violations of the course of nature. 
 
 x Si quis animum diligentius advertat, non minus periculi naturali philosophies 
 ex istiusmodi fallaci in iniquo foedere, quam ex apertis inimicitiis, imminere. 
 Tali enim fcedere et societate accepta, in philosophia tantum comprehendi, aucta 
 autem, vel audita, vel in melius mutata, etiam severius et pertinacius excludi. 
 Denique versus incrementa et novas veluti oras et regiones philosophia?, omnia 
 ex parte religionis, pravarum suspicionum et impotentis fastidii plena esse. Alios 
 siquidem simplicius subvereri, ne forte altior in naturam inquisitio ultra datum 
 et concession sobrietatis terminum penetret, &c. &c. Quare satis constabat in 
 hujusmodi opinionibus multum infirmitatis, quin et invidias et fermenti non parum 
 subesse, &c. — Cogitata et Visa, vol. ix. p. 167. Svo. edition. In the same pa- 
 ragraph he remarks, with regret, that no writers are more popular than those who 
 pompously set forth the union of divinity and philosophy, i. e. faith and sense, as 
 if it were not illegitimate. “ Haud alias opiniones et disputationes magis secundis 
 vends ferri reperies, quam eorum, qui, theologias et philosophias, conjugium veluti 
 legitimum, multa pompa et solemnitate celebrant, et grata reruin varietate animos 
 hominem pemiulcentes, interim divina et humana inauspicato permiscent.” 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 73 
 
 Neither is it an assertion that this power cannot be a something 
 immortal, subtle, immaterial, diffused through and connected with 
 the brain. A physical enquirer has to do with only what he 
 observes. He finds this power, but attempts not to explain it. 
 He simply says the living brain has this power, medullary matter 
 though it be. Seeing that the brain thinks, and feels, and wills, as 
 clearly as that the liver has the power of producing bile, and does 
 produce it, and a salt the power of assuming a certain form, 
 gnd does crystallise, he leaves others at liberty to fancy an 
 hypothesis of its power being a subtle, immaterial, immortal 
 substance, exactly as they fancy life to be a subtle fluid, or, 
 perhaps, though very extraordinarily, the same subtle fluid (if 
 subtlety is immateriality and immortality), y elucidating the subject 
 no more than in the case of life, and equally increasing the num- 
 ber of its difficulties 2 (p. 64.) ; as though we were not created 
 
 y The hypothesis of a subtle mobile fluid is downright materialism — the doc- 
 trine of Lucretius. 
 
 “ Quoniam est animi natura reperta 
 
 Mobilis egregie, perquam constare necesse est 
 
 Corporibus parvis et levibus atque rotundis Lib. iii. 204. 
 
 Bacon complained (l.c. ) that those who first attempted to explain thunder and 
 tempests were accused of impiety by religious persons, who thought that religion 
 demanded these phenomena to be referred to the immediate operation of the Deity. 
 The lovers of subtle fluids and spirits, conversely and as strangely, think religion 
 served by interposing a subtle fluid between common matter and the Deity. Van 
 Helmont was remarkably fortunate, for, after severe meditation, he fell into an 
 intellectual vision, and saw his own soul : “ Magna mox quies me invasit, et incidi 
 in somnium intellectuale satisque memorabile.” It was very small and had no 
 organs of generation : “ Vidi enim animam meam satis exiguam, specie humana, 
 sexus tamen discrimine liberam. ” Ortus Medicines, Confessio auctoris, p. 13. 
 He gave the soul, however, a close and dirty dwelling, for he placed it, not in the 
 pineal gland, but in the stomach. 
 
 z Locke ( Second Reply to the Bishop of Worcester, p. 477. 8vo. edition) in 
 disparaging philosophical reasons for the immortality of the soul, says, 
 
 “ Dr. Cudworth affirms that there was never any of the ancients before Chris- 
 tianity that held the soul’s future permanency after death, (i. e. from its inherent 
 immortality) who did not likewise assert its pre-existence.” If we necessarily 
 shall exist to all eternity, we then must have existed from all eternity ; yet we are 
 not aware of having been alive before our brains. Sterne’s fine ridicule of the 
 absurdities introduced by this hypothesis of a soul, and that independent of the 
 brain, into the Romish church, is well known. A great French man-midwife 
 acquaints us that he baptised a little abortion of the magnitude of a skinned 
 mouse ; and on another occasion, when a woman was miscarrying in her fourth 
 
74 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 beings or not altogether ignorant what matter is, or of what it is 
 capable and incapable ; as though matter exhibited nothing but 
 extension, impenetrability, attraction, and inertness ; and as 
 though an Almighty could not, if it seemed good to him, have 
 endowed it, as he most evidently has, with the superaddition of 
 life, and even of feeling and will. a 
 
 Nor does this assertion imply that the resurrection from the 
 dead is impossible or even improbable. The physical enquirer, 
 finding the mind a power of the brain, and abstaining from 
 hypothesis, must conclude that, in the present order of things, 
 when the brain ceases to live the power necessarily ceases, — that, 
 
 month, and the child’s posteriors presented, that he sprinkled water upon them 
 and baptised them, in case the little thing should turn out alive. (De la Motte, 
 Traite complel des Accouche mens, p. 243. 2-16.) Dr. Fodere in his noted Me- 
 decine Legale , 1813, (vol. ii. p. 62.) gravely suggests that baptism may always be 
 administered by a squirt, after the membranes are pierced, — “ Quant au l>ap- 
 tfime, il me semble qu’il sera toujours facile de l’administrer, aprfes avoir perce 
 les membranes, par le moyen d’un seringue a injection.” A good idea of what 
 follows in its train may be collected from Dante’s tiresome account of the intro- 
 duction of the soul into the body, beginning, “ Sangue perfetto che mai non si 
 beve,” &c. — Purgatorio, canto xxv. It is one parent of necromancy, of the belief 
 in ghosts, and of all the popish “ trumpery” respecting purgatory and the worship 
 of dead people called saints, of the opinions held by many respecting our oc- 
 cupations between death and doomsday, as if a future state began before ; and 
 old writers sicken one with their notions about the period at which the soul enters 
 the body, when it first existed, how it was engaged before it united with the body, 
 and how it employs itself after its separation till the day of judgment, &c. 
 “ Hierom, Austin, and other fathers of the church, hold that the soul is immortal, 
 created of nothing, and so infused into the child or embryo in his mother’s womb 
 six months after the conception ; some say at three days, some six weeks, others 
 otherwise.” Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 1. s. 1. m. 2. subs. 9. Where 
 the depot of souls is ; how they learn when a youth has impregnated an ovarian 
 vesicle, and how they fly to and get into it ; how' it happens that the qualities of 
 the soul correspond with the brain, and are as hereditary as those of the bodv ; 
 whether this depends upon souls varying, and, if so, how a soul finds a body just 
 corresponding to itself ; or upon the soul being obliged to conform to the character 
 of the brain, and thus suffering by the brain’s defects (XXX. VI. G.): we are not 
 satisfactorily informed. 
 
 3 “ All the difficulties that are raised against the thinking of matter, from our 
 ignorance or narrow conceptions, stand not at all in the way of the power of God, 
 if he pleases to ordain it so.” The faculties of brutes prove, “ either that God 
 can and doth give to some parcels of matter a power of perception and thinking, 
 or that all animals have immaterial and consequently immortal souls as well as 
 men ; and to say that fleas and mites, &c. have immortal souls as well as men, 
 will possibly be looked on as going a great way to serve an hypothesis.” Lockej 
 Second Reply to the Bishop of Worcester , p. 466. Rvo. edit. 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATUIiE. 
 
 75 
 
 n the language of scripture, Dust we are and unto dust we all 
 return, — that our being is utterly extinguished and we go back 
 to the insensibility of the earth whence we were taken. b Our 
 consciousness of personality can alford no reason for imagining 
 ourselves immortal and distinct from earth, more than brutes, 
 for this the fly possesses equally with the philosopher about 
 whose head it buzzes. c The moral government of the world, 
 the sublime reach of our acuteness, the great improvableness of 
 our characters, — 
 
 “ this pleasing hope, this fond desire. 
 
 This longing after immortality, 
 
 this secret dread and inward horror 
 
 Of falling into nought,” A 
 
 have been thought to completely harmonise with a life hereafter, 
 but certainly fall so short of proof as to have left the wisest of 
 antiquity, — Solomon, Socrates, Cicero, &c. — in uncertainty, e 
 when they saw how death reduces us to our pristine elements. 
 The hope of immortality inspired by such reflections, assisted by 
 the desire of explaining every thing in some way or other, first, 
 I apprehend, made men attempt to find, in the imagined ethereal 
 essence of the soul, a reason for our not totally perishing as our 
 senses would lead us to suppose. But, because we refuse to 
 listen to a mere hypothesis respecting spirit, we are not necessa- 
 rily to deny the resurrection. For if a divine revelation pronounce 
 that there shall be another order of things in which the mind shall 
 exist again, we ought firmly to believe it, because neither our 
 experience nor our reason can inform us what will be hereafter, 
 and we must be senseless to start objections on a point beyond 
 the penetration of our faculties. f The scripture so pronounces, 
 
 b Miscellaneous Tracts, ^c. by Richard Watson, D.D. F. R.S. Lord Bishop 
 of Llandaff'. Sermon iii. p. 399. sq. 
 
 0 Heathens have, very consistently with this reason for immortality, given it to 
 the fancied souls of brutes : Ulysses is made by Homer to behold the shade of 
 Orion — 
 
 Qripas &fX8 CiAevvra, kcct ’ acrcpoSeAbv Aetiiwva 
 
 Tour avrbs KaTeiretyvev iv oloiroAoi<ri.v opeerm. Odyss. A. 571. 
 
 And “ the pious and benevolent Bonnet promised brutes immortality.” 
 
 d Addison, Cato. See a full enumeration in Mr. Dugald Stewart’s Outlines, 
 &c. p. 235. sq. 
 
 c Bishop Watson, 1. c. Sermon vi. p. 504. sq. 
 
 f “ Nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentence of 
 reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is a matter of 
 faith, which can have no authority against the plain dictates of reason. But 
 
76 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 — not that we are naturally immortal, but that “ in Adam (by 
 nature) all die,”? — have our being utterly extinguished , 11 and in 
 another order of things, — when the fashion of this world shall 
 have passed away and time shall be no more, that in Christ (by 
 the free, additional, gift of God, granted through the obedience 
 of Christ, but, consequently, by a miracle , not by our nature, 1 ) — 
 we shall all again be made alive. St. Paul declares the resurrec- 
 tion to be “a mystery it must, in truth, be a miracle, and there- 
 fore the enquiry “ how can these things be”, altogether fruitless. 
 The miracle of Christ’s resurrection, to which the scriptures refer 
 us as the foundation of the hope of a future state, would not have 
 been necessary to convince us of a necessary truth, discoverable 
 by sense and reason. That the promises of the New Testament 
 are the proper and only foundation of our hopes of immortality, 
 was the opinion of the late Regius Professor of Divinity in the 
 University of Cambridge, whose powerful intellect and sincere 
 love of truth render his opinions weightier than the decrees of 
 councils. “ I have no hope of a future existence,” says he, 
 “ except that which is grounded on the truth of Christianity.” k 
 
 there are many things wherein we have very imperfect notions, or none at all ; 
 and other things, of whose past, present, or future existence, hy the actual use 
 of our faculties, we can have no knowledge ; these, as being beyond the discovery 
 of our natural faculties, and above reason, are, when revealed, the proper matter 
 of faith. Thus, that part of the angels rebelled against God, and thereby lost 
 their first happy state, and that the dead shall rise and live again ; these and the 
 like, being beyond the discovery of reason, are purely matters of faith, with 
 which reason has nothing directly to do." — Locke, Essay on Human Under- 
 standing, iv. ch. 18. 
 
 Reason’s province is only to examine the proofs of the authenticity of a reve- 
 lation, and faith should thus be founded on reason. But how few of the human 
 race ever think, or are even capable, of carefully examining them ! And of those 
 who do examine them, how few do not commence the examination with their 
 minds unconsciously half made up ! And yet the greater number look down with 
 a self-complacent and uncharitable feeling upon even good men whose opinions 
 differ in any respect from their own, forgetting that good conduct is the only 
 test of goodness, — that grapes cannot come from thorns, nor figs from thistles. 
 
 s Bishop Watson, Apology for the Bible, Letter x. near the end. 
 
 11 Idem. Miscellan. Tracts. 1. c. 
 
 * Idem. Apology, 1. c. 
 
 k Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, D.D. F. R. S. late Lord Bishop 
 of Llandaff. — Yol. i. p. 107. See also a very decisive passage, beginning 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 77 
 
 While those are wrong who think there can be any thing like an 
 argument against a future life in another order of things, if de- 
 clared by a revelation, it is strange that others should think it 
 necessary to attempt rendering the pronunciations of scripture 
 more probable, and that by an hypothesis which is at best but the 
 remains of unenlightened times , * 1 and should require any as- 
 
 “ As a Deist I have little expectation ; as a Christian I have no doubt, of a 
 future state,” in his Apology for the Bible, Letter x. near the end. 
 
 Locke argues, “ that all the great ends of religion and morality are secured 
 barely by the immortality of the soul, without a necessary supposition that it is 
 immaterial.” — First Beply, p. 34. 
 
 Mr. Dugald Stewart concedes that “ the proper use of the doctrine of the 
 immateriality of the soul is not to demonstrate that the soul is physically and 
 necessarily immortal.” 1. c. p. 227. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Rush, of America, remarks upon this subject, “ that the 
 w riters in favour of the immortality of the soul have done that truth great injury 
 by connecting it necessarily with its immateriality. The immortality of the soul 
 depends upon the will of the Deity, and not upon the supposed properties of 
 spirit. Matter is in its own nature as immortal as spirit. It is resolvable by 
 heat and moisture into a variety of forms ; but it requires the same almighty 
 hand to annihilate it, that it did to create it. I know of no arguments to prove 
 the immortality of the soul but such as we derive from the Christian revelation.” 
 — Medical Inquiries and Observations, vol. ii. p. 15. 
 
 “ I rather think,” says Dr. Priestley, “ that the whole of man is of some uni- 
 form composition, and that the property of perception, as well as the other 
 powers that are termed mental, is the result (whether necessary or not) of such 
 an organised structure as the brain. Consequently, that the whole man be- 
 comes extinct at death, and that we have no hope of surviving the grave, but 
 what is derived from the scheme of revelation.” First Introductory Essay to his 
 Edition of Hartley, p. xxiii. sq. 
 
 1 The more uninformed the age, the greater the disposition to explain every 
 thing. The savage personifies the winds and the heavenly bodies ; the ancients 
 fancied all matter endowed with a spirit — spiritus intus alit. Philo and Origen 
 maintain that the stars are so many souls, incorruptible and immortal. In the 
 older writings of the moderns, even in those of the father of experiment and 
 observation — Lord Bacon, the properties of matter are referred to spirits : — 
 “ from them and their motions principally proceed arefaction, colliquation, con- 
 coction, maturation, putrefaction, vivification, and most of the effects of nature 
 “ for tangible parts in bodies are stupid things, and the spirits do, in effect, all.” 
 ( Natural History, cent. i. 98.) — In fact, some authors believe in three souls — 
 the vegetable, sensible, and natural — for vegetables, brutes, and man ; those who 
 have the second having also the first, and those who have the third having all 
 three. Paracelsus believed in four. These old writers, in providing a spirit for 
 every thmg, were more consistent than the moderns, who require it for only life 
 
78 
 
 OP HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 surance besides that of the gospel, which, they read, “ has 
 
 and mind ; because a subtle fluid or spirit is quite as necessary to explain the 
 arrangement of saline particles into the regular form of a beautiful crystal. 
 All these notions still exist among the vulgar ; and the last remaining among 
 the better informed, though it too is rapidly dying away, relates to mind. Those 
 who upbraid others for refusing their assent to this hypothesis, may recollect 
 that Anaxagoras and many more were accused of atheism and impiety, because 
 they denied that the heavenly bodies were animated and intelligent. Even in 
 the last reign the Newtonian doctrines were thought irreligious by the Hutchin- 
 sonian sect, to which Bishop Horne, the amiable writer on the Psalms, and 
 Mr. Jones, the learned and ingenious writer in defence of the Trinity, belonged : 
 and the Jesuits, in their edition of Newton, 1742, carefully disclaim all belief in 
 his demonstration of the earth’s motion, as this is decreed false by the Pope. 
 
 Materialist is as good a word as any other for branding those from whom we 
 differ, but materialism in its true acceptation signifies the doctrine of no first 
 cause, or that all has been produced ex fortuila atomnrum collisione. The whole 
 tenor of scripture implies that ive are bodies endowed with certain properties ; 
 and those passages from which our having a distinct immaterial substance is 
 inferred, may be easily explained by the figurative style of the Bible, by the 
 necessary adoption of the language of the times, and by the influence of the 
 national opinions and prejudices of the writers on their modes of expression. 
 Without due allowance, we might deem it impious to deny that “ the round 
 world cannot be moved that the sun “ pursues its course” round the earth; 
 (Galileo was imprisoned for doing so, and yet, said the sage to himself while 
 in prison, “ the earth does move” — e pur si muove .-) that Naaman’s leprosy (a 
 condition of body) was a real substance, because we read that it left him and “ clave 
 unto Gehazi;” that Adam “surely” died on the very day he tasted the forbidden 
 fruit ; that the winds possessed sense, because Christ said “ Peace, be still that 
 the earth is square, because we twice read of its four corners (/sa.xi. Jiev. vii . ); 
 and that Saul’s melancholy, and the cases of insanity and epilepsy related in the New 
 Testament, were possessions by demons, which are pronounced by St. Paul to be 
 “ nothing in the world.” (See the Rev. Hugh Farmer’s original and admirable 
 works, especially his JEssaps on the Demoniacs of the New Testament, and on Christ's 
 Temptation.) Without due allowance, what absurdities might not be inferred 
 from Christ’s use of the word heart? But the most enlightened divines allow 
 us at present to follow Bacon’s advice, and to read the Bible, not as a work of phi- 
 losophical instruction, but of the revelation of religious matters beyond our know- 
 ledge, v.c. to learn from Genesis only how the world was created by God, and to study- 
 geology without reference to Moses. “ The expressions of Moses are evidently- 
 accommodated to the first and familiar notions derived from the sensible appear- 
 ances of the earth and heavens, and the absurdity of supposing that the literal 
 interpretation of terms in Scripture ought to interfere with the advancement of 
 philosophical enquiry, would have been as generally forgotten as renounced, if 
 the oppressors of Galileo had not found a place in history.” A Treatise on the 
 Records of the Creation, &c., by J. B. Sumner, M. A. Prebendary of Durham, &c. 
 2d edit. 1825, vol. i. p.827. We may, therefore, learn the miracle of the 
 
OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 79 
 
 brought life and immortality to light.” m They should reflect 
 that the belief of an immaterial substance removes no imagined 
 difficulty, as it is the peculiar doctrine of scripture, in distinction 
 to that of all the heathen philosophers and people, n that the 
 resurrection will be positively of body., — that in our Jlesh we shall 
 s£e God , 0 and that therefore our minds must appear as much a 
 property of body hereafter as at present, p 
 
 resurrection from the gospels, and enjoy our own opinions respecting matter and 
 spirit, body and soul, which, as relating to our nature, are objects of physical 
 enquiry, and therefore not of revelation, any more than astronomy or geology. 
 The writer of the celebrated Apology for the Bible says, “ when I went to the 
 University, I was of opinion, as most schoolboys are, that the soul was a sub- 
 stance distinct from the body, and that when a man died, he, in classical phrase, 
 breathed out his soul, animam expiravit ,- that it then went I knew not whither, as 
 it had come into the body, from I knew not where nor when, and had dwelt in the 
 body during life, but in what part of the body it had dwelt I knew not.” “ This 
 notion of the soul was, without doubt, the offspring of prejudice and ignorance.” 
 “ Believing as I do in the truth of the Christian religion, which teaches that men 
 are accountable for their actions, I trouble not myself with dark disquisitions 
 concerning necessity and liberty, matter and spirit ; hoping as I do for eternal 
 life through Jesus Christ, I am not disturbed at my inability clearly to convince 
 myself that the soul is or is not a substance distinct from the body.” Anec- 
 dotes of the Life of Bishop Watson, p. 14. sqq. 
 
 “ Well indeed is it for us,” says a liberal writer in the Quarterly Review, 
 on the subject of geology, “ that the cause of revelation does not depend upon 
 questions such as these ; for it is remarkable that in every instance the controversy 
 has ended in a gradual surrender of those very points which were at one time 
 represented as involving the vital interests of religion. Truth, it is certain, can- 
 not be opposed to truth. How inconsiderate a risk then do those advocates run 
 who declare that the whole cause is at issue in a single dispute, and that the sub- 
 stance of our faith hangs upon a thread — upon the literal interpretation of some 
 word or phrase against which fresh arguments are springing up from day to day.” 
 1823, April, p. 163. 
 
 For an account of all the hypotheses that have been taught upon life and mind, see 
 An Enquiry into the oqnnions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organis- 
 ation. By John Barclay, M. D. Edinb. 1822. 
 
 m 2 Timothy, i. 10. ^ 
 
 n Errant exsangues sine corpore et ossibus umbrae. Ovid, Metam. iv. 
 
 0 Job. 
 
 p It is the doctrine of the Church of England, that all men shall rise with their 
 bodies. Enoch and Elijah are represented to have been translated bodily. Nay, 
 our church has so little of this horror of matter, that it declares that Christ, “ the 
 very and eternal God” (Article ii. ), ascended into heaven, and there sits, with 
 “ his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of 
 man’s nature.” Article iv. 
 
80 
 
 OF HEALTH AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 This only, the Christian, doctrine of a future state is reason- 
 able. The heathen doctrine was grounded on the supposed in- 
 herent immortality of a supposed substance distinct from the body. 
 The Christian doctrine teaches the resurrection of what we obvi- 
 ously are — bodies, and that through a miracle of the Almighty.<i 
 
 s Respecting a difficulty which may present itself to the conceptions of some 
 Christians, but which the miraculousness of a future existence, I think, should re- 
 move, I may quote Paley’s sermon on the state after death. He concludes, 
 
 “ That it is a question by which we need not be at all disturbed, whether the bodies 
 with which we shall arise be new bodies, or the same bodies under a new form ; 
 
 “ For no alteration will hinder us from remaining the same, provided we are sen- 
 sible and conscious that we are so, any more than the changes which our visible 
 person undergoes even in this life, and which from infancy to manhood are un- 
 doubtedly very great, hinder us from being the same, to ourselves and in ourselves, 
 and to all intents and purposes whatsoever.” — Sermons on several Subjects, by 
 the late Rev. W. Paley, D.D. serm.3. p. 96. These are a small system of 
 divinity, and, having been bequeathed by him to his parishioners, probably contain 
 his mature convictions. 
 
81 
 
 SECT. VII. 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 84. The blood, to whose great and multifarious import- 
 ance in the system we have slightly alluded (16), is conveyed, 
 with a few exceptions (5), into the most internal and extreme 
 recesses. This is proved by the minute injection of the ves- 
 sels, and by the well known fact of blood issuing from almost 
 every part on the smallest scratch. 
 
 85. This red fluid does not, like an Euripus, ebb and flow 
 in the same vessels, as the ancients imagined, but pursues a 
 circular course ; so that being propelled from the heart into 
 the arteries, it is distributed throughout the body, and returns 
 again to the heart through the veins. a 
 
 86. We shall, therefore, say something at present of the 
 vessels which contain the blood; and afterwards, of the yjotoers 
 by which they propel and receive it. 
 
 87. The vessels which receive the blood from the heart 
 and distribute it throughout the body, are termed arteries. 
 
 These are, upon the whole, less capacious than the veins : 
 but in adult, and advanced age especially, of a texture far 
 more solid and compact, very elastic and strong. 
 
 88. The arteries consist of three coats : b 
 
 1 Among warm-blooded animals, the egg, especially at the fourth and fifth 
 day of incubation, if placed under a simple microscope, such as the Lyonetian, 
 is most adapted for the demonstration of the circulation. 
 
 Among frogs, the most proper is the equuleus of Lieberkiihn, described in the 
 Mem. de V Acad, de Berlin, 1745. 
 
 b For tkrfi various opinions respecting the number and differences of the ar- 
 terial coats, consult among others Vine. Malacarne, Della Osservat. in Chirurgia. 
 Turin, t. ii. p. 103. 
 
 And C. Mondini, Opuscoli scientifici, t, i. Bologna, 1817. 4to, p. 161. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 I. The exterior, called, by Haller, the tunica cellulosa 
 propria; by others, the nervous, cartilaginous, tendinous, &c. 
 It is composed of condensed cellular membrane, externally 
 more lax, internally more and more compact: blood vessels 
 are seen creeping upon it: c it gives very great tone and 
 elasticity to the arteries. 
 
 II. The middle coat consists of transverse fibres, d lunated 
 or falciform, and almost of a fleshy nature : hence this has the 
 name of muscular coat, and appears to be the chief seat of 
 the vital powers of the arteries. 
 
 III. The inner coat lining the cavity of the arteries is 
 highly polished and smooth. 
 
 This is much more distinct in the trunks and larger 
 branches than in the smaller vessels. 
 
 89 . Every artery originates , either 
 
 From the pulmonary artery (the vena arteriosa of the 
 ancients), which proceeds from the anterior ventricle of the 
 heart and goes to the lungs; 
 
 Or from the aorta, which proceeds from the posterior ven- 
 tricle and is distributed throughout the rest of the system. 
 
 These trunks divide into branches, and these again into 
 twigs, See. 
 
 90 . According to the commonly received opinion, the 
 united capacity of the branches in any part of the sanguiferous 
 system, is greater than that of the trunk from which they 
 arise. But I fear that this is too general an assertion, and 
 even that the measure of the diameter has been sometimes 
 improperly confounded with that of the area. I myself have 
 never been able to verify it, although my experiments have 
 been frequently repeated, and made, not on vessels injected 
 with wax, after the bad example of some illustrious physiolo- 
 gists, but on the undisturbed vessels of recent subjects, v. c. 
 on the innominata and its two branches — the right carotid 
 
 c Fr. Ruysch, Respons. ad ep. problematicam. iii. Also his Thesaur. Anat. iv. 
 tab. 3. 
 
 d B. S. Albinus, Annot. Academ. 1. iv. tab. 5. fig. I. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 83 
 
 and subclavian, on the brachial and its two branches — the 
 radial and ulnar. e 
 
 The inconstancy of the proportion between the capacity of 
 the branches and that of the trunks is clearly shown by the 
 various sizes of the vessels under different circumstances, v. c. 
 by the relative capacity of the inferior thyreoid artery in the 
 infant and the adult; of the epigastric artery in the virgin 
 and the mother near her delivery ; and also of the uterine 
 vessels in the virgin and the pregnant woman ; of the omental 
 vessels during the repletion and vacuity of the stomach. f 
 
 91. The arteries, after innumerable divisions and important 
 anastomoses s connecting different neighbouring branches, 
 terminate at length in the beginning of the veins. By this 
 means, the blood is conveyed back again to the heart. The 
 distinction between artery and vein, at the point of union, 
 is lost. 
 
 In the present state of our knowledge, the umbilical vessels 
 are to be regarded as the only exception to the termination of 
 arteries in veins. We shall show that they are connected 
 with the uterine vessels by the intervention of a spongy sub- 
 stance, called parenchyma. 
 
 92, Another description of vessels arise universally from 
 the arteries, and are called colourless, from not containing pure 
 blood, either on account of their minuteness, or of their 
 specific irritability which causes them to reject that fluid. 
 Such are the nutrient and other secretory vessels : of which 
 hereafter. 
 
 e See also J. Theod. Van Der Kemp, De Vita. Edinb. 1782. 8vo. p. 51. 
 
 And Seerp Brouwer, Qucestiones Medic, varii argum. Lugd. Batav. 1816. 
 4to. p. 8. 
 
 1 This is remarkably observable in the adult stag, by comparing the areae of 
 the external carotid and its branches, during the spring, just before the horns 
 have attained their full growth and when they are still covered with their 
 downy integuments (called in German, dir Bast), with such as they are after this 
 covering has fallen off. 
 
 6 Ant. Scarpa, Suit’ Aneurisma, Pav. 1804. fol. cap. 4. 
 
 G 2 
 
- 84 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 93. The blood conveyed from the heart throughout the 
 body by the arteries is carried back by the veins. h 
 
 These are very different in function and structure from the 
 arteries, excepting, however, the minutest of both systems, 
 which are indistinguishable. 
 
 94. The veins, except the pulmonary, are universally 
 more capacious than the arteries ; more ramified ; much 
 more irregular in their course and division ; in adult age, 
 softer and far less elastic, but still very firm and remarkably 
 expansile. 
 
 95. Their coats are so much thinner that the blood appears 
 through them. They are likewise less in number, being 
 solely a cellular external, somewhat resembling the nervous 
 of the arteries ; and a very polished internal, also nearly 
 agreeing with that of the arteries. 
 
 o o 
 
 A muscular coat exists only in the trunks nearest the 
 heart. 
 
 96. The interior coat forms, in nearly all veins of more 
 than a line in diameter, very beautiful valves, of easy play, 
 resembling bags, generally single, frequently double, and 
 sometimes triple, placed with their fundus towards the origin 
 of the vein and their edge towards the heart. 
 
 These valves are not found in some parts ; not in the 
 brain, heart, lungs, secundines, nor in the system of the vena 
 portae. 
 
 97. The twigs, or, more properly, the radicles, of the 
 veins, unite into branches, and these again into six principal 
 trunks : viz. 
 
 Into the two cavae, superior and inferior : 
 
 And the four trunks of the pulmonary vein (the arteria 
 venosa of the ancients). 
 
 The vena portae is peculiar in this, that, having entered 
 the liver, it ramifies like an artery, and its extreme twigs pass 
 
 h H. Marx, diatr. jneemio ornata, de structurci atque vita venarum. Carlsr. 
 S 81 9. 8vo. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 85 
 
 into the radicles of the inferior cava, thus coalescing into a 
 trunk. 
 
 98 . That the blood may be properly distributed and circu- 
 lated through the arteries and veins, nature has provided the 
 heart , 1 in which the main trunks of all the blood vessels 
 unite, and which is the grand agent and mover of the whole 
 human machine, — supporting this — the chief of the vital 
 functions, with a constant and truly wonderful power, from 
 the second or third week after conception to the last moment 
 of existence. 
 
 99 . The heart alternately receives and propels the blood. 
 Receiving it from the whole body by means of the superior 
 and inferior vena cava, and from its own substance through 
 the common orifice of the coronary veins, that is supplied 
 with a peculiar valve, k it conveys that fluid into the anterior 
 sinus and auricle, and thence into the corresponding ventricle, 
 which, as well as the auricle, communicates with both orders 
 of the heart’s own vessels by the openings of Thebesius. 1 
 
 100. From this anterior, or, in reference to the heart of 
 some animals, right, ventricle, the blood is impelled through 
 the pulmonary artery into the lungs : returning from which, 
 it enters the four pulmonary veins and proceeds into their 
 common sinus and the left, or, as it is now more properly 
 termed, posterior, auricle. 1 " 
 
 101. The blood flows next into the corresponding ventricle ; 
 and then, passing into the aorta, is distributed through the 
 arterial system of the body in general and the coronary vessels 
 of the heart itself." 
 
 1 W. Cowper, Myotomia Reformata. (Postli.) Lond. 1724. fol. max. Tab. 
 xxxyi — xl. 
 
 k Casp. Fr. Wolff on the origin of the large coronary vein, Act- Acad. Scient. 
 Pelropol. 1777. P. i. 
 
 Petr. Tabarrani on the same subject, Atti di Siena, vol. vi. 
 
 1 Respecting these openings consult among others J. Abernethy, Philos. Trans. 
 1798. p. 103. 
 
 m James Penada, Memorie della Societa Italiana. t. xi. p. 555. 
 
 n Consult Achil. Mieg, Specimen ii. Observationum Botanicarum, Sec. Basil, 
 1776. 4to. p.12. sq. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 102. Having proceeded from the extreme twigs of the 
 general arterial system into the radicles of the veins, and 
 from the coronary arteries into the coronary veins, it finally 
 is poured into the two venae cavae, and then again pursues 
 the same circular course. 
 
 103. The regularity of this circular and successive motion 
 through the cavities of the heart is secured, and any retrograde 
 motion prevented, by valves, which are placed at the prin- 
 cipal openings, viz. at the openings of the auricles into the 
 ventricles, and of the ventricles into the pulmonary artery and 
 aorta. 
 
 104. Thus the ring, or venous tendon, which forms the 
 limit of the anterior auricle and ventricle, descending into the 
 latter cavity, becomes these tendinous valves. 0 These were 
 formerly said to have three apices, and were, therefore, called 
 triglochine or tricuspid: they adhere to the fleshy pillars, 
 or, in common language, the papillary muscles. 
 
 105. In a similar manner, the limits of the posterior auricle 
 and ventricle are defined by a ring of the same kind, forming 
 two valves, which, from their form, have obtained the appel- 
 lation of mitral . p 
 
 106. At the opening of the pulmonary artery q and aorta r 
 are found the triple semilunar or sigmoid valves, s fleshy and 
 elesant, but of less circumference than the mitral. 
 
 107. It is obvious how these differently formed valves must 
 prevent the retrocession of the blood into the cavities which 
 it has left. They readily permit the blood to pass on, but 
 are expanded, like a sail, against it, by any attempt at retro- 
 grade movement, and thus close the openings. 
 
 ° Eustachius, tab. viii. fig. 6. — tab. xvi. fig. 3. — Santorini. Tab. Posth. ix. 
 fig. 1. 
 
 p Eustachius, tab. xvi. fig. 6. 
 
 4 Eustachius, tab. xvi. fig. 4. 
 
 r Eustachius, tab. xvi. fig. 5. — Morgagni, Adversar. Anat. i. tab. iv. fig. 3. 
 Santorini, 1. c. 
 
 * Consult Hunter, who treats very minutely of the mechanism of these valves 
 in his work On the Blood, p. 159. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 87 
 
 108. The texture of the heart is peculiar: fleshy, indeed, 
 but very dense and compact, far different from common 
 museularitjr. 1 
 
 It is composed of fasciculi of fibres, more or less oblique, 
 here and there singularly branching out, variously and 
 curiously contorted and vorticose in their direction, lying 
 upon each other in strata, closely interwoven between the 
 cavities, and bound by four cartilaginous bands at the basis 
 of the ventricles, which thus are, as it were, supported and 
 are distinguished from the fibres of the auricles. u 
 
 O 
 
 109. These fleshy fibres are supplied with very soft nerves, x 
 and an immense number of blood vessels, which arise from 
 the coronary arteries, and are so infinitely ramified/ that 
 Ruysch described the whole structure of the heart as com- 
 posed of them. 2 
 
 110. This universal vital viscus is loosely contained in the 
 ’pericardium , a which is a membraneous sac, arising from the 
 mediastinum, very firm, accommodated to the figure of the 
 heart, and moistened internally by an exhalation from the 
 arteries of that organ. Its importance is evinced by its 
 existence being, in red blooded animals, as general as that of 
 the heart ; and by our having but two instances on record of 
 its absence in the human subject. b 
 
 111. By this structure the heart is adapted for its perpetual 
 
 1 Leop. M.A. Caldani, Memorie lette nell' Acad, di Padova. 1814. 4to. p. 67. 
 
 " Casp. Fr. Wolff, Act. Acad. Scientiar. Petropol. for the year 1780. sq., es- 
 pecially for 1781. P. i. p. 211. sq., on the cartilaginous structure of the heart, 
 or on the cartilagineo-osseous bands, and their distribution at the base of the 
 heart. 
 
 x Scarpa, Tabula Neurologies ad Must: Hist. Anat. cardiac, nervor. tab. iii. 
 iv. v. vi. 
 
 y Ruysch, 1'hesaur. Anat. iv. tab. iii. fig. 1,2. 
 
 z Brandis has proposed an ingenious hypothesis to explain the use of so great 
 an apparatus of coronary vessels. Versucli uber die Lebenskraft. p. 84. 
 
 a Haller, Elementa Physiol, t. i. tab. i. 
 
 Nicholls, Philos. Trans, vol. Iii. P. i. p. 272. 
 
 b Consult, v. c. Littre, Hist, de V Academie des Sc. de Paris. 1712. p. 37. 
 
 Baillie, Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirur- 
 gical Knowledge, t. i. p. 91. 
 
 G 4 
 
88 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 and equable motions, which are an alternate systole and 
 diastole, or contraction and relaxation of the auricles and 
 ventricles in succession. (A) 
 
 112. Thus, as often as the auricles contract to impel the 
 blood of the venae cavae and pulmonary veins into the 
 ventricles, the latter are at the same moment relaxed, to 
 receive the blood: immediately afterwards, when the distended 
 ventricles are contracting to impel the blood into the two 
 great arteries, the auricles relax and receive the fresh venous 
 supply. 
 
 113. The systole of the ventricles, upon which is said to 
 be spent ^ of the time of the whole action of the heart, is 
 performed in such a way that their external portions are 
 drawn towards their septum, and the apex of the heart 
 towards the base.* This at first sight seems disproved by the 
 circumstance of the apex striking against the left nipple, and, 
 consequently, appearing elongated, — a circumstance, how- 
 ever, to be attributed to the double impetus of the blood 
 flowing into the auricles and expelled from the ventricles, 
 by which double impetus the heart must be driven against 
 that part of the ribs. (B) 
 
 114. The impulse imparted by the heart to the blood, is 
 communicated to the arteries, so that every systole of the 
 heart is very clearly manifested in those arteries which can 
 be explored by the fingers and exceed ^ of an inch in the 
 diameter of their canal, and in those also whose pulsation can 
 be otherwise discovered, as in the eye and ear. The effect 
 upon the arteries is called their diastole, and is perfectly 
 correspondent and synchronous with the systole of the heart. 
 
 115. The quickness of the heart’s pulsations during health 
 varies indefinitely ; chiefly from age, but also from other 
 conditions which at all ages form the peculiar constitution of 
 an individual : so that we can lay down no rule on this point. 
 I may, however, be permitted to mention the varieties which 
 
 Consult Ant. Portal, Me moires sur la Mature £ le TraUemrnt dr plusieurs 
 Maladies, t. ii. 1SOO. p. 281. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 89 
 
 I have generally found in our climate b at different ages, 
 beginning with the new-born infant, in which, while placidly 
 
 sleeping, it is about 140 in a minute. 
 
 Towards the end of the first year, about 1 24 
 
 second year 110 
 
 third and fourth year 96 
 
 When the first teeth begin to drop out 86 
 
 At puberty about 80 
 
 At manhood about 75 
 
 About sixty 60 
 
 In those more advanced, I have scarcely twice found it 
 alike. 
 
 116. The pulse is, caeteris paribus, more frequent in 
 women than in men, and in short than in tall persons. A 
 more constant fact, however, is its greater slowness in the 
 inhabitants of cold climates. c 
 
 Its greater frequency after meals and the discharge of 
 semen, during continued watchfulness, exercise, or mental 
 excitement, is universally known. (C) 
 
 117. The heart rather than the arteries is to be regarded 
 as the source of these varieties, which we have, therefore, 
 detailed here. 
 
 Its action continues in this manner till death, and then all 
 its parts do not, at once, cease to act ; but the right portion ? 
 for a short period, survives the left. d 
 
 For, since the collapsed state of the lungs after the last 
 expiration impedes the course of the blood from the right 
 
 b My observations differ but little from those made by W. Heberden in Eng- 
 land, Med. Trans, vol. ii. p. 21. sq. 
 
 c J. H. Schonheyder, De Resolutione et Impotentia motus Muscularis. Hafn. 
 1768. p. 15. With which work compare the observations of F. Gabr. Sulzer, 
 Naturgesch. des Hamsters, p. 169. 
 
 d Stenonis, Act. Hafniens. t. ii. p. 142. 
 
 Sometimes, though rarely, it happens that the right portion of the heart, 
 oppressed with too much blood, becomes, contrarily to what usually takes place, 
 paralysed before the left. This I have more than once observed on opening 
 living mammalia, particularly rabbits.. 
 
90 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 side, and the veins must be turgid with the blood just driven 
 into them from the arteries, it cannot but happen that this 
 blood, driving against the right auricle, must excite it to 
 resistance for some time after the death of the left portion of 
 the heart. 
 
 118. This congestion on the right side of the heart affords 
 an explanation of the small quantity of blood found in the 
 large branches of the aorta. 
 
 Weiss, e and after him Sabatier, f ascribe to this cause 
 likewise the comparatively larger size 5 of the right auricle 
 and ventricle after death, especially in the adult subject. 
 
 1 1 9. The motion of the blood is performed by these two 
 orders of vessels in conjunction with the heart. Its celerity 
 in health cannot be determined. For this varies not only in 
 different persons, but in different parts of the same person. 
 
 Generally, the blood moves more slowly in the veins than 
 in the arteries, and in the small vessels than in the large 
 trunks, although these differences have been overrated by 
 physiologists. 
 
 The mean velocity of the blood flowing into the aorta is 
 usually estimated at 8 inches for each pulsation, or about 50 
 feet in a minute. 
 
 120. Some have affirmed that the globules of the eruor 
 move more in the axis of the vessels, and with greater rapidity, 
 than the other constituents of the blood. I know not whether 
 this rests upon any satisfactory experiment, or upon an im- 
 proper application of the laws of hydraulics; improper, 
 because it is absurd to refer the motion of the blood through 
 living canals, to the mere mechanical laws of water moving in 
 an hydraulic machine. I have never been able to observe 
 this peculiarity of the globules. 
 
 My persuasion is still more certain that the globules pass 
 
 e J. N. Weiss, Be Dextro Cordis Veutriculo post mortem ampliori. Altorf. 
 1767. 4to. 
 
 f Ant. Chaum. Sabatier, E, in vivis animalibus Vent riculo rum Cordis eadem 
 capacitas. Paris, 1772. 4to. 
 
 e Sara. Aurivilius, Be Vasorum Pulmonal. fp Caoitat. Cordis incquali ampli- 
 tudine. Gotting. 1750._4to. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 91 
 
 on with the other constituents of the blood, and are not 
 rotated around their own axis ; — that besides the progressive, 
 there is no intestine motion in the blood, although indeed 
 there can be no doubt that the elements of this fluid are 
 occasionally divided, — where they are variously impelled 
 according to the different direction, division, and anastomoses 
 of the vessels. 
 
 121. The moving powei's of the sanguiferous system are 
 now to be examined : first, those of the heart, by far the 
 greatest of all; afterwards, those which are only subsidiary, 
 though indeed highly useful. 
 
 122. That the powers of the heart cannot be accurately 
 calculated is clear, upon reflecting that neither the volume of 
 the blood projected at each pulsation, nor the celerity nor 
 distance of its projection, much less the obstacles to the powers 
 of the heart, can be accurately determined, &c. 
 
 123. A rough calculation may be made by taking every 
 probable conjecture together : v. c. if the mean mass of the 
 blood is considered as 10 pounds, or 120 ounces; the puls- 
 ations 75 in a minute, or 4500 in an hour ; and the quantity 
 of blood expelled from the left ventricle at each contraction, 
 as 2 ounces; it follows that all the blood must pass through 
 the heart 75 times every hour. 
 
 The impetus of the blood passing from the heart, may be 
 conceived by the violence and altitude of the stream projected 
 from a large wounded artery situated near it. I have seen the 
 blood driven at first to the distance of above 5 feet from 
 the carotid of an adult and robust man. h 
 
 h The experiments of Hales, in which the blood was received into very long 
 glass tubes fixed to the arteries of living animals, and the length of its projection 
 measured, are indeed beautiful, like every thing done by this philosopher, who 
 was calculated by nature for such enquiries. But, if the force of the heart is to 
 be estimated in this way, we must take into account the pressure of the column of 
 blood contained in the tube and gravitating upon the left ventricle. 
 
 The result of Hales’s calculations was, that the blood being projected from the 
 human carotid to the height of seven feet and a half, and the surface of the left 
 ventricle being fifteen square inches, a column of blood, weighing 5 1.5 lbs. was 
 incumbent upon the ventricle and overcome by its systole. Statical Essays, vol. ii, 
 p. 40. London, 1733. Svo. 
 
92 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 124. This wonderful, and, while life remains, constant, 
 strength of the heart, is universally allowed to depend upon 
 its irritability , (41) in which it very far surpasses, especially 
 as to duration, 1 (98) every other muscular part. k 
 
 That the parietes of the cavities are excited to contraction 
 by the stimulus of the blood, is proved by the experiment, of 
 Haller, who lengthened at pleasure the motion of either side 
 of the heart, by affording it the stimulus of the blood for a 
 longer period than the other. 1 (D) 
 
 125. Since a supply of nerves and blood is requisite to the 
 action of the voluntary muscles, it has been enquired whether 
 these, both or either, are requisite to the heart also. m 
 
 The great influence of the nerves over the heart, is demon- 
 strated by the size of the cardiac nerves, and by the great 
 sympathy between the heart and most functions, however dif- 
 ferent. A convincing proof of this, is the momentary sym- 
 pathy of the heart during the most perfect health n with all 
 the passions, and with the jrrimce vice in various disorders. 
 
 The great importance of the blood to the irritability of the 
 heart, is evident from the great abundance of vessels in its 
 muscular substance. 
 
 * Thus, to say nothing of the phenomena so frequently observed in the cold- 
 blooded amphibia and fishes, I lately found the heart of the chick to beat for twelve 
 hours, in an egg, on the fourth day of incubation. 
 
 k Consult Fontana, who treats of this prerogative of the heart minutely in his 
 Ricerche sopra la Fisica animate , and limits it too much. Haller answered him 
 in the Literary Index of Gottingen. 
 
 1 See Haller on the motion of the heart from stimulus, Comment. Soc. Scient. 
 Gottingens. tom. i. 
 
 G. E. Remus, Experimenta circa cireulat. sanguin. inslitula. Gotting. 
 1752. 4to. p. 14. 
 
 m On this dispute consult v. c. R. Forsten, Question, select. Physiol. Lugd. 
 Bat. 1774. 4to. 
 
 J. B. J. Behrends, Dissert, qua demonstratur cor nereis carere. Mogunt. 
 1792. 4to. 
 
 And, on the other side, J. Munniks, Observntiones varies. Groning. 1805. 4 to. 
 
 Lucae, 1. c. p. 37. tab. ii. 
 
 " And how much more so when the heart is diseased, is shown v. c. in Caleb 
 Hillier Parry’s Inquiry into the Symptoms and Causes of the Syncope A nginosa, 
 commonly called Angina Pectoris. Bath, 1799. p. 114. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 93 
 
 Nevertheless it is very probable, that the importance of the 
 nerves in this respect is greater in the voluntary muscles, and 
 of the blood in the heart. 
 
 126. Besides these powers of the heart, there is another, 
 which is mechanical, dependent on structure, and contributing 
 greatly, in all probability, to sustain the circulation. For, 
 when the blood is expelled from the contracted cavities, a 
 vacuum takes place, into which, according to the common 
 laws of derivation, the blood from the venous trunks must 
 rush, being prevented, by means of the valves, from regur- 
 gitating. 0 (E) 
 
 127. We must now enquire what powers are exerted by 
 other organs in assisting the circulation. The existence of 
 some secondary powers and their ability to assist, or even in 
 some cases to compensate for, the action of the heart, are 
 proved by several arguments: v.c. the blood moves in some 
 parts to which the influence of the heart cannot reach, — in 
 the vena portae and placenta ; not to mention instances of the 
 absence of the heart. p 
 
 128. The principal of these powers is the function of the 
 
 arteries , not easy indeed to be clearly understood and demon- 
 strated. 1. It is well known that they have a peculiar coat, 
 which is all but muscular. (88) (F) 2. That they are irri- 
 
 table, has been proved by repeated experiments. q 3. The 
 size of the soft nerves arising from the sympathetic, and sur- 
 
 0 Andr. Wilson, Inquiry into the moving powers employed in the Circulation of 
 the Blood. Lond. 1784. 8vo. p. 55. sq. 
 
 And at great length in J. Carson’s Inquiry into the Causes of the Motion of the 
 Blood. Ibid. 1815. 8vo. 
 
 p See v. c. C. W. Curtius, Be monstro humano cum infante gemello. Lugd. 
 Bat. 1762. 4 to. p. 39. 
 
 W. Cooper, Philos. Transact, vol. lxv. p. 316. 
 
 And, instar omnium, Fr. Tiedemann, Anatomie der Kopfiosen Missgeburten. 
 Landshut, 1813. fol. p. 70. sq. 
 
 q Walter Vershuir, Be arleriar. et venar. vi irritabili: ejusque in vasis excessu; 
 et inde oriunda sanguinis directione abnormi. Groning. 17 66. 4to. 
 
 Rich. Dennison, Biss, arterias omnes et venarum partem irritabilitate prceditas 
 esse. Edinb. 1775. 8vo. 
 
 Chr. Kramp, Be vi vitali arteriarum. Argent. 1785. 8vo. 
 
94 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 rounding the larger arterial branches with remarkable net- 
 works, particularly in the lower part of the abdomen, r argues 
 the importance of these vessels in assisting the motion of the 
 blood. s 
 
 129. All know that the arteries pulsate, and indeed vio- 
 lently, so that if, v.c. we place one leg over the other knee, we 
 find not only that it, but even a much greater weight, may be 
 raised by the pulsation of the popliteal. Hence an alternate 
 systole and diastole, corresponding with those of the heart, 
 have long been assigned to them. 
 
 But this, although commonly believed on the evidence of 
 sense, is open to much question : 1 it may be asked, especially-, 
 whether this pulsation is referable to the power of the artery, 
 or only to the impulse given by the heart to the blood pro- 
 pelled into the aorta. 
 
 130. And indeed, after all, it appears that the diastole of 
 an artery is owing to a lateral distension given by the impetus 
 of the blood, so that the coats are expanded, and, by their 
 elasticity, the next moment reacquire their natural thickness. 
 To the same impulse may be ascribed the lateral motion 
 of the axis, observable in the larger arteries, if serpentine 
 and lying in loose cellular substance. (G) 
 
 The genuine systole, produced by a contraction of their 
 substance, scarcely occurs, probably, while the heart acts 
 with vigour, but may, when they are unusually influenced 
 by local stimulants ; whence the pulse during illness is verv 
 different in different arteries of the same person at the same 
 time ; or when the action of the heart itself fails, &c. 
 
 r Observe, for instance, in Walter’s Tabula nervor. thorac. et abdominis, the 
 right hepatic, tab. ii. O. tab. iii. 1 . — the splenic, tab. ii. P.,tab. iii. m., tab. iv. o. — 
 the superior mesenteric, tab. ii.Q.,tab. iii./. — the inferior mesenteric, tab. ii. T. 
 — and many others. 
 
 Consult Soemmerring, De c. h.fabrica. t. iv. p. 362. 
 
 ! Haller, De Nervor. in arterias imperio. Gotting. 1744. 4to. 
 
 Luca;, 1. c. 
 
 1 T. Kirkland, Inquiry into the present state of Medical Surgery. London, 
 1783. 8vo vol. i. p. 306. sq. 
 
 But especially Cal. Hillier Parry’s Experimental inquiry into the arterial 
 pulse. Lond. 1816. Rvo. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 95 
 
 131. Since Whytt, " especially, and other illustrious physi- 
 ologists have been convinced that the influence of the heart 
 could not reach the extreme arteries and the origins of the 
 veins, they have ascribed the progression of the blood in 
 those vessels to a kind of oscillation , and have happily em- 
 ployed this to demonstrate the nature of inflammation. 
 
 Many kinds of phenomena, both physiological, as those re- 
 garding animal heat, and pathological, as those observed in 
 spasms and particularly in fevers, favour the supposition of 
 this oscillatory faculty, but it is not demonstrable during life 
 to the eye, even aided by glasses. (H) 
 
 1 32. It remains for us now to examine the aid given to the 
 returning blood by the veins, their radicles not being taken into 
 the account. We should conclude at first sight that they have 
 far less active power x than the rest of the sanguiferous system, 
 and that the return of their purple blood to the heart is 
 chiefly ascribable to the hnpetus a tergo of the arterial blood, 
 and to their valvular structure which prevents any reflux. 
 The efficacy of the valves in this point of view, is shown by 
 the distensions and infarctions of the veins in the lower part 
 of the abdomen, which are found destitute of valves. y 
 
 The existence of vital powers in the venous trunks is pro- 
 bable, z from the example of the liver and placenta (127), and 
 from experiments instituted on living animals. We formerly 
 mentioned the muscular layer in the extreme veins near the 
 heart (95). (I) 
 
 “ Consult his Physiological Essays, containing an inquiry into the causes which 
 promote the circulation of the fluids in the very small vessels of animals. Second 
 edition, Edinb. 1761. 12mo. 
 
 H. v. d. Bosch, iiber das Mus/celvermugen der Haargefassgen. Munster, 
 1786. 8vo. 
 
 1 What is commonly, but improperly, called the venous pulse, observable on 
 opening living animals, and in some morbid affections, and also under a violent 
 effort, does not correspond with the action of the heart, but with respiration ; 
 since, if an expiration is unusually deep and lengthened, and the reflux of the 
 blood to the lungs thus impeded, the jugular vein swells as far as the brain, the 
 subclavian as far as the basilic, and the inferior cava as far as the crural. 
 
 y ,G. E. Stahl, TJe vena porta; porta malorum. Hal*, 1698. 4 to. 
 
 1 Lister, De humorikus, p. 25. 
 
96 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 133. These are the chief powers which move the blood and 
 depend upon the structure and vitality of the sanguiferous 
 system. We say nothing of the effect of gravity, attraction, 
 and other properties, common to all matter. The more 
 remote assistance derived after birth from particular functions, 
 v.c. respiration and muscular motion, will appear in our 
 account of those functions. (K) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) On applying the ear or a stethoscope to the region of the 
 heart, the distinct sounds of the action of the ventricles and 
 auricles may be at once perceived. At the moment of the 
 arterial pulse is heard a dull sound, and immediately afterwards, 
 without any interval, a clearer sound, similar to the noise of a 
 valve or to the licking of a dog. The former arises from the 
 action of the ventricles, the latter from that of the auricles. 
 
 The former occupies about -J of the whole time ; the latter * 
 or and then a pause occurs of another J-. This is termed the 
 rhythm of the heart’s action. a 
 
 The sounds of the heart are ordinarily heard in health between 
 the cartilages of the fourth and seventh ribs, and under the 
 inferior part of the sternum ; those of the left side of the heart in 
 the former situation, and those of the right in the latter. 
 
 The shock, or stroke, occurs, as mentioned in the text, at the 
 contraction of the ventricles. The force and extent of the sound 
 and of the shock, and the rhythm of the heart’s action, are 
 variously. altered in disease, and other sounds superadded. 
 
 (B) Dr. W. Hunter accounted for this in 174B. 
 
 “ The systole and diastole of the heart, simply, could not pro- 
 
 3 See the lamented Dr. Laennec’s most admirable work, Trade de V Auscul- 
 tation Mediate, et des Maladies des Poumons et du Cacur. 2d edit. 1S26. t. ii. 
 p. 403. sqq. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 97 
 
 dace such an effect; nor could it have been produced, if it had 
 thrown the blood into a straight tube, in the direction of the axis 
 of the left ventricle, as is the case with fish, and some other 
 classes of animals : but by throwing the blood into a curved tube, 
 viz. the aorta, that artery, at its curve, endeavours to throw itself 
 into a straight line, to increase its capacity ; but the aorta being 
 the fixed point against the back, and the heart in some degree 
 loose and pendulous, the influence of its own action is thrown 
 upon itself, and it is tilted forwards against the inside of the 
 chest.” b 
 
 Though this is generally allowed, Haller remarks that in the 
 frog also, which has a straight aorta, the point of the heart moves 
 forwards during the contraction ; c and some say that while the 
 heart of a dog continues to palpitate, after being extracted from 
 the chest, the apex is lifted up at each contraction of the empty 
 ventricles. d 
 
 The occurrence is ascribable likewise, in some measure, to the 
 distension of the auricles, for Haller found the apex give the 
 usual stroke at the nipple, on his distending the left auricle with 
 air, e and Senac f has shown a similar influence from the right 
 auricle also. 
 
 Dr. Barclay has the following passage on this point : 
 
 “ When the blood is forced into the arteries, their curvatures, 
 near where they issue from the ventricles, are from their disten- 
 sion lengthened and extended towards straight lines ; and, causing 
 the heart to palpitate in their motions, compel it to describe the 
 segment of a circle, when the apex moving atiantad and sinistrad, 
 is made to strike against the left side. The same kind of motion 
 having also been observed by the celebrated Haller, in distending 
 the left or systemic auricle, it must follow, that the stroke which 
 is given to the side, may be the effect of two distinct causes, 
 either acting separately, or in combination : but acting on a heart 
 obliquely situated, as ours is, in the cavity of the thorax, where 
 the aspect of the base is atiantad and dextrad, and that of the 
 
 b Treatise on the Blood, &c. , by John Hunter, p. 146. Note. 
 
 c El. Physiol, t. i. p. S94. 
 
 A Mr. H. Mayo, Outlines of Human Physiology. 1827. p. 68. 
 
 c 1. c. ibid, where he refers to Senac and Ferrein. 
 
 f Traiti du Coeur, p. 357. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 apex sinistrad and sacrad. In combination, as the first of the two. 
 by removing the pressure, will facilitate the influx of the venous 
 blood into the left or systemic auricle, which is situated dorsad; 
 so the second, by the influx of blood into the auricle, will contri- 
 bute in its turn to facilitate the circular motion of the heart, 
 proceeding from the arteries.” s 
 
 (C) It is commonly believed, that the pulse of every person is 
 quicker in the evening than in the morning, and some have sup- 
 posed an increase of quickness also at noon. Upon these suppo- 
 sitions Dr. Cullen builds his explanation of the noon and evening 
 paroxysms of hectic fever,* 1 as others had theirs of the evening 
 exacerbation of all fevers,* regarding them as merely aggrava- 
 tions of natural exacerbations. The existence of the noon pa- 
 roxysms is doubtful, and the evening one cannot be so explained 
 if Dr. R. Knox is correct, k though he is opposed to Haller, &c. 
 His observations make the pulse to be slower in the evening, and 
 quicker in the morning. 
 
 Dr. Heberden saw a woman fifty years of age who had always 
 an intermitting pulse, yet an able anatomist could discover nothing 
 unusual after death ; and two persons whose pulse was always 
 irregular in strength and frequency when they were well, and be- 
 came quite regular when they were ill. 1 
 
 (D) The heart, however, of frogs, for instance, contracts and 
 relaxes alternately, for a length of time, when out of the body 
 and destitute of blood. 
 
 Mr. Brodie divided the great vessels in rabbits and found the 
 action of the heart “ apparently unaltered, for at least two minutes 
 after that viscus and the great blood-vessels were empty of 
 blood.” m But the quantity of blood greatly influences the action 
 of the heart. 
 
 (E) The influence of a vacuum, pointed out by Rudiger, 0 en- 
 larged upon by Dr. Andrew Wilson, and mentioned as probable 
 
 E The Muscular Motions of the Human Body, p. 56 7. 
 
 h Practice of Physic. 
 
 * Haller, El. Physiol, t.ii. p.263. 
 
 k Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 1S15. 
 
 I Transactions of the College of Physicians. London, vol. ii. p. 31. 
 
 m Dr. Cooke, A Treatise on Nervous Diseases, vol. i. p. 63. 
 
 II Quoted by Haller, El. Physiol, t. ii. lib. vi. p. 325 
 
on the motion of the blood. 
 
 99 
 
 by Haller, ° John Hunter, p &c., has been very ably displayed by 
 Dr. Carson of Liverpool. 9 
 
 The quantity of the blood, the length of its course, and the vari- 
 ous obstacles opposed to its progress, render, in his opinion, 
 the mere propulsive power of the heart insufficient to main- 
 tain the circulation perpetually. But assistance must be given 
 by the vacuum which takes place in all the cavities of the 
 organ, when the contraction of the muscular fibres is over. The 
 blood is thus drawn into each relaxed cavity, and the heart per- 
 forms the double office of a forcing and a suction pump. The 
 situation of the valves of the heart is thus explained. There are 
 valves between the auricles and ventricles, and at the mouths of 
 the two great arteries, because behind each of these four openings 
 is a cavity of the heart, alternately dilating and affording a 
 vacuum, into which, were there no valves, the blood would be 
 drawn retrograde. At the venous openings of the auricles no 
 valves exist, because they do not open from a cavity of the 
 heart, — from a part ever experiencing a vacuum, and, therefore, 
 the blood cannot, when the auricles contract, move retrograde, 
 but will necessarily pass forwards into the ventricles, which at 
 that moment are offering a vacuum. The inferior elasticity and 
 irritability of the veins are also explained. If veins were capable 
 of contracting equally with arteries, on the diminution of their 
 contents, the suction influence of the heart would constantly 
 reduce their cavities to a smaller capacity than is compatible with 
 their functions. The collapse of the veins by pressure, during 
 the suction of the heart, is prevented by the fresh supply of blood 
 afforded by the vis a tergo, which does exist, although it is not 
 
 ° “ Sanguinem in auriculam dextram, tanquam in vacuum castellum apprope- 
 rare, ne id quidem videtur absque specie veri dici.” 1. c. An idea of the same kind 
 appears to have been entertainedbefore the time of Rudiger, whose work, Deregressu 
 sanguinis per venas mechanico, was published at Leipsigin 1704. For in Pecquet’s 
 Experimenta nova Anatomica, published in 1651, arguments are adduced against 
 those who conceived that the diastole sucked the blood towards the heart, 
 (“num, ut quibusdam placuit, attrahendo pelliciat exugatve, investigandum.” 
 Chap. vii. sqq.) At that time suction was not generally known to be merely 
 a means of removing or diminishing the resistance to the pressure of air, but sup- 
 posed to be an occult principle. He details experiments to show its true nature, 
 but urges nothing against suction in the proper acceptation of the term, and his 
 adversaries were right in their fact, though ignorant of its true nature. 
 
 p A Treatise on the Blood, &c, p. 1 85. 
 
 '' An Inquiry into the Causes of the Motion of the Blood. 1815. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 considered by him as of itself adequate to convey the blood back 
 to the right auricle. 
 
 All allow that when the heart is relaxed its cavities enlarge, 
 though some ascribe this to its elasticity, and others regard it as 
 a necessary consequence of the arrangement of its fibres. r Ex- 
 periment proves the same Dr. Carson extracted the hearts of 
 some frogs, and immediately put them into water, blood-warm. 
 They were thrown into violent action, and, upon some occasions, 
 projected a small stream of a bloody colour through the trans- 
 parent fluid. The water could not have been projected unless 
 previously imbibed. It was thought that a stream of the same 
 kind continued to be projected at every succeeding contraction; 
 but that, after the first or second, it ceased to be observable, in 
 consequence of the liquid, supposed to be imbibed and projected, 
 losing its bloody tinge and becoming transparent, or of the same 
 colour with the fluid in which the heart was immersed. The 
 organ was felt to expand during relaxation, — a fact stated long 
 ago by Pechlin. s 
 
 Dr. Carson accounts, however, for the full dilatation of the 
 heart upon another principle, upon the consideration of which it 
 will be impossible to enter before the next section, where the sub- 
 ject will therefore be prosecuted. 
 
 (F) Most physiologists grant to the capillaries irritability, to- 
 nicity, or organic contractility ; but some deny that arteries pos- 
 sess muscular properties. Bichat’s objections are, the absence of 
 contraction on the application of stimuli to them, the much greater 
 resistance of the middle coat to a distending force than of mus- 
 cular parts, and, lastly, the difference of the changes which it and 
 muscles undergo both spontaneously and by the action of other sub- 
 stances. 1 Berzelius has multiplied the latter description of proofs." 
 However this may be, I must remark, first, that the capillaries 
 have certainly vital powers of contraction as fully as any parts of 
 
 r The heart was shown by Dr. Alexander Stewart, about the beginning of the 
 last century, to be resolvable by boiling water into a semicircular muscle, with all 
 its fibres running parallel to the base. Being rolled round in a funnel form, 
 the left ventricle is produced, and the second turn produces the right, by the 
 space between it and the first layer. The walls of the left ventricle, except the 
 septum, are strengthened by an additional convolution, which the right ventricle 
 has not. The auricles are distinct, and by boiling drop off from the ventricles. 
 Phil. Trans, vol. ix. abridg. 
 
 5 De Corde. 1 Anatamie Generate, t. ii. u Animal Chemistry, p. 25. 
 
 A 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 101 
 
 the body. This appears in their various degrees of local dilatation 
 and contraction, under inflammation, passions of the mind, &c. 
 When different stimuli are applied to them, they are seen 
 under the microscope locally to experience various degrees of 
 contraction and dilatation, and this even after connection with the 
 heart has been cut off by absolute excision of this organ. x Under 
 similar circumstances, when no stimulus was applied, the blood 
 was seen by Dr. Hastings often to cease, indeed, to flow, but still 
 to oscillate. If the capillaries are allowed to possess organic con- 
 tractility, it is impossible to say in which point of the arterial tract 
 it begins. 
 
 The evidence of muscular fibres is not necessary to irritability. 
 The iris and uterus are strongly endowed with irritability, but 
 their muscularity is disputed by many. No muscularity is dis- 
 cernible in the plant called dioncena muscipula, nor in the sensitive 
 plant, nor in those zoophytes which appear gelatinous masses, 
 yet contractility dependent on life is very manifest in them. 
 
 Verschuir actually found the larger arteries contract on irritating 
 them with a scalpel, in fifteen out of twenty experiments, y Dr. L. 
 Bikker, and J. J. Vandembos assert the same of the aorta, and 
 Van Geuns of the carotid when influenced by electricity . 2 Zim- 
 merman, Bichat, and Magendie, saw the arteries contract upon the 
 application of acids, but the two last considered it a chemical 
 change. Dr. Hastings, however, saw the same from the appli- 
 cation of ammonia. J. Hunter found the posterior tibial artery of 
 a dog contract so as nearly to prevent any blood from passing 
 through it on merely being laid bare, and facts similar to this are 
 mentioned by Drs. Hastings, Fowler, a Jones, b and the Drs. Parry. 
 The fact of continued contraction, and of alternate contraction 
 and relaxation in arteries, being occasioned by stimuli is therefore 
 certain, and although some have not succeeded in stimulating 
 them, we must remember that others have failed in the application 
 of electricity to parts indisputably muscular; — Verschuir c in the 
 
 x See Dr. Wilson Philip, On Febrile Diseases ; Dr. Thomson, Lectures on In- 
 flammation ; Dr. Hastings, A Treatise on the Inflammation of the Mucous Mem- 
 brane of the Lungs. 1820. 
 
 y De Art. et Ven. vi Irrit. 
 
 z See Hastings, 1. c. The introduction to this work is a body of information 
 on the present subject. 
 
 a Disputatio inauguralis de Inflammatione. b On Hcemorrhage. 
 
 c 1. c. expt. 22. 
 
 H 3 
 
102 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 case of the heart and urinary bladder, and Zimmerman in other 
 parts of known muscularity. d Dr. Hastings caused contraction 
 in veins also by the application of stimuli. e 
 
 Dr. Parry instituted a number of experiments upon this ques- 
 tion. After exactly ascertaining the circumference of arteries in 
 animals, he killed them, and again measured the circumference ; 
 and after a lapse of many hours, when life must have been per- 
 fectly extinguished, he measured the circumference a third time. 
 Immediately after death, the circumference was found greatly 
 diminished, and on the third examination it had increased again. 
 The first contraction arose from the absence of the blood which 
 distended the vessel and antagonised its efforts to contract, and it 
 was evidently muscular, or to speak more correctly, organic, 
 contraction, because, when vitality had ceased, and this kind of 
 contraction could no longer exist, the vessel was, on the third 
 examination, always found enlarged. f 
 
 The forced state of distention in arteries was proved by the 
 contraction immediately occurring on making a puncture in a 
 portion of vessel included between two ligatures. An experiment 
 of Magendie’s is of equal weight, in which a ligature was fixed on 
 the whole of a dog’s leg except the crural artery and vein, and 
 the vein and artery were compressed, when, upon wounding the 
 vein, the artery completely emptied itself, e The capacities of 
 arteries are thus always accommodated to the quantity of blood, 
 and this circumstance gives the arterial canal such properties of 
 a rigid tube as enable an impulse at the mouth of the aorta to be 
 instantly communicated throughout the canal. This appears the 
 great office of the contractile powers of arteries, for, 
 
 (G) They do not incessantly dilate and contract to anj r amount, 
 as many imagine. Dr. Parry, on the most careful examination, 
 could never discover the least dilatation in them, during the 
 systole of the ventricle, — when the pulse is felt. Dr. Hastings 
 declares he has seen it, as does Magendie in the case of the 
 aorta and carotid of the horse; but from the number and accuracy 
 of Dr. Parry’s experiments, I incline to believe it does not occur 
 in the ordinary undisturbed state of tbe circulation to any extent. 
 Dr. Barry plunged his arm into the thorax of a horse and found 
 the aorta constantly full, nearly to bursting, not perceptibly vary- 
 
 d De irritabilitate. e 1. c. p. 52. scj. 
 
 f See also J. Hunter, On the Blood, p. 114. 116. 
 
 B Journal de Physiologie, t. i. p.' 111. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 103 
 
 ing in distention for an instant, though he held it during five 
 minutes and examined it afterwards again ; while at every expira- 
 tion the cava was so empty as to feel only like a flaccid thin mem- 
 brane. h The fact of a continued stream occurring from a 'wounded 
 artery, only augmented at each pulsation of the heart, is thought 
 by Magendie* to prove that the arteries assist in propelling the 
 blood : but an opening takes off the resistance to its course so 
 considerably that the vessel cannot but contract between the im- 
 pulses of the heart. 
 
 Although the blood is constantly streaming onwards, the pulse 
 is felt only when arteries are more or less compressed ; under 
 which circumstance, the motion of the blood onwards, by the 
 impulse of a fresh portion from the left ventricle, is impeded : and 
 this effort of the fluid against the obstructing cause gives the 
 sensation called the pulse, k which follows the stroke of the heart 
 successively later throughout the arterial system, though the 
 interval is in general too minute to be appreciated. Dr. Barry 
 found no pulsation in the aorta of the horse, unless he compressed 
 it violently. 
 
 The elastic coat both assists and antagonises the muscular : 
 assists it in preventing distention when the distending force is 
 very strong, and antagonises it — tends to prevent the canal from 
 becoming too narrow, when it attempts to contract the vessel 
 excessively . 1 
 
 Still, independently of the whole quantity of blood, and of the 
 heart’s action, particular arteries may be in various degrees of 
 distention, according to the various states of their individual 
 contraction. For example, when a finger has a whitlow, the 
 
 h Dissertation sur le passage du Sang a travers le Cceur. Paris, 1827. p. 78. 
 
 Also, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, June 1S27. 
 
 1 Journal de Physiologic, t. i. p. 1 10. 
 
 k An Experimental Enquiry into the Nature, Causes, and Varieties of the Ar- 
 terial Pulse, &c., by Caleb Hillier Parry, M.D. F. R.S. 1816. Likewise a 
 second work, entitled, Additional Experiments on the Arteries of warm-blooded 
 animals, &c., by Chas. Hen. Parry, M.D. F.R.S. 1819. — the latter displays 
 as much talent and learning as the former of originality. Dr. Young, in a 
 Croonian lecture, highly worth perusal, on the functions of the heart and 
 blood-vessels, reasons to prove that the muscular power of arteries has very 
 little effect in propelling the blood. Phil. Trans. 1809. 
 
 1 On the operation of the elastic and muscular coats, see Hunter, l.c. p. 1 18. sqq. 
 
 H 4 
 
104 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 digital branches are found larger than usual at the very roots 
 of the fingers ; in many affections the pulse of the two wrists differ 
 for a time. In fact, their condition may vary like that of the 
 capillaries, and probably does vary every time that altered cir- 
 culation occurs in a part, although Dr. Parry’s opinion holds true 
 during the tranquil and ordinary condition of circulation. I am 
 thus inclined to agree with and differ from both Dr. Parry and 
 Dr. Hastings ; believing the former to be right as to the ordinary 
 state, the latter in irregularity. 
 
 The elastic power is said to be greater in the arteries, and the 
 muscular in the capillaries ; and as the muscular pow r er is proved 
 by Dr. Parry’s experiments to be able to overcome the elastic in 
 the arteries, it must be very considerable in the capillaries. 
 
 Dr. Curry, the late senior physician and distinguished lecturer 
 on the practice of medicine at Guy’s Hospital, concluded, without 
 doubt hypothetically, from some microscopic experiments which 
 he had made on inflammation in the presence once of Mr. Charles 
 Bell and once of Mr. Travers, that the circulation is indispensably 
 facilitated by a sort of electric repulsion between the vessels and 
 their contents, and that in inflammatory accumulation, the tone 
 of the vessels being impaired, this repulsion is diminished and the 
 blood passes onwards with difficulty in consequence. 111 
 
 (H) These oscillations are quite imaginary, and now disallowed. 
 Although variations of dilatation must affect the course of the blood 
 through vessels, it is difficult to conceive how any regular action 
 of them can assist it, while the blood is propelled and drawn by the 
 heart; and the influence of the heart was seen by Dr. Hastings in 
 some microscopical experiments, in which partial obstruction was 
 produced, to extend to arteries, capillaries, and veins, as the blood 
 in them all received a sensible impulse at each contraction of the 
 ventricles. Indeed we have ocular proof that the capillaries do 
 not contract on the blood in the ordinary state of things, for the 
 blood in them, as well as in the arteries and veins, may be seen for 
 an hour together in the frog’s foot, under the microscope, to move 
 in a stream unvarying, — neither becoming finer alternately nor 
 experiencing impulses. n 
 
 m See the Syllabus of his lectures for 1810. 
 
 11 Hastings, 1. c. p. 46. sq. Magendie, Journal lie Physiol, t. i. p. 107. sq.. 
 says that the blood streams in the arteries and veins of cold-blooded animals, as if 
 the vessels were motionless. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 105 
 
 In foetuses without hearts, 0 it is not proved that the vascular 
 system carries on the circulation by its own power, because a 
 twin without a heart has never been seen unless accompanied by 
 a perfect foetus, whose heart might circulate the blood of both ; for 
 the placentae often communicate, so that one child has died of 
 haemorrhage from the chord of the other: and in the only case 
 where the matter was ascertained, P the akerious foetus was ac- 
 tually injected by the navel-string of the perfect foetus. i When, 
 however, the blood is not moved by the heart, the capillaries do 
 impel it. Dr. Wilson Philip once saw it moving freely in some 
 mesenteric capillaries of a rabbit for an hour and a quarter after 
 the excision of the heart; 1 ' and Haller and Bichat made similar 
 observations. 
 
 Mr. Burns, s anxious to prove that the arteries are of more 
 importance than the heart, that they themselves circulate the 
 blood which they receive, 1 and that the auricles are of more 
 importance than the ventricles, mentions, among other ex- 
 amples of diseased heart, one in which both ventricles were 
 as completely ossified as the cranium, except about a cubic, 
 inch at the apex, and in which there had been no palpi- 
 tation or pain in the heart. As bony ventricles could not con- 
 tract, nor easily be moved, palpitation could not readily have 
 occurred, and pain rarely attends the ossification of any part 
 That the circulation was deranged is proved by the woman having 
 experienced great dyspnoea, and expectoration, and dropsy. The 
 auricles were healthy and thicker than usual, and had evidently 
 performed the duty of the ventricles, through which, as an un- 
 changing reservoir between the auricles and the pulmonary artery 
 and aorta, the auricles drove the blood. The invariable languor 
 of circulation in cases where the action of the heart is languid, 
 proves the power of the heart in the circulation. 
 
 On the other hand, the large arteries of the extremities are 
 continually found ossified without any apparent deficiency of cir- 
 culation. I have seen long tracts of vessels in the lower ex- 
 
 0 Hevvson, Exp. Enquiry, v. ii. p. 15. Mr. Brodie, Phil. Trans. I S06. 
 
 p Phil. Trans. 1793. p. 155. 
 
 q Dr. Young, Introduction to Med. Literature. 1823. 2d edit. p. 631. sq. 
 
 r An Experimental Enquiry into the Laws of the Vital Functions. 3d ed. expt. 67. 
 
 s Observations on some of the most frequent and important Diseases of the 
 Heart, be. By Allan Burns. 1809. p. 117. sqq. 
 
 1 1. c. p. 120. 
 
106 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 tremities ossified, where no such circumstance had been suspected. 
 Mr. Burns himself mentions an instance “ of the arteries of the 
 head, pelvis, legs, and arms, being almost entirely ossified, 11 ” the 
 heart and aorta being healthy ; and yet the man clearly died of 
 diseased liver induced by hard drinking, hot climate, &c. 
 
 The ventricles are certainly of more importance than the 
 auricles, because these are absent in many animals, and are only 
 reservoirs to supply the ventricles. x 
 
 (I) In a young lady whom I attended for chronic bronchitis ac- 
 companied by violent cough, and who ultimately recovered, all 
 the veins of the back of the hands and fore-arms distinctly puls- 
 ated synchronously with the arteries. An universal pulsation of 
 the veins synchronous with that of the arteries, occurred for some 
 days twice in a young man who died of cerebral disease, with 
 constriction of the mouth of the aorta ; y once in a middle-aged 
 man with affections of the head and abdomen, who recovered ; 2 
 once in a middle-aged man who died with dropsy and palpitation, a 
 and lately in a girl who died with symptoms of hydrocephalus. 1 * 
 In a case of epidemic fever, the same was observed byWeitbrecht 
 for twenty-four hours ; c and he had previously seen a similar case, 
 but doubted his senses. Haller’s remark upon it is, “ Ego quidem 
 non intelligo.” d 
 
 In venesection at the bend of the arm I have frequently seen 
 the jet regularly stronger at each pulsation of the heart, and 
 Hunter mentions the same thing, and states it to be more ob- 
 servable at the head or foot, saying, “ The fact is, however, that 
 there is a pulsation in the veins.” e 
 
 Yet ordinarily there is, speaking of the veins in general, no venous 
 pulsation, and the stream in the veins, though caused mainly by 
 the left ventricle, — as may be seen by tying all the vessels of an 
 extremity but the artery, and wounding the vein, when the jet from 
 the vein may be regulated by pressing the artery, — is perfectly 
 uniform. By the infinite subdivisions and great increase of ca- 
 
 u l.c. p. 124. sq. 
 x Hunter, 1. c. p. 138. 
 
 y Journal Complimentaire, t.21. June, 1S25. 
 z Journal der Pralctischen Heilkund. Sept. 1815. 
 a Archiv. fiir Medinische Eifahrungi July and August, 1822. 
 
 6 Dublin Hospital Reports, vol. iv. 
 
 c 17-36. Haller’s Disputationes, t. v. p. 407. 
 
 d j El. Phys. t. ii. p. 356. c 1. c. p. 186. sq. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 107 
 
 pacity of the arterial system, the blood which is moved in jerks 
 in the larger arteries, giving a pulse, and, if the vessel is wounded, 
 flowing more forcibly at the heart’s pulsation, gives no pulse in the 
 small vessels, and, if they are wounded, flows regularly ; and in 
 the capillaries, through the augmentation of space, experiences no 
 increased momentum at the heart’s pulsation. When the capilla- 
 ries unite into veins, and the capacity of the whole vascular chan- 
 nel diminishes, the blood moves more quickly again through the 
 diminished space ; f but though the smaller space augments its 
 flow again, the impulses of the heart lost in the capillaries cannot 
 be felt in the veins, and the current in them is smooth. Neither, 
 generally speaking, is it by any means so rapid as in the arteries, 
 because much of the heart’s force is expended, and the veins are 
 generally so much more numerous than the arteries, and' the 
 space therefore, however less than in the capillaries, still much 
 greater than in the arteries. Neither ought the momentum to be 
 strong when the veins have all united into the cavae, because it has 
 only to reach the heart where there is no resistance, but, on the 
 contrary, more than one source of vacuum prepared ; whereas in 
 the aorta it ought to possess a force sufficient to carry it a great 
 distance, and surmount great obstacles. 
 
 When the veins have pulsated, the action of the heart must 
 have been very violent, or some obstruction occurred, which, in 
 Dr. Hastings’s experiments, was seen to cause the heart’s action to 
 be sensible in the capillaries and veins, s 
 
 There is always a pulsation in the large veins near the heart, as 
 we shall see when considering respiration, but that arises from a 
 different circumstance. 
 
 The heart of mammalia and birds has no peculiarity necessary 
 to be mentioned here. In most amphibious animals , the arteries 
 of the system as well as of the lungs spring from the right ventricle, 
 with which the left, that sends off no vessel, communicates : hence 
 their circulation continues under water. In amphibious mammalia 
 and diving birds, some vessels, especially one vena cava, are dilated 
 to form a receptacle during the suspension of respiration. The 
 heart of jish is extremely small, and has but one auricle and ven- 
 
 f Dr. Hastings, when observing the circulation in the frog’s foot under the 
 microscope, saw that the blood moved “ faster in the arteries than in the veins, 
 and in the veins than in the capillaries.” 1. c. p. 47. 
 
 E 1, c. p. 47. sqq. 
 
108 
 
 ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 
 
 tricle, the latter propelling the blood to the gills, from which it 
 streams to the system through a large artery. Neither blood- 
 vessels nor absorbents have been discovered in insects, yet a 
 large tube, close throughout, pulsates in their back ; and Professor 
 Carus has lately discovered a circulation in them through a gra- 
 nular substance. With respect to the mollusca : the cuttle fish 
 has three detached hearts, consisting of a ventricle only, two for 
 the gills and one for the aorta ; the rest have a simple heart, the 
 blood of the cava passing through the gills before it reaches the 
 heart. The same is the case with the Crustacea, and their heart 
 has no auricle. Worms have circulating vessels distinctly con- 
 tracting and dilating, but no heart, and their veins communicate 
 with the general cavity of the body, and probably absorb. Zoo- 
 phytes have no heart, nor circulating system, properly so called. 
 In the echinus, indeed, there are two vessels that run along the 
 intestines, and are thought to be an aorta and vena cava. 
 
 Vegetables have no central organ of circulation. The sap rises 
 in tubes, called common vessels , up the wood, is distributed in thin 
 minute ramifications over the surface of the leaves, experiencing 
 changes by its exposure to air and light, and descends through 
 other tubes, called proper vessels, in the inner layer of bark, 
 affording the various peculiar secretions of the plant. The power 
 of the common vessels is such, that if a piece of the stem is cut 
 out, they entirely empty themselves ; and the sap has been found 
 to flow from the extremity of a branch with a force sufficient to 
 overcome a column of water 43 feet 3§- inches in height. b 
 
 (K) It would not be right to terminate this section without a note 
 upon the discovery of the circulation of the blood ; — a truth of 
 which the ancients are thought to have remained ignorant, from 
 finding the arteries empty after death ; but it was known that these 
 contained blood during life. ‘ The discovery was made by our 
 countryman, Dr. Harvey, Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital, and promulgated by him, at the age of forty-one, in an 
 anatomical and surgical course of lectures at the College of 
 Physicians, in 1619. He is entitled to the glory of having made 
 it, says Hume, k “ by reasoning alone, without any mixture of 
 
 h Hales, Statical Essays, vol. i. p. 101. 
 
 ‘ Galen De Anat. Admin, vii. 15., where are some amusing anecdotes of his 
 pupils and some persons who promised to prove the arteries empty. 
 
 k History of England, ch. 62. 
 
ON THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD: 
 
 109 
 
 accident.’’ He informed Boyle, that he was led to it by reflect- 
 ing on the arrangement of the valves of the heart and veins, as 
 exhibited by his master Fabricius. Nothing, he knew, was 
 planned in vain, and they clearly allowed a fluid to pass but 
 one way. By this argument, and the fact of a ligature upon an 
 artery causing the blood to accumulate in it on the side nearest 
 the heart, and, upon a vein , beyond the ligature ; and that animals 
 bleed to death by wounds in arteries or veins, he chiefly established 
 his doctrine. After his time it was demonstrated with the 
 microscope in cold-blooded animals. His immediate reward was 
 general ridicule and abuse, and a great diminution of his practice ; 1 
 and no physician in Europe who at the time had reached forty 
 years of age, ever, to the end of life, adopted his doctrine of the 
 circulation of the blood . 111 When the truth could be denied no 
 longer, he was pronounced a plagiarist; the circulation was de- 
 clared to have been known to Plato, nay, more, to king Solomon . 11 
 The circulation through the lungs had certainly been imagined 
 by Servetus, a Spanish physician, who was slowly burnt to death 
 by Calvin for not being of the same opinion as himself upon a 
 point in divinity. 
 
 1 This he laments in a letter to a friend, as may be seen in a MS. of the 
 Royal Society, referred to in the life prefixed to the College edition of his 
 works : — “ Quod multo rarius solito ad asgros invisendos accersitus esset, post- 
 quam librum de motu cordis ediderit.” 
 
 m Hume, 1. c. 
 
 n See Haller, El. Physiol, t. i. p. 243. 
 
110 
 
 SECT. VIII. 
 
 OF RESPIRATION AND ITS PRINCIPAL USE. 
 
 134. The lungs f closely connected with the heart both by 
 proximity and by relation of function, are two viscera, large 
 after birth, so light as to swim in water, and composed of a 
 spongy, and, as it were, spumous, but pretty tenacious and 
 elastic, b parenchyma. c 
 
 135. They fill each cavity of the chest, and are contiguous 
 to the sacs of the pleurae, to which, as well as to the other 
 contents of the thorax, they model and apply themselves. (A) 
 
 136. They, in a manner, hang from the wind-pipe, usually 
 called the aspera arteria, which, besides its interior coat always 
 smeared with mucus, and the subjacent very sensible nervous 
 coat, consists of another which is muscular, surrounding the 
 latter, and divided, except posteriorly, by an indefinite number 
 of cartilaginous falciform arches. 
 
 137. The aspera arteria, having entered the thorax, is 
 bifurcated into the trunks of the bronchiae, and these, the 
 more deeply they penetrate into the lobes and lobules of the 
 lungs, are the more and more ramified, losing both their car- 
 tilaginous rings and muscular coat, until their extreme di- 
 visions terminate in those cells which form the chief part of 
 the substance of the lungs, and alternately receive and emit the 
 air we breathe. 
 
 a Soemmerring and Reisseisen, iiber die Slructur, die Verrichtung utid den 
 Gebrauch der Lungen. Zwey Preischriften. Berlin, 180S. Svo. 
 
 b J. Carson, On the Elasticity of the Lungs, in the Phil. Trans. 1S20. p. 29. 
 
 Consult also, Const. Ern. de Welzien ,I)e Pulmonum autenergia, &c. Dorpat, 
 1819. Svo. 
 
 c Respecting all the organs concerned in respiration, consult Corn. J. Van 
 Den Bosch, Anatomia Systematis Besjnrationi inservientis Pathologica. Harlem, 
 1801. 4to. p. 1 — 44. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 138. The shape and magnitude d of the air-cells are various. 
 The former is generally polyedrical. The latter, in regard 
 to surface, is scarcely to be defined : e though, indeed, the 
 capacity of the lungs of an adult, during a strong inspiration, 
 is about 120 cubic inches. The immense size to which the 
 lungs may be inflated, when the chest has been opened, has 
 no relation to our present subject. 
 
 139. The cells are invested and connected by the common 
 but delicate mucous web — the general vinculum of the 
 body, and must be carefully distinguished from it. In healthy 
 and very recent lungs, I have found the cells so unconnected 
 that they were distended in one insulated spot by air cauti- 
 ously inflated into a fine branch of the bronchise, while neither 
 the neighbouring cells nor the cellular membrane, which lies 
 between the cells, admitted the smallest portion. If air is 
 forcibly thrown in, the air-cells are ruptured and confounded 
 with the cellular membrane, and both parts distended. 
 
 140. The mucous web surrounding the air-cells of the 
 lungs is supplied with innumerable blood-vessels — di- 
 visions of the pulmonary artery and four pulmonary veins, 
 the branches of which accompany the ramifications of the 
 bronchise/ and, after repeated division, form at length an 
 immense collection of most delicate and reticulated anasto- 
 moses. This extraordinary network, penetrating the mucous 
 web on every side, closely surrounds the air-cells, so that the 
 prodigious quantity of blood existing in the pulmonary vessels 
 is separated from the contact of the air by very fine mem- 
 branes only, which Hales estimated as scarcely T oV o of an 
 inch in thickness. 
 
 141. As each ramification of the bronchiae possesses its 
 own bunch or lobule of air-cells (13 9), so again each of these 
 possesses a peculiar system of blood-vessels, the twigs of 
 
 d Keil, indulging his luxuriant iatro-mathematical genius, assigned more than 
 1,744,000,000 cells to each lung. 
 
 e Lieberkiihn, with equal exaggeration, made the surface of the cells equal to 
 1 .'300 square feet. 
 
 f Eustachius, tab. xxvii. fig. 13. 
 
112 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 which anastomose in the wonderful net-work with one an- 
 other, but scarcely at all with the blood-vessels of the other 
 lobules, as is proved by microscopic observations on living 
 frogs and serpents, by minute injections, and by the pheno- 
 mena of vomicae and other local diseases of the lungs. (B) 
 
 142. The common membrane investing the lungs is the 
 chief seat of a remarkable net-work of lymphatic vessels s 
 which run to numerous lymphatic or conglobate glands, 1 ' 
 carefully to be distinguished from a neighbouring order of 
 glands, called bronchial, that are supplied with an excretory 
 duct and are of the conglomerate kind. 1 
 
 143. The thorax , which contains the lungs, has an osseous 
 and cartilaginous base, somewhat resembling a bee-hive, 
 throughout very firm and stable, but in every part more or 
 less movable for the purpose of respiration. k 
 
 This holds good chiefly with the six pairs of true ribs 
 below the first, each of which is more movable than the one 
 above in proportion to the greater length both of its own 
 body and of its cartilaginous appendix. The cartilages are 
 united by a kind of amphiarthrosis to the margin of the ster- 
 num on each side. (C) 
 
 144. Between the edges of the ribs lie two strata of inter- 
 costal muscles, differing in the direction of their fibres, but 
 conspiring to produce the same motion. 
 
 At the base of the thorax, the diaphragm 1 is subtended in 
 in the form of an arch. It is a considerable muscle, and, in 
 the words of Haller, next in importance to the heart. Its 
 utility in the mechanical part of respiration was long since 
 
 E Mascagni, Histor. vasor. lymphaticor. tab. xx. 
 h Ibid. tab. xxi. 
 
 ‘ Consult Portal, Mem. de l' Acad, des Scienc. de Paris. 1780. 
 k J. G. Amstein (Praes. Oetinger), De usu et actione muscular, intercostal. 
 Tubing. 1769. 4to. Theod. Fr. Trendelenburg, Jun. Dt stemi costarumque 
 in respiratione vera genuinaque niotus ratione. Gotting. 1779. 4to. 
 
 Bordenave and Sabatier, Mem. de V Acad, des Scienc. de Paris. 1 778. 
 
 1 Haller, Icon. Anat. fascic. 1. tab, i. 
 
 B. S. Albinus, Tab. musculor. tab. xiv. fig. 5, 6, 7. 
 
 J. G. Rbderer, De arcubus tendineis muscul. progr. 1. Gotting. 1760. 4to, 
 Santorini, Tab. Posth. x. fig. 1. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 113 
 
 shown, by the excellent experiments of Galen m upon living 
 animals, to depend chiefly on the phrenic nerve. n 
 
 Its antagonists are the abdominal muscles, especially the 
 two sets of oblique and the ti’ansverse. 
 
 145. The thorax, thus constituted, is, after birth, dilated 
 by inspiration, and subsequently reduced to a smaller capacity 
 by expiration. 
 
 During the former act, the thorax is enlarged laterally and 
 inferiorly, so that the bodies of the six ribs mentioned above 
 (143) are elevated and their inferior margin drawn somewhat 
 outwards ; the arch of the diaphragm is at the same time 
 rather depressed and flattened. 
 
 I have never observed the inferior extremity of the sternum, 
 in the tranquil respiration of health, to be thrust forwards, as 
 some have asserted. (D) 
 
 146 . This alternate motion of the chest continues, during 
 health and freedom from restraint, from the moment of birth 
 till death. Its object is, that the lungs may be expanded to 
 admit the air and contracted to expel it, in perpetual altern- 
 ation. This alternation occurs, in an adult at rest, about 14 
 times in a minute, — once to about five pulsations of the 
 heart. 
 
 147. For man, in common with all warm-blooded animals, 
 cannot long retain the inspired air, but is compelled to dis- 
 charge it and take in a fresh supply of this pabulum of life, as 
 it always has been denominated. 0 Common observation 
 teaches, that, however pure may be the air entering the lungs, 
 it instantly undergoes remarkable changes, by which it is con- 
 
 m De Anatomicis Administrationibus, 1. viii. cap. 8. The whole hook is very 
 rich in experiments on respiration. 
 
 11 Ephr. Kruger, De nervo phrenico. Lips. 1759. ; reprinted in Sandifort’s 
 Thesaurus, tom. iii. 
 
 Walter, Tab. nervor. thorac. et abdominis, tab. i. fig. 1. n. 1. 
 
 ° The antiquity of the notion that air is the pabulum vitce, is seen in the book 
 de Flatibus, usually ascribed to Hippocrates. The author regards the aliment 
 as three-fold, — victuals, drink, and air ; but the latter he calls vital, because we 
 cannot, for a moment, dispense with a supply of it without danger to life. 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 taminated and rendered unfit for another inspiration, unless it 
 is renewed. p 
 
 148. It may be asked, what are the changes which the air 
 experiences during inspiration, and which consist not in the 
 loss of elasticity, as was formerly imagined, but in the decom- 
 position of its elements. q For the atmospheric air, which we 
 breathe, is a peculiar mixture of constituents, differing very 
 much in their nature from each other ; and, not to mention 
 heterogeneous matters, such as odorous effluvia, various other 
 besides aqueous exhalations, and innumerable other matters 
 which are generally present, is always impregnated with 
 aqueous vapour, electric and magnetic matter, and generally 
 with carbonic acid gas ; and is itself composed of unequal 
 parts of two aeriform fluids, viz. 79 of azotic gas, and 21 of 
 oxygen gas in 100. 
 
 149. In the first place we know for certain, that, at every 
 inspiration (the fulness of which varies infinitely in different 
 persons of the same age, breathing placidly r ), besides the 
 quantity of azotic gas being somewhat diminished s , the oxy- 
 gen gas is in a great measure converted into carbonic acid 
 gas or fixed air ; so that the air of expiration, if collected, in- 
 stantly extinguishes flame and live coals, precipitates lime 
 from lime water, and is specifically heavier than atmospheric 
 air, and rendered unfit for inspiration 1 ; it also contains much 
 
 p Consult Harvey’s Dispute upon the necessary renovation of die aerial succtis 
 alibilis, with the celebrated Astronomical Professor, J. Greaves, in the latter’s 
 Description of the Pyramids in Egypt, p. 101. sq. Lond. 1646. 8vo. 
 
 Also the popular Edm. Halley’s immortal Discourse concerning the means 
 of furnishing air at the Bottom of the Sea in any ordinary Depths. — Phd. Trans. 
 vol. xxix. No. 349. p. 492. sq. 
 
 q Fr. Stromeyer, Grundriss der theoreliscken Chemie. P. ii. p. 619. 
 
 r Consult, v. c . Abildgaard, Nordischen Archiv. fiir 2\ T aturkunde, &c. t. 1. 
 
 P. i. and ii. 
 
 3 Consult, besides, Priestley and others, especially C. H. PeafF, ib. t. iv. P. ii. 
 
 * To discover how frequently an animal could breathe the same portion of the 
 different kinds of air that we have mentioned, I took three dogs equal in size and 
 strength, and to the trachea of the first, by means of a tube, I tied a bladder, 
 containing about 20 cubic inches of oxygen gas. He died in 40 minutes. 
 
Of RESPIRATION. 
 
 115 
 
 aqueous vapour, which is condensed in a visible form by a 
 temperature not exceeding 60° of Fahr. u 
 
 150. There is, consequently, no doubt that the carbonic 
 acid of the expired air is derived from the venous blood 
 carried to the lungs from the right side of the heart. x But 
 it has been of late disputed, whether the inspired oxygen 
 goes wholly to form carbonic acid in the bronchial cells, y 
 or whether it is in part united with the arterial blood and 
 distributed through the arterial system. z Many weighty 
 arguments seem to favour the latter opinion, as well as the 
 phenomena of both kinds of blood in the living body, a 
 compared with the changes which this fluid experiences when 
 exposed to these two kinds of air. (F) 
 
 151. This perpetual change of elements occurring in re- 
 spiration after birth, we shall show to be very differently 
 
 For the second, the bladder was filled with atmospheric air. He died in six 
 minutes. 
 
 For the third, I employed the carbonised air last expired by the second dog. 
 He died in four minutes. 
 
 The air of the bladder, upon subsequent examination, gave the common signs 
 of carbonic acid gas. (E) 
 
 The instruments which I employed are described and illustrated by a plate in 
 the Medic. Biblioth. vol. i. p. 174. sq. tab.l. 
 
 u J. A. De Luc, Idees sur la Meteorologie. tom. ii. p. 67. 229. 
 
 1 Rob. Menzies, De Respiratione. Edinb. 1790. 8vo. 
 
 H. G. Rouppe, on the same subject. Lugd. Batav. 1791. 4to. 
 
 J. Bostock, Versuch iiber das Alhemholen. libers, von A.F.Nolde. Erf. 1809. 
 8 vo. 
 
 y W. Allen and W. H. Pepys, Phil. Trans. 1808. p. 249. and 1809. p. 404. 
 But how various the quantity of carbonic acid gas expired is, at different times 
 of the day, and under different circumstances, is shown by the experiments of 
 W. Prout, in Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 328. 
 
 z Nasse in J. F. Meckel’s Archiv. fur die Physiol, vol. ii. p. 200. 
 
 And G. Wedmeyer, Physiologische Untersuchungen iiber das Nervensystem und 
 die Respiration. Hanov. 1817. 8vo. p. 175. 
 
 a J. Andr. Scherer, Beweis, dass J. Mayow vor 100 Jahren den Grund zur anii- 
 phlogislischen Chemie und Physiologic gelegt hat. p. 104. 
 
 Edm. Goodwyn, Connexion of Life with Respiration. Lond. 1788. 8vo. 
 
 J. Hunter, On the Blood, p. 68. 
 
 J. A. Albers, Beytr'dgen zur Anat. und Physiol, der Thiere. P. 1. p. 108. 
 
116 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 accomplished in the foetus, viz. by means of the connection of 
 the gravid uterus with the placenta. 
 
 But, when the child is born and capable of volition, the 
 congestion of blood that takes place in the aorta, from the 
 obstruction in the umbilical arteries ; the danger of suffoca- 
 tion from the cessation of those changes of the blood, in 
 regard to oxygen and carbon, (13) hitherto produced in the 
 uterine placenta ; the novel impression of that element into 
 which the child, hitherto an aquatic being, is conveyed ; the 
 cooler temperature to which it is now exposed ; and the many 
 new stimuli which are now applied, seem to induce new 
 motions in the body, especially the dilatation of the chest and 
 the first inspiration. 
 
 The lungs, being for the first time dilated by inspiration, 
 open a new channel to the blood, so that, being obstructed in 
 the umbilical arteries, it is derived to the chest. 
 
 Since the inspired air becomes hurtful and unpleasant to 
 the lungs by the decomposition which it experiences, I should 
 ascribe to the most simple corrective powers of nature, the 
 subsequent motion by which the poisonous mephitis, as it 
 may be called, is expelled and exchanged for a fresh supply. 
 
 The consideration of all these circumstances, especially if 
 the importance of respiration to circulation, demonstrated by 
 the well-known experiment of Hooke b , be remembered, will, 
 in my opinion, explain the celebrated problem of Harvey, c 
 better d than most other attempts of physiologists. (G) e 
 
 b It has the epithet Hookian, because it was most varied by Rob. Hooke. 
 See Th. Sprat, History of the lioyal Society. Lond. 1667. 4to. p. 2S2. But 
 it was before instituted by Vesalius, and very much praised for its beauty. De 
 c. h. Fabrica, p. 284. 
 
 c Wm. Harvey, De circulat. sanguin. ad J. Riolan, p. 258. Glasgov. 1751. 
 1 2mo. 
 
 And especially his Exerc. de gener. Animalium. p.263. Lond. 1651. 4to. 
 
 4 See Theod. C. Aug. Roose, iiber das Ersticken ncugebomer Kinder, in his 
 Physiologiscli. Untersuchungen. Brunsw. 1796. 8vo. 
 
 J. D. Ilerholdt, De vita, imprimis foetus humani, ejusque morte sub partu. 
 Havn. 1802. 8vo. 
 
 * Consult, for example, Petr. J. Daoustenc, De Respiratione. Lugd. 1743. 
 4to. p. 54. sqq. 
 
 Rob. Whytt, On the Vital and other Involuntary Motions of Animals, p. 222. 
 Edinb. 1751. 8vo, 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 117 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) A correct notion can scarcely be formed from this descrip- 
 tion. The pleurae are two closed sacs, one of which lies over each 
 lung, one portion of the sac adhering closely to it, and one lying 
 over this again ; the internal surfaces of both portions are always 
 in contact, because, if the parietes of the thorax expand and 
 draw with them the external portion, the lung at the same time 
 expands with air and forces forwards the internal in the same de- 
 gree. It is commonly said that a quantity of fluid (not vapour) 
 exists in serous membranes for the purpose of lubrication. Dr. 
 Marshal, from many experiments, believed that this is not the 
 case, but that whenever fluid is discovered, we must regard it as 
 the effect of either disease or the struggle of dying. His experi- 
 ments were made on the ventricles of the brain, the theca ver- 
 tebralis, the pleura, and the pericardium ; f yet, when Dr.Magendie 
 has opened the membranes of the brain or spinal marrow, I have 
 myself seen a colourless clear fluid instantly escape. 
 
 The serous membranes during life and health are translucent. 
 M. Richerand tells us, that, on removing a portion of the thorax 
 when cutting away a cancer, he saw the heart through the peri- 
 cardium. s 
 
 (B) The best treatise with which I am acquainted upon the 
 lungs, is the prize commentary of Reisseisen, published by the 
 Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin in 1808, and printed in 
 1822, with six beautiful coloured engravings, and a Latin version, 
 under the care of Professor Rudolphi. h 
 
 He asserts, 1st. That the subdivisions of the 
 bronchise occur more and more thickly, the 
 twigs proportionally decreasing in diameter 
 and length, and that each ultimate twig ends 
 in a close bulbous extremity, or cell, com- 
 municating with other bulbous extremities 
 only in an indirect manner, — by means of 
 the twigs which end in them. Malpighi had 
 described them as round, and mere dilatations 
 
 f The Morbid Anatomy of the Brain in Mania, Hydrophobia, <^c. 
 
 e Journal de Medecine. 1818. 
 
 h Francis Daniel Reisseisen, M.D. of Strasburgh, iiber den bau der Lungen, 
 eine von der Kdniglichen Academie der Wissenshaften zu Berlin gekrvnte Preiss- 
 chrifl. Berlin, 1822. 
 
 I 3 
 
118 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 in the course as well as at the ends of the bronchial twigs.' 
 2d. That, as Malpighi proved, and contrary to the subsequent 
 opinion of Helvetius and others, these ramifications and cells 
 have no connection with the surrounding common cellular mem- 
 brane. 3d. That they consist of, — mucous membrane, behind 
 which lies, — 2. a coat of elastic white fibres, their existence being 
 visible as far as the canals can be traced, and the regular discharge 
 of any fluid injected into the bronchi® after death proving the 
 existence of elasticity in the bronchial ramifications ; — 3, a coat of 
 muscular fibres, transverse relatively to the course of the canals, and 
 visible by the aid of a magnifier as far as the size of the canals will 
 allow them to be traced. He conceives the muscularity of the twigs 
 and cells to be shown also from the necessity for its existence in 
 them no less than in the large trunks and trachea, where it is 
 visible ; from their evident contraction in the experiments of 
 Varnier, who irritated them by the injection of stimulating liquids 
 and gases and by mechanically stimulating the surface of the 
 lungs ; k and from the circumstance of the lungs shrinking much 
 more if an opening is made in the thorax of a living than of a dead 
 animal, in the latter of which it can shrink from elasticity only. 
 4th. That the ramifications of the bronchial and pulmonary arteries 
 freely anastomose both in the air-passages and on the surface of 
 the lungs, and that the bronchial arteries run chiefly direct to the 
 pulmonary veins. 5th. That the air-passages and blood-vessels of 
 the lungs are most abundantly supplied with nerves from the par 
 vagum, whose conjunctions with the sympathetic take place ex- 
 ternally to the lungs. 
 
 Some other conclusions are drawn, but unimportant or un- 
 satisfactory. 
 
 (C) Although each lower rib must execute a greater extent of 
 motion from being longer than the one above, yet the first is 
 asserted by Magendie to be absolutely more moveable than the 
 second, the second than the third, &c. : and this because the 
 first has but one articular surface, is articulated with but one 
 vertebra, and possesses neither internal nor costo-transverse liga- 
 ment and has the posterior ligament horizontal, and because 
 slight shades of difference exist in the disposition of the ligaments 
 of the six other ribs. 1 
 
 * Epist. de Pulmon. I . p. 1 33. 
 
 k Memoires de la Social c Rnyale de Midecine. 1779. p. 394. sqq. 
 
 1 Precis Eleinentaire, t. ii. p. 317. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 119 
 
 (D) Dr. Carson gives the following account of the mechanical 
 part of respiration. 
 
 The substance of the lungs is highly elastic, and constantly 
 kept in a forced state of distention after birth by the pressure 
 of the atmosphere . 111 This is evident also from the lungs collaps- 
 ing upon our puncturing the walls of the thorax, — a circum- 
 stance arising from the atmospheric pressure on the one hand 
 becoming counterbalanced on the other, so that their elasticity, 
 experiencing no opposition, becomes effective . 11 During inspiration, 
 the intercostal muscles raise and draw out the ribs, and the dia- 
 phragm descends : the enlargement of the thoracic cavity is 
 instantly followed of necessity by the greater distention of the 
 substance of the lungs from the diminished resistance to the 
 atmosphere gravitating in the bronchise. The diaphragm and 
 intercostal muscles ceasing to act, the substance of the lungs 
 exerts its elasticity with effect, recovers its former dimensions, 
 and drives out the additional volume of air just admitted, and 
 the passive diaphragm follows the shrinking substance of the 
 lungs, offering, from its relaxation, no resistance to the atmo- 
 sphere pressing on the surface of the abdomen. Thus expiration 
 is produced. The muscular power of the diaphragm and inter- 
 costal muscles is far greater than the elastic power of the lungs, 
 and therefore, when exerted, overcomes it, producing inspiration : 
 but, ceasing to be exerted, the elastic power gains efficiency, and 
 produces expiration. 
 
 To the elastic, Reisseisen adds the muscular, contraction of the 
 bronchial ramifications and cells. “ Thorace ampliato, aer va- 
 cuum in pulmone spatium occupat, victisque Jibris, fistulam spirit- 
 alem quaquaversum extendit, ultra modum, quo quiescit, explicari 
 coactam, unde fibrae elasticce resilire, circulares sese contrahere 
 nituntur, quo fit ut desidente thorace omnes simul ad expellendum 
 spiritum vires intenduntur. Sunt autem, thoracis undique desi- 
 dentis pressio, turn fibrarum fistulam spiritalem in brevius contra- 
 hentium vis elastica, denique viuscularium illam constringentium 
 irritabilitas .” 
 
 m See Haller, El. Phys. lib. viii. s. iv. p. 259. 275. 
 
 ° Dr. Carson found the elasticity of the lungs of calves, sheep, and large dogs, 
 balanced by a column of water of from a foot to a foot and a half in height, and 
 of rabbits and cats by a column of from six to ten inches. Phil. Trans. 1820. 
 Part 1. 
 
120 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 “ The contractile power of the diaphragm ( and intercostal 
 muscles ) in conformity with the laws of muscular motion,” says 
 Dr. Carson °, “ is irregular, remitting, and sometimes altogether 
 quiescent. The elasticity of the lungs, on the other hand, is 
 equal and constant. The superior energy of the former is 
 balanced by the permanency of the latter. By the advantage 
 which the inferior power, from the uniformity of its operations, is 
 enabled to take of the remissions of its more powerful antagonist, 
 the ground which had been lost is recovered, and the contest pro- 
 longed ; that contest in which victory declaring on one side or 
 the other is the instant death of the fabric.” 
 
 In the common account of respiration, the elasticity and mus- 
 cularity of the lungs are unnoticed, and expiration is ascribed to 
 the elasticity of the cartilages of the ribs, and to the contractions 
 of the abdominal muscles emptying tbe lungs by pressure. Now, 
 according to Dr. Carson, in the first place, the elasticity ( and 
 muscularity) of the lungs is of itself sufficient for the purpose ; in 
 the second, there is no proof of the agency of the abdominal 
 muscles in expiration, — it proceeds equally well in cases of ina- 
 nition, when their contraction would rather enlarge than diminish 
 the abdominal cavity, and in experiments when they are entirely 
 removed from animals, — a child was born without them, and had 
 lived eighteen months at the time of the publication of its case, 
 and was very well;P — and, I may add, thirdly, that, although the 
 elasticity of the cartilages of the ribs must conspire with that of 
 the lungs, numerous cases are recorded of immobility of the ribs, 
 by ossification of their connections, where respiration was not 
 materially impeded. <i These cases are adduced to show that the 
 diaphragm is the chief instrument of respiration ; but as its 
 elasticity cannot produce expiration, they show that this was 
 accomplished entirely, or in a great measure, by the lungs them- 
 selves. Even where there is no ossification, the motion of the ribs 
 has very little share in respiration, and Dr. Bostock considers the 
 chief use of the intercostals to be that of giving a fixed point for 
 the action of the diaphragm, and the operation of the abdominal 
 muscles in expiration to be nearly passive. r It is commonly 
 
 ° 1. c. p. 223. 
 
 p Gazette de SanG, Dec. 5. 182 6. 
 
 ‘ l Dr. Bostock, An Elementary System of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 15. 
 
 1 1. c. vol. ii. p. 7. 15. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 121 
 
 known, however, that if the pleura is wounded, air rushes into 
 the chest during inspiration only, and is in some measure ex- 
 pelled again during expiration. Galen showed this, notwithstand- 
 ing his object was different, by wounding the chest, and fixing 
 a bladder upon the wound. The bladder shrunk at inspiration, 
 and became distended at expiration. s Were the ascent of the 
 diaphragm and descent of the ribs in expiration the effect of 
 solely the contraction of the lungs, — of a tendency to vacuum 
 occasioned by their shrinking, — air and fluids should stream to the 
 chest as much during expiration as inspiration, — should rush to 
 fill up the vacuum as much as the diaphragm should ascend and 
 the ribs descend for that purpose : nor should air be expelled 
 from the wounded pleura; for we may regard the thoracic cavity 
 as bounded above by the surface of the lungs, and always in the 
 sound state possessing the same dimensions, — the expansion of 
 the lungs being commensurate with the descent of the diaphragm 
 and ascent of the ribs, and the descent of the diaphragm and 
 ascent of the ribs commensurate with the shrinking of the lungs. 
 The fact that air does not stream into the wounded pleura in 
 expiration, but even streams from it, vdiile the ribs are moveable 
 and the abdominal muscles active, proves, I think, that the descent 
 of the ribs and ascent of the diaphragm, one or both, in ordinary 
 expiration, do partly occasion, by compression, 1 the diminution of 
 the lungs, or, at least, are not its passive effect, but coincide with 
 it by independent powers, — which are, the elasticity of the elevated 
 ribs (and displaced abdominal organs ?) if not the contraction 
 of the extended abdominal muscles. We shall presently see another 
 reason for believing that the organs of the chest are really 
 compressed during expiration. Haller refers expiration to the 
 pressure of the lungs by the elastic ribs, and the abdominal and 
 other muscles, and to the elastic and muscular contraction of the 
 lungs themselves, which he considers more forcible than the 
 compression. It appears to me that he is right ; but that, never- 
 theless, either the lungs alone, or the walls of the chest alone, 
 
 s Administ. Anat. lib. viii. c. ult. 
 
 If, instead of a bladder, a tube immersed in a coloured fluid is employed, 
 this will of course rise in inspiration, and remain stationary or fall in expiration. 
 See Experimental Researches on the Influence exercised by Atmospheric Pressure 
 upon the Progression of the Blood in the Veins, &c. By Edward Barry, M. D. 
 London, 1826. 
 
 • 1. c. lib. viii. sect. iv. p. 275. sq. 
 
122 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 are able, when unassisted by the other, to produce expiration. 
 The change in the situation of the ribs is, moreover, trifling 
 compared to that of the diaphragm, and respiration often proceeds 
 very well by the diaphragm alone. Animals which are remarkable 
 for swiftness and perseverance in the race scarcely employ the 
 intercostal muscles, using the diaphragm almost solely. 1 
 
 The beautiful contrivance in the shape of the thorax deserves 
 attention. By its being conical, every degree of motion in the 
 diaphragm produces a greater effect on the capacity of the chest 
 than could occur were it of any other shape. 
 
 The passage of the air into the cells may be distinctly heard 
 on applying the ear to the corresponding part of the chest, and 
 is called by Laennec the respiratory murmur. It is much louder 
 in children, and in them the cells are far more numerous and 
 small. Whence an equal portion of lung from an infant a few 
 days old weighs fourteen times more than from a man of seventy. 0 
 
 The elasticity and muscularity of the lungs are not sufficiently 
 great to expel the whole of their air in expiration. Thus they 
 remain constantly in a certain degree of distention. x 
 
 I now recur to the subject of the circulation of the blood, as 
 promised in note (E) of the last section. 
 
 The vacuum constantly threatening in the chest, according to 
 Dr. Carson, either from the shrinking of the lungs or the con- 
 traction of the inspiratory muscles, and I may add from the ex- 
 pulsion of blood from the ventricles of the heart, will evidently be 
 prevented, not only by the falling of the ribs and the ascent 
 of the diaphragm in the former case, and ingress of additional air 
 into the bronchiae in the latter, but also by the flow of venous 
 blood into the auricles : for the venous blood, being subject to 
 the full atmospheric pressure without the chest, will necessarily 
 be driven into the chest to prevent a vacuum ; the blood of the 
 pulmonary artery and aorta is under the same circumstances, but 
 the propelling force of the ventricles at one moment, and the 
 action of their valves during their relaxation, prevent its retro- 
 gression. The atmospheric pressure on the blood-vessels creates 
 a necessity for greater strength in the ventricles, as it impedes 
 
 c Dr. Carson. 1. c. p. 226. 
 
 u Magendie, Journal de Physiologic, t. i. p. 81. 
 
 * Reisseisen. 1. c. p. 23. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 123 
 
 the progress of blood from the heart ; but it also facilitates the 
 return. Thus the smaller pressure on the heart acts, by the in- 
 tervention of the blood, as an antagonist to its contracting fibres, 
 assisting to dilate them when they become relaxed. 
 
 That the blood is drawn towards the heart during inspiration 
 has been long acknowledged. “ In my experiments,” says Haller, 
 “ if you open the chest, abdomen, neck, or fore-extremities of an 
 animal, and lay bare the great veins, the superior and inferior 
 cava, the jugular, subclavian, brachial, or mammary, you will see 
 the blood return to the heart whenever the animal inspires, and 
 these veins recede some lines from it, become empty and pale, 
 flat and bloodless — depleri, pallescere, explanari, exsangues 
 fieri.” y In the words of Dr. Magendie, sixty years afterwards, z 
 “ when the chest dilates, it inspires the blood of the cavae, and 
 successively that of the veins ending in them ; much in the 
 same way as it does the air into the trachea. ” Were Dr. 
 Carson’s account of respiration correct, as a vacuum would be 
 threatening in the chest equally during expiration and inspira- 
 tion, the shrinking of the lungs should occasion the blood to 
 stream towards the heart as much during the one as the other, 
 to fill up the vacuum. But this is not the fact, any more than, 
 as we saw, that air rushes into the wounded pleura during 
 expiration. The coincidence of the effect of inspiration on the 
 venous blood, and, when the pleura is wounded, on the air, 
 
 y 1. c. lib. vi. sect. iv. p. 333. 1760. 
 
 z Journal tie Physiologie, t. i. p. 136. 1821. For the same reason, if a tube 
 is placed in the jugular vein, the air rushes into it during respiration with a noise, 
 and the ill effects of air in the heart occur. Magendie, 1. c. p. 195. And if a 
 large vein is opened in surgical operations, and any thing prevents the sides from 
 collapsing, the air may rush in and destroy life, as happened a few years ago at 
 Paris. 1. c. p. 192. sqq. This may be shown also, by inserting a tube, immersed 
 in a coloured fluid, into a large vein, when the liquid will rise during inspiration, 
 and stop or descend during expiration. See Dr. Barry, 1. c. who conceives 
 another source of vacuum to the pulmonary veins and venous sinuses, by the 
 distraction of their parietes during inspiration, p. 29. 1826. And Dissertation, 
 &c. p. 13. sq. Still more recently, Dr. Barry has applied the barometer to the 
 chest of a pigeon, a viper, a common snake, and a frog, and found the mercury 
 descend during inspiration. When connected with the exterior of the pericardium 
 of an eel, the mercury became concave each time that the heart retired from the 
 pericardium, so that its pulsations could be counted, and also at every effort of 
 the animal to open its gill-covers. Stir V application du Barometre, <|-c. Annales 
 des Sciences Naturelles. Avril, 1827. 
 
m 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 prevents us from supposing that inspiration affects the circulation 
 merely by giving a free passage of blood through the lungs. 
 “ The great venous trunks of the head, neck, chest, abdomen, 
 fore-extremities,” saj's Haller, “ swell during expiration, from 
 the blood either being obstructed or retrograding, and at 
 inspiration are emptied of it from its flowing freely to the heart. ” a 
 Or, in the words of Magendie, “ when the chest contracts, the 
 blood is driven back into the cavae by the pressure experienced 
 by all the organs of the chest.” That the blood does really 
 retrograde during expiration, appears by an experiment of Ma- 
 gendie’s, in which a hollow bougie was passed into the great 
 veins as far as the cava, or auricle itself, and the blood flowed 
 from its extremity during expiration. b This fact seems to show 
 compression of the thoracic organs during expiration, and there- 
 fore is an additional argument that ordinary expiration is not the 
 effect solely of the elastic and muscular shrinking of the lungs. 
 Such, indeed, is the pressure of expiration, that the heart during it 
 propels the blood more violently into the arteries, and even into 
 the veins; and, on the other hand, less forcibly during inspiration.' 
 
 1 1. c. ibid. b Journal de Physiologie, t. i. p. 136. Paris, 1820. 
 
 c Bordeu, Du Pauls, p. 324. quoted by Haller ; and Bichat, Becherchcs 
 Physiol, p. 223. See Magendie for the veins. Journal de Physiol, t. i. p. 138., 
 and Tulpius. In violent efforts the chest is still more compressed, whence 
 the blood accumulates without the heart in the veins, and is driven more 
 forcibly from the heart to all parts. These may be made after expiration or in- 
 spiration, but for a very violent effort we usually inspire first, to afford a better 
 fixed point, and to continue the effort longer than would be possible after ex- 
 piration. Respiration is generally suspended and the glottis closed, but if the 
 effort is made after an inspiration, the glottis need not be closed, provided the 
 air is allowed to leave the chest very slorvly. 
 
 In myself, a deep inspiration, not followed in due time by an expiration, causes 
 the pulse in a few seconds to become suddenly slow for a few seconds, falling as 
 much as five-and-twenty beats per minute, and even double this, if it has just be- 
 come rapid by a deep and prolonged expiration : but, as the breath continues to be 
 held, which may be done much longer than inspiration can be refrained from 
 after expiration, as there is a supply of air in the lungs in the former case, and not 
 in the latter, — (in the latter I can refrain for a quarter of a minute, and in the 
 former for rather above a minute) — the pulse gradually resumes its former quick- 
 ness ; and when the breath can be held no longer, evidently grows more and more 
 rapid and weak. The effects of refraining from expiration, are the same in me as of 
 refraining from inspiration. Rapid respiration quickens the pulse, by drawing the 
 blood more frequently to the heart, and, in my case, if very deep as well as rapid, 
 the circulation through the head becomes so violent, that vertigo occurs, and be- 
 tween this and the rapidity of the pulse, I at length cannot count the latter. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 125 
 
 A continuance in refraining to inspire after a violent expiration, of 
 course almost suspends the circulation by depriving the heart of 
 blood, d which is no longer drawn to the heart by inspiration, and 
 has been squeezed out by expiration : a continuance in refraining 
 to expire after a deep inspiration has the same effect, but more 
 slowly. In both cases the blood is no longer drawn to the heart 
 by inspiration, and does not experience those chemical changes 
 in the lungs which are indispensable to its free passage through 
 them ; though, they being, in the former, filled with air, and empty 
 in the latter, it can continue to pass through them much longer in 
 the former. 
 
 And this leads me to observe, that the mere suspension of 
 respiration impedes the circulation through the heart by causing 
 obstruction in the lungs, and that, consequently, inspiration, by 
 giving free passage to the blood through those organs will 
 accelerate its course through the veins, independently of a 
 vacuum ; although the influence of the vacuum is shown by the 
 effect of inspiration upon the contents of tubes inserted, not into 
 the veins, but merely into the cavity of the pleura or pericardium. 
 Whether respiration is suspended after an expiration or an in- 
 spiration, the effect is the same : — the blood accumulates in the 
 lungs and right side of the heart, if the windpipe is tied, whether 
 the lungs be empty or full at the time of the ligature ; and there- 
 fore it is not merely the mechanical condition of the lungs that 
 produces the obstruction in this case, as was once supposed, 
 but the want of chemical changes.® 
 
 But for this consideration, the effects of the thoracic vacuum 
 on the circulation might be overrated ; and, indeed, that too high 
 an estimate has been formed of it is very certain : for, 
 
 1. -In the foetus, and in animals which do not respire at all, or 
 not by a thoracic vacuum, the vacua arising from the dilatation of 
 the heart’s cavities, and from its diminished bulk under contraction, 
 only can occur/ 
 
 2. If we suspend respiration and prevent the influence of both 
 sources of vacuum, the circulation continues till the want of chemi- 
 
 d My own pulse, if a deep expiration is made, and inspiration refrained from, 
 becomes rapid and excessively feeble, and more and more so till I can hold out 
 no longer. 
 
 e See Haller, 1. c. lib. vii. sect. iv. p. 253. 
 
 f On connecting the barometer with the interior of the pericardium of an eel. 
 Dr. Barry found the mercury move. 
 
126 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 cal changes arrests it ; and if the vena cava, or any great vein, is 
 obstructed so as to cut off connection with the heart, it becomes 
 distended with blood s coming up towards the heart ; and if wounded 
 between the ligature and the extremities, the blood flows, whatever 
 the position of the animal, till death ensues .' 1 In these cases no 
 vacuum assists. If the pericardium is laid bare, so that no vacuum 
 can occur, except that from the dilatation of the heart’s cavities* 
 and the trachea tied, the right ventricle swells enormously with the 
 arriving blood,' — a fact not to be explained, even by the heart’s 
 own vacuum. The influence of the left ventricle upon the 
 course of the blood in the veins, was also shown by Magendie, 
 who firmly tied every part of a dog’s leg, except the great artery 
 and vein, and then tied the latter and wounded it below the 
 ligature, when the blood was projected to some distance, and 
 continued to be so, except when the artery was compressed ; 
 and as long as the circulation continued, the stream from the 
 vein was regulated at pleasure by compressing or liberating the 
 artery. k — If a turgid vein in the hand is compressed, it will not 
 become empty above, as it should if suction from one or all of 
 the three sources mentioned, were considerable ; and the jet of 
 blood from an artery was found by Hales to be greater during a 
 deep inspiration , 1 (probably from the more abundant supply to 
 the left side through the lungs,) showing the action of the ven- 
 tricle to be proportionably greater than the power of the thoracic 
 vacuum at the moment of inspiration to oppose the discharge of 
 blood from it. Still the effects of the vacuum are such as we 
 have seen, and it must lessen the labour of the heart. 
 
 The empty condition of the arteries after death, has been 
 ascribed by Dr. Carson to the thoracic vacuum. He states, that 
 if an animal is destroyed by admitting air into each pleura, the 
 arteries are found as turgid as the veins ; m but the same results 
 have not been obtained by others ; n and I presume that the obstruc- 
 tion in the lungs from the want of chemical changes, gradually 
 
 E Hunter, On the Blood, p. 75. sq. Haller had prievously ascertained th e 
 same thing, and while allowing the influence of a vacuum, urged it as a proof, 
 that the vacuum was not efficient, but only auxiliary. El, Physiol, t. ii. p. S25. 
 
 h Mr. Spry, Lancet . Jan. 1827. 
 
 ‘ Dr. David Williams, Edinb. Med. 4' Surgical Journal, 1S23, p. 528. 
 
 k Journal de Physiol, t. i. p. 111. 
 
 1 Statical Essays, vol. ii. p. 6. 
 
 m Med. Chir. Trans, vol. xi. 
 
 " Dr. Fennel, The Philadelphia Journal, Nov. 1822. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 127 
 
 lessening the supply to the arteries and producing accumulation 
 in the veins, together with the superior contractile powers the of 
 arteries, are, jointly, quite sufficient to explain the circumstance. 
 The effect of the obstruction in the lungs while the left ventricle 
 continued to propel blood, was strikingly shown by Bichat, who 
 produced enormous congestion of the lungs, liver, spleen, &c., 
 by strangling animals slowly, and found much less if respiration 
 was completely arrested at once, so that the left ventricle ceased 
 to propel blood very soon after the obstruction in the lungs took 
 place. 0 The greater the space into which the former blood can 
 flow from the arteries, the less blood will they contain. Hence, if 
 a ligature is passed round the cavae, some quantity of blood is 
 found in the arteries; if around the pulmonary artery, less; and 
 when the lungs have been kept distended after death by artificial 
 inflation, after opening the chest, so that all their vessels might 
 be unfolded, the arteries have been found quite empty, though 
 there was no thoracic vacuum, p and though the effect of the left 
 ventricle of the heart was destroyed by a ligature on the aorta. 
 
 Hence, if Dr. Carson’s experiments on this point are accurate, 
 I should ascribe the turgidity of the arteries when the pleurae were 
 filled with air, and the lungs compressed, to the diminution ; and 
 when this was not done, the emptiness of the arteries, to the 
 largeness, of the pulmonary space into which the blood could pass. 
 
 The influence of suction has been thought by Dr. Carson to 
 assist in explaining venous absorption. <1 
 
 Dr. Carson ascribes the effects experienced in elevated situa- 
 tions to the rarity of the atmosphere, by which it cannot compress 
 the blood sufficiently to aid the return of this fluid towards the 
 heart. Saussure r says, that when he was on the summit of the 
 Alps he experienced extreme fatigue and loss of muscular power, 
 and irresistible, rapid, and violent palpitation, and difficulty of 
 breathing, all which soon ceased on his assuming the horizontal 
 posture, in which, of course, the blood circulates more easily. 
 His guide, a slim old man, was unaffected, and climbed with 
 ease like a goat; and many unaccustomed to such elevations 
 have been equally unaffected, for habit and a strong heart will 
 render the influence of pressure but little necessary. 
 
 0 JRecherches Physiologiqv.es, p. 225. sq. 
 p Mr. Robert Hunter. Edinburgh Journal. Oct. 1824. 
 q 1. c. p. 167. r Voyage dans les Alpes. 
 
128 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 Gravity has been thought by Dr. Carson, as well as by older 
 writers, materially to aid the circulation : — “by the stroke of the 
 heart, a quantity of fluid is withdrawn from one end of the 
 column, and by the synchronous vibration of the arteries an 
 equal quantity is added to the other.” “ A perpetually repeated 
 generation of motion must be produced through the different 
 parts of the venous system by gravity, and this motion must be 
 from the ends of the veins to the trunks.” s “ The simplest 
 weight of a column of blood in any descending artery is suffi- 
 cient to raise the blood through open capillaries to an equal 
 height in the corresponding vein, according to the hydrostatical 
 law, that fluids attain the same level in all communicating ves- 
 sels.” 1 Yet, in the horizontal posture, there can be no assistance 
 from gravity, but the circulation proceeds perfectly well ; and, 
 indeed, gravity, on the whole, seems to impede the circulation, 
 for if the arms hang down for a length of time, or the legs are 
 not rested horizontally, they ultimately swell. Nothing assists 
 the heart more than a horizontal posture, as seen in syncope, in 
 which the restoring effects are perfectly explicable by its mecha- 
 nical aid to the heart, without reference to the brain. « The 
 effects of posture are necessarily greater in tall persons. In the 
 horizontal posture, the heart having less to do, beats more slowly, 
 and in very tall persons the pulse has been found 12 or 20 beats 
 quicker in the upright posture. 
 
 The operation of exercise is very material. If an extremity is 
 not exercised, its circulation always becomes languid, it resists ex- 
 ternal temperature with difficulty, and wastes, and, if gravity also 
 co-operates by a vertical position, it swells ; and exercise will pre- 
 vent the congestive agency of a continued vertical position. Violent 
 exercise causes proportionate violence of circulation. The action 
 of muscles evidently operates by compression, and chiefly of the 
 veins, as the coats of the arteries are so much stronger. The 
 blood can go but one way. The stream behind, and the valves 
 in the veins of the extremities, determine the effects of the 
 pressure to be in the course of the circulation. The compressed 
 vessels are at once nearly emptied, and the instant that the pres- 
 sure is alternately removed are again filled ; and the momentary 
 
 s 1. c. p. 138. sq. 
 
 ' Elements of Physics. By N. Arnott, M.D. Lond. 1827. p. 500. 
 
 u See Bichat, 1. c. p. 198. sqq. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 129 
 
 impediment during the compression is immaterial, on account of 
 the innumerable venous anastomoses. The progress of the blood 
 cannot but be accelerated. The dyspnoea that is felt arises from 
 the force with which the blood drives through the lungs, and 
 which renders frequent respiration necessary. 
 
 In the foetus the case is analogous, although Dr. Carson has 
 imagined it different, and thought it necessary to frame a little 
 hypothesis to reconcile circumstances. The foetal lungs, ex- 
 periencing no atmospheric pressure, are contracted to the utmost, 
 and the diaphragm, suffering no stimulus from the will on account 
 of uneasy sensation arising from want of breath, is completely 
 relaxed, and forced upwards to remove the vacuum ; and the 
 venous blood without the thorax must be drawn forcibly into the 
 right auricle, preventing the vacuum which the discharges of blood 
 from the left ventricle tend to produce. In the fcetus, moreover, 
 the blood is propelled into the aorta by both ventricles, as Mr. 
 John Bell remarks, and, therefore, the circulation less requires 
 other assistance. The vacuum from the dilatation of the cavities 
 of the heart occurs in the fcetus and all animals which have a heart : 
 but in those which have no such respiration as the human, there 
 can be no assistance to the circulation by thoracic vacuum. 
 
 The ordinary cause of the first inspiration appears, to be the novel 
 impression of cool air upon the surface ; for if at any time we are 
 suddenly exposed to a cold wind, or plunge into cold water, the 
 diaphragm and intercostal muscles instantly contract, and a sudden 
 inspiration takes place. The blood rushes into the expanded 
 lungs, and, being afterwards obstructed when the inspiratory 
 muscles cease to act and the elastic lungs shrink, gives rise to 
 an uneasy sensation, which is instinctively removed by another 
 inspiration, and thus respiration afterwards continues through life. 
 The fact of respiration commencing before the chorji is tied, 
 shows that neither congestion in the aorta, nor deficiency of 
 chemical changes, is the cause of the first inspiration. If an 
 animal is born under warm water, its respiration begins at the 
 moment you choose to bring it up into the air. Buffon proved this 
 by causing a bitch’s accouchment to take place in a tub of 
 warm water, and allowing the pups to remain there for half an hour. 
 
 The power of excitement of the surface to cause inspiration 
 has been recently shown by Beclard and others, who, on me- 
 chanically irritating foetal kittens still enclosed in the membranes, 
 found inspiratory efforts take place at each irritation. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 (B) After much uncertainty, it was thought ascertained by the 
 experiments of Messrs. Allen and Pepys that no oxygen is 
 absorbed in ordinary respiration, but that what disappears goes 
 entirely to unite with the carbon of the blood and produce carbonic 
 acid, the latter being exactly equal in bulk to the oxygen which 
 disappears, — about 27 \ cubic inches per minute, or 39,534 in 
 twenty-four hours, according to the experiments of these gentle- 
 men, — a quantity containing about 11 oz. troy of solid carbon, 
 and, perhaps, about double the average result of most other 
 experiments. 
 
 But Dr. Edwards has since shown that, however correct were 
 these results, it was erroneous to generalise from them ; that more 
 oxygen is continually consumed by brutes than goes to the form- 
 ation of carbonic acid ; and that this excess varies from above ^ of 
 the volume of the latter to almost nothing." The variation depends 
 not only upon the species, but upon the developement relative 
 to the age, and upon individual differences in adults. 
 
 He therefore finds that the bulk of the air is not unaffected by 
 respiration, but that generally a diminution takes place. Dr. Le 
 Gallois x and Dr. Delarochey also found that oxygen disappeared 
 in greater quantity than carbonic acid was formed. 
 
 Allen and Pepys observed, that if the same air was breathed 
 repeatedly, some oxygen was absorbed and some azote discharged, 
 and that if nearly pure oxygen was employed in the case of 
 guinea-pigs, carbonic acid was produced and a portion of the oxy- 
 gen replaced by azote, this portion decreasing, however, as the 
 experiment proceeded. 
 
 Dr. Edwards ascertained that respiration causes sometimes an 
 increase of azote, sometimes a diminution, and sometimes no im- 
 portant difference in its quantity. He thinks that it is always being 
 absorbed and discharged, and that the proportion of these processes 
 differs under different circumstances. Its discharge exceeds at all 
 times in very young animals, as guinea-pigs ; and in spring and sum- 
 mer; while its absorption exceeds in autumn and winter, as far as his 
 experiments upon adult sparrows and yellow-hammers go ; though 
 occasional exceptions occurred from unappreciated circumstances, 
 powerful enough to overbalance the effect of season. 2 The diflfer- 
 
 u De V Influence des Agens Physiques sur la Vie. Paris, 1824. p.410. sqq. 
 
 x Annales de- Chimie et Physique, t. iv. p. 1 15. sq. 
 
 y Journal de Physique, t. 77. 
 
 z 1. c. p. 420. sqq. 461. sqq. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 131 
 
 ence in the proportion of the inspired and expired azote never 
 equalled the greatest differences observed between the oxygen 
 which disappeared and the carbonic acid formed. Cold-blooded 
 quadrupeds were shown by Spallanzani a to absorb azote, and fish 
 by Humboldt and Provenqal. b Sir Humphrey Davy had already 
 ascertained the absorption of azote in his own person. 
 
 Dr. Edwards’s reasons for believing azote to be constantly both 
 absorbed and discharged are : — 
 
 1. That if an animal is made to breathe oxygen mixed with of 
 azote, azote is discharged in abundance, as was found by Allen and 
 Pepys, so that when there is little or no azote to be absorbed, 
 its exhalation at once shows itself : and we may conclude that in 
 common respiration its exhalation may be as great, but not ob- 
 servable because nearly an equal quantity is absorbed : 
 
 2. When a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen was employed by 
 those chemists, and pure hydrogen by Dr. Edwards, not only was a 
 large quantity (much exceeding the bulk of the animal) given 
 out, but a considerable quantity of hydrogen was absorbed, — in 
 Dr. Edwards’s experiment equal to the azote given out, c proving 
 that exhalation and absorption can proceed together : and he 
 asks why, if hydrogen is absorbed, not much more so azote, 
 which is more fit for respiration and the support of life ; and 
 concludes that its absorption may be as great in common re- 
 spiration, but not observable because a nearly equal quantity is 
 discharged. 11 
 
 Carbonic acid itself is shown by Spallanzani and Dr. Edwards e 
 to be exhaled from the lungs independently of the operation of 
 oxygen ; — when snails, frogs, fish, or very young kittens are im- 
 mersed in hydrogen. 
 
 Mr. Ellis f contends that the carbon is excreted by the pul- 
 monary vessels, and unites with the ox 3 'gen externally, and 
 Dr. Prout thinks this opinion corroborated by the fact,? — that, 
 
 a Memoires sur la Respiration, p. 184. 258. 
 
 b Memoires cT Arcueil, t. ii. 
 
 c 1. c. p. 462. d 1. c. 429. sqq. 
 
 e l.c. p.437. sqq. 
 
 f An Enquiry into the Changes induced in Atmospheric Air. 1807. Further 
 Enquiries, &c. 1816. 
 
 g Dr. Orfila, Toxicologic Ge nlrale, t. i. p .531. sq. Dr. Magendie had previously 
 found the same result in injecting the solution into the pleura. Memoire sur la 
 Transpiration, p. 19. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 when phosphorus dissolved in oil is injected into the blood- 
 vessels, vapours of phosphorous acid stream from the mouth and 
 nostrils, — what would hardly have occurred if the acid had been 
 formed in the vessels, as it would probably have remained in 
 solution in the blood, not being volatile. The phosphorus was 
 probably excreted from the vessels in minute subdivision, and 
 united with the oxygen of the atmosphere upon coming in contact 
 with it, producing phosphorous acid ; and the same may be 
 imagined respecting the carbonic . 11 
 
 There can be no reason to adopt this hypothesis on account 
 of the supposed difficulty of the air and blood acting upon 
 each other through the vessels, because we saw in Sect. II. note 
 (G), that they do so, through moistened bladder, out of the body. 
 The well-known secretion and absorption of air by membranes, 
 shown by the existence of air in the air-bladder of fish, the 
 sudden formation of air in the alimentary canal in disease, the 
 separation of carbonic acid gas and of azote in the lungs, 
 the absorption of azote and oxygen in the experiments of 
 Dr. Edwards, the absorption of air in emphysema, and the 
 occurrence of emphj^sema without injury of the lungs,* together 
 with the evolution of carbonic acid gas from the blood under the 
 air-pump or when hydrogen only is breathed, k — all show the 
 possibility of oxygen being absorbed by the blood, and carbonic 
 acid given out from it in the lungs, ordinarily, in respiration, as a 
 secretion. Dr. Edwards contends that, since so much carbonic 
 acid is given out from the blood in the respiration of pure hydro- 
 gen ; and that, since the quantity given out in hydrogen is as great 
 as is observed in common air, there can be no reason to doubt that, 
 in common air, the carbonic acid proceeds from the same source 
 as in hydrogen, viz. — is exhaled ; more especially as carbonic acid 
 exists largely in the blood: and that the oxygen, therefore, must be 
 absorbed by the blood. But whether mere carbon leaves the blood 
 and forms carbonic acid with the oxygen externally to the 
 vessels, or the oxygen unites with, and the carbonic acid separates 
 from, the blood, much of the affair would appear chemical, — nei- 
 ther all the carbon nor all the carbonic acid gas to be secreted; 
 because when venous blood is exposed to oxygen out of the body 
 
 h Dr. Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. 1819. 
 
 1 See a case related by Dr. Baillie, in the Transactions of a Society for the 
 Improvement of Medical and Chemical Knoutledge, vol. i. 
 
 fc Edwards, 1. c. p.437. sqq. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 133 
 
 it becomes florid, and oxygen disappears and is replaced by car- 
 bonic acid. 
 
 With respect to the change of arterial to venous blood, although 
 exposure to hydrogen or carbonic acid — positive substances, will 
 effect it, and the fact of the separation of carbon occurring when 
 the florid colour is acquired looks as though the presence of 
 carbon were the cause of the dark hue ; yet arterial blood, 
 inclosed in vials or in vacuo, grows purple , 1 — a proof that the 
 mere action of the constituents of the blood upon each other is a 
 sufficient cause. And the circumstance of venous blood remaining 
 dark, though by the air-pump carbonic acid is evolved from it, looks 
 rather as if the florid colour were dependent on the operation of 
 oxygen. 
 
 The generality of respiration or something analogous among 
 living beings, m and all the circumstances attending its perform- 
 ance, induce Dr. Prout to believe that it does something more 
 than effect chemical changes. n He considers galvanism as an 
 instrument extensively used by the vital principle, and since gal- 
 vanic operations probably occur in the action of the constituents 
 of the blood on each other, especially when oxygen is pre- 
 sent; and the combination of carbon with oxygen resembles the 
 union of the more oxidisable metal and oxygen in the galvanic 
 
 1 If extravasated, or Inclosed between two ligatures in an artery, the same 
 happens. Hunter, On the Blood, p. 65. sq. 
 
 m Fish and Crustacea purify their blood by the air contained in the water which 
 they draw over their gills. They perish if the water is deprived of air : and in this 
 case, as well as when the water is aerated but limited in quantity, and whether it 
 is exposed to the air or in close vessels, they perish sooner as the tempe- 
 rature is higher. Dr. Edwards, l.c. P. ii. ch. 2. And the younger and smaller 
 they are, when' there is too little air in the water, the more they come to breathe at 
 the surface, and die if prevented, (p. 118.) Fish die in the air by drying and 
 wasting, (p. 126.) The syren lacertina and proteus anguina, have both gills and 
 lungs : insects have no lungs, but openings on the surface of the body leading to 
 air-vessels are distributedsin the interior. All the experiments of naturalists 
 made it appear that no animal could live without oxygen, but M. Biot has 
 asserted, that what are called blaps and tenebrions, remain in as good a vacuum 
 as can be formed for any length of time without apparent inconvenience. 
 Animals found in many parts of the bodies of others, can hardly be thought to 
 have access to gaseous oxygen. Vegetables occasion the same change in the air 
 as animals, according to Mr. Ellis. Further Inquiries into the Changes induced 
 in Atmospheric Air, S-c. 
 
 “ Dr. Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. 1814, 
 
 K 3 
 
134- 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 battery, — a great additional purpose of respiration is, in his 
 opinion, to supply or excite galvanism. 
 
 Dr. Crawford observed that less carbonic acid was formed in pro- 
 portion to the height of the temperature ; 0 Dr. Jurine, that more 
 was produced when the circulation was quickened, — during the 
 hotstage offever, digestion, or exercise, and less in the coldstage;P 
 and his results were confirmed by Lavoisier and Seguin. a Dr. Ed- 
 wards has found less formed in summer than in winter. 1 
 
 Dr. Prout and Dr. Fyfe ! have found the quantity of carbonic 
 acid gas diminished by mercury, nitric acid, vegetable diet, tea, 
 substances containing alcohol, depressing passions, long fasting, and 
 fatigue, and probably by sleep. Dr. Prout found that it under- 
 goes in himself an increase from day-break till noon, and a de- 
 crease from noon till sun-set, remaining at the minimum till day- 
 break. Tn the experiments of Allen and Pepys, the formation of 
 carbonic acid gas slackened when their guinea-pigs fell asleep. 
 Dr. Prout also observed that an increase or decrease from the 
 maximum or minimum was followed by a proportional decrease or 
 increase during a diurnal period. It would appear, also, that less 
 is formed in infancy, and more as the adult age is approached, in 
 brutes . 1 
 
 The average number of respirations in a minute in adults is 
 probably twenty, but the absolute number, and the number re- 
 lative to the pulse, vary both in different individuals, and in the 
 same under different circumstances. 
 
 The common quantity of air taken in at each inspiration is 
 about 16.5 cubic inches, and the quantity remaining after death 
 in the lungs of a stout adult man, about 100 cubic inches, accord- 
 
 0 On Animal Heat, p. S87. 
 
 p Encyclopedic Miihodique, t. i. p. 494. Dr. Prout also observed this effect 
 of exercise before fatigue occurred. 
 
 q Memoires de V Academic des Sciences. 1789. p. 575. 
 
 r 1. c. p. 200. sqq. 
 
 5 1. c. Dissert. Inaugur. $;c. Edin. 1814. The smallest quantity yet observed 
 was in a diabetic patient of mine, taking very large doses of opium and nux 
 vomica. Numerous Cases, illustrative of the Efficacy of the Hydrocyanic or 
 Prussic Acid in Affections of the Stomach, with a Report upon its Powers in Pec- 
 toral and other Diseases, in which it has been already recommended, and some Facts 
 respecting the Necessity of varying the Doses of Medicines according to circumstances , 
 and the Use of Opium in Diabetes. By John Elliotsou, M.D. &c. p. 99. 
 
 5 Boyle, Works, vol. iii. p. 3CO. Edwards, 1. c. p. 1S9. sqq. 
 
OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 ] 35 
 
 ing to Allen and Pepys, Dr. Bostock, agreeing with Dr. Menzies 
 and many others, believes 40 cubic inches to be the average inspir- 
 ation, and thinks that 160 or 170 remain in the lungs after ordinary 
 expiration, 11 for these organs are never emptied by expiration. 
 
 The ordinary quantity of aqueous vapour emitted by the lungs, 
 trachea, throat, and mouth, may be about 20 oz. in 24 hours. x 
 
 Camphor, phosphorus, ether, diluted alcohol, gases, and various 
 odorous substances, when introduced into the sj^stem, escape in a 
 great measure by the lungs : whence they are perceived in the 
 breath. Dr.G. Breschet and Dr. Milne Edwards, conceiving that in 
 the dilatation of the lungs by inspiration, the enlarged space would 
 cause not only the air to rush in, but the exhalation from the sur- 
 face of the air-cells and pleura to increase and exceed that from 
 other parts, have made several experiments which prove this to 
 be the case. On injecting a small quantity of oil of turpentine 
 into the crural vein, the breath instantly smelt strongly of it, 
 and the pleura on being cut open did the same; while no odour 
 of it arose on exposing the peritonaeum. If a larger quantity was 
 employed, it impregnated every part. If, instead of natural re- 
 spiration, artificial was instituted, in which the air does not enter 
 the lungs by the formation of a vacuum on the expansion of the 
 chest, but is forced into them and itself expands the chest, no 
 more exhalation of odorous substances took place from the lungs 
 than from other parts ; and, indeed, if a cupping-glass was applied 
 over another denuded part, the odorous substance was given out 
 there, while the lungs afforded no sign of it. y 
 
 (F) When the air is not changed, death in general occurs long 
 before all the oxygen is consumed, through the carbonic acid 
 which is formed; but bees, some worms and mollusca, completely 
 deoxidize it. 2 
 
 Lavoisier removed the carbonic acid by potash as quickly as it 
 was produced, and found that a guinea-pig could live in air con- 
 taining but 6.66 per cent, of oxygen, and with still less became only 
 
 a 
 
 u An Elementary System of Physiology, voi.ii. p.24. sq. Dr. Thomson thinks 
 the estimate of Menzies most correct. System of Chemistry, vol. iv. 
 x See Hales. See also infra, Sect. XI. note (G). 
 y Recherches Experimentales sur V Exhalation Pulmonaire. Paris, 1826. 
 z Vauquelin, Annales de Chimie, t. xii. p. 278. Spallanzani, Mem. sur la 
 Respiration, p. 62. 
 
 a Some assert that the respiration of pure oxygen excites violently, others gently, 
 others not at all ; some, that more oxygen is consumed than in common, some 
 
 K 4 
 
136 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 Dr. Edwards advances, contrary to Morozzo, b that every warm- 
 blooded animal perishes instantly c when placed in the air in which 
 another has died through want of renovation, and that all of the 
 same class among them deoxidize it equally, though indifferent times. 
 This time will occasionally differ f, notwithstanding the size of the 
 body and the movements of the chest be equal in them, and the car- 
 bonic acid be removed as quickly as formed. The young deoxidize 
 it more slowly than adults ; and the young, if quite deprived of air, 
 die later than adults. d Indeed, Buffon found, and Dr. Le Gallois 
 and Dr. Edwards have confirmed his discovery, that new-born 
 animals of many species, as dogs and rabbits, will live a long time 
 without air, even after they have been allowed to respire. This 
 period lessens as the animal’s temperature rises with age ; and in 
 those whose temperature is at birth high, as guinea-pigs, it is 
 very short . 0 They live longer than adults also in a limited quan- 
 tity of air. f Amphibious animals likewise live long without air. s 
 Persons have been said to be able, by habit, to live without air 
 a considerable time. Death generally occurs at the latest in one or 
 two minutes, when respiration is suspended ; but by habit some few 
 divers of the swimming school at Paris can remain under water 
 three minutes. 1 ’ If the system is in an extraordinary nervous 
 
 no more. Pure hydrogen and azote appear to destroy by the mere exclusion of 
 oxygen ; carbonic acid by poisoning, but, if not diluted with rather more than 
 double its bulk of common air, it will not pass the glottis. Nitrous oxide intoxicates 
 quickly', briefly, and without consequent exhaustion, and appears to be absorbed 
 by the blood. (See Sir Humphry Davy's Researches, &c.) Drowning destroys 
 life only by the exclusion of air, and as the glottis closes, little or no water, — 
 nothing often but frothy mucus, is found in the air-passages. Yet Professor 
 Meyer asserts, that he has seen the fluid in which the animal was drowned, 
 generally, in the lungs, in his experiments. 
 
 b Journal de Physique, t. xxv. p. 102. sqq. The usual reason that an animal 
 will live in air in which another has died, is, that it comes fresh and strong into 
 it, and therefore resists the poison better than its enfeebled predecessor. 
 
 0 Memoires de V Academie des Sciences. 1789. p. 573. 
 d 1. c. p. 184. sqq. 
 e Edwards, 1. c. p. 191. sqq. 
 f 1. c. p. 513. sqq. 
 
 E Sir Anth. Carlisle, Phil. Trans . 1805. 
 
 h Edwards, l.c. p.269. Mr. Brydone ( Tour through Sicily and Malta , 
 frequently saw divers remain, in the Bay of Naples, under water, for three mi- 
 nutes. In Percival’s History of geylon, they are said sometimes to remain five 
 minutes under water. 
 
 Some very grand instances of the exaggeration on this subject, will be found 
 in an amusing and useful book, entitled The Uncertainty of the Signs of Heath. 
 
OF RESPIRATION, 
 
 137 
 
 state of insensibility, the absence of air, like the absence of food 
 or the administration of strong agents, may be borne for a very 
 long time. Even fainting renders submersion less dangerous. 
 
 Whether venous blood differs from arterial in containing more 
 carbon or less oxygen, it is not calculated for life. When injected 
 into the carotids, the brain becomes affected, as if poisoned, and 
 death gradually ensues ; and when it circulates through the 
 coronary arteries of the heart, — the action of which organ will con- 
 tinue though its left cavities are supplied with venous blood, — the 
 heart’s motion ceases, and the functions of each organ are impeded 
 and at length cease if venous blood circulates through its arteries. 1 
 When death occurs by impediment to the functions of the lungs, 
 the heart loses its irritability by its substance becoming penetrated 
 with venous blood and ceases to propel the blood of its cavities ; 
 and the brain, becoming powerless from the same cause, ceases 
 both to perceive uneasiness in the lungs from the want of fresh 
 air and to be able to will inspiration. If the death of the body 
 arise from the brain, it is by the brain being unable to continue 
 respiration. 
 
 Some suppose that respiration is very instrumental in prevent- 
 ing the putrefaction of the living body ; and this by carrying off 
 its carbon, — the substance which, in the spontaneous decomposi- 
 tion of animals, is the first rejected, and unites with the oxygen 
 
 M. D’Egly, Member of tbe Royal Society of Inscriptions, declares that he was 
 engaged to a dinner for which the fish was to be provided by a Swiss diver, who 
 got his living by plunging into the water and pulling the fish out of their holes. 
 The dinner hour arrived, but no fish. Drags were employed, and the diver’s body 
 found. The curate wished to bury it immediately, as it had been nine hours under 
 water, but M. D’Egly determined on attempting resuscitation, and succeeded in 
 three quarters of an hour. The Rev. Mr. Derham, in his Physico- Theology, is 
 more credulous than the Cur4 ; he quotes Pechlin for the case of a man pensioned 
 by the queen for having joined this world again, after remaining upright under 
 water, his feet sticking in the muddy bottom, for sixteen hours, at Tronningholm. 
 Yet this is nothing ; for Mr. Tilesius, the keeper of the royal library, has written 
 an account of a woman whom he saw alive and well, after being three days under 
 water. And this is nothing ; for Mr. Burmann declares he heard a funeral sermon 
 at Boness in Lithovia, upon an old man of seventy, who, the preacher protested, 
 had fallen into the water when sixteen years old, and remained under it for seven 
 weeks. Mr. Brydone was told that one diver, called Calas, but nicknamed Pesce, 
 could live several days in the sea ; and Kircher asserts, that this aquatic person 
 could walk under water from Sicily to Italy. 
 
 1 Bichat, lieckerches Pkysiologiques, p.ii. art. 6, 7, 8. 
 
138 
 
 OF RESPIRATION. 
 
 of the atmosphere ; and indeed Spallanzani found, that the 
 dead bodies of animals deoxydated the air after death, and often 
 as much as during life, before decomposition was perceptible. k 
 He says also, that torpid animals, whose respiration had entirely- 
 ceased, also carbonated it. As the latter fact cannot be ascribed 
 to the separation of carbon to the lungs, nor to the mere chemical 
 changes of decomposition, it probably arises from the functions 
 of the skin. 
 
 From the chyle entering the venous blood about to arrive at the 
 lungs, respiration has been thought to assist in assimilation. 
 More carbonic acid, however, is not found after every meal, nor 
 less during fasting, till it proceeds to the length of debility. 
 Many animals sleep after feeding ; yet in sleep less is produced. 
 
 (G) The experiment consisted in laying the lungs completely 
 bare, and reviving the animal by artificial respiration. Hooke 
 varied it by pricking the surface of the lungs and forcing a con- 
 tinued stream of air through them. 
 
 The following are the words of Harvey : “ It would appear that 
 the use of expiration is to purify and ventilate the blood, by sepa- 
 rating from it these noxious and fuliginous vapours.” 
 
 Mem . sur la Respiration . See Dr. Bostock, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 184. sqq. 
 
139 
 
 SECT. IX. 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 152. W E have described the chief use of respiration. We 
 shall hereafter mention how far it contributes to the con- 
 version of the chyle into blood, and to the support of ahnost 
 the whole class of natural functions. Its other uses are at 
 present to be considered. 
 
 And first, respecting the mice. a This begins after birth, 
 and proceeds from the lungs, as was observed long ago by 
 Aristotle, who called those animals only vocal, which breathed 
 by means of lungs. The voice is, properly speaking, a sound, 
 formed, by means of expiration, hr the larynx , which is a 
 most beautifully constructed organ, fixed upon the top of the 
 windpipe, like a capital upon a pillar . b 
 
 153. The larynx is composed of various cartilages, which, 
 being united together in the form, as it were, of a little box, c 
 and supplied with a considerable and wonderful apparatus of 
 muscles, d may be moved altogether, or separately, according 
 to the variations of the voice. 
 
 1 54. The part of the larynx most concerned in producing 
 the voice, is the glottis, or narrow opening of the windpipe, 
 having the epiglottis suspended, and, in a manner, fixed upon 
 it. It is clearly ascertained, that the air, expired from the 
 lungs, and striking properly upon the margins of the glottis, 
 becomes sonorous. 
 
 a Th. Young, Philos. Trans. P. i. 1800. 
 
 b Jan. Marg. Busch, I)e Mechanismo organi Vocis hujusque funciione. Groning. 
 1770. 4to. 
 
 c Soemmerring, leones organorum Gustus et Vocis. Francof. 1808. fol. 
 
 d B. S. Albinus, Tad. Muscat. Tab. X. fig. 1—15. Tab. XI. fig. 45—48. 
 Tab. XII. fig. 1—7. 
 
14*0 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 155. But it has been disputed what changes the glottis 
 undergoes in modulating the voice : whether it is alternately 
 widened and contracted, as Galen and Dodart supposed, or 
 whether, according to Ferrein, the variations of voice are 
 effected rather by the tension and relaxation of its ligaments. 
 
 The latter, consistently with his opinion, compared the 
 larynx to a violin ; the former, more consistently with nature, 
 to a flute. e 
 
 Every thing considered, we must conclude that the glottis, 
 when sounding, experiences both kinds of changes ; since the 
 grave and acute modulation of the voice must depend very 
 much upon the alterations produced in the glottis by the 
 ligaments, especially the inferior thyreo-arytenoids — the vocal 
 chords, of Ferrein, and by the corresponding modification of 
 the sinuses or ventricles of the larynx . f (A) 
 
 156. That every degree of motion in the glottis is directed 
 by the numerous muscles of the larynx, is proved by the 
 beautiful experiment of tying or dividing the recurrent nerves, 
 or par vagum, 5 and thus weakening or destroying the voice 
 of animals. (B) 
 
 157. Man and singing-birds have the power of 'whistling. 
 In the latter, it is accomplished by a larynx placed at each 
 extremity of the wind-pipe and divided into two portions. 
 
 e Kratzenstein viewed the glottis and larynx as a kind of drum, with its head 
 bisected. Tentamen de natura el charactere Sonorum Litterarum Vocalium. 
 Petrop. 1781. 4 to. 
 
 I would, in some sense, compare it to an JEolian harp, particularly one of tire 
 description found by Labillardi&re in Amboyna. Voyage a la Recherche de La 
 Perouse, t. i. p. 326. 
 
 f See some experiments made at Gottingen with the view of settling this con- 
 troversy, in J. G. Runge’s Dissertation De Voce ejusqwe Organis. L. B. 1753. 
 4to. 
 
 Also consult Jos. Ballanti, Commenlar. Instiluti Bonon. t. vi. 
 
 And Vicq.-d’ Azyr, Mem. de V Acad, des Sc. de Paris- 1779. 
 
 6 Respecting this celebrated experiment, anciently made by Galen, consult 
 among others W. Courten, Philos. Trans. N. 335. 
 
 Morgagni, Ep. Anatom, xii. No. 20. P. P. Molinelli, Comment. Instilut. 
 Bonon. t. iii. 
 
 J. Haighton, Memoirs of the Medical Society of London, t. iii. 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 141 
 
 The former, though possessing a single and undivided larynx, 
 has learned, I imagine, to imitate birds by the coarctation of 
 his lips. h (C) 
 
 158 . Singing , which is compounded of speech and a musical 
 modulation of the voice, I conceive to be peculiar to man and 
 the chief prerogative of his vocal organs. The power of 
 whistling is innate in birds ; many of them may easily be 
 taught to pronounce words, and instances have been known 
 of this even in dogs. But it is recorded, that genuine singing 
 has once or twice only, and then indeed but indifferently and 
 with the utmost difficulty, been taught to parrots ; while, on 
 the other hand, scarcely a barbarous nation exists, in which 
 singing is not common . 1 
 
 159 . Speech is a peculiar modification of the voice, ad- 
 justed to the formation of the sounds of letters by the expir- 
 ation of air through the mouth or nostrils, and in a great 
 measure by the assistance of the tongue, applied and struck 
 against the neighbouring parts, the palate and front teeth in 
 particular, and by the diversified action of the lips. k (D) 
 
 The difference between voice and speech is therefore evi- 
 dent. The former is produced in the larynx ; the latter 
 by the peculiar mechanism of the other organs above 
 described. 
 
 Voice is common to both brutes and man, even imme- 
 diately after birth, nor is absent in those unfortunate infants 
 who are born deaf. But speech follows only the culture 
 and employment of reason, and is consequently, like it, 
 
 h The larynx, even among the most ferocious people, is capable of imitating 
 the sounds of brutes. Consult, v. c. Nic. Witsen, Noord en Oost — Tartarye, 
 ed. 2. Amst. 1705. vol. i. p. 165., respecting the inhabitants of New Guinea of 
 the southern hemisphere, called Papus. And J. Adair, History of the American 
 Indians, p. 309., respecting the Choktah tribe of North America. 
 
 * I have in my hands the testimony of most respectable travellers, in regard, 
 for instance, to the inhabitants of Ethiopia, Greenland, Canada, California, 
 Kamtschatka, &c., and therefore wonder at the assertion of Rousseau, — that 
 singing is not natural to man. Dictionn. de Musique, t. i. p. 170. Geneva, 
 1781. 12mo. 
 
 k See Rich. Payne Knight, Analytical Essay on the Greek Alphabet. Lond. 
 1791. 4to. p. 3. 
 
142 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 the privilege of man in distinction to the rest of animal 
 nature. For brutes, natural instinct is sufficient: but man, 
 destitute of this and other means of supporting his existence 
 independently, enjoys the prerogative of reason and language ; 
 and following, by their means, his social destination, is en- 
 abled to form, as it were, and manifest his ideas, and to com- 
 municate his wants to others, by the organs of speech. 
 
 160. The mechanism 1 of speech and articulation is so 
 intricate and so little understood, that even the division of 
 letters and their distribution into classes' 11 are attended with 
 much difficulty. 
 
 The division, however, of Ammann, n into 1 . vowels, 2. 
 semi-vowels, and 3. consonants, is very natural : 
 
 I. He divides the vowels 0 into simple — a, e, i, y, o, u, 
 
 And mixed — a, o, ii. 
 
 These are formed by the voice only. 
 
 The semi-vowels and consonants are articulated by the 
 mechanism of speech. 
 
 II. The semi-vowels are nasal — m, n, ng (n before g, 
 which is nearly related to it), that is, the labio-nasal ?;?, the 
 dente-nasal n, and the gutture-nasal ng ; 
 
 Or oral (lingual) — r, l, that is, r w T ith a vibration of the 
 tongue, or l with the tongue less moved. 
 
 III. The consonants he distinguishes into sibilant (pro- 
 
 1 Consult F. Mercur. ab Helmont, Alphabeti vere naturalis Hebraici Delineatio. 
 Sulzbac. 1657. 12mo. 
 
 Joach. Jungius, Doxoscopice Physicce Minores (1662.) 4to. Append. Section i. 
 P. ii. fol. Gg. ii. 3. 
 
 J. Wallis, Grammatica Lingua: Anglicanee, cui preefigitur de loquela s. sonorum 
 omnium loquelariumformatione tract, grammatico-physicus. Ed. 6. Lond. 1765. 
 8 vo. 
 
 Gotti. Conr. Chr. Storr, De Formations Loquela. Tubing. 1781. 4to. 
 
 m K. G. Anton, iiber Sprache in Riicksicht auf Geschichte der Menschheit. 
 Gorlitz. 1799. 8vo. 
 
 Er. Darwin, Temple of Nature. Addit. Notes, p. 112. 
 
 n His Surdus Loquens. Amst. 1692. 8vo. Enlarged under the title of 
 Dissert, de Loquela. Ib. 1700. 
 
 ° Respecting their formation, consult Chr. Theoph. Kratzenstein, Tentamen, 
 recommended above. 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 143 
 
 nounced in succession) — h, g, ch, s, sh, f v, ph, that is h, — 
 formed in the throat, as it were a mere aspiration ; g and ch, 
 — true consonants ; s, sh, — produced between the teeth • 
 fi v, ph, — formed by the application of the lower lip to the 
 upper front teeth : 
 
 And explosive (which are, as it were, suddenly exploded, 
 by an expiration, for a time suppressed or interrupted), viz. Jc , 
 ]> — formed in the throat ; d, t, — about the teeth ; p, b, — 
 near the lips ; 
 
 And double (compound) — x, z. (E) 
 
 161. We must just mention certain other modifications of 
 the human voice, of which some, as hiccup and cough, belong 
 more properly to pathology than to physiology, but are very 
 common in the most healthy persons ; and others, as crying 
 and laughing, appear peculiar to the human race. 
 
 162. Many of these are so closely allied, as frequently 
 to be converted into each other; most also are variously 
 modified. 
 
 In laughter there is a succession of short, and, as it were, 
 abrupt expirations. 11 
 
 Coughing is a quick, violent, and sonorous expiration, fol- 
 lowing a deep inspiration. q 
 
 Snoring is a deep, sonorous, and, as it were, tremulous 
 inspiration, from the vibration of the velum palati during deep 
 sleep with the mouth open. 
 
 Sneezing, generally the consequence of an irritation of the 
 mucous membrane of the nostrils, is a violent and almost 
 convulsive expiration, preceded by a short and violent in- 
 spiration. 1 ' 
 
 Hiccup, on the contrary, is a sonorous, very short, and 
 almost convulsive, inspiration, excited by an unusual irritation 
 of the cardia. s 
 
 p Fr. Lupichius, De Risu. Basil. 1738. 4to. 
 
 Traite des Causes physiques et morales du rire • Amst. 1788. 8vo. 
 
 i J. Melch. Fr. Albrecht, (Praes. Hallero) Experimenta in vivis animalibus 
 circa tussis organa exploranda instituta. Gotting. 1751. 4to 
 
 r Marc. Beat. L. J. Porta, De Sternutation e. Basil. 1755. 4to. 
 
 5 C. J. Sig. Thiel, De Singultu. Gotting. 1761. 4to. 
 
144 . 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 In crying there are deep inspirations, quickly alternating 
 with long and occasionally interrupted expirations. 1 
 
 Sighing is a long and deep inspiration, and the subsequent 
 expiration is sometimes accompanied by groaning . u 
 
 Nearest in relation to sighing is gaping , x which is produced 
 by a full, slow, and long, inspiration, followed by a similar 
 expiration, the jaws at the same time being drawn asunder, 
 so that the air rushes into the open fauces and the Eustachian 
 tubes. It occurs from the blood passing through the lungs 
 too slowly : v. c. when the pressure of the air on the body is 
 diminished, as upon very high mountains. A peculiar feature 
 of gaping is the propensity it excites in others to gape like- 
 wise ; arising, no doubt, from the recollection of the pleasure 
 it produced. (F) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Numerous explanations have been attempted of the me- 
 chanism of the human voice, but these, having been formed at a 
 time when the laws of sonorous bodies were but very imperfectly 
 understood, are all more or less unsatisfactory. The recent in- 
 vestigations of Dr. Savart, have enabled him to explain the con- 
 struction of the vocal organs from principles which had hitherto 
 escaped the observations of experimentalists. The facts adduced 
 by him prove that the production of the voice is analogous to that 
 of the sound of wind instruments, and that the short column of 
 air contained within the larynx is susceptible, from the nature of 
 the elastic sides which confine it and from the manner by which 
 it is excited, of rendering sounds, both of a peculiar nature and 
 much graver than its dimensions would seem to indicate. After 
 establishing the preliminary facts by numerous experiments, he 
 thus accounts for the formation of the voice. 
 
 The vocal organ, composed of the larynx and the cavity of the 
 
 * J. F. Schreiber, Be Fletu. L. B. 1728. 4to. 
 
 u Dav. C. Em. Berdot, Be Suspirw. Basil. 1756. -Ho. 
 
 * Just. Godofr. Giinz, (Preside Walthero) Be Oscitalione. Lips. 1738. 4to. 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 145 
 
 mouth may be considered a conical tube, in which the air is 
 put in motion in a similar manner as in flute organ-pipes ; this tube 
 is so constructed that, notwithstanding its small dimensions, it is 
 capable of rendering a great variety of sounds, some of which are 
 very grave ; its inferior part being composed of elastic sides capa- 
 ble of different degrees of tension, whilst the mouth opening more 
 or less, and thus changing the dimensions of the column of air, 
 exercises a considerable influence on the number of its vibrations. 
 By constructing a pyramidal tube of nearly the same length and 
 capacity as the vocal tube, and membranous at its lower part, all 
 the sounds of an ordinary voice can be produced from it, either 
 by varying the tension of the membranes, or by altering the size 
 of its orifice. The trachea is terminated at its upper part by a 
 narrow opening which may be diminished or increased by the 
 approximation or recession of the arytenoids, and by the contrac- 
 tion of the thyreo-arytenoid muscles. This opening performs the 
 same office as the lumiere (sound-hole) of organ-pipes. But, for 
 the sound thus produced to unite all the known qualities, the 
 tension of the extensible parts of the sides of the vocal tube 
 must be proportionate with that of the sides of the ventricle, as 
 well as that of the superior and inferior ligaments ; and the orifices 
 through which the air escapes must be susceptible of varying and 
 of adapting themselves so as to give the best possible result. For 
 these purposes nature has formed these parts of elastic or mus- 
 cular tissues. The thyreo-arytenoid constitutes itself the inferior 
 and external sides of the ventricles ; the uses of this muscle (of 
 which Dr. Savart gives a very accurate description), are the follow- 
 ing : when it contracts it gives the proper degree of tension for 
 the sound required, to the lower part and external side of the ven- 
 tricle, as well as to the edge of the orifice through which the air 
 passes from the trachea ; by means of the extremities of its 
 oblique fibres it acts also on the fold of mucous membrane which 
 forms the upper part of the extensible portion of the vocal tube. 
 Its action upon this part is aided by that of a small muscle which 
 should be called the superior thyreo-arytenoid, for it extends 
 obliquely from the external and lower part of the arytenoid, up- 
 wards and forwards, to the rounded angle of the thyreoid carti- 
 lage, to which it is attached by very short tendinous fibres. The 
 office of this muscle is to increase the tension of the external side 
 of the ventricle, conjointly with the oblique fibres of the thyreo- 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 arytenoid, several fibres of which are interwoven with it, and to 
 which it serves as a support. After death, these two muscles 
 being more or less relaxed, the external and internal sides of the 
 ventricles collapse together, and the folds of the mucous mem- 
 brane are found relaxed. The superior ligaments have no 
 peculiar muscle, and they are sufficiently rigid and thick to dis- 
 pense with this aid. The two folds of mucous membrane placed 
 at the upper termination of the larynx, and which float in the air 
 which vibrates around them, are susceptible of a variable tension 
 which also influences the sound. x 
 
 (B) Dr. Le Gallois ascertained that the division of the recurrent 
 nerves frequently proves even fatal to animals. This effect, how- 
 ever, varies with the species and age. The danger diminishes as 
 the animal is older ; and, after a certain age, little inconvenience 
 follows, because the (anterior part of the?) opening of the glottis 
 is larger proportionally to the capacity of the lungs, not merely in 
 some species than in others, but in old than in young animals. >' 
 
 (C) In whistling, the coarctation of the lips only serves as an 
 embouchure to the column of air contained within the mouth and 
 larynx. The varieties of intonation entirely depend on the altera- 
 tions of the tongue and on the corresponding motions of the larynx. 
 For the higher sounds the tongue is brought forwards and the 
 larynx raised, and for the lower sounds the tongue recedes and 
 the larynx is depressed. 
 
 (D) I am indebted to the powerful Dr. Conyers Middleton for 
 the knowledge of two cases of distinct articulation with at least 
 but little tongue . 7 In his exposure of the pious deceptions of 
 weak and wicked Christians during the first centuries of the 
 Christian era, he notices a pretty tale of an Arian prince cutting 
 out the tongues of some of the orthodox party and these being as 
 able to talk as before ; nay one (0 hominum impudentia !), who 
 had been dumb from his birth, gained the faculty of speech by 
 losing his tongue. Granting the fact, and even that the tongues 
 were completely extirpated, he refers, for the purpose of proving 
 
 x Memoire sur la Voix Humaine, par F. Savart. Magendie’s Journal de Phy- 
 siologic, t. v. p. S67. 
 
 Memoire sur les Voix des Oiseaux, par F. Savart. Annales de Chirnie. 
 
 y Experiences sur le Principe de la Vie. 
 
 2 An Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers, <J-c. Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. 
 p. 148. 4to. 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 147 
 
 there was no miracle in the case, to two relations of similar in- 
 stances by medical men. 3 Professor Thomson found the speech 
 little impaired after the bullets had carried away more or less of 
 the tongue. b Louis, Richter, Huxham, Bartholin, and Tulpius 
 mention similar cases. An instance of good articulation after the 
 loss of the apex and body of the tongue quite down to the os 
 hyoides occurred in this country, and was seen by the Royal 
 Society. 0 
 
 (E) For this note, as well as (C) I am indebted to my excellent 
 friend, Mr. Charles Wheatstone, who has already contributed so 
 much to science as to justify the highest expectations. 
 
 The elements of which all the spoken languages of mankind 
 are composed, consist of the modifications given sometimes 
 to the breath, and at other times to the voice, during their pas- 
 sage through the cavity of the mouth ; these modifications are 
 principally effected by the altered positions of the lips and tongue 
 with respect to the fixed parts of the containing cavity. 
 
 The classification of these articulations into vowels and conso- 
 nants has been generally recognised. 
 
 The voivels are formed by the voice, modified, but not inter- 
 rupted, by the varied positions of the tongue and lips. Their 
 differences depend on the various proportions between the apex*- 
 ture of the lips and the internal cavity of the mouth, alterable by 
 the different elevations of the tongue. The vowel a to (as pro- 
 nounced long in all, and short in got) is formed by augmenting 
 tbe internal cavity by the greatest possible depression of the 
 dorsum of the tongue, and, at the same time, enlarging the sepa- 
 ration of the lips. Departing from this sound there are two 
 series : 1st. In which the external aperture remains open, and 
 the internal cavity gradually diminishes by the successive alter- 
 ations of the tongue. 2d. In which the positions of the tongue 
 are successively the same as in the first series, but the aperture 
 of the lips is diminished. The approximation of the lips produces 
 
 * Jussieu, On Speech without a Tongue. Mem. del' Acad, des Sciences. 1718. 
 
 p. 6. 
 
 b Report of Observations made in the British Hospitals in Belgium, after the 
 Battle of Waterloo ; with some Remarks on Amputation. 
 
 c Account of a Woman who spoke fluently without a Vestige of Tongue. Phil. 
 Trans. 1742. p. 143. 
 
 Dr. Parson’s Account of Margaret Cutting, who had lost her Tongue. Phil. 
 Trans. 1747. p. 621. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 a more sensible effect as the inner cavity is more enlarged ; 
 hence two modifications of the first sounds of the second series are 
 easily recognised, whilst only one variety of the others is readily 
 appreciable, as will be shown in the following table. d Each of 
 these vowels may be long or short, according to the duration 
 of its sound in a syllable. 
 
 TABLE OF VOWELS. 
 
 Each series formed by the gradual elevation of the tongue 
 
 First Series. — The lips 
 fully open. 
 
 Second Series. — The lips ! 
 partially open. 
 
 Third Series. — The 
 lips nearly closed, j 
 
 
 As pronounced 
 
 
 As pronounced 
 
 As pronounced | 
 
 
 Long, in 
 
 Short, 
 
 
 Long, in 
 
 Short 
 
 
 Long, 
 
 Short,! 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 in 1 
 
 1. aw 
 
 caught, fall 
 
 folly 
 
 6. o 
 
 coat 
 
 
 11. 00 
 
 cool 
 
 full 
 
 2. ak 
 
 father, car 
 
 drtll 
 
 7. o 
 
 court 
 
 
 
 
 
 3. ae 
 
 nae (Scotch) 
 
 man 
 
 8. eu 
 
 bonheur (Fr.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 4. a 
 
 fair e 
 
 met 
 
 9. eu 
 
 atfreux (Fr.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 5. e 
 
 feet, the 
 
 f it 
 
 10. 
 
 Expressed in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 German by u, 
 
 c 
 
 v> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in Danish and 
 
 o- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Swedish by i, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in Dutch and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 French by u. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The above table exhibits all the most usually pronounced vowel 
 sounds, but practised ears might distinguish others intermediate 
 in each series. When these vowels are sounded, the soft palate is 
 raised so as to prevent the voice from issuing through the nasal 
 channels; when, on the contrary, the soft palate is depressed^ 
 the partial escape of the breath through the nostrils modifies all 
 the preceding sounds in a very evident manner. To distinguish 
 these two modes of articulating the vowel sounds, we may adopt 
 Dr. Darwin’s terms, orisonant and narisonant vowels. 
 
 Consonants may be divided into continuous (sometimes called 
 liquids or semi-vowels,) and explosive. For the latter, the breath 
 or voice is stopped in its passage through the mouth ; for the 
 former, it is allowed a free passage, though the apertures are 
 more narrowed than for the vowels. 
 
 d For the more open sounds, the jaws are generally more separated ; but tliis 
 is not indispensable. 
 
 e This vowel is much used by the Irish in pronouncing such syllables as bate, 
 fait, &c. , for our English words beat, faith, &c. 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 149 
 
 But the most comprehensive and important division of these 
 articulations is into aspirates and sonants ; meaning by the former 
 term, the modifications of the breath, and by the latter, those of 
 the voice. In ordinary speaking these are mingled together to 
 form the elementary syllables of language. The aspirates, or 
 sounds indicated by the characters p, f, sh, s, th (in ^Aing), t, 
 Jc, ll, (Welsh), differ from the sonants, or those represented by 
 b, v, z (in azure), z (in puzzle), th, (in the), d, g (in gay), l, only 
 by the latter being accompanied with the vocal sound. 
 
 Every sonant has its corresponding aspirate, though many of 
 the latter are unknown to the English language, such are the 
 aspirates corresponding to the sonants r, m, n, ng (in sowg), &c. 
 
 When forming the component parts of syllables, the aspirates, 
 as well as the sonants, are always articulated with sonant vowels. 
 An aspirate vowel, followed by its vocal enunciation, is always 
 represented by the character h, but it is never pronounced 
 separately, except in whispering. 
 
 The consonants, like the vowels, are divided into orisonant and 
 narisonant. The only narisonant consonants in our language, are 
 those corresponding to the orisonant explosives b, d, and g 
 (in gay), — viz. m, n, and ng (in sowg). By this mode of pronun- 
 ciation the sounds are rendered continuous. 
 
 TABLE OF CONSONANTS. 
 
 Continuous. 
 
 Explosive. 
 
 
 
 Aspirate. 
 
 Sonants. 
 
 
 Aspirates. 
 
 Orisonants. 
 
 Narisonants. 
 
 1. 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 10. 
 
 P 
 
 b 
 
 m 
 
 2. 
 
 — 
 
 y 
 
 11. 
 
 t 
 
 cl 
 
 n 
 
 3. 
 
 sh 
 
 z 8c, j 
 
 12. 
 
 k 
 
 g 
 
 ng 
 
 
 
 in azure. 
 
 
 
 in gold. 
 
 in so ng. 
 
 4. 
 
 s 
 
 z 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in zany. 
 
 
 
 
 
 5. 
 
 th 
 
 th 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in think 
 
 in the 
 
 
 
 
 
 6. 
 
 (not used) 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 7. 
 
 ll 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 8. 
 
 — 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in fi lie (Fr.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 9. 
 
 ch 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 in loc/i 
 
 in sagen 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ( Scotch) 
 
 ( German) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 nac/i (Ger.) 
 
 gemis (Sp.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 L 3 
 
 / 
 
150 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 This table shows that for all the consonants employed in the 
 English language, only ten positions of the mouth are required, 
 the modifications being effected by other means. Among the 
 modifications not already described, may be particularised the 
 reduplication of the 10th, 11th, and 12th sounds; the first occa- 
 sioned by the vibratory motion of the lips, the others by that of 
 the tongue. 
 
 Observations: — 1. The lower lip presses on the upper teeth, 
 but allows the air to escape between them; a similar sound is 
 produced by allowing the breath to pass through the lips when 
 nearly closed : — 2, 3, 4, 5. These sounds may be considered as 
 the continuation of the first series of vowel sounds ; for placing 
 the mouth in the position for e (5.), and continuing to elevate the 
 back part of the tongue, and, at the same time, to curl its tip, 
 these sounds will be successively produced: — 6,7, 8. These 
 sounds differ from the preceding four, inasmuch that the back part 
 of the tongue does not approximate to the palate ; the mouth being 
 placed for the second vowel, the front of the tongue is elevated 
 so as to touch the palate just above the teeth; for the r, the 
 point is drawn back, so as to allow the air to escape ; and for the 
 /, the point is firmly pressed against the palate, and the breath 
 escapes by the two sides : — for the l, (in fi/Ze), the air escapes with 
 more difficulty : — 9. These are used in the Gaelic and German, 
 but not in English : — 10, 11, 12. These sounds are produced by 
 the forcible escape of the breath, or voice, after a complete 
 obstruction by the lips or tongue. The obstruction by the lips 
 gives p, or b ; that by the front of the tongue above the upper 
 teeth, t, or cl ; and that by the back of the tongue against the 
 palate, k, or g; these different articulations may therefore be 
 distinguished as Labial, Dental, and Palatal. When the sound 
 escapes through the nostrils it becomes continuous ; the tn, n, and 
 ng are therefore not explosives. 
 
 The alphabetic characters invented as visual and permanent 
 representations of the articulations of speech, are very inadequate 
 to effect the purpose intended. In the English language there 
 are but five characters to indicate all the varieties of the vowels, 
 viz .a,e,i,o,u; of these, one only is pronounced when un- 
 combined, as a pure vowel ; this is c , — the 5th sound in the table 
 of vowels ; the other four are diphthongs or combinations of 
 two vowels; a is the 4th and 5th; i is the 3d and 5th ; o is 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 151 
 
 the 6th and 11th ; and u is the 5th and 11th. When constituting 
 parts of syllables, the same character represents many different 
 vowel sounds. 
 
 The consonantal characters are not quite so arbitrary, though 
 among these there are some simple sounds expressed by two let- 
 ters, and others which have no character to denote them ; and on 
 the other hand there are several redundant letters representing 
 two simple sounds, f, v, r, l, p, t, h, b, d, m, and n, are generally 
 constant in their signification. The simple, sounds represented by 
 two characters are sh, th (in tAink), th (in the), and ng (in song). The 
 single characters representing more than one sound are s (in sea, 
 hi s, sure, and vision) ; z (in zany and azure), g (in gay and George). 
 The redundant letters are, c (having the sound either of sorl), 
 q ( k followed by the eleventh vowel) ; j (compounded of d and 
 the second pronunciation of the z, and the same as the g in George), 
 and x (standing for ks, or z). y, as generally pronounced, and 
 iv, are not consonants ; the first represents the 5th, and the second 
 the 11th vowel of the table, when immediately succeeded by 
 another vowel. 
 
 The consonants will be best compared by articulating them all, 
 uniformly preceded or followed by the same vowel ; as/e, she, se, 
 the, pe, te, he, &c. or ef, esh, es, eth, ep, et, eh, &c. 
 
 It is by no means improbable that the progress of modern art 
 may present us at some future time with mechanical substitutes for 
 orators and preachers. For, putting aside the magic heads of 
 Albert the Great and Roger Bacon, Kratzenstein actually con- 
 structed an instrument to produce the vowels/ and De Kempelin 
 has published a full account of his celebrated speaking machine 
 which perfectly imitated the human voice, s The celebrated 
 French mechanician, the Abbe Mical, also made two heads of 
 brass which pronounced very distinctly entire phrases; these 
 heads were colossal, and their voices were powerful and sonorous. 
 The French government refusing, it is said, in 1782, to purchase 
 these automata, the unfortunate and too sensitive inventor, in a 
 paroxysm of despair, destroyed these master-pieces of scientific 
 ingenuity. 
 
 Having fully explained the various articulations used in oral 
 
 f Observations sur la Physique, par Rosier, Supplement, 1782. p. 758. 
 
 B Ueber den Mechanismus tier Menschlichen Sprache. Vienna, 1791. 
 
 L 4 
 
152 
 
 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 language, it now only remains to investigate the difference between 
 the inflexions of the voice in singing and in speaking. 
 
 The various muscularadaptations of thelarynx renders it capable 
 of producing every inflexion of musical tone within a certain com- 
 pass, seldom exceeding that of two octaves. In singing , sounds, 
 each constant in its degree of tune, follow each other according to 
 the rules of melody: whilst in speaking, the voice slides up and down, 
 and does not dwell distinctly, for any perceptible space of time, 
 on any certain level or uniform tone, except the last tone on which 
 the speaker ends or makes a pause.” Provincial dialects, and even 
 individual modes of speaking, differ much in the extent and nature 
 of these slides. Steele has endeavoured to establish a system 
 of notation for these inflexions, and other modifications of the 
 voice necessary to be observed by the orator, and has by this 
 means proposed to perpetuate the most splendid specimens of his- 
 trionic, forensic, and senatorial eloquence. h To proceed farther 
 with this subject would be an infringement on the province of 
 philology. 
 
 (F) I know no reason to believe that the tendency to gaping on 
 seeing others do so, arises from the recollection of the pleasure it 
 affords ; or that hiccup is produced by an irritation of the cardia 
 more than of any other part of the stomach. Gaping occurs 
 chiefly during fatigue or hunger; when we are but half awake, 
 either before or after sleep ; and in ague and hysteria. In 
 hiccup, I think, that, after the inspiration has proceeded a 
 certain length, the glottis closes, and the diaphragm endeavours 
 in vain to contract farther. 
 
 In laughter , there is more or less noise at each little expiration, 
 from a mere sort of rustling sound to loud peals ; the mouth 
 is more or less lengthened, and its angles drawn up, and in extreme 
 laughter it is opened still more by the descent of the lower jaw ; 
 if hearty, the tears run over, the head shakes, and even the body, 
 and respiration is interrupted, and actual pain of the sides and 
 diaphragm is felt. Some of our comedians have absolutely ago- 
 nized me. It arises from drollery, the anticipation of gratification, 
 or actual gratification, or tickling; it is also common in hysteria. 
 
 In coughing, the mouth opens that the air may rush in that 
 
 h Prosodia Rationalisj or, An Essay towards establishing the Melody and Measure 
 of Speech , to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar Symbols. 2d edit. London, 
 1779 . 
 
OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 
 
 153 
 
 direction, since the current is not required in the nostrils as in 
 sneezing, and these would not afford sufficient vent. The 
 glottis lessens just before the expiration. 
 
 In sneezing, the opening of the fauces is lessened, and the head 
 bent back, that the current may be directly through the nostrils, 
 in which the irritation generally exists. 
 
 Haller is well worth reading on these subjects. 1 
 
 Although brutes have no articulate sounds, they have a lan- 
 guage perfectly intelligible to one another. They make one noise 
 to express joy, another terror, another to summon their young, 
 &c., and comprehend the meaning of sounds made by us, not only 
 of an inarticulate kind, but also articulated. The sagacity of 
 some dogs in this respect is astonishing. “ They learn to under- 
 stand not merely separate words or articulate sounds, but whole 
 sentences expressing many ideas. I have often spoken,” continues 
 Gall, “ intentionally of objects which might interest my dog, 
 taking care not to mention his name, or make any intonation or 
 gesture which might awaken his attention. He, however, showed 
 no less pleasure or sorrow, as it might be ; and, indeed, manifested 
 by his behaviour that he had' perfectly understood the conversation 
 which concerned him. I had taken a bitch from Vienna to Paris ; 
 in a very short time she comprehended French as well as German, 
 of which I satisfied myself by repeating before her whole sen- 
 tences in both languages.” k 
 
 * El. Physiol, lib. viii. sect. iv. p. xxx — xl. 
 k Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, t. v. p. 49. sq. 
 
154- 
 
 SECT. X. 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 163. Man, other mammalia, and birds, are distinguished 
 from the rest of animals by the natural temperature a of their 
 bodies greatly exceeding that of the medium in which they are 
 accustomed to exist. Man is again distinguished from these 
 classes of animals by possessing a much lower temperature 
 than they ; so that in this climate it is about 96° of Fahr., 
 while in them, and especially in birds, it is considerably 
 higher. b (A) 
 
 164-. This natural temperature in man, is so constant, 
 equable/ and perpetual, that, excepting slight differences 
 from variety of constitution, it varies but a few degrees in the 
 coldest climate and under the torrid zone. For the opinion 
 of Boerhaave, — that man cannot live in a temperature ex- 
 ceeding his own, has been refuted, since the admirable observ- 
 ations' 1 of FI. Ellis, the celebrated traveller, and formerly the 
 governor of Georgia, by the remarkable experiments e of 
 
 a W. B. Johnson, History of Animal Chemistry, vol. iii. p. 79. 
 
 b The torpid state of some animals, during winter, is of course an exception 
 to this. During it most of the functions cease or languish considerably, and the 
 animal heat is reduced nearly to coolness. This well-known circumstance pre- 
 vents me from acceding to the opinion of the very acute J. Hunter, — that the 
 animals which we call warm-blooded, should rather be called animals of a per- 
 manent heat under all temperatures. On the Blood, p. 15. 
 
 c J. B. Van Mons, Journal de Physique, t. lxviii. 1809. p. 121. 
 
 d Philos. Trans, vol. i. p. ii. 1758. 
 
 Arn. Duntze had previously made the observation in regard to brutes. Expcr. 
 calorem animalem spectantia. Lugd. Bat. 1 754. 4to. 
 
 Consult also Benj. Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity. 
 
 Lond. 1769. 4to. p. 365. 
 
 c Duhamel and Tillet, Mem. de V Acad, des Scienc. de Paris. 1704. 
 
 Blagden and Dobson, Philos. Trans. 1775. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 155 
 
 many excellent physiologists/ (B) The striking prerogative 
 of man in this respect is evinced by his being restricted to no 
 climate, but inhabiting every part of the earth from Hudson’s 
 bay, where Mercury freezes, and from Nova Zembla, to the 
 scorching shores of Senegal. (C) 
 
 165. The explanation of this equable and perpetual tem- 
 perature is particularly simple and natural, and founded on 
 the doctrine which makes the lungs the grand focus, and the 
 decomposition of the oxygenised portion of the air (148) 
 which we breathe, the fomes, of our heat. 
 
 166. For, as the oxygenous part of the inspired air is de- 
 composed in the air-cells of the lungs, in such a way that its 
 base, viz. oxygen, which by its union with latent caloric was 
 before aeriform, now separates from this caloric; it would ap- 
 pear that, by this decomposition, one portion of the caloric is 
 rendered sensible in the bronchiae, while the other enters in a 
 latent form into the blood while circulating in the innumerable 
 and delicate net-works of the pulmonary vessels. 5 
 
 167. When the oxygenised blood thus charged with latent 
 heat circulates through the aortic system, it acquires carbon 
 in the small vessels and sets free much of the latent heat which 
 it had received: in this way is our animal temperature prin- 
 cipally produced and modified. 11 (D) 
 
 168. Its production and regulation, however, appear much 
 influenced by the secretion of the various fluids from the blood, 
 
 f The heat of the weather, even in Europe, occasionally exceeds our natural 
 temperature. This was the case on the third of Aug. 1783, at noon, when I was 
 on the Lucerne Alps, in company with the excellent Schnyder of Wartensee. 
 The thermometer in the shade stood above 100° Fahr., and when applied to the 
 body, invariably sunk to near 97°. 
 
 E See Lichtenberg’s animadversions upon this part of Crawford’s Theory, in 
 his notes to Erxleben’s Anfangsgr. der JStaturlehre. p. 447. ed. vi. 
 
 b Hence the constant coldness of those wretched beings who labour under the 
 blue disease, which arises from a mal-conformation of the heart. Sometimes the 
 .septa of the heart are imperfect, sometimes the aorta arises with the pulmonary 
 artery from the right ventricle, as in the tortoise. In such instances, the che- 
 mical changes can take place in the lungs but imperfectly. 
 
 Consult a host of cases in J. C. Hein’s Diss. de islis Cordis deformationiivs 
 quee sanguinem venosum cum arterioso misccrc pcrmiUunl. Gotting. 1816. 4to. 
 
156 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 and by digestion as well as other functions of the animal 
 economy. 
 
 169. Since the changes are effected by the energy of the 
 •vital powers only, the great influence of these in supporting 
 our temperature must be easily perceived. 1 
 
 170. Many arguments render it probable, that the action 
 of the minute vessels is dependent upon the varied excite- 
 ment or depression of the vital principle, and the conver- 
 sion of oxygenised into carbonised blood, again, upon this. 
 
 For the remarkable phenomena of the stability of our tem- 
 perature^ (proved by the thermometer, and not by the sense 
 of touch, which may be fallacious) — that it is scarcely in- 
 creased by the heat of summer, or diminished by the cold of 
 winter, but found sometimes even to increase on immersion in 
 cold water, 1 demonstrate that the action of the minute vessels 
 varies according to the temperature of the medium in which 
 we are placed : so that, when exposed to a low temperature 
 (by which their tone is probably augmented) more oxygen is 
 exchanged for carbon and more heat evolved, while in a high 
 and debilitating temperature this exchange is diminished and 
 less heat evolved. m 
 
 ■ I have formerly treated at some length of the influence of the nervous system 
 upon animal heat, in my Specimen Physiologies Comparatce inter animantia calidi 
 frigidi sanguinis. 1786. p. 23. 
 
 See the same confirmed by many arguments in Magn. Strom, Theoria inflam- 
 mations doctrincc de calore Animali svperstructa. Havn. 1795. 8vo. p. 30. sq. 
 and by the much lamented Roose, Journal der Erfindungen, &c. t v. p. 17. 
 Consult also Dupuytren, Analyse des Travaux de V Institut. 1 807. p. 1 6. 
 
 But especially B. C. Brodie’s Experiments and Observations on the Injluence 
 of the Brain on the Generation of Animal Heat. Phil. Trans. 1812. p. 378. 
 
 Also J. Davy, Ibid. 1814. t. ii. p. 590. 
 
 Wilson Philip, Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of the Vital Functions, 
 2d edit. Lond. 1818. 8vo. 
 
 k Consult Crawford, Phil. Trans, vol. lxxi. p. ii. 
 
 1 G. Pickel, Experimenta Physico-Medica de Eleclncitate el Calore animali. 
 Wirceb. 1788. 8 vo. p. 91. sq. 
 
 m C. Ferd. Becker, I)e Effectibus caloris et frigoris externi in c. h. Gott. 1802. 
 4to. ; and Wm. Fr. Baur, On the same subject, ib. eod. (both honoured with 
 
 THE ROYAL PRIZE.) 
 
 Alich. Skjelderup, Dissert, listens vim frigoris incilanlcm. Hafn. 1803. 8vo. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 157 
 
 171. The corium, which covers the body, and the internal 
 surface of the alimentary canal , eminently contribute, if we are 
 not much mistaken, to regulate our temperature. n For both 
 these organs are supplied with an immense number of blood- 
 vessels, being analogous in this respect to the lungs, and are 
 so intimately connected with the lungs by means of sym- 
 pathy, 0 as to be able to perform a part, and, for a time, the 
 whole, of some of their functions in their room. This is ex- 
 emplified in adults labouring under nearly total consumption 
 or other violent affections of the lungs, and nevertheless, 
 existing for a length of time almost without respiration. p 
 
 172. This opinion respecting the action of the cutaneous 
 vessel in exciting, moderating, or almost extinguishing, our 
 heat, receives much support from the physiological and pa- 
 thological facts of some parts being frequently of a higher or 
 lower temperature than the rest of the system. 
 
 Thus we must attribute the coldness of the dorr’s nose to 
 the specific action of its own vessels being modified differ- 
 ently from that of the rest ; so on the other hand, the burning 
 at one time of the cheeks and of another of the palms of the 
 hands in hectic fever, to a similar locally inci’eased action of 
 vessels ; besides other phenomena of the same description, 
 v.c. the heat of the genitals during the venereal oestrum, and. 
 the obstinate coldness of the feet in so many invalids. 
 
 173. The alimentary canal is the only internal part, besides 
 the lungs, exposed to the contact of the atmosphere. There 
 is scarcely occasion to prove that it is so exposed, and that 
 we swallow a considerable quantity of air. 
 
 The air, when swallowed, is decomposed in the stomach 
 and intestines, so that, during health, it soon loses its elastic 
 form : not, however, when the capillaries of the canal are de- 
 bilitated, nor when it exists in too great quantity. 
 
 n J. Chr. Goeschen, (Praes. Ph. Fr. Meckel) Pulmonum cum Cute commer- 
 cium. Hal. 1789. 8vo. 
 
 But especially J. D. Brandis, Pathologie. Hamb. 1808. p. 316. sqq. 
 
 ° Consult, for instance, Tacconi, Comment. Inslit. Bononiens. vol. vi. p. 74, 
 
 p M. W. Plagge, iiber die im darmcanal slattsindende respiration ; in 
 Meckel’s Archiv. t. v. p. 89. 
 
158 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 The immense congeries of blood-vessels in the intestines 
 on their internal surface which is usually thought equal to 
 the external sui’face of the body, agrees very well with this 
 idea. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) All animals, as far as can be ascertained, and even vege- 
 tables, have a tendency to preserve a temperature more or less 
 distinct from that of the surrounding medium ; yet the difference 
 among them in this respect is so great that they have been di- 
 vided into warm and cold-blooded. To the former belong the 
 more complicated, those whose pulmonary apparatus is most ela- 
 borate, — man and mammiferous quadrupeds and birds. To the 
 second, oviparous quadrupeds, fish, and most of the invertebrate. 
 Birds have the highest temperature, — 107° to 110°; mammiferous 
 quadrupeds, 100° to 101° ; man 96° to 98^°. There is some va- 
 riety, not only in individuals, but according to age, season, and 
 climate. It is less in the young, according to Dr. Edwards and 
 Despretz : s the former states the human temperature in infancy 
 to be 94^: 0 ; the latter asserts, that while in birds it is 105° in 
 winter, it is nearly 111° in summer, gradually increasing in spring 
 and decreasing in autumn. In the high temperature to which we 
 shall see Dr. Fordyce and his friends were exposed, the temper- 
 ature of the body rose two or three degrees, and Dr. Delaroche in 
 a vapor-bath at near 120°, found the heat under his tongue in- 
 creased but about five degrees at the end of seventeen minutes. r 
 In sparrows and yellow-hammers Dr. Edwards found it five or six 
 degrees higher in summer than in winter ; and Dr. Davy one or 
 two degrees higher in Ceylon than in England. s In disease it will 
 fall, and on the other hand rise ; in fever it has been noted at 107°, 
 in tetanus at 1 lO 0 , 1 and probably, on some occasions, it rises still 
 higher, at least, locally. In old age it is not so high as in the 
 
 11 De V Influence des Agens Physiques. Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. iv. 
 p. 185. J. Hunter states that the temperature of the ass is one degree higher in the 
 evening than the morning. On the Blood, p. 298. 
 
 r Exp. sur les eflets qu'une forte chaleur produit sur V economic. Paris, 1805. 
 
 s Edwards, 1. c. p. 489. 
 
 1 Dr. Prevost. See Edwards, 1. c. p. 490. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 159 
 
 age of full vigour ; nor in remote parts as in those nearer the 
 heart. u John Hunter made observations on the heat of cold- 
 blooded animals. v The thermometer in the stomach and under 
 the skin of the abdomen of the frog and toad stood at 40\ when 
 the atmosphere was 36° ; in the lungs of snails at 35°, 36°, 37°, 
 38°, when the atmosphere was 28°, 30°, 30°, and 34° ; the heat 
 of earth-worms was 58^°, when the atmosphere was 56°. Fish 
 are not above two degrees warmer than the water." 7 Cold-blooded 
 animals placed in an elevated temperature are much more in- 
 fluenced by surrounding media than the warm-blooded. Yet 
 frogs are but at 80° or 82° in a medium of 110° or 115°. x The 
 heat of insects when congregated is considerable : J. Hunter 
 found the thermometer rise to 93° or 98° in a hive of bees in 
 spring ; to 104° in summer; to be at 82° when the air was at 40°; 
 and at 73° in winter. 
 
 The same tendency in vegetables is shown by the greater 
 difficulty with which the juices in their stems and branches are 
 frozen than lifeless fluids ; by ice thawing when roots shoot into 
 it ; y and by snow upon the leaves or stems of plants thawing 
 sooner than that which lies on surrounding inanimate bodies. 
 J. Hunter observed a branch of growing fir and a bean leaf thaw 
 the part of the surface of a freezing mixture on which it was 
 placed, and the fir subsequently another to which it was removed. z 
 When the sheath of the arum maculatum and cordifolium is burst- 
 ing and the cylindrical body just peeping forth, it is said, by 
 Sennebier, to be so hot for some hours as to seem burning ; a and 
 twelve of them placed round the bulb of a thermometer to have 
 raised the mercury from 79° to 143°. 
 
 Even eggs are cooled and frozen with more difficulty than equal 
 masses of inanimate matter ; although, when once frozen and their 
 life destroyed, they freeze readily. b 
 
 u Dr. Davy, Phil. Transact. 1814. 
 v 1. c. 298. sqq. 
 
 Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. iv. 
 
 , x Dr. De la Roche, Journal de la Physique, t. lxiii. 
 y American Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. iii. p. 19. 1 814. 
 z Phil. Trans. 1775. 
 
 * An Introduction to Physiological and Systematic Botany. By Sir J. E. Smith, 
 M. D. p. 92. 
 
 k Hunter, 1. c. p. 79. 
 
160 
 
 OP ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 (B) Dr. Fordyce, one of the most eminent of my predecessors 
 at St.Thomas’s Hospital, went successively into three rooms heated 
 to 90°, 110°, and 120°. In the first he staid five minutes, and 
 sweated gently. — In the second, he sweated more profusely, and 
 remained ten minutes. — In the third, after remaining twenty 
 minutes, the thermometer under the tongue and exposed to the 
 urine was at 100°; the pulse 145°; the veins of the surface were 
 enlarged, and the skin red. He afterwards entered a room heated 
 to 130°, and staid 15 minutes: the thermometer under the tongue, 
 in the hand, and exposed to the urine, was at 100°. 
 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Blagden, and Dr. Solander, went 
 subsequently into rooms heated to between 96° and 211°, — the 
 temperature of boiling water, and remained several minutes. If 
 they breathed on the thermometer it sunk several degrees, and 
 every expiration felt cold to the scorched nostrils : the thermo- 
 meter under the tongue was 98°, and the body felt cold to the 
 touch, though at 98°. Sir C. Blagden remained eight minutes in 
 an apartment heated to 260°. The air felt hot, and for seven 
 minutes the breathing was natural, but anxiety and oppression 
 then came on; the sensible heat of the body varied but little. 
 Dr. Dobson went into a room heated to 224, and felt no op- 
 pressive heat, though every metal about him speedily became 
 hot. A bitch of moderate size was subjected to a heat of 220°. 
 In ten minutes the only sign of distress was that of holding out the 
 tongue, and when taken out at the end of half an hour, the tem- 
 perature being at 236°, the bottom of the basket was found wetted 
 with saliva. The thermometer applied to her flank was only 110°, 
 i.e. 9° above the natural standard. 
 
 In these rooms, eggs on a tin plate were roasted hard in twenty 
 minutes ; beef steaks cooked in thirty-three minutes ; and if the 
 air was impelled upon them in a stream, they were cooked dry in 
 about thirteen minutes. 
 
 Tillet and Duhamel relate that the young female servant of a 
 baker at Rochefoucault went habitually into ovens heated to 276°, 
 and remained without great inconvenience for twelve minutes, 
 taking care not to touch the oven. These gentlemen themselves 
 bore a heat of 290° for nearly five minutes. Dr. Delaroche and 
 Dr. Berger found various warm and cold-blooded animals support 
 from 108° to 113° for an hour and a half in heated dry air; but 
 an elevation of about 30° beyond this kill them all except a 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 161 
 
 frog, in from half an hour io two hours. They themselves expe- 
 rienced a sense of scalding in a vapour- bath of 122°, and could not 
 bear it more than about ten minutes ; while M. Lemonnier could not 
 bear a ’water- bath of 113° above eight minutes. c Hence, at the 
 very same high temperature of the surrounding medium, there is 
 more secretion by the skin in a vapour-bath than in dry air, and 
 more in a water-bath than in a vapour-bath. 
 
 (C) At Sierra Leone the mean temperature is 84°, and Watt 
 and Winterbottom frequently saw it 100° and even 103° in the 
 shade. At Senegal it has been 108^° and even 117^°. During 
 the sirocco it is 112°, in Sicily; Humboldt saw it 110° and 115° 
 near Oronoco, in South America. On the other hand, at Nova 
 Zembla the cold is so intense that when the sun sinks below the 
 horizon the polar-bear is no longer seen, the white fox only endur- 
 ing the cold. Yet the Dutch, who wintered there under Hemskerk 
 (76° N.L.) withstood the coldif movingabout and previouslyingood 
 health. When some of our countrymen were on Churchill river, 
 in Hudson’s Bay, lakes ten or twelve feet deep were frozen to the 
 bottom, and brandy froze in their rooms, though provided with fires. 
 They suspended in their rooms red hot twenty-four pounders, and 
 kept an immense fire ; but if these went down, the walls and beds 
 were covered with ice three inches thick. d Yet in Hudson’s Bay the 
 Canadians and Esquimaux live and hunt in the coldest weather. 
 Gmelin, sen. witnessed at Jenisiesk, in 1735, a cold of 120° below 
 zero, that froze mercury and killed all the sparrows and jays. e 
 Captain Parry once observed a temperature of 52° below zero. 
 When the air was at — 49° the party used to walk on the shore. 
 It was usually at — 32°. The temperature of eleven out of six- 
 teen foxes was from 100° to 106f, of four about 100°, and of one 
 only 98°, although the air was from — 3° to — 32°. No relation was 
 observable between the temperature of the body and of the atmo- 
 sphere ; f it thus appearing that the temperature is more steady 
 under cold than heat. Some cold-blooded animals bear heat very 
 badly. Dr. Edwards says that frogs die in a few seconds in water at 
 107 °.s Yet a species of taenia has been found alive in a boiled carp ; 
 
 c Edwards, 1. c. p. 374. and indeed, see p.iv. ch. xiv. 
 
 A Philosophical Transactions, abridged, vol, iii. p. 470. 
 e Flora Siberica. Preface. 
 f Journal of a Second Voyage, p. 157. 
 
 B 1, c. p. 40. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 but then the carp which it inhabits will live in water as hot as 
 human blood. h Some of the lowest animals appear intended for 
 high temperatures. Dr. Reeve found living larvae in a spring at 
 208°; Lord Bute, confervae and beetles in the boiling springs of 
 Albano, that died when plunged into cold water. 
 
 The germs of many insects, &c. are unaffected by a great range of 
 temperature. I know a gentleman who boiled some honey-comb 
 two years old, and, after extracting all the sweet matter, threw the 
 remains into a stable, which was soon filled with bees. Body lice 
 have appeared on clothes which had been immersed in boiling water. 
 Spallanzani found long ebullition in the open air favourable to the 
 appearance of the animalcules of vegetable infusions, and the 
 application of great heat in close vessels, although it prevented the 
 appearance of a larger kind of animalculae, did not that of a smaller. 
 The eggs of silk-worms and butterflies hatch after exposure to a 
 cold of 24° below zero. On the other hand, insects may be 
 frozen repeatedly, and recover as soon as thawed, as we shall 
 see when speaking of torpidity. 
 
 (D; No phenomenon in living bodies is more remarkable than 
 their peculiar temperature, and no one was of more difficult 
 explanation before the modern progress of chemistry. Dr.Mayow 
 had indeed advanced, that it depended on respiration, and that this 
 was a process similar to combustion, and so far from cooling the 
 blood, as others believed, supplied it with heat. 
 
 If two different bodies are placed in a temperature higher or 
 lower than their own for a certain length of time, they will, at 
 the end of the period, be found not of the same, but of different 
 temperatures. That which has the higher temperature is said 
 to have a smaller capacity for caloric ; that which has the lower, 
 a greater capacity. To raise the former to a given temperature, 
 therefore, requires less caloric than to raise the latter to the same 
 degree. 
 
 The temperature of solids is more easily affected by a given 
 quantity of caloric, than that of fluids, and the temperature of 
 fluids than that of aeriform bodies : or, in other words, solids 
 have a smaller capacity for caloric than fluids, and fluids than 
 aeriform bodies. If, therefore, a solid becomes fluid, or a fluid aeri- 
 form, it absorbs a great quantity of caloric, notwithstanding its tem- 
 perature remain precisely the same. And the converse holds 
 
 h Sennebier, Notes to his Translation of Spallanzani. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 1G3 
 
 equally good, — if an aeriform substance becomes liquid, or a 
 liquid solid, the caloric which it before contained is now (from its 
 diminished capacity) much more than sufficient for the tempera- 
 ture which before existed, and the temperature of the body 
 accordingly rises. 
 
 In respiration, the dark blood of the pulmonary artery parts 
 with a portion of its carbon and acquires a florid hue. Oxygen 
 disappears and carbonic acid is expired with the other constituent 
 of the atmosphere, — nitrogen or azote, which appears generally 
 to have experienced little or no change from inspiration. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Crawford of St. Thomas’s Hospital appeared 
 to prove, by his experiments, that the arterial blood has a larger 
 capacity for caloric than the venous, and common air than car- 
 bonic acid gas. When, therefore, the carbonic acid appears in 
 the lungs, the smaller capacity of this than of common air for 
 caloric, must cause an increase of temperature; but the blood, 
 having changed from venous to arterial, has acquired a greater 
 capacity than before, and absorbs the heat given out by the car- 
 bonic acid. The blood, of course, does not become warmer, be- 
 cause the caloric is not more than sufficient to render its tem- 
 perature equal to what it was previously ; and indeed, according 
 to some, it is not quite sufficient for this, since the temperature 
 of the arterial blood of the pulmonary veins has appeared two 
 degrees lower than that of the pulmonary artery to some experi- 
 menters, although the greater number have found it a degree or 
 two higher than the venous. 
 
 The body in this way acquires a fund of caloric, and yet the 
 lungs, in which it is acquired, do not experience any elevation of 
 temperature, or if they do, this is very inconsiderable. 
 
 The arterial blood, charged with much caloric, which, as it 
 circulates through the small vessels, is not sensible, becomes 
 venous. — acquires a dark hue, and its capacity for caloric is 
 diminished ; consequently its temperature rises, — the caloric 
 which was previously latent, is, from the decrease of capacity, 
 sufficient to raise its temperature, and is evolved. In this mode, 
 the loss of caloric which occurs from the inferior temperature of 
 the medium in which we live, is compensated. The fresh supply 
 is taken in at the lungs, and brought into use in the minute 
 vessels. 
 
 Of late this theory has fallen into some discredit, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 All experiments upon the capacities of bodies for heat are very 
 delicate and liable to error ; and the conclusions of Crawford on 
 this point have been denied by Drs. Delaroche and Berard, with 
 respect to gases, and by Dr. Davy, with respect to arterial and 
 venous blood . 1 
 
 The experiments of these chemists have led them to believe 
 the difference of capacity less than Crawford supposed, and in- 
 sufficient to account for animal temperature. With respect to 
 the gases, Dr. Bostock k justly remarks, that the objection does 
 not apply more to the doctrine of animal heat, than to the theory 
 of combustion in general. Whenever carbon unites with oxy- 
 gen, and carbonic acid is produced, caloric is liberated, whe- 
 ther in fermentation, or combustion, & c. With respect to the 
 blood, he declares, and Dr. Bostock’s reputation for accuracy and 
 soundness in chemical matters is not little, that “ after attentively 
 perusing the experiments of Crawford, and comparing them with 
 those that have been performed with a contrary result, he con- 
 fesses that the balance of evidence appear to him to be greatly in 
 favour of the former, though he acknowledges that they are of so 
 delicate a nature as not to be entitled to implicit confidence, 
 and that it would be extremely desirable to have them carefully 
 repeated.” 
 
 If, however, it were true that Dr.Crawford’s statement of the re- 
 lative capacities is incorrect, still the fact of heat being necessarily 
 evolved on the disappearance of oxygen in the lungs, and the ap- 
 pearance of carbonic acid, would stand unaffected, and we should 
 only be obliged to adopt the doctrine of Mayow, that the lungs are 
 the focus of the heat of the body. This was relinquished on the 
 objection that the lungs should then be hotter than other parts. 
 But when we consider that the blood is incessantly streaming to 
 the lungs from all parts, and again leaving them, we may, I think, 
 presume that the blood will always convey away their heat, and 
 prevent their temperature from rising above that of other parts. 
 The heat of all parts is, creteris paribus, commensurate with the 
 quantity of blood circulating through them. This is equallv ex- 
 plicable on either supposition. If their heat is derived from the 
 heat of the blood conveyed to them, the more blood streams 
 through them, the hotter will they be ; if from chemical changes 
 
 ‘ Philos. Trans. 1814. 
 
 k 1. c. vol. ii. p. 263. 
 
\ 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 165 
 
 in the blood while in them, the more blood streams through them, 
 the greater will be the amount of chemical change, and the 
 greater the extrication of caloric. The quantity of blood is ineffi- 
 cient unless constantly renewed, on either supposition. On the 
 first, fresh blood must come incessantly from the lungs with its 
 high temperature ; on the second, if not renewed, the chemical 
 changes will cease, having already occurred. 
 
 A host .of circumstances show that our temperature depends 
 upon respiration, and therefore upon chemical changes. 
 
 In high temperatures we have less necessity for the evolution 
 of heat; in low temperatures, more. Accordingly, in the former, 
 the arterial blood remains arterial, — is nearly as florid in the veins 
 as in the arteries, and the inspired air is less vitiated; in low 
 temperatures, the venous blood is extremely dark, and the in- 
 spired air more vitiated . 1 Some have imagined that the body 
 remains at its standard high temperature by the refrigeration of 
 the evaporating sweat. But though this must contribute, it is not 
 the sole cause : m for frogs lose as much proportionally to their size 
 by evaporation as any other animal, yet they follow pretty closely 
 the surrounding temperature. Whenever, on the other hand, the 
 body itself heightens its temperature, as in fever, more oxygen is 
 consumed by the lungs ; u (in the cold stage of fevers we saw that 
 less was consumed). The temperature of the various classes of 
 animals, and their vitiation of the air, are always proportional ; and 
 inverse to the length of time they can live without air. 
 
 The temperature of young animals is lower than of adults, or 
 rather they maintain a peculiar temperature much less, and they 
 vitiate the air less, and require respiration less, proportionally, 
 than adults. 0 As they proceed to vitiate it more, and require 
 respiration more, their calorific power increases. While their ca- 
 lorific powers are weak they breathe, if they are exposed to cold, 
 quicker, so as to keep up their temperature as much as possible, p 
 The same is also found in adult warm-blooded animals, not of the 
 hybernating family, when exposed to cold. <i 
 
 1 Crawford, I. c. p. 387. sq. 
 m Edwards, 1. c. p. 488. 
 n See supra, p. 133. 
 
 0 Edwards, 1. c. p. 165. sqq. 
 r Edwards, 1. c. p. 299. 310. 
 
 1 1. c. p. 301. 
 
 M 3 
 
166 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 Dr. Edwards found that habit has great influence on the calo- 
 rific powers of animals ; — that a given low artificial temperature 
 in winter will reduce the animal heat much less than in summer : r 
 and that with the habit of evolving more heat in winter, is 
 acquired the habit of consuming and requiring more oxygen, so 
 that animals supplied with a given quantity of air, and placed in 
 a given warm temperature in winter, die much sooner than in 
 summer . 9 Yet the momentary application of heat or cold has a 
 different effect : the former heating less if the body has been 
 subjected to a low, and the latter cooling less if the body has 
 been subjected to a high, temperature. We all feel the cold less 
 quickly on leaving the house in winter if well warmed first, than 
 if we leave it already chilly. 
 
 When animals hybernate, their temperature falls, and respira- 
 tion is nearly or entirely suspended . 1 Their consumption of air 
 lessens as the temperature falls, whence they consume less in 
 November than in August. 11 If hybernating animals, while torpid 
 and still placed in the same temperature, are stimulated mecha- 
 nically to breathe, their temperature rises with the progress of 
 respiration. x 
 
 If the cold to which they are exposed is so intense that it 
 threatens death, it actually no longer depresses respiration, but 
 for a time, excites it, and their temperature rises proportionally, y 
 Man, and other non-hybernating animals, breathe more quickly 
 when exposed to cold, no doubt for the purpose of suppling 
 heat, till the powers become exhausted . 1 
 
 The higher the temperature of the animal, the more extensive 
 is the aggregate surface of the air-cells, the more blood passes 
 through its lungs, and the more necessary to its existence is re- 
 spiration. — The lungs of cold-blooded animals are not subdivided 
 into minute cells, but formed into vesicles ; and birds, which have 
 the highest temperature among animals, are drowned the soonest .'" 1 
 
 r 1. c. p. 162. sqq. 252. sqq. s 1. c. p. 200. sqq. 
 
 ( Spallanzani, Memoires sur la Respiration, p. 77. De Saissy could not by 
 cold produce torpor in a marmot, till he had deprived it of fresh air. Edwards, 
 1. c. p. 154. 
 
 u M. de Saissy. See Edwards, 1. c. p. 286. 
 
 1 M. De Saissy. See Edwards, 1. c. p. 305. 
 
 y 1. c. p. 306. sq. 
 
 “ Boyle’s Works, vol. iii. p. 368. 
 
 1. c. p. 301. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 167 
 
 The changes of the air by the blood, are seen to be effected 
 entirely by the red particles. Prevost and Dumas found that the 
 number of red particles is proportionate to the temperature. 
 
 If the blood circulates without being first properly changed in 
 the lungs, the temperature is below the natural standard. Those 
 who have the blue disease (cceruleans b ), as Blumenbach notices 
 (p. 155), are cold : and coldness is a symptom of hydrothorax, and 
 of the repletion of the air-cells with mucus in chronic bronchitis ; 
 in the former of which affections the lungs cannot fully expand, 
 and in the latter the air is prevented from coming fully in contact 
 with the air-cells. 
 
 In cold climates, and in temperate ones in cold weather, animal 
 food is desired and taken in abundance ; in hot climates, and 
 during the summer in temperate regions, light vegetable food is 
 preferred, and the appetite is less. We may conceive the former 
 diet more calculated to support a process similar to combustion, 
 and under the former circumstances we have seen that the changes 
 of the air in the lungs are actually more considerable. 
 
 The temperature of parts falls if not maintained by a constant 
 stream of blood from the lungs through the aorta and its rami- 
 fications, and is, caeteris paribus, in exact proportion to this 
 supply. 
 
 Whether Crawford’s theory be correct or not, the production 
 of animal heat must be as evidently a chemical process, as changes 
 of temperature among inanimate bodies ; yet some ascribe it to 
 nervous energy. I cannot imagine nervous energy to cause heat 
 any more than to cause chemical affinity. As it may bring sub- 
 stances together which have an affinity for each other, and thus 
 produce their union, so it may effect those changes which are, 
 according to physical laws, accompanied by changes of tempera- 
 ture ; but caloric in the body must, I apprehend, like affinity, follow 
 the same laws, and no others, as out of the body. This, however, 
 does not prevent animal temperature from deserving the epithet 
 vital, because it is regulated by the vital powers of the system, al- 
 though through the instrumentality of chemical changes. If the high 
 temperature of an inflamed part is owing to the increased momen- 
 tum, — the increased sum of the quantity and velocity of its blood, 
 — yet this increased momentum is produced by the vital powers. 
 
 b Mr. Allan Burns, Essay on Diseases of the Heart, and Dr. Farrc’s Treatise on 
 Malformation if the Heart, give excellent accounts of these cases. 
 
 M 4 
 
168 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 Mr. Brodie removed the brain of animals, and continued re- 
 spiration artificially. The usual chemical changes of the blood 
 continued in the lungs ; yet the temperature of the animals 
 diminished, and even more rapidly than if the respiration had not 
 been continued, owing, it is said, to the succession of cool air 
 sent into the lungs. He therefore concludes, that animal heat 
 depends much more upon the nervous energy than upon the 
 chemical changes of the blood. c But this experiment proves no- 
 thing, because Dr. Le Gallois asserts, that under artificial respir- 
 ation the temperature may fall, and the animal actually be killed 
 by cold, even though every part remain uninjured. d In artificial 
 respiration the air does not rush into the pulmonary cells, because 
 these are in a vacuum, but is propelled into, and forcibly and 
 therefore injuriously dilates, them ; the consequence is, the form- 
 ation of a large quantity of frothy mucus. Whether the fall of 
 temperature be owing to the evaporation of this copious secretion 
 and its prevention of contact between the air and air-cells, 
 or to the injurious nature of artificial respiration, still the fact 
 ascertained by Le Gallois destroys the conclusion which appeared 
 deducible from Mr. Brodie’s experiment. Indeed, Le Gallois 
 found, that less oxygen was consumed than in natural breathing, 
 and that the temperature fell exactly in proportion to the small- 
 ness of the quantity of oxygen consumed. Dr. Crawford himself 
 stated, that the chemical process of respiration may, in certain 
 cases, be the means of cooling the body. If the pulmonary ex- 
 halation, he said, is in very great abundance, it will carry off so 
 much of the heat given out during the change of the oxygen into 
 carbonic acid, that there may not be sufficient to saturate the 
 increased capacity of the arterial blood : this, therefore, will ab- 
 sorb caloric from the system, as it passes along, till its temper- 
 ature equals that of all parts. e I may here remark, that the tem- 
 
 c Phil. Trans. 1812. 
 
 A Experiences sur le Principe de la Vie. 
 
 e On Animal Heat, p. 388. Instances are recorded l>y Morgagni (iv. xlix. 26.) 
 and De Haen ( Ratio Medemli, vol. iii. p. 36.), and Mr. Tbackrah, of the blood 
 which streamed down the extremity in venesection feeling cold to the patient and 
 the practitioner. One woman compared it to ice ; and the sensation given to Mr. 
 Thackrah was the same as that of water at 68°. (Thackrah, On the Blood , p. 87.) 
 The stomach of a cod was found by Dr. Mosely to be not only colder than the 
 water from which it was taken, and the rest of the fish, but painfully to benumb 
 the hand. ( Diseases of Tropical Climates . ) Similar observations were made at 
 Newfoundland, and are quoted by Professor Rudolphi. (Gntndriss dcr r/n/sio- 
 logie, 182.) 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 169 
 
 perature is kept down in a heated atmosphere by the diminution of 
 chemical changes in the lungs, and by free secretion and evapora- 
 tion from the bronchise and skin. How much each contributes is 
 not ascertained; but the importance of evaporation was shown in 
 some experiments of Dr. De la Roche, who raised the tempera- 
 ture of animals considerably by placing them in a heated atmo- 
 sphere loaded with moisture, thus preventing evaporation. In a 
 cold atmosphere, the chemical changes in the lungs are great, 
 and the skin is dry ; the aqueous matter which leaves the body 
 then, does so by the kidneys, in a fluid form, and even in much less 
 quantity, because our thirst, and the amount of our drink, are 
 much less. 
 
 Dr. Philip has made experiments equally conclusive with those 
 of Dr. Le Gallois against the inferences drawn by Mr. Brodie. As 
 very little air is taken into the lungs in natural inspiration, and a 
 regard to the bulk and frequency of each inspiration not always 
 attended to in experiments, it is very probable that that gentle- 
 man had thrown too much air into the lungs, so that the unnatural 
 quantity of cold air, and the augmented secretion of bronchial 
 fluid, made the temperature fall. By impelling little, and that 
 not frequently, Dr. Philip found that artificial respiration, after 
 the destruction of the brain, actually retarded the cooling of the 
 animal, while stronger respiration did actually cool the body. 
 
 Of two rabbits killed in this way, their temperature being 104°, 
 one was subjected to 6 artificial inspirations, and the other to from 
 26 to 30, in a minute : the temperature of the former was 100° at 
 the end of an hour, and the latter 98°. Of two, with the temperature 
 of 102.5°, one was undisturbed, and one subjected to about 30 
 inspirations in a minute : the temperature of the former at the 
 end of half an hour was 98.75° ; of the latter, only 98.5°. But 
 the lungs of the latter being now inflated but about twelve times 
 in a minute, the temperature of the former at the end of another 
 half hour was 95.25°, and of the latter, 96°. In one experiment, 
 in which the lungs were inflated but a few times in a minute, the 
 temperature actually rose nearly a degree by artificial respiration. f 
 Dr. Hastings, at the same time, made similar comparative experi- 
 ments, and with similar results. In one, the rabbit in which 
 artificial breathing was performed, cooled only 4°; while that 
 which was left undisturbed cooled 7.5°. 
 
 f Ait Experimental Inquiry into the Laws cf the Vital Functions. 3d edit, 
 p. 180. sqq. 
 
170 
 
 OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 Dr. Philip afterwards took pairs of rabbits, killed them in the 
 same way, and then in one experiment destroyed the brain and 
 spinal marrow of one with a wire, while he left the other un- 
 touched : in another, precisely similar, he inflated the lungs of 
 both. Yet, in each experiment, they both cooled equally. In a 
 third, the brain and spinal marrow of one only tvas destroyed, 
 and the lungs of both inflated. These, too, cooled equally. 
 
 The temperature of foetuses born without brain is maintained 
 during the few days they may live. 
 
 Professor Rudolphi remarks, that the temperature of animals 
 bears no proportion to their nervous system : that if it did, man 
 should be warmer than any brute; the mammalia much more so 
 than birds; fish much more so than insects; and birds and am- 
 phibia nearly upon a par ; — all which would be the reverse of fact.s 
 
 Vegetables have a tendency to preserve a peculiar temperature, 
 yet they have no nervous system. 
 
 But that the nervous system affects the temperature is certain : 
 a passion of the mind will make the stomach or the feet ccld, or 
 the whole body hot. Paralysed parts are often colder than 
 others, or, more properly, are more influenced than others by all 
 external changes of temperature. h But every function is affected 
 by the mind, though not dependent upon the brain for its regular 
 performance. And in varieties of temperature, both by the state 
 of the mind, and by paralysis, there is, as far as we can judge, a 
 commensurate affection of the local circulation. Parts heated by 
 any passion are also red, and vice versa ; and paralytic parts must 
 have imperfect vascular functions, in some measure at least, from 
 the want of the compression of the vessels by muscular action, 
 and of the general excitement by volition ; they waste, and some- 
 times inflame and ulcerate, or slough, on the slightest injury. 
 And parts perfectly paralysed still maintain a temperature above 
 that of the surrounding medium, as well as circulation, secretion, 
 &c. ‘ and sometimes the same as in health. 
 
 B Grundriss der Physiologie, 150. 
 
 h Dr. Abercrombie, Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal. 
 
 ' Dr. Philip, we have seen, found rabbits just killed cool in exactly the same 
 time, whether the brain and spinal marrow were destroyed or not, although 
 where they were destroyed a stop was put to the secretion of gastric juice. Yet 
 when the same was done to a living rabbit, with the same effect on the stomach, 
 the animal’s temperature fell. This, however, would result from the shock given 
 to the nervous system as merely a part of the body, as we see every day in cases 
 of severe injuries even of the extremities. 
 
OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 171 
 
 Dr. Philip considers galvanism an important agent in the 
 nervous system, and found that it raised the heat of fresh arterial 
 blood 3° or 4°, and, at the same time, made the blood venous ; 
 a circumstance proving that the action is purely chemical, — an 
 alteration of the blood to that state in which its capacity for 
 caloric is less. k 
 
 There is certainly no more reason to believe animal heat de- 
 pendent on the nervous system, than secretion and every organic 
 function. That, like these, it is influenced by the state of the 
 nervous system, is certain ; but never, I imagine, except through 
 the instrumentality of chemical changes. 
 
 Besides the power of generating heat, animals are luminous, and 
 display electric phenomena. 
 
 The glow-worm is known to all, and many insects of the beetle 
 tribe, as well as others, emit light. Many can extinguish or con- 
 ceal their light, or render it more vivid, at pleasure. In some it 
 has been found to proceed from masses not dissimilar, except in 
 their yellow colour, from the interstitial substance of the rest of 
 the body, lying under the transparent integuments, and absorbed 
 when the season of luminousness is passed. 1 The ocean is fre- 
 quently luminous at night from the presence of certain animal- 
 cules, to some sort of which, perhaps, is owing the phosphor- 
 escence of dead herrings. Some fish, as the gymnotus electricus 
 and torpedo, give electric shocks, and possess a regular galvanic 
 battery. 
 
 I have adopted the common language in speaking of animal 
 heat, as though the phenomena depended upon a specific sub- 
 stance. But there is every reason to believe that neither caloric 
 nor light are fluids, but peculiar states only ; and electricity will 
 probably prove so likewise, and, indeed, all these to be but modi- 
 fications of the same state. 
 
 k Experimental Enquiry, p. 230. sqq. 
 
 1 Consult Kirby and Spence, An Introduction to Entomology, vol. ii. 
 p.409. sqq. 
 
172 
 
 SECT. XI. 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 174. The functions of the skin, which affords a covering 
 to the body, are so extremely various, that they cannot all be 
 easily described with advantage in one chapter, but each will 
 be considered far more conveniently under that class of ac- 
 tions to which it belongs. 
 
 For, in the first place, the skin is the organ of touch, and 
 will be examined in this view, under the head of animal 
 functions. 
 
 It is an organ of inhalation, and in this point of view be- 
 longs to the absorbent system, to be spoken of among the 
 natural functions. 
 
 It is likewise the organ of perspiration , and on this account 
 is related in many ways to the function of respiration, and may, 
 we think, very properly follow it in this place. 
 
 175. The skin consists of three membranes — The corium , 
 internal ; the cuticle, external ; and the reticulum, interme- 
 diate. 
 
 176. The cuticle, or epidermis , 3 forms the external cover- 
 ing of the body, is separable into several lamellae, '* and ex- 
 posed to the atmosphere, the contact of which can be borne 
 by scarcely any other part, if you except the enamel of the 
 teeth. For this reason, the internal cavities, and the canals 
 which communicate with the surface for the purpose of admit- 
 ting air, especially the respiratory passages and the whole of 
 the alimentary canal, the tongue, the inside of the cheeks, the 
 • 
 
 a Al. Monro (Primus), Oratio de Cuticula Humana. Opera. English edi- 
 tion. Edinb. 1781. 4to. p. 54. sq. 
 
 b Among others, consult J. Mitchell, Philos, Trans, vol. xliii. p. 111. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 173 
 
 fauces, and the organ of smell, are covered by a fine epithe- 
 lium, originating from the epidermis. c 
 
 177. The texture of the epidermis is extremely simple, 
 destitute of vessels, nerves, and of true mucous web, and 
 consequently but little organised ; very peculiar, however ; d 
 remarkably strong, considering its pellucidity and delicacy, so 
 that it resists suppuration, maceration, and other modes of 
 destruction, for a great length of time ; and reproduced more 
 easily than any other of the similar parts. 
 
 178. It is completely sui generis, somewhat like a horny 
 lamella, and adheres to the subjacent corium by the interven- 
 tion of a mucus, and by numerous very delicate fibrils which 
 penetrate the latter. e 
 
 The pores, which Leuwenhoek imagined in it, do not 
 exist ; but it allows a very ready passage to caloric, carbon, 
 
 c Abr. Kaau, Perspiratio dicta Hippocrati, p. 7. 
 
 Lieberkiihn, De Jabrica Villor. Intestin. Tenuium, p. 16. 
 
 Cruikshank, Expts. on the Insensible Perspiration, p. 5. 
 
 Rudolphi, Reisebemerkungen, t. i. p. 29. 140. 
 
 Jens, W. Neergaard, Vergleicliende Anat. der Verdauungswerkzeuge, p. 21, 
 
 et alibi. 
 
 J. B.Wilbrand, Hautsystem in alien seinen Verzweigungen- Giessen. 1813. 8vo. 
 
 d The very dense epidermis of some immense animals consists of vertical fibres, 
 which, in arrangement, somewhat resemble the structure of the Boletus igniarius. 
 Its internal surface is porous, and penetrated by the silky filaments of the sub- 
 jacent corium. This is remarkably exemplified in a preparation now before me, 
 taken from the skin of the baltena mysticete. 
 
 The human cuticle, in certain diseased states, exhibits the same appearance 
 as in the Englishman called the Porcupine Man, who laboured under a cutaneous 
 complaint which he transmitted to his children and grand-children. Vide W. G. 
 Tilesius, Beschreibung und Abbtidung der beiden sogenannten Slachelschwein- 
 Menschen (Porcupine Men.) Altenb. 1802. fol. 
 
 The innumerable polyedrical papillce and horny warts which I witnessed upon 
 every part of the skin of these brothers, excepting the head, the palms of the 
 hands, and the soles of the feet, bore some resemblance to the skin of the elephant, 
 especially about the vertex and forehead of the animal. (A) 
 
 Similar also are corns and the brawny cuticle of the feet in those who walk 
 barefooted. Vide Carlisle on the Production and Nature of Corns, Med. Facts 
 and Observations, vol. vii. p. 29. 
 
 e W. Hunter, Med. Observations and Inquiries, vol. ii. p. 52. sq. tab. i. 
 fig. 1, 2. The conjecture of this eminent man, — that these fibrils are vessels 
 which excrete the perspirable matter, is, I think, improbable. 
 
J 74 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 hydrogen, and to matters immediately composed of these, 
 v. c. oil. 
 
 179. The importance of the cuticle to organised systems, 
 is demonstrated by its universality in the animal and vege- 
 table kingdoms, and by its being distinctly observable in the 
 embryo from the third month at latest after conception. 
 
 1 80. The inner part of the cuticle is lined by a fine mucous 
 membrane, denominated, from the opinion of its discoverer, 
 reticulum Malpighianum, and by means of which chiefly the 
 cuticle is united more firmly to the corium. f 
 
 Its nature is mucous, it is very soluble, and, being thicker 
 in Ethiopians, may be completely separated in them from 
 both the corium and cuticle, and made to appear as a true 
 distinct membrane. s (B) 
 
 181. Our colour resides in it. In all persons the corium 
 is white, and, in almost all, the cuticle white and semipellucid, 
 though in Ethiopians it inclines to grey. But the mucous re- 
 ticulum varies after birth, with age, mode of life, and especially 
 with difference of climate. 
 
 Thus among the five varieties into which I would divide 
 the human race, in the first, which may be termed Caucasian, 
 and embraces Europeans (except the Laplanders and the rest 
 of the Finnish race), the western Asiatics, and the northern 
 Africans, it is more or less •white . 
 
 In the second or Mongolian, including the rest of the 
 Asiatics (except the Malays of the peninsula beyond the 
 Ganges), the Finnish races of the north of Europe, as the 
 
 f Hence I have found the epidermis of Albinoes separate easily by the heat of 
 the sun ; whereas, in negroes, it scarcely does so on the application of a blister. 
 Consult Mitchell, 1. c. p. 108. 
 
 6 B. S. Albinus, T>e sede et causa colons celhiopum et ctsleror. hominum. Lugd. 
 Batav. 17S7. 4to. fig. 1. 
 
 Sam. Th. Soemmerring, iiber die korjierl. Yerschiedenh. des 2Yegers vom 
 Europaer. Ed. 2. p. 46. sq. 
 
 Some even of the moderns have assigned many laminae, and even different 
 species, to the reticulum ; as Lieutaud, Essais Anatomiques, p. 103. ed. 1766. 
 
 Cruikshank, 1. c. p. 43. 99. 
 
 But especially G. A. Gualtier, Reclierches Anatomiques sur le Systeme cutane de 
 V Homme. Paris, 1811. 4to. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 175 
 
 Laplanders, &c. and the tribes of Esquimaux widely diffused 
 over the most northern parts of America, it is yellow or re- 
 sembling box-wood. 
 
 In the third or Ethiopian, to which the remainder of the 
 Africans h belong, it is of a tawny or jet black. 
 
 In the fourth or American, comprehending all the Ame- 
 ricans excepting the Esquimaux, it is almost copper coloured , 
 and in some of a cinnamon , and, as it were, ferruginous hue. 
 
 In the fifth or Malaic, in which I include the inhabitants of 
 all the islands in the Pacific Ocean, and of the Philippine and 
 Sunda, and those of the peninsula of Malaya, it is more or 
 less brown, — between the hue of fresh mahogany and that of 
 cloves or chesnuts. 
 
 All these shades of colour, as well as the other character- 
 istics of nations and individuals, run so insensibly into one 
 another, that all division and classification of them must be 
 more or less arbitrary. 
 
 182. The essential cause of the colour of the Malpighian 
 mucus, is, if we mistake not, the proportion of carbon which 
 is excreted together with hydrogen from the corium, and which, 
 in dark nations, being very copious, is precipitated upon the 
 mucus, and combined with it . 1 
 
 183. The corium , which is covered by the reticulum and 
 epidermis, is a membrane investing the whole body, and de- 
 fining its surface ; tough ; very extensible ; of different degrees 
 of thickness ; every where closely united, and, as it were, in- 
 
 h Jo. Nic. Pecblin, De Habitu et Colore JEthiopum, qui vulgo el Nigritae. 
 Kilon. 1677. 8vo. 
 
 Camper’s oration on the same subject will be found in his Kleiner Schriften, 
 vol. i. P. i. p. 24 — 49. 
 
 1 I have given this opinion at some length, in my work, De Gen. Human. 
 Varielate Nativa, p. 122. sq. ed. 3. Some eminent chemists accord with me, 
 among whom suffice it to mention the celebrated Humphry Davy, Journals of the 
 Royal Institution, vol. ii. p. 30. “ In the rete mucosum of the African, the carbon 
 becomes the predominant principle ; hence the blackness of the negro.” W. B. John- 
 son, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
 F. B. Osiander has given an abundance of very careful observations upon the 
 various proportions of the carbonaceous element in the Malpighian mucus. Com- 
 ment Soc. Reg. Scientiar. Gotting. recentiorum, vol. iv. p. 112. sqq. 
 
176 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 terwoven, with the mucous tela, especially externally, but 
 more loosely on its internal surface, in which, excepting in a 
 few regions of the body, we generally discover fat. 
 
 184. Besides nerves and absorbents , of which we shall speak 
 hereafter, innumerable blood-vessels penetrate to its external 
 surface, upon which they are shown, by minute injection, to 
 form very close and delicate net-works. 
 
 185. A vast number of sebaceous follicles also are dispersed 
 throughout it, and diffuse over the skin an oil, which is k very 
 thin, limpid, does not easily dry, 1 and is altogether distinct from 
 the common sweat, and from that which possesses an odour 
 resembling the smell of goats and is peculiar to certain parts 
 only. 
 
 186. Lastly, almost every part of the corium is beset with 
 various kinds of hairs, m chiefly short and delicate, more or 
 less downy, and found nearly every where but on the palpebrae, 
 penis, the palms of the hand, and the soles of the feet. In 
 some parts, they are long and destined for peculiar purposes ; 
 such are the capillamentum, the eye-brows, the eye-lashes, the 
 vibrissas, mustachios, beard, and the hair of the arm-pits and 
 pudenda. 
 
 187. Man is, generally speaking, less hairy than most 
 other mammalia. But in this respect nations differ. For, 
 not to mention those nations who to this day carefully pluck 
 out their beard or the hair of other parts, others appear na- 
 turally destitute of hair, v. c. the Tunguses and Burats. (C) 
 On the contrary, creditable travellers assert that some inha- 
 bitants of the islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean are 
 I'emarkably hairy. n (D) 
 
 188. Nor is there less variety in its length, flexibility, 
 colour, and disposition to curl, both in each race of men 
 
 k Chr. Gotti. Ludwig, He Humore cutem inungente. Lips. 1748. 4to. 
 
 1 Lyonet, Lettre a M. Le Cat. p. 12. 
 
 m J. Ph. With off, De pilo Humana. Duisl). 1750. 4to. Compare the Com- 
 mentar. Societ. Scient. Gotting. vol. ii. 
 
 Job. Bastev, Verliandel. der Maatsch. te Haarlem, t. xiv. p. 382. 
 
 C. Asm. Rudolphi, Hepilorum structura. Gryph. 1806. 4to. 
 
 n He Generis Human. Variet. Nativ, p. 29. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 177 
 
 enumerated above (181) and in individuals: v.c. the hair of the 
 head in the Caucasian variety is rather dingy or of a nut brown, 
 inclined on the one hand to yellow, and on the other to black; 
 in the Mongolian and American, it is black, stiffer, straight, 
 and more sparing ; in the Malay, black, soft, curling, thick, 
 and abundant ; in the Ethiopian, black and woolly : In indi- 
 viduals, especially of the Caucasian variety, there are great 
 differences, and chiefly in connection with temperament , which 
 is found intimately and invariably connected with the colour, 
 abundance, disposition to curl, &c. of the hair; p and there 
 also exists a remai’kable correspondence between the colour 
 of the hair and of the hides. 
 
 189. The direction of the hairs is peculiar in certain parts, 
 v.c. — spiral on the summit of the head; — diverging up- 
 wards on the pubes ; — on the exterior of the arm, as is 
 commonly seen in some anthropomorphous apes, (v. c. in the 
 satyrus and troglodytes) running in two opposite directions 
 towards the elbow, i. e. downwards from the shoulder, up- 
 wards from the wrist ; to say nothing of the eye-lashes and 
 eye-brows. 
 
 190. The hairs originate from the inner surface of the 
 corium, which abounds in fat. They adhere to it pretty 
 firmly, q by a curious bulb, consisting of a double involucrum; r 
 — the exterior vascular and oval, the interior cylindrical, 
 apparently continuous with the epidermis, s and sheathing the 
 elastic filaments of which the hair is composed, and which 
 are generally from five to ten in each. 
 
 p Galen, Ars Medicinalis, p. 21 1—235. M. Ant. Ulm, Utei-us Muliebris, 
 p. 128. et alibi, and Lavater, Fragmente, t. iv. p. 112, among many others. 
 
 q I suspect that the bulb is intended for support rather than for nourishment, 
 from this circumstance, — that the locks of hairs sometimes found in melicera 
 and steatomata of the omentum and ovarium, some of which I have now before 
 me, are usually destitute of bulbs, because they are not fixed, but lie naked in 
 the honey- like fatty matter. 
 
 r Duverney, (Euvres Anatomiques , vol. i. tab. xvi. fig. 7. 9 — 14. tab. xvii. 
 fig. 3. sqq. 
 
 s B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Academ. 1. vi, tab. iii. fig. 45. 
 
 N . 
 
178 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 191. The hairs are almost incorruptible, and always 
 anointed by an oily halitus. Of all parts they appear most 
 truly electrical. They are very easily nourished and even 
 reproduced, unless where the skin is diseased. (E) 
 
 192. Besides the functions ascribed to the integuments in 
 the former section, must be enumerated their very great 
 excretory power, by which foreign and injurious matters are 
 eliminated from the mass of fluids/ 
 
 This is exemplified in the miasmata of exanthematic dis- 
 eases, in the smell of the skin after eating garlic, musk, &c. 
 and in sweating and similar phenomena." 
 
 193. What is most worthy of our attention, is the transpira- 
 tion of an aeriform fluid, denominated, after the very acute 
 philosopher who first applied himself professedly to investigate 
 its importance, the ■perspirabile Sanctorianum , x and similar to 
 what is expired from the lungs. y It likewise is composed of 
 various proportions of carbon, 1 2 azote, and hydrogen, 3 precipi- 
 tates lime from solution, and is unfit to support either flame 
 or respiration. 
 
 194. The sweat, which seldom occurs spontaneously during 
 health and rest unless in a high temperature, appears to be 
 nothing more than the perspirable matter of Sanctorius 
 too much increased in quantity by the excited action of the 
 cutaneous vessels, its hydrogen uniting with the oxygen of the 
 atmosphere, and assuming the liquid form. 
 
 1 Hence the danger of contagion from hairs, as miasmata adhere to them very 
 tenaciously for a great length of time. Vide Cartwright, Journal of Transactions 
 on the Coast of Labrador, vol. i. p. 273. vol. ii. p. 424. 
 
 u G. Wedemeyer, Historia Pathologica Pilorum, (honoured with the royal 
 prize.) Gotting. 1812. 4to. 
 
 x Ars Sanctor. Sanctorii de Statica Medidna aphorismor. sectionibus vii. com- 
 prehensa. Venet. 1634. 16mo. 
 
 y C. de Milly and Lavoisier, Memoires de 1' Acad, des Sc. de Paris. 1777. 
 p. 221. sq. 360. sq. 
 
 J. Ingen-Housz, Expts. upon Vegetables. Lond. 1779. Svo. p. 132. sqq. 
 
 J. H. Voight. Versuch dner neuen Theorie des Feuers, p. 157. sq. 
 
 z W. Bache, On the Morbid Effects of Carbonic Add Gas on Healthy Animals. 
 Philadel. 1794. 8vo. p. 46. 
 
 a Abernethy, 1. c. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 179 
 
 195. Upon the same hydrogen, variously modified by the 
 accession of other elements and constituents, would seem to 
 depend the natural and peculiar odour perceived in the per- 
 spiration and sweat of certain nations and individuals. b (F) 
 
 196. The quantity of matter perspired from the integu- 
 ments, which, in a well-grown adult, are equal to about fifteen 
 square feet, cannot be accurately estimated, but is probably 
 about two pounds in twenty-four hours. c (G) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) One of this family exhibited himself a few years ago in 
 Bond Street. He was thirty years of age, and stated himself to 
 belong to the fourth generation of the descendants of a savage 
 who was found in the woods of America, and had the same con- 
 dition of skin. He informed me that it is transmitted to every 
 male without exception in the male line, but has never appeared in 
 the females or their male offspring : and that the horny warts first 
 show themselves at two months from birth, are constantly grow- 
 ing, though most in summer, and are constantly being shed, but 
 particularly in winter, till the thirty-sixth year, after which they 
 are never shed, but continue to grow, so that in this man’s father, 
 who was eighty years of age, and lived in Suffolk when I saw the 
 man, they were of very great length. They are set so close to- 
 gether, that their tops form a tolerably smooth surface, unless 
 they are separated by extending the skin. Nearest those parts in 
 which there are none, they gradually become smaller. Besides the 
 parts mentioned by Blumenbach, the glans penis, I understood, was 
 free from them. 
 
 h Fr. L. Andr. Koeler, Be Odore per cutem spirante in slatu sano ac morboso. 
 Gotting. 1794. s 4to. 
 
 e The balance employed by Sanctorius to estimate the loss of perspired matter, 
 is described in bis Comm, in primam Fen primi L. Canon. Avicenna:. Venet. 
 1646. 4to. p. 781. 
 
 Another, much simpler and better adapted for the purpose, is described by 
 Jo. Andr. Segner, Be Libra, qua sui quisque corporis pondus explorare posset. 
 Gotting. 1740. 4to. 
 
 J. A. Klindworth, an excellent Gottingen instrument-maker and engineer, 
 altered this at my suggestion, and rendered it more convenient and accurate. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 (B) Although Dr. Gordon d and Mr. Lawrence e assert that 
 they have never been able to detach any thing from the cutis of 
 Europeans in the form of a distinct membrane, the rete Malpig- 
 hianum does exist in Negroes, and the latter gentleman allows 
 that the various complexions of Europeans and the peculiar cream 
 white of the Albino, who has unquestionably no colouring matter 
 in his eyes or skin, show that it exists even in us. 
 
 (C) Dr. Wells describes the singular case of a man whose hair 
 fell off throughout his body in about six weeks, without any evi- 
 dent cause or derangement of health, and did not return, except that 
 about two years afterwards, while labouring under a suppurating 
 tumour of the neck that discharged through several small holes, a 
 fine down appeared upon his cheeks and chin, which occasioned 
 him to shave once a week for about three months, when it disap- 
 peared. He always looked afterwards as if just shaved, and by 
 wearing a wig would not have been noticed for any peculiar ap- 
 pearance. f Dr. Frank saw a similar case.s We have an example 
 of bristly hair shed and renewed every autumn, in five sons of the 
 same family.* 1 
 
 (D) The reference is to the Kurille and neighbouring islands. 
 But Krusenstern, a late circumnavigator, declares that he ob- 
 served no particular hairiness of the people in this part of the 
 world, and that former accounts are at least exaggerations. ' In 
 the island of Anicoa, he indeed met with one child, eight years 
 of age, covered with hair : but such an instance has occurred in 
 Europe. Zacchias, in 1613, saw a tall man at Rome covered 
 with fine, long, straight hair, of a light yellow colour. There was 
 a sister similarly hairy, and the father had been a hairy person, but 
 the mother had not differed from other women. The man married, 
 and, of four children, one girl and one boy were born covered with 
 black hair, looking, says Zacchias, like black kids, and reminding the 
 attendants of the account of Esau’s birth : — “ The first came out 
 
 d System of Anatomy, vol. i. p. 242. 
 e Rees’s Cyclopcedia, art. Integuments. 
 
 f Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Surgical Know- 
 ledge, vol. ii. Another case will be found in the Edinburgh Journal of Medical 
 Science, 1827. 
 
 B He curandis hominum morbis, t. iv. p. 124. 
 h Phil. Trans, vol. v. quoted by Dr. Good. 
 
 ‘ Voyage round the IVorld. Translated from the original German by G. B. 
 Hoppner, vol. ii. p. 78. ' 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 181 
 
 red, all over like a hairy garment.” k In fifteen days the whole 
 of this hair fell off, and, as puberty approached, soft fine hair 
 sprung up all over the body, even over the temples and forehead . 1 
 Shenckius has collected several similar cases . m 
 
 (E) The hairs have been represented destitute of life. But they 
 have turned grey in a single night from excessive copulation, and 
 from distress of mind. In illness they often grow soft, and hang 
 about the head. I know a lady whose hair will not keep in curl if 
 she is in the slightest degree indisposed, and a young gentleman 
 whose profuse curly hair becomes straight under the same cir- 
 cumstances : on the other hand, a case is recorded in which it 
 always curled in a fit of the gout. “ Lastly, the hair has been 
 so sensible in phrenitis after an injury, that the slightest touch 
 gave severe pain, and when the surgeon clipped a hair unseen 
 by the patient, this was instantly felt, and occasioned a paroxysm 
 of rage : 0 sensibility cannot be acquired by a part not already 
 alive. 
 
 Hair often grows abundantly in portions of the skin usually not 
 much supplied with it, and these are generally of a brown colour : 
 it will sometimes grow in parts naturally destitute of it, as the 
 tongue and even the heart . p Sometimes it grows in encysted 
 tumours accompanied by fat, and occasionally by teeth and portions 
 of jaw and amorphous bone ; and feathers covered by fat are some- 
 times found in the thorax and abdomen of tame geese and ducks. <i 
 Hair has also been discharged from the urethra. 
 
 (F) The odour of the secretions of the mucous follicles differs 
 in different parts. In the tonsils, when the secretion is solid, it 
 is horridly offensive, really fsecal, and is a frequent cause of 
 foetid breath : in the glands behind the ears, when the secretion 
 is squeezed out in a solid form, its smell is said to be caseous : in 
 the parts of generation, peculiar. In many brutes, the odour of the 
 female genitals attracts the male, and is strongest when the animal 
 is in heat. The mere sweat has a different smell in different parts : 
 in the arm-pits hircine ; in the feet, sometimes like that of tan, 
 
 k Genesis, c. xxv. 
 
 1 Qucestiones Medico -Legates, lib. vii. Tit. 1. quaest. ix. 
 m naparrifnicriwv, sive Observ. c |-c. Volumen, p. 778. sq. 
 
 " Quarterly Journal of Foreign Medicine, No. xvii. 
 
 0 1. c. ibid. 
 
 [' See references in Dr. Good’s Study of Medicine, vol. v. p. 681. 
 q Blumenbach, Comparative Anatomy, § 138. 
 
 N 3 < 
 
182 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 and sometimes of cabbage-water. Persons differ not only in the 
 amount of their general perspiration, but in its amount in different 
 parts ; and under exercise and heat, different persons sweat most in 
 different parts* A person from merely happening to sweat most in 
 a part whose secretion is generally offensive, may probably acquire 
 the characteristic odour, without having a particular disposition 
 to filthiness of secretion. The general perspiration of every one 
 probably smells peculiarly ; for savages can distinguish the nation 
 of persons by the smell. (Haller and Humboldt.) The boy born 
 deaf and blind, whose history is related by Mr. Dugald Stewart, 
 distinguished people by their odour ; and 1 saw in the report 
 of a trial lately in the newspapers, that dealers in hair boasted 
 of being able to tell the nation from which the hair came merely 
 by the smell. The power possessed by brutes in distinguishing 
 and tracing other animals is well known. 
 
 The odour of some persons is said to have been quite a per- 
 fume. In the memoirs of the Queen of Navarre, we read that 
 Catharine de Medicis was a nosegay ; and Cujacius the civilian, 
 and Lord Herbert of Cherbury, were equally delightful. 
 
 (G) The skin produces chemical changes similar to those which 
 occur in the lungs (171); r forms a watery secretion (193. sqq.), 
 and is an organ of absorption. 
 
 r Cruikshanks on Insensible Perspiration, and Ellis, Further Enquiry on the 
 Changes produced in Atmospheric Air, &c. Others have questioned this, but no 
 one doubts the fact in regard to cold-blooded animals. Dr. Edwards found the 
 surface of frogs and salamanders to carbonise the air. (l.c. p.12.) Frogs are amphi- 
 bious. They live indefinitely in extensive or renewed water, and die if it is 
 de-aerated, or not changed (p. 41. sqq.) ; as also do aquatic salamanders and the 
 common toad. If their lungs are removed, they still live indefinitely in such water 
 or in air, and die if no air has access to their skin, or the water is not purified 
 enough (p. 71.) j and die sooner as they are younger and smaller. Although 
 frogs live in air, mere respiration appears insufficient after a time ; — some 
 application of air or aerated water to the surface is also requisite to their life. That 
 they live so long inclosed in wood or mineral substances, as is commonly known, 
 appears owing to the opposition afforded, under these circumstances, to transpira- 
 tion, which, in the open air, is so great as speedily to dry them up, while, at 
 the same time, the closeness is not such as entirely to exclude air (p. 13.) They 
 die in vacuo. 
 
 In a limited quantity of water, they die sooner, the higher the temperature 
 (p. 25. sqq.) ; and they support a high temperature better, if previously subjected 
 for some time to a cold temperature (p. 33. sqq.) Although their skin be care- 
 fully moistened, they cannot live without respiration in summer (p. 91.) It 
 appears from Dr. Edwards’s experiments to be a general fact among animals, 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 183 
 
 To ascertain the quantity of watery secretion, Lavoisier and 
 Seguin s inclosed the body in a silk bag varnished with elastic gum 
 and having a small opening carefully cemented around the mouth, 
 so that, by weighing the body previously and subsequently to the 
 experiment, they were able to ascertain exactly what had been 
 lost, and, by substracting from this loss the weight of the perspired 
 contents of the bag, they also ascertained how much of this had 
 passed off by the lungs. From repeated trials they found the 
 mean pulmonary discharge in twenty-four hours amounted to 
 15 oz. and the cutaneous to 30 oz. The quantity of carbon se- 
 parated by the lungs ought however to be taken into the account. 
 If it amount to 1 1 oz. in twenty-four hours, — the quantity stated by 
 Allen and Pepys, — there will be but 4 oz. of pulmonary exhala- 
 tion. But if oxygen and azote are absorbed in respiration, there 
 must have been correspondency more pulmonary exhalation ; and 
 we have seen that Hales estimated it at about 20 oz. in the 
 twenty-four hours. They found the cutaneous transpiration at its 
 minimum during and immediately after meals, and at its maximum 
 during digestion. 
 
 The minimum after digestion was found by them to be 11 grs. 
 per minute ; the maximum 32 grs.: at and immediately after dinner 
 IO^q, and the maximum 19^, under the most favourable and un- 
 favourable circumstances. It was increased by liquid, but not by 
 solid, food. The pulmonary they regard as greater than the cu- 
 
 that the want of air is best borne in a low temperature. The general good effect of 
 the application of cold in asphyxia by carbonic acid, is well known. The 
 greater the external heat, on the contrary, the more is air required by the skin 
 and lungs, independently, it would appear, of its chemical effect, as it is of use 
 when there is no circulation, — when the heart is excised, either in frogs or cats, 
 which perish after this operation the sooner as the temperature is higher. When 
 the quantity of water, though limited, is sufficient to support life, the want of 
 respiration causes the frogs to become as slow in their motions as turtles, and 
 dull to all impressions on the senses, (p. 65. ) Lizards, serpents, and turtles, 
 also carbonise the air by their surface ; but serpents and turtles, and, indeed, 
 some varieties of frogs, can live by respiration only, and this happens where the 
 lungs of the animal are proportionally large (p. 128.) The effect of air, how- 
 ever, upon the surface, in reptiles at least, does not require the aid of circulation 
 to distribute its benefits, for when their heart is removed (and the same happens 
 with toads, salamanders, and cats) , they live much longer in air than in de-aerated 
 water (p. 3. sqq.) ; yet they live longer if the heart is not removed (p. 7. sqq.) 
 s Mimoires de V Academie des Sciences, 1790. 
 
 N 4 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 184 
 
 taneous proportionally to the surface on which it occurs. 1 What- 
 ever was taken, the weight was found to become ultimately as 
 before. Indigestion lessened transpiration, and the body continued 
 heavier generally till the fifth day, when the original weight was 
 restored. Transpiration was less in moist air and at a low tem- 
 perature, and the pulmonary and cutaneous transpirations obeyed 
 the same laws. 
 
 Dr. Edwards has made a great number of experiments upon 
 this subject. 11 He distinguishes the loss of fluid by evaporation of 
 what is exuded, from that by secretion.* The former occurs even in 
 the dead body, and is increased, in both the dead and living, and 
 among all animals, by the dryness, motion, and diminished pressure 
 of the atmosphere. ’ It may be suspended by saturating the air with 
 moisture, and by employing animals (vertebrated, cold-blooded) 
 whose temperature is not above that of the atmosphere ; for if those 
 are employed whose temperature exceeds that of the atmosphere, 
 the air as soon as it touches them is rarefied, can take up more 
 moisture, and is no longer air saturated with moisture. These 
 circumstances, of course, affect only the removal or evapor- 
 ation of fluid which may have either transuded or been se- 
 creted, but do not affect the secretion. In frogs, which perspire 
 copiously, the loss by evaporation at 68° is thus found six times 
 greater than by mere secretion, and the proportion in man, the 
 temperature being the same and the air dry, must be greater, as 
 his skin secretes much less. 
 
 The secreted fluid may be carried off by evaporation as quickly 
 as it is formed, so as to be insensible perspiration, or may be too 
 abundant for this, and appear as sweat. The transuded fluid may 
 also be condensed and precipitated on the skin in the form of 
 sweat. 
 
 The cutaneous secretion is not so much augmented by moderate 
 elevations of temperature as might be imagined ; but as the 
 elevation proceeds, the augmentation of secretion becomes mote 
 than proportionate. It appeared increased after meals and 
 during sleep, and, though subject to great fluctuations if observed 
 at short intervals, from accidental changes in the atmosphere, 
 underwent successive diminutions when observed every six hours, 
 from six o’clock a. m., — the hour of rising, — • till the return of the 
 
 1 Annales de Chimie, t. xc. u 1. c. part iv. e. xi. 
 
 * He contends, however, that, in the lungs, all is evaporation without secretion. 
 But, with Dr. Bostock, I must dissent from him. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 185 
 
 same period. In frogs this regular diminution might be detected 
 every three hours, y 
 
 In frogs the cutaneous secretion continues, though at its mini- 
 mum, in the moistest air and in water ; and it would appear to do 
 so also in man . 2 
 
 The matter of the cutaneous secretion contains an acid, pro- 
 bably the acetic, a muriate of potash and soda, acetate of soda, 
 and perhaps albumen. a What evaporates is mere water. 
 
 Dr. Edwards makes some curious remarks upon the different 
 effects of dry and moist air when hot, and when cold. When hot, 
 dry air will of course communicate less heat to the body than if 
 moist, and will, by its dryness, cause more evaporation ; so that the 
 two operations of air, dry or moist, will correspond in temperatures 
 above that of the body. When cold, dry air will remove less 
 heat from the body than moist, but, by its dryness, will cause 
 more evaporation, and therefore tend to cool more, so that the two 
 operations oppose each other in temperatures inferior to that of 
 the body. b The same remarks apply to cold water. 
 
 He did not find moist cold air to cool animals more than dry 
 cold air. 
 
 In low temperatures, we have seen that the. loss by evaporation 
 greatly exceeds that by secretion. In high, it is the reverse, and, 
 when the body is covered with sweat, there can be no loss by the 
 evaporation which occurs, independent of secreted fluid, whether 
 the air be dry or moist. Vapour will cause more loss by secretion 
 than dry air ; but no loss can take place by the lungs in hot 
 vapour. c 
 
 Perspiration can never be entirely suppressed, because the 
 cold which suppresses secretion, causes the air, however moist, 
 and therefore opposed to evaporation, to rise in temperature, by 
 coming in contact with the body ; and the superior temperature, 
 which it instantly acquires, enables it to hold more moisture, and 
 evaporation from the skin is thus instantly promoted. d 
 
 Absorption by the skin, unless friction is employed or the cu- 
 ticle abraded, has been denied. We are told that Dr. Currie’s 
 patient, labouring under dysphagia seated in the oesophagus, 
 
 y For what relates to this function in the batracians, see 1. c. part i. c. v. 
 and vi. 
 
 z p. 92. sqq. 98. sqq. 351. sqq. 
 
 a Berzelius, Animal Chemistry, p. 95. 
 
 b 1. c. p. 386. sq. 
 p. 335. sq. 
 
 c p. 380. sq. 
 
186 
 
 OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 always found his thirst relieved by bathing, but never acquired 
 the least additional weight : e that Dr. Gerard’s diabetic patient 
 weighed no more after cold or warm bathing than previously : f 
 that Seguin found no mercurial effects from bathing a person in a 
 mercurial solution, provided the cuticle remained entire; while 
 they occurred when the cuticle was abraded, e 
 
 But the two former cases are no proofs that water was not 
 absorbed, because the persons immersed did not lose in weight, 
 which they would have done if not immersed, owing to the pul- 
 monary and cutaneous excretions; these therefore must have been 
 counterbalanced by absorption somewhere, and no shadow of proof 
 can be urged against its occurrence by the skin, as Dr. Kellie 
 remarks in his excellent paper on the functions of this part. h 
 Seguin besides found two grains of the mercurial salt disappear in 
 an hour from the solution when of the temperature of 72£°. 
 
 There is every reason to believe the occurrence of cutaneous 
 absorption independently of friction or abrasion of the cuticle. 
 First, the existence of absorbents all over the surface cannot be 
 intended for use merely when friction is employed or the cuticle 
 abraded. Secondly, we have many facts which prove absorption 
 without these circumstances, either by the skin or lungs, or both, 
 while no reason can be given why they should be attributed 
 solely to the lungs. A boy at Newmarket, who had been greatly 
 reduced before a race, was found to have gained 30 oz. in weight 
 during an hour, in which time he had only half a glass of wine.' 
 Dr. Home, after being fatigued and going to bed supperless, 
 gained 2 oz. in weight before seven in the morning. * In three 
 diabetic patients of Dr. Bardsley’s, the amount of the urine ex- 
 ceeded that of the ingesta, and the body even increased in weight, 
 and in one of the instances as much as 17 lbs. k Dr. Currie 
 allows that in his patient, “ The egesta exceeded the ingesta in a 
 proportion much greater than the waste of his body will explain, 
 and, indeed, such facts occur every day.” The same patient’s urine, 
 too, after the daily use of the bath, flowed more abundantly and be- 
 came less pungent. Keill says that he one night gained 18 oz. in 
 his sleep : and Lining, that after drinking some punch one cool day, 
 “ the quantity of humid particles attracted by his skin exceeded 
 
 e Medical Reports, &c. f Rollo, On Diabetes . 
 
 B La Medecine eclairee, &c. t. 3. 
 h Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. i. 
 
 ‘ Bishop Watson, Chemical Essays, vol. iii. p. 101. 
 k Medical Facts and Experiments. 
 
OF PERSPIRATION. 
 
 187 
 
 the quantity perspired in these two hours and a half by 8f- oz.” 
 and gives two more such instances in the same table. 1 Dr. 
 Edwards observed similar facts in guinea-pigs.™ Thirdly, we 
 have positive evidence of cutaneous absorption without friction 
 or abrasion, in the case of frogs, toads, na}', in scaly lizards, 
 which will increase in weight by cutaneous absorption, even if 
 only a part of them is immersed in water ; and remarkably so if 
 previously made to lose much of their moistui’eby exposure to the 
 air,“ although they never surpass the point from which the loss of 
 weight began. ° The increase is much greater in water than in 
 the moistest air. p 
 
 In all the cases which have been mentioned there is no reason 
 to suppose that exhalation did not continue, both on the skin and 
 in the lungs, so that the absorption must have been greater than 
 it at first sight appears. When no increase of weight has taken 
 place on immersion in the warm bath, absorption must have 
 occurred to maintain the weight notwithstanding the cutaneous and 
 pulmonary losses ; and when some decrease of weight has been 
 observed, we are not justified in concluding that absorption had 
 not taken place, and not lessened the amount of the loss which 
 would have happened. Indeed, there is no doubt that perspira- 
 tion is considerably increased in the warm bath. — I may remark, 
 that while absorption is more active accordingly as more fluid has 
 been lost, it gradually becomes less as it approaches the habitual 
 standard of plenitude in the individual, and that while transpira* 
 tion is increased by elevation, the proportion of absorption is 
 increased by depression, of temperature. 4 
 
 Dr. Massy, of America, about 1812, found that, if the body 
 were immersed in a decoction of madder, this substance became 
 discoverable in the urine by the alkalies, and Dr. Rousseau, in con- 
 junction with Dr. S. B. Smith, made, in consequence, a number of 
 experiments from which they conclude that rhubarb and madder 
 are so absorbed, and that these only of all absorbed substances 
 can be discovered in the urine, and are seen in that fluid only, 
 and are absorbed by no other parts than the spaces between the 
 middle of the thigh and hip, and between the middle of the arm 
 and shoulder. 1 
 
 1 Phil. Trans, vol. xlii. p. 496. m 1. c. p. 362. - 
 
 n Dr. Edwards, 1. c. partiv. ch. xii. 
 
 ° 1 c. p. 101. p 1. c. p. 360. 
 
 1 1. c. p. 98. sqq. 352. sqq. 
 
 r Discourses on.the Elements of Therapeutics and Mat. Med. 1817. p. 56. sq- 
 
188 
 
 SECT. XII. 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN GENERAL. 
 
 * 
 
 197. We now come to the other class of functions termed 
 animal (83, II.), by which the body and mind are connected. 
 They have obtained their name from existing in animal sys- 
 tems only, and from enjoying a greater range than those 
 properly denominated vital. a 
 
 198. The principal organs of these functions are the brain 
 and medulla spinalis, together with the nerves, the greater 
 part of which originate from the two former. They may be 
 properly referred to two principal classes, sensorial and nerv- 
 ous : the former comprehending all excepting the nerves and 
 their immediate origin, — all that serves more directly as the 
 connection between the office of the nerves and the faculties 
 of the mind. 
 
 199. Upon this division rests the beautiful observation of 
 Sommerring b respecting the correspondence between the re- 
 lative size of each class with the faculties of the mind, — That 
 the smaller the nerves are, compared with the sensorial class, 
 the greater is the development of the mental faculties, and 
 that, in this sense, man has the largest brain of all animated 
 beings, — if its bulk be compared with that of the nerves 
 arising from it ; but by no means, if its weight be compared 
 with that of the whole body. 
 
 a In this section consult especially the work of the celebrated Wedemeyer, 
 already referred to, p. 115. note z. 
 
 b Diss. de basi encepliali. Gotting. 1778. 4to. p. 17. Also his work, already 
 quoted, upon the anatomy of the negro, i. 59. sq. 
 
 J. Gottfr. libel, Observationes neurologic ec ex anatome comparala. Traj. ad 
 Viadr. 1788. 8vo. 
 
OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 189 
 
 200. Besides the bony cranium, a threefold covering is af- 
 forded to the brain, c viz. the dura and pia mater, and, be- 
 tween these two, the tunica arachnoidea. 
 
 201. The dura mater , d which lines the inside of the 
 cranium, like a periosteum, forms various processes. By the 
 falx it divides the hemispheres of the cerebrum and cere- 
 bellum; (A) by the tentorium e it supports the posterior lobes 
 of the cerebrum, and prevents their pressure upon the sub- 
 jacent cerebellum. 
 
 In its various duplicatures it contains and supports the 
 venous sinuses f and prevents their pressure. These receive 
 the blood returning from the brain to the heart, the pro- 
 portion of which to the blood of the rest of the body, Zinn, 
 who was formerly one of our number, long ago very truly 
 remarked, has been overrated by physiologists. 
 
 202. Next to the dura mater lies the arachnoid , so named 
 from its thinness. Its use is not exactly known ; it is desti- 
 tute of blood-vessels (5), and extended, like the dura mater, 
 
 c Eustachips, tab. xvii, xviii. 
 
 Haller, leones Anat. fasc. vi. tab. i, ii, iii. 
 
 Santorini, tab. postil, ii, iii. 
 
 F. B. Osiander, in the Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gotling. vol. xvi. p. 105. 
 tab. i, ii. 
 
 Detm. W. Soemmerring, De oculor. sect, horizontali, tab. i. Others will be 
 mentioned hereafter. 
 
 d J. Ladmiral, leones durce matris in concava et convexa superjicie viste. Amst. 
 1738. fasc. i, ii. 4to. 
 
 e In the skulls of some genera of mammalia, a remarkable lamina of bone 
 penetrates a duplicature of the tentorium and supports it. Cheselden {Anat. of the 
 Bones, c. 8.) supposes this bony tentorium to exist in fence only ; but it is found in 
 the equine genus, the cercopithecus paniscus, the delphinus phocasna, orycteropous 
 capensis, &c. Its use is uncertain : that which is generally ascribed to it (for 
 instance, by Laur. Nihell, de cerebro. Edin. 1780. p. 4.), — of protecting the 
 cerebellum in those mammalia which leap very swiftly, is improbable, because 
 we find it in the bear and other animals of still slower motion, and not in the 
 ibex, which moves with the greatest rapidity. 
 
 f Vieussens, Neurograph, universal, tab. xvii. fig. 1. 
 
 Duvemey, (Euvres anatom, vol. i. tab. iv. 
 
 Haller, leones Anat. fasc. i. tab. vi. 
 
 Walter, De morbis periloncei et apoplexia. Berol. 1785. 4to. tab. iii, iv. 
 
 Vicq. d’Azyr, Blanches Anatomiques, xxxii. et xxxv. 
 
190 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 merely over the substance of the brain, without following the 
 course of its furrows and prominences. 
 
 203. On the contrary, the membrane, called pia mater by 
 the ancients, closely follows the cortical substance of the 
 brain, s and possesses innumerable blood-vessels which pene- 
 trate into the latter. Hence, if a portion of this membrane is 
 detached, we find the external surface very smooth, while the 
 internal is villous and resembles the roots of moss. h (B) 
 
 204. The brain is composed of various parts which differ 
 in texture and figure ,' 1 but the use of which is unknown. 
 The most remarkable are the four ventricles, k in the two an- 
 terior and fourth of which are found the choroid plexuses, of 
 whose function also we are ignorant . 1 
 
 205. The substance of the brain is twofold : the one called 
 cineritious or cortical, though not always situated exteriorly ; 
 the other white or medullary. Between the two, the cele- 
 brated Sbmmerring m has detected a third substance of a 
 whitish colour, most conspicuous in the arbor vitas of the ce- 
 rebellum and in the posterior lobes of the cerebrum. 
 
 206. The proportion of the cineritious" to the medullary 
 substance decreases as age advances, being greater in children, 
 
 E Ruysch, Respons. ad ep. problemat. nonam. Amst. 1670. tab. x. 
 
 h B, S. Albinus, Annot. Acad. 1. i. tab. ii. fig. 1 — 5. 
 
 * Consult, besides other authors already mentioned or to be mentioned here- 
 after, Jos. and C. Wenzel, De structura cerebri. Tubing. 1812. fol. 
 
 C. G. Carus, Darstell. des Nervensystems, &c. Leipz. 1814. 4to. 
 
 C. Fr. Burdach, Von Bau u. Leben des Gehims, vol. i. Leipz. 1819. 4to. 
 
 Specially on the successive formation of the fcetal brain, Ign. Dollinger, Beytr. 
 zur Entwickelungsgesck. des menschl. Gehirns. Francfort. 1814. fol. 
 
 J. L. Schoenlein, v. der Hirnmetamorph. 1816. 8vo. 
 
 Fr. Tiedemann, Anat. u. BUdungsgesch. des Gehirns im Fcetus, &c. Nurem- 
 berg. 1816. 4to. 
 
 k S. Th. Sommerring, iiber das Organ der Seele. Koningsberg. 1796. 4to. 
 tab. i, ii. 
 
 1 The importance of these plexuses is shown in the dissection of maniacs, in 
 whom they alone are very frequently found diseased. 
 
 ra De basi encephali, p. 63. 
 
 Compare Gennari, De peculiari structura cerebri. Parma;, 1782. 8vo. tab. ii, iii. 
 
 n Malpighi, De cerebri corlice ; and his other Exercitationes de viscerum struct- 
 ura. Lond. 1699. 12mo. 
 
 Ruysch, De cerebri corticali substantia ep. problemat. xiima. Amst. 1699. 4to. 
 
 Chr. Fred. Ludwig, De cinerea cerebri substantia. Lips. 1799. 4to. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 191 
 
 less in adults. It is almost wholly composed of an immense 
 number of very fine vessels, both sanguiferous and colour- 
 less (92), some few of which penetrate into the medullary 
 substance, p composed, in addition to these vessels and a very 
 fine cellular substance, of a pultaceous parenchyma, which, if 
 examined with glasses, exhibits no regular structure, 11 and, 
 upon chemical analysis, affords a peculiar matter, in some 
 measure resembling albumen (C), and containing a large 
 quantity of carbon. r 
 
 207. The brain, after birth, undergoes a constant and 
 gentle motion, 8 correspondent with respiration ; so that, 
 when the lungs shrink in expiration, it rises a little, but, when 
 the chest expands, again subsides. 1 
 
 ° Sommerring, De habitu vasorum cerebri in Denkschriften der Acad, der Wiss. 
 zu Munchen, 1808. tab. i. 
 
 p B. S. Albinus, Annat. Acad. 1. i. tab. ii. fig. 4, 5. 
 
 q Consult Metzger, Animadversion.es ad doctrinam nervorum. Regiomont. 
 1783. 4 to. 
 
 r C. Chr. Sass, De proportionibus quatuor elementorum in Cerebro et Musculis. 
 Kil. 1818. 4 to. 
 
 s T. Dan. Schlichting first accurately described this striking phenomenon, 
 Commerc. litter. Noric. 1744. p. 409. sq., and more largely, Mem. presences d 
 1' Acad, des Sc. de Paris, t. i. p. 113. 
 
 Haller sagaciously discovered the cause of it by numerous dissections of 
 living animals. J. Dit. Walstorf, his pupil, Experimenta circa motum cerebri, 
 cerebelli, &c. Gotting. 1753. 
 
 Consult also, after F. de la Mure’s works, Lorry’s dissertations on the same 
 point, Mim. presentees, t.iii. p. 277. sq. 344. sq. 
 
 Also Portal on a similar motion observable in the spinal marrow, Mem. sur 
 la Nature de plusieurs Maladies, t. ii. p. 81. 
 
 1 I once enjoyed an opportunity of very distinctly observing this motion, and 
 making some experiments with respect to it, in a young man eighteen years old. 
 Five years before, he had fallen from an eminence and fractured the frontal bone 
 on the leff side of the coronal suture, since which time there had been an im- 
 mense hiatus, covered by merely a soft cicatrix and the common integuments. 
 The hiatus formed a hollow, very deep during sleep, less so when he was awake ; 
 and varying according to the state of respiration, i. e. very deep if he retained 
 his breath, much more shallow, and even converted into a swelling, by a long- 
 continued expiration. At the bottom of the hollow, I observed a pulsation syn- 
 chronous with the pulsation of the arterial system, such as deceived Petrioli, 
 Vandelli, and others, at one time the adversaries of Haller, who all foolishly 
 confounded it with that other remarkable motion which depends upon respiration. 
 — I may add, that this wound on the left side of the head had rendered the ' 
 right arm and leg paralytic. 
 
192 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 208. The spinal marrow is continuous with the brain, u and 
 may be said either to spring from the brain, as from a root, 
 or, on the contrary, to terminate in it and grow into its sub- 
 stance.* Contained in the flexible canal of the vertebrae, it 
 is enveloped by the same membranes as the brain : its sub- 
 stance is also twofold, but the medullary is exterior to the 
 cineritious. 
 
 209. From these two sources — the brain and spinal 
 marrow, arises the greater part of those cords, which are more 
 or less white and soft, chiefly composed of fine cellular canals 
 containing nervous medulla/ and distributed throughout 
 nearly all the soft parts ; some nerves, z however, may be more 
 properly considered as imiting with the brain and spinal mar- 
 row than springing from them. (D) 
 
 210. After the numerous experiments 3 of Haller and 
 other very careful observers, we are certain, from minute 
 anatomical examination, that many of the similar parts do 
 
 u J. J. Huber, De medulla spinali. Gotting. 1741. 4to. The plate is also to 
 be found among Haller’s fascic. i. tab. ii. 
 
 Haller’s own plates of the same part are in the same fasciculus, vii. tab. iv, v. 
 
 Monro, On the Nervous System, tab. x. fig. 1. 
 
 G, G. Th. KeufFel, De medulla spinali. Hal. 1810. 8vo. 
 
 x Consult the Anatomie et Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux, &c., par F. J. 
 Gall et G. Spurzheim, t. i. Paris, from 1810. 4to. 
 
 y Reil, De structura nervorum. Hal. 1796. fol. 
 
 F. B. Osiander, Comm. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gotting. t. xvi. 
 
 z Rol. Martin’s oration De Proprietatibus Nervorum generalioribus, prefixed to 
 his Instit. Neurologic ce. 
 
 3 See Haller on the sensible parts of the human body, Comment. Sqc. Sc. 
 Gotting. t. i. 
 
 And his three discourses upon them, Nov. Comment, t. iii. 
 
 Peter Castell, Experim. quibus constitit varias h. c. paries sentiendi facultate 
 carere. Gotting. 1753. 4to. 
 
 And three entire collections on the controversies excited by the Gottingen 
 publications throughout Europe. 
 
 Sull’ insensibilita e irritabilita, dissertazioni transportatc da J. G. V. Petrini. 
 Rom. 1755. 4to. 
 
 Sulla insensitivita ed irritabilita Halleriana opuscoli raccolti da G. B. Fabri. 
 Bologna, 1757 — 59. 4vols. 4to. 
 
 And that which Haller himself published under the title of Mcmoires sur la 
 Nature Sensible el Irritable des Parties du Corps Human. Lausanne, 1756 — 59. 
 4 vols, 1 2mo, 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 193 
 
 not exhibit any true vestige of nerves ; and, from surgical ob- 
 servations b and from dissections of living animals, c that they 
 do not evince the least sign of feeling. 
 
 Such are the cellular substance, the epidermis and reticulum 
 mucosum, the hairs and nails. 
 
 The cartilages, bones, periosteum, and medullary mem- 
 brane. 
 
 The tendons, aponeuroses, and ligaments. 
 
 Most extended internal membranes, as the dura mater and 
 arachnoid ; the pleura, mediastinum, and pericardium ; the 
 peritonasum ; also the cornea, & c. 
 
 The greater part of the absorbsent system, especially the 
 thoracic duct. 
 
 Lastly, the secundines and umbilical chord. (E) 
 
 211. The ultimate origin of most nerves from the brain 
 cannot be detected. A question is agitated even at the pre- 
 sent day, — whether the nerves of each side arise from the 
 
 b Amidst the great variety, and even contradiction, of opinion, that, as we 
 shall presently mention, exists with respect to the feeling of tendons and other 
 parts when injured, I have always considered negative arguments of more weight 
 than positive, because nothing is more fallacious than the ideas of patients as to 
 the seat of internal pains. To say nothing of cases in which amputated parts appear 
 to the patient as still in possession of feeling, it is well Known that some have 
 felt a fixed pain for a great length of time in parts where after death no morbid 
 appearance was observable ; and that, on the other hand, in chronic diseases, pain 
 is sometimes not felt in the diseased part, but in another which is healthy and 
 perhaps very remote. 
 
 We may in this way much more easily explain, for instance, syphilitic pains 
 referred to the bones, than the result of so many contradictory experiments, in 
 which I have seen the medulla of the human subject roughly handled without 
 causing the least uneasiness, though the patient knew what was doing. 
 
 c I am every day more convinced that much caution, and practice, and re- 
 petition of the same experiment in many different kinds of animals, are necessary 
 in establishing the laws of physiology from dissections of living animals. To 
 adduce the example of the supposed feeling of the medulla, I have found dif- 
 ferent results in many mammalia and birds. Many allowed the medulla to be 
 destroyed without evincing any symptom of pain ; others were convulsed, and 
 cried out on the approach of the instrument. The latter might be agitated from 
 the dread of fresh torment, on seeing the knife ; and the former, having suffered 
 great torture, might have been insensible to the less violent irritation of the me- 
 dulla, even although it be endowed with nerves. 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 corresponding or the opposite portion of the brain. d The 
 latter opinion is countenanced by certain pathological pheno- 
 mena, 6 and by the decussation of fibres in the medulla ob- 
 longata f and conjunction of the optic nerves. 8 (F) 
 
 212. A continuation of the pia mater follows the medulla 
 of the nerves in their course, 11 thus affording it a very delicate 
 vascular cortex. 1 But, as soon as they have quitted the brain 
 or medulla spinalis, their structure becomes peculiar, different 
 from that of all the other similar parts. They form small trans- 
 verse folds more or less obliquely angular, long since described 
 by P. P. Mollinelli, k who not inaptly compared them to the 
 rugae of earth-worms or the rings of the aspera arteria. 
 
 213. The nerves of particular classes, especially the in- 
 tercostals or great sympathetics, 1 are every where furnished 
 with ganglia, or nodules of a compact structure and reddish 
 ash colour, but with whose functions we are scarcely ac- 
 quainted.™ I am inclined to believe with Zinn, n that they 
 
 d Lassus has diligently collected the different opinions of writers on this point, 
 Sur les ddcouvertesfaites en Analomie, p. 299. sq. 
 
 c Compare Mein. Sim. Du Pui, De homing deitro el sinislro. LB. 1780. 
 8vo. p. 107. sq. 
 
 C. Fr. Ed. Mehlis, Commentatio (honoured with the royal prize) de morbis 
 hominis dextri et sinistri. Gotting. 1814. 4to. 
 
 f v. Gall and Spurzheim, and likewise Osiander. 11. cc. 
 
 E SCmmerring, Hessischeti Beyir'dgen zur Gelehrsamkeit. P. i. and iv. 
 
 F. N. Noting, (pras. Sdmmerring) De decussatione nervorum optic. Mogunt. 
 1786. Svo. 
 
 - J. F. Ackermanu in the Bibliotli. Medica which I published, vol. iii. p. SS7. 
 706. 
 
 Flor. Caldani, Opuscula Anatomica. Patav. 180S. 4to. p. 111. 
 
 Jos. and C. Wenzel, 1. c. 
 
 r ‘ Consult Pfeffinger, De structura Nervorum. Argent. 1782. 4to. 
 
 ‘ Wm. Battie, De Principiis Animalibus, p. 126. 
 
 k Comment. Jnstituti Bononiens. t. iii. 1755. p. 282. sq. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 The observation of Mollinelli has been abundantly confirmed and further il- 
 lustrated by Felix Fontana and Al. Monro : by the latter in his work so often 
 quoted, and by the former in his treatise Sur le Venin de la Vipere. Flor. 1781. 
 4to. vol. ii. 
 
 I C. Asm. Rudolphi, Abhandl. der Berliner Acad, der IVissensch. 1814. p. 168. 
 
 m J. Stieglitz, iiber den thierischen Magnetismus. Hanov. 1814. 8vo. 
 
 p. 536. sq. 
 
 II Mem. de V Acad, des Sc. de Berlin, vol. ix. 1753. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 195 
 
 more intimately unite the nervous filaments which meet in 
 them from various directions, so that each fibre passing out 
 is composed of a portion of every fibre which has entered 
 in. ° (G) 
 
 Nearly the same may, perhaps, be said of the plexuses, 
 which are produced by similar unions and reticulated anasto- 
 moses of different nerves, and by a similar contexture of fila- 
 ments into which the nerves are split. 
 
 214. The ganglia and plexuses are most abundantly 
 bestowed upon the spinal nerves and the intercostal or sym- 
 pathetic nerve. The latter, united by a few delicate filaments 
 only with the rest of the nervous system, constitutes a peculiar 
 system, chiefly belonging to the involuntary functions. For 
 this reason, Bichat, viewing it as presiding over organic life, 
 distinguished it from the other nerves belonging to animal 
 life, properly so called, to use his own language. p 
 
 215. The terminations of the nerves are no less concealed 
 from us than their origins. Excepting a few which spread 
 out in the form of medullary membranes, as the optic nerve 
 which becomes the retina, and the portio mollis of the seventh 
 pair which forms a zone in the spiral laminae of the cochlea, 
 the ultimate filaments of the rest, penetrating into the viscera, 
 muscles, corium, &c., are so intimately blended with the sub- 
 stance of these parts as, at length, to elude observation. 
 
 216. The parts just described, viz. the sensorium, and the 
 nerves originating from it, and distributed throughout the 
 body, constitute that system which, during life, is the bond of 
 union between the body and the mind. 
 
 217. That the mind is closely connected with the brain, as 
 the material condition of mental phenomena, is demonstrated, 
 to omit such arguments as the immediate connection between 
 
 0 Consult, among others who treat professedly of the ganglia, Ant. Scarpa, 
 Anatom. Annotat. 1. i. de nervor. Gangliis et Plexubus. Mutin. 1799. 4 to. 
 
 G. Prochaska, De structura nervorum. Vindob. 1780. 8vo. 
 
 C. W. Wutzer, De corporis humani gangliorum fabrica atque usu. Berol. 
 1817. 4 to. 
 
 p See Reil, Archiv.fiir die Physiologie, t. vii. p. 189. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 the brain and the organs of sense, by our consciousness and 
 by the mental disturbances which ensue upon affections of the 
 brain. (H) 
 
 218. The peculiar situation and form, before alluded to, of 
 certain parts of the brain, and likewise some pathological 
 phenomena, have induced various physiologists to suppose 
 certain parts, in particular, the seat of the soul. Some have 
 fixed upon the pineal gland, q others the corpus callosum, r 
 the pons Varolii, the medulla oblongata, the corpora striata, 
 and the water of the ventricles that washes against the origin 
 of some nerves. Others, not contented with one spot, have 
 assigned particular parts of the brain for individual faculties 
 and propensities. (I) 
 
 219. The energy of the whole nervous system does not 
 depend solely upon the brain. The spinal marrow, and even 
 the nerves, are possessed of their own powers, which are 
 sufficient to produce contractions in the muscles. These 
 powers are probably supported by the vascular cortex of those 
 parts (212). In man, the powers proper to the nerves are 
 less, and those dependent upon the brain greater, than in 
 brutes, especially the cold-blooded. 
 
 220. The importance of the nervous system to nearly all 
 the functionsof the animal economy, — the motion of the heart, 8 
 respiration,* animal heat, (169) digestion, nutrition," and 
 
 q The Cartesian hypothesis appeared to receive some weight from the dis- 
 section of maniacs, in whom the pineal gland was found full of calcareous sub- 
 stances. But more careful observation showed, that, after about the twelfth 
 year, it was generally filled with a pearly sand, in the healthiest persons, though 
 very seldom in brutes. See Sommerring, De Inpillis vel prope vel intra glandu- 
 lam pineulem sitis, s. de acervulo cerebri. Mogunt. 1785. 8vo. 
 
 r The prerogative of this part was ably refuted by Zinn, Eip. circa corpus 
 callosum, cerebellum, duram meningem, in vivis animalibus inslit. Gott. 1749. 
 4to. 
 
 5 Le Gallois, Sur le Principe de la Vie, Paris, 1812. 8vo. 
 
 B. C. Brodie, Ev. Home, A. P. Wilson Philip, and W. Clift, Phil. Trans. 
 181 1. sq. and 1814. sq. 
 
 G. R. Treviranus, Verm. Schr. t. i. p. 99. 
 
 1 Dupuytren, l.c. Ducr. de Blainville, Propositions sur la Respiration, Sec. 
 Paris, 1808. 4to. 
 
 “ Treviranus, Biol. t.v. p.107. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 197 
 
 most others, is evidently great. It is, however, chiefly 
 two-fold, — To excite motion in other parts, especially in the 
 voluntary muscles, of which function we shall hereafter speak 
 at large; — and to convey impressions made upon the organs 
 of sense to the brain, and there to excite perception, or by 
 means of sympathies (56) to give occasion to reaction. 
 
 221. Experiment and observation put these functions of 
 the nervous system beyond the reach of controversy. To 
 unfold their nature is difficult indeed. (K) 
 
 222. Most opinions on this subject may be divided into 
 two classes. The one regards the action of the nervous 
 system as consisting in an oscillatory motion ; the other 
 ascribes it to the motion of a certain fluid, whose nature is a 
 matter of dispute, by some called animal spirits, w and supposed 
 to run in vessels, by others conceived to be a matter analo- 
 gous to fire, to light, to a peculiar ether, to oxygen, to 
 electricity, or to magnetism, & c. 
 
 223. Although I would by no means assent to either of 
 these opinions, I may be allowed to observe that most argu- 
 ments brought by one party against the hypothesis of the 
 other, must necessarily be rude in proportion to the subtlety, 
 either of the oscillations (if any such exist) of the nerves, or 
 to that of the nervous fluid. 
 
 224. These two hypotheses may, perhaps, be united by 
 supposing a nervous fluid thrown into oscillatory vibrations 
 by the action of stimulants. 
 
 225. The analogy between the structure of the brain and 
 some secreting organs favours the belief of the existence of a 
 nervous Jluid. x But tubes and canals are evidently no more 
 requisite for its conveyance, than they are requisite in bibulous 
 paper or any other matter employed for filtering. 
 
 This opinion receives much weight from the great resem- 
 blance of the action of the nerves to the phenomena which 
 
 w Sec Michelitz, Scrutinium Hypotheseos Spirituum Animalium. Prag. 1782. 
 8vo. 
 
 x G. Th. Sommerring iiber den soft, welclier aus den Nerven wieder a usgc- 
 sanght wird. Landsh. 1811. Svo. 
 
 o 3 
 
198 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 are produced by the series of a galvanic apparatus and by 
 the common electric machine, y in a living animal or in 
 parts not quite deprived of vitality, and, in fact, long 
 ago induced some physiologists to compare the nervous to 
 the electric fluid. The singular and undeniable effects attri- 
 buted to animal magnetism , z as well as other phenomena 
 which have given rise to the belief of a kind of sentient 
 atmosphere surrounding the nerves, 3 agree very well with the 
 hypothesis of a peculiar nervous fluid. b 
 
 226. If we regard the oscillation of the nerves, not as 
 similar to that of gross tense chords, but of such a description 
 as may be conceived to occur in the very soft pulp of the 
 brain, we shall find many physiological phenomena exactly 
 corresponding with the supposition. 
 
 It is demonstrated that hearing is excited by an oscillation, 
 and why should not this be propagated to the brain ? 
 
 In vision, also, it very probably occurs, although not to the 
 extent imagined by Leon. Euler. 
 
 The penetration of Hartley c in following up the conjec- 
 tures of the great Newton, d has rendered it so probable that 
 the action of the other senses is not very dissimilar from this 
 oscillatory motion, that, on the same supposition, he very 
 ingeniously explains, principally by means of the vapour of 
 the ventricles (called by him the denser ether), e first, the 
 
 y Fr. At. Von Humboldt, iiber die gereizle Musket — und Mervenfaser. Posen. 
 1797. vol. ii. 8vo. 
 
 J. W. Ritter, Beweis, dass eiu bestandiger Galvanismus den Lebcns]>roccss im 
 Thierreiche begleite. Vinar. 1798. 8vo. 
 
 z J. Heineken, Tdeen u. Beobaclitungen den thierischen Magnelismus betref- 
 fend. Brem. 1800. 8vo. 
 
 a v. Humboldt and Heineken, 11. cc. 
 
 G. C. Berendt, De at mosphcera nervorum sensitive. Gott. 1S13. 4 to. 
 
 ° Consult, on the other hand, a weighty and acute review of those arguments 
 n Stieglit’s work already mentioned, iiber den thierischen Magnelismus, p. 75. 
 sqq. and elsewhere. 
 
 c Dav. Hartley, Observnt. on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations. 
 
 Lond. 1749. 8vo. vol. i. p. 44. 
 
 d Queries at the end of his Optics. Qu. 23. p.355. Lond. 1719. 8vo. 
 
 e Er. Darwin has carried these opinions of Hartley still farther, Zoonomia, t. i. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 199 
 
 association of ideas, and, again, by the assistance of this, most 
 of the functions of the animal faculties. (L) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Sir Anthony Carlisle, on opening a woman who had died 
 after amputation of a foot, found no falx. The cerebrum was not 
 divided into hemispheres. The edge of the longitudinal sinus 
 was received into a depression, about half an inch deep, that 
 existed along the middle of the superior part of the cerebrum. 
 The head had been unaffected, and the mental faculties perfect, 
 as far as observation was made during the woman’s stay in the 
 Westminster Hospital. f 
 
 I presented to the London Phrenological Society, the cast of 
 the head of a male idiot, aged eighteen years, that was given me 
 by Dr. Formby, of Liverpool, and is only 16 inches in circumfer- 
 ence, and 7f inches from ear to ear over the vertex. The cerebrum 
 weighed but 1 lb. 7£ oz., and the cerebellum but 4 oz. The he- 
 mispheres were united as far back as the vertex, and no falx existed 
 except for about two inches from the anterior part of the tento- 
 rium. 
 
 (B) The pia mater and tunica arachnoides were considered 
 as the same, till the Anatomical Society of Amsterdam confirmed, 
 in 1665, the doubts which were arising on the subject, and Van 
 Horne demonstrated both membranes distinctly to his pupils. 
 The dura mater corresponds with the fibrous membranes, the 
 pia mater with the cellular, and the tunica arachnoides with the 
 serous. The latter is, in nature, office, and diseases, exactly like 
 the serous ; — a close sac, affording, as the peritonaeum does to 
 the abdominal viscera, a double covering to the brain and spinal 
 marrow and the nerves before their departure through the fora- 
 mina of the dura mater, and, according to Bichat, lining the 
 ventricles ; insulating the organs on which it lies, and affording 
 them great facility of movement ; and liable to all the morbid 
 affections of serous membranes, s 
 
 f Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical 
 Knowledge, vol. i. p. 212. sqq. 
 
 s Bichat, Traite des Membranes. 
 
 o 4 
 
200 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 Between the pia mater and arachnoid of both the brain and 
 spinal marrow, Dr. Magendie has discovered the existence, during 
 life, of a large quantity of clear and colourless fluid, passing from 
 the surface of one organ to that of the other. h Cotugno * had 
 long ago asserted its existence in the cranial and spinal cavities, 
 after death, and its free communication, and accurately described its 
 qualities ; but notwithstanding he gave excellent reasons for be- 
 lieving its existence during life, he imagined the space around the 
 spinal marrow, observed by him to be larger in the emaciated and 
 old, and the space which in these two descriptions of subjects he 
 found also around the brain, to be filled with an aqueous vapour; 
 he also believed its occasional mixture with the fluid of the ven- 
 tricles. Dr. Magendie has proved the communication, not only of 
 the fluid of the spinal and cerebral cavities but also of the ventri- 
 cles, by an opening at the point of the calamus scriptorius of the 
 fourth. k He conceives it to move from one part to another, as 
 they are severally compressed by sanguineous turgescence during 
 muscular efforts. Bichat had asserted that the arachnoid entered 
 the ventricles by the third, near the venae Galeni. Dr. Magendie 
 never observed the fluid to escape at this part. If he is correct, 
 I do not understand whether the ventricles are lined by the pia 
 mater or the arachnoid or both. He found the removal of the fluid 
 to occasion immediate dulness and immobility; but that these dis- 
 appeared as soon as the fluid was replaced, and that its secretion 
 took place very rapidly. He believes that two ounces may exist 
 in the ventricles without disturbance, but that a larger quantity, 
 whether secreted or injected, for example, into the spinal cavity, 
 causes more or less apoplexy and palsy. Much must, however, 
 depend upon the quickness of the accumulation, as the powers 
 of accommodation are very great in living s)'stems. 
 
 (C) The medullary substance is evidently fibrous. Mr. Bauer 
 thought he had discovered globules, but then he thinks fibres are 
 series of globules . 1 Dr. Hodgkin has found no globules in either 
 brain or nerves, nor medullary matter in the latter. n > 
 
 11 Jovmal de Physiologie, t. v. 
 
 1 Dissertatio de Ischiade Kervosa. Published in Sandefort’s Thesaurus. 
 
 k Journal de Physiologie, t. vii. p. 21. 
 
 ■ Phil. Trans. 1818. 
 
 m Philos. Magazine. August, 1827. See also Magendie’ s Pi tas de Physiologic, 
 t. i. p. 162. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, 
 
 201 
 
 (D) Dr. Gall has shown that the nerves and spinal marrow do 
 not arise from the brain, but only communicate with it ; nor the 
 spinal nerves from the spinal marrow : for, when the brain is 
 absent, the foetus equally possesses cerebral nerves and spinal 
 marrow, n and the brain and spinal marrow, and the brain and 
 cerebral nerves, are in no proportion to each other in the various 
 species of the animal kingdom, nor the spinal nerves to the spinal 
 marrow, nor does the latter diminish as the nerves go off. 
 
 The idea of the nerves proceeding from the brain, is as unfounded 
 as that of the arteries proceeding from the heart, or one portion 
 of an extremity from another. Foetuses are seen with an arterial 
 system, and no hearts ; others born with no arms, but fingers at 
 the shoulders. Independently of contrary arguments, we may 
 demand proofs of the opinion : none are given, and it has, no 
 doubt, been derived from the shooting of vegetables. 
 
 (E) Although no nerves have yet been discovered in these 
 parts, and although ordinarily they have no feeling, yet that they 
 have, in a lower degree, what, in a higher, is called feeling, is 
 shown by the extreme sensibility which they acquire when in- 
 flamed, as they nearly all frequently are, and occasionally without 
 inflammation. Some have sensibility in health to only one kind 
 of irritation. The ligaments may be cut without pain, but if 
 stretched instantly ache. The brain itself will bear great mecha- 
 nical injury without evincing much pain. 
 
 (F) Dr. Gall has also shown, that, besides the numerous com- 
 munications of the whole nervous system, not only the two sides 
 of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and spinal marrow, are united by 
 commissures, but that the fibres of the anterior pyramidal emi- 
 nences decussate each other, forming an exception to the rule, 
 observed in every other part of the cranial nervous organs besides 
 the optic nerves and the fibres which run from the genitals to the 
 cerebellum, of the nervous fibres, destined to each side of the 
 body, running on the same side of the brain ; and he hence explains 
 why injuries of one side of the brain generally influence the oppo- 
 site side of the body. The spinal marrow has no decussation. 
 
 “ We now know, and especially from the modern researches of 
 Drs. Gall and Spurzheim,” says Cuvier, “ that the spinal marroiv 
 is a mass of medullary matter, white without, grey within, divided 
 
 “ Gall, Sur les Fonclions du Cerveau, t. ii. p. 77. sq. 
 
202 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 longitudinally by an anterior and posterior furrow ; that its two 
 bands communicate by transverse medullary fibres; that it is 
 enlarged at regular distances, and at each enlargement gives off a 
 pair of nerves ; that the medulla oblongata is the superior part of 
 the spinal marrow contained in the cranium, and also gives off 
 several pairs of nerves ; that the communicating fibres of its two 
 bands decussate, so that the left go to the right side, and the re- 
 verse; that these bands, after having enlarged once by an admix- 
 ture of grey matter, and having formed the prominence called 
 •pons varolii, separate, and are termed crura cerebri, still continuing 
 to give off nerves ; that they enlarge once more by a fresh addition 
 of grey matter to form the masses commonly called thalami optici, 
 and a third time to form what have the name of corpora striata ; 
 that from all the external portion of these latter enlargements 
 arises a layer of greater or less thickness, more or less furrowed 
 externally in different species, completely covered by grey mat- 
 ter which comes above to cover them, forming what are termed 
 the hemispheres, and which, after bending down in the middle, 
 unite by one or more commissures, or bands of transverse fibres, 
 the most considerable of which, found only in mammalia, has the 
 title of corpus callosum. We also know, that upon the crura 
 cerebri, behind the thalami optici, are one or two pairs of smaller 
 enlargements, known, when there are two pairs of them, as in the 
 mammalia, by the name of tubercula quadrigemina, and from the 
 first of which the optic nerves seem to arise ; that the olfactory 
 nerve is the only one which does not clearly arise in the medulla 
 or its columns ; lastly, that the cerebellum, white within, and cine- 
 ritious without, like the hemispheres, but often much more divided 
 by external furrows, lies transversely behind the tubercula qua- 
 drigemina, and upon the medulla oblongata, with which it is 
 united by transverse bands that are styled crura cerebel/i and 
 inserted into the sides of the pons varolii.’’ 0 
 
 In a word, the fibrous columns of the spinal marrow communi- 
 cate by intermediate fibres ; the fibrous bands of the brain run 
 onwards from the medulla oblongata, diverging and forming the 
 convolutions which may be distended into a great bag, and be- 
 tween both halves of these are converging fibres for connection, 
 
 ° Report made to the Academy of Sciences upon some Erjicrimcnts relative to the 
 Nervous System. Gall, 1. c. t.iii, 386. sqq. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 203 
 
 called corpus callosum, the anterior commissure, as well as other 
 bands for the same purpose ; the pons varolii is the great com- 
 missure of the cerebellum, under which the corpora pyramidalia 
 pass to form the anterior and exterior part of the crura cerebri, 
 and afterwards the anterior, inferior, and exterior portion of the 
 anterior and middle lobes (the organs of the intellectual faculties) ; 
 and the corpora olivaria to form the remaining part of the crura 
 cerebri, and after becoming the thalami optici, and plunging into 
 the corpora striata, to form the posterior lobes, and the superior 
 and more central convolutions (organs of the feelings or affective 
 faculties). Whenever, in the medulla spinalis, or brain, an en- 
 largement occurs in the fibrous bands, there is an accumulation 
 of pulpy matter; improperly termed cortical, because it is some- 
 times within ; and improperly grey, because its colour varies in 
 different animals; but always coexisting with the white or fibrous: 
 from all which circumstances, and its formation before the fibrous, 
 and its great vascularity, Gall supposes it destined for the nou- 
 rishment of the latter, p 
 
 I refer to the writings of this physician for a minute accounts 
 of his great discoveries in the structure of the nervous system, 
 and shall merely bear testimony to the truth of most of his ana- 
 tomical assertions. Those few which I have not repeated^ 
 seen proved, are I doubt not perfectly accurate. Some of the 
 most candid anatomical lecturers of London have confessed that 
 they knew nothing of the anatomy of the brain till they saw it 
 dissected by his pupil Dr. Spurzheim, and it is a matter of 
 wonder, that, while students are not instructed to dissect limbs 
 and trunks by slices, as we cut brawn, they should be taught no 
 other mode of examining the brain, and thus be left in ignorance 
 of its true structure. 
 
 We see Cuvier’s admission of many of Gall’s discoveries, and, 
 I must add, of discoveries which were doubted or absolutely 
 
 p See Gall’s answer to Tiedemann, who declares the fibrous matter of the 
 spinal marrow to be first formed, after stating that the whole is originally fluid 
 and gradually acquires consistence, and that at length, about the beginning of 
 the fourth month, fibres are seen. 1. c. t. vi. p. 65. sqq. 
 
 q Anatomie et Physiologie du Systems nerveux par F. J. Gall et G. Spurzheim. 
 4 vols. every line of all which Dr. Gall assured me was written by himself ; the two 
 last volumes bear his name only : and Physiognomical System and Anatomy of the 
 Brain, by Dr. Spurzheim. 
 
204 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 denied in a report presented by Cuvier and others to the French 
 Institute, in 1808, — “ a report,” says Gall, “ which will always 
 be one of the most valuable proofs of the backward state of the 
 anatomical and physiological knowledge of the nervous system at 
 that time, and how much science owes me in this respect.” 1 “ Reil,” 
 says Professor BischofF, “who, as a profound anatomist and judicious 
 physiologist, requires not my praise, rising superior to all the lit- 
 tlenesses of vanity, has declared that he found more in Gall’s dis- 
 sections of the brain than he thought any man could have dis- 
 covered in his whole life.” s Loder, after specifying Gall’s disco- 
 veries, adds, “ These discoveries alone would be sufficient to 
 immortalise Gall’s name : they are the most important which have 
 been made in anatomy since the discovery of the absorbents.” 
 “ I am ashamed and indignant with myself for having, with others, 
 been slicing hundreds of brains, like cheese: I never perceived the 
 forest for the multitude of the trees .” t 
 
 (G) This opinion is controverted by the argument that the 
 nerves said to enter and leave ganglia are not proportionate ; nor 
 the size of ganglia proportionate to the nerves belonging to them. 
 
 (H) See Sect. VI. Note (B), and Sect. XLIV. Note (F), near the 
 beginning. 
 
 (I) Gall has the immortal honour of having discovered parti- 
 cular parts of the brain to be the seat of different faculties, sen- 
 timents, and propensities. 
 
 If it is clear that the brain is the organ of mind, it is extremely' 
 probable that particular portions of it have different offices. 
 
 Numerous old writers had assigned situations for the facul- 
 ties, but in the most fanciful manner ; and, from regarding as 
 distinct faculties what are merely modes of action of faculties 
 to which they were altogether strangers, their assertions on 
 the subject were necessarily groundless and ridiculous. Bur- 
 ton, for example, in his compilation, says, — “ Inner senses are 
 three in number, so called, because they be within the brain- 
 pan, as common sense, phantasie, and memory of common 
 sense, “ the fore-part of the brain is his organ or seat of 
 “ phantasie or imagination, which some call (estimative or cogi- 
 
 r l.c. t. vi. p. SI 8. 
 
 s Gall, l.c. t.vi. p.490. sqq. 
 
 1 1. c. t. vi. p.493. In this volume will be found copious answers to Tiede- 
 man, R-udolphi, Serres, &c. and a refutation of many of their anatomical asser- 
 tions. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.' 
 
 205 
 
 tative,” “ his organ is the middle cell of the brain and of me- 
 mory, “ his seat and organ , the back part of the brain.” u This was 
 the account of the faculties given by Aristotle, and repeated, with 
 little variation, by the writers of the middle ages. In the 13th 
 century, a head divided into regions according to these opinions 
 was designed by Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon; x and another 
 was published by Petrus Montagnana, in 1491. y One published 
 at Venice, in 1562, by Ludovico Dolce, a Venetian, in a work upon 
 strengthening and preserving memory, is copied into the Phre- 
 nological Journal, vol. ii. No. 7. In the British Museum is a chart 
 of the universe and the elements of all sciences, and in which a 
 large head so delineated is conspicuous. It was published at 
 Rome so late as 1632, and, what is singular, engraved at Antwerp 
 by one Theodore Galleus, and the head is really a good family 
 likeness of Dr. Gall, who, however, was born at Tiefenbrun in 
 Suabia, between Stuttgard and the Rhine, March 9. 1757- z 
 
 It is, however, more than probable that the different parts of 
 the brain have different offices. Its faculties are so various, that 
 it is impossible to imagine them possessed by the same portion. 
 The faculty of melody is perfectly different from the love of 
 offspring. If to suppose all parts of the brain are organs for all 
 faculties is impossible, the difficulty appears greater on reflecting 
 
 “ Anatomy of Melancholy, P. 1. S. 1. 
 x In the Tesoretto of Brunetto Latini, 
 the preceptor of Dante, published in that 
 century, the doctrine is taught in rhime : 
 Nel capo son tre celle, 
 
 Ed io dirb di quelle, 
 
 JDavanti e lo intelletto 
 E la forza d’apprendere 
 Quello che puote intendere. 
 
 In mezzo e la ragione 
 
 E la discrezione 
 
 Che scheme buono e male. 
 
 E lo terno e l’iguale 
 Dirietro sta con gloria 
 La valente memoria, 
 
 Che ricorda e retiene 
 Quello ch’ in essa viene. 
 r Gall, 1. c. t. ii. p. 354. sq. 
 
 1 Edinb. Phrenol. Transact, p. 1. - 
 
 Head given by Dolce, 1562. 
 
 Mem. 2. Subs. 7. 
 
 Olfactus 
 
206 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 that in that case the whole brain must be concerned in every act 
 and feeling, or, if the whole brain is not thus constantly at work at 
 all things, that different parts must perform the very same offices at 
 different times, each part working in every kind of mental act and 
 feeling in its turn. Neither does the brain perform merely one 
 thing, as the liver secretes merely one fluid, bile ; nor is its struc- 
 ture the same throughout, like that of the liver. 
 
 The best authors hold that its various parts have various offices, 8 
 and Gall proves that they have. 
 
 If the old course, recommended by Mr. Dugald Stewart, of 
 investigating the mind by attending to the subjects of our own 
 consciousness, had been persevered in, the science of mind would 
 have remained stationary for ever. b Who can judge fairly of 
 
 3 “ The brain is a -very complicated organ,” says Bonnet, “ or rather an 
 assemblage of very different organs.” ( Palingenisie , t. i. p. 334.) Tissot contends 
 that every perception has different fibres, (I Entires , t. iii. p. 33. ) Cuvier says, 
 that “ certain parts of the brain in all classes of animals are large or small ac- 
 cording to certain qualities of the animals.” Anatomic Comparie, t. ii. S"m- 
 merring trusts that we shall one day find the particular seats of the different 
 orders of ideas. “ Let the timid, therefore, take courage,” says Dr. Georget, 
 in his admirable work upon the nervous system, “ and after the example of such 
 high authorities, fear not to commit the unpardonable crime of innovation, of 
 passing for cranioscopists, by admitting the plurality of the faculties and mental 
 organs of the brain, or at least by daring to examine the subject.” De la Phy- 
 siologic du Sy steme Nerveux el specialement du Cerveau, t. i. p. 126. Gall’s 
 successful reply to some very unjust observations made in this work, will be 
 found in the Fonct. du Cerveau. t. v. p. 488. sqq. 
 
 t> Although Professor Dugald Stewart declares, that in his own inquiries he has 
 “ aimed at nothing more than to ascertain, in the first place, the laws of our consti- 
 tution, as far as they can be discovered by attention to the subjects of our own con- 
 sciousness ( Essays , Preliminary Dissertation, p.2. ) that “ the whole of a philoso- 
 
 pher’s life, if he spends it to any purpose, is one continued series of experiments 
 on his own faculties and powers (p. 40.) and that “ the structure of the mind 
 (whatever collateral aids may be derived from observing the varieties of genius 
 in our fellow-creatures) is accessible to those only who can retire into tire deepest 
 recesses of their own internal frame yet he adds, “ even to those, presenting, 
 along with the generic attributes of the race, many of the specific peculiarities of 
 the individual,” ( Elements , vol. ii. p. 513.) and has really the following pas- 
 sages in the forty-second and forty-third pages of the Essays. — “ To counter- 
 balance the disadvantages which this science of mind lies under, in consequence 
 of its slender stock of experiments, made directly and intentionally on the minds 
 of our fellow-creatures, human life exhibits to our observation a boundless variety, 
 both of intellectual and moral phenomena, by a diligent study of which, we may 
 
HE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 207 
 
 his own character and talents? Not only is “the heart of man de- 
 ceitful above measure,” but we give ourselves credit for talents 
 which others know to be insignificant. Our powers, too, and dis- 
 positions, are distributed in such various degrees, that, from this 
 single circumstance, every man, judging from himself only, would 
 draw up a different account of the human mind. It is only by 
 extensive observation of others, of different sexes, ages, educa- 
 tion, occupations, and habits, that this knowledge is to be acquired. 
 Nor would much progress have been made without the discovery, 
 that strength of individual talent and disposition was associated 
 with proportionate development of particular portions of the brain. 
 By this remark the existence of particular faculties, sentiments, 
 and propensities, was firmly established, and indeed Dr. Gall 
 discovered them by observing persons conspicuous in some mental 
 points to have certain portions of the head extremely large. I 
 did but allude to craniology while detailing Dr. Gall’s account of 
 the mind (Sect. V.), because the arrangement may be perfectly 
 accurate, although craniology be false ; nor when speaking of the 
 brain as the organ of the mind (Sect. VI.), because that fact also 
 is independent of Dr. Gall’s system. But if now the account of 
 the mind, the use of the brain, and craniology, be viewed together, 
 they will all be seen mutually and beautifully to confirm each 
 other. 
 
 Much invective, but little argument, has been written against 
 the doctrine. We are presented with a simple statement — that 
 strength of certain parts of the mind, is accompanied by strong 
 development -of certain parts of the brain, and, consequently, 
 of the skull, except in disease and old age ; and vice versa. The 
 truth must be ascertained, not by fancying, quibbling, and abusing, 
 but by observing whether this is the case; and every one has it in 
 his power to make the necessary observations. But those who 
 
 ascertain almost every point that we could wish to investigate, if we had expe- 
 riments at our command.” “ Savage society, and all the different modes of 
 civilization ; the different callings of individuals, whether liberal or mechanical ; 
 the prejudiced clown, the factitious man of fashion ; the varying phases of cha- 
 racter, from infancy to old age ; the prodigies effected by human art, in all the 
 objects around us, laws, government, commerce, religion ; but above all, the 
 records of thought preserved in those volumes which fill our libraries, what are 
 they but experiments, by which nature illustrates, for our instruction, on her own 
 grand scale, the varied range of many intellectual faculties, and the omnipotence 
 of education, in fashioning the mind.” 
 
208 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 have facts to offer in objection must first be so well acquainted 
 with craniology as to be able to judge accurately of the de- 
 velopment which they adduce, and have carefully ascertained the 
 character and exact talents of the individual whom they fancy 
 an exception. I had heard of a religious bump, a thievish bump, 
 and a murderous bump, and was as lavish of my ridicule and con- 
 tempt of Dr. Gall’s doctrines as any other ignorant person, till I 
 heard his pupil, Dr. Spurzheim, detail them in the Medico Chi- 
 rurgical Society. They struck me powerfully. The anatomical 
 facts were demonstrated; the metaphysics were simple and na- 
 tural ; and the truth of craniology was evidently to be ascer- 
 tained by personal observations only. I commenced observations, 
 and so satisfied was I of its correctness, that, whilst the storm w r as 
 raging violently, I wrote a defence of Gall’s doctrine in the only 
 review that was its friend. c Above eleven years have now elapsed, 
 during which I have lived making daily observations, but they all 
 confirm Dr. Gall’s statements. I have never seen an exception to 
 the accuracy of his general departments of the organs, nor of the 
 situation of most particular organs. Upon some I have not yet 
 made sufficient observations, and I have no doubt that our views 
 of the functions of many will be much modified and improved. 
 It would be absurd to think the system perfect at present. The 
 wonder is that so much was done by only one individual. The 
 science of cerebral organology is entirely Gall’s ; nearly so hence- 
 forward will metaphysics be regarded ; and anatomy must acknow- 
 ledge him among its greatest benefactors. Those who wish to 
 become acquainted with phrenology I must refer to Gall’s octavo 
 work, Sur les Fonctions die Cerveau, or his Anatomic et Physiologie du 
 Systeme nerveux. The former work deserves to be read, not only 
 by every medical man, but by every moralist, naturalist, legislator, 
 and metaphysician. It is exceedingly eloquent and full of new 
 and splendid truths and illustrations, and infinitely the best for 
 those who would learn phrenology. However great the merits of 
 the books written by Dr. Spurzheim and my excellent friend 
 Mr. G. Combe, d its perspicuity and richness at once declare it 
 the work of the great master himself. 
 
 c Annals of Medicine and Surgery, vol. ii. March! SI 7. 
 
 d These must be consulted for the peculiar opinions of the writers, — opinions 
 not admitted by Dr. Gall, nor in every instance by each other. The System 
 of Mr. Combe is copious and elegant. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 209 
 
 The exact situation of the organs can be learnt from drawings or 
 marked heads only. I shall therefore confine myself to remarking: 
 1st. That the organs of the faculties or qualities common to man 
 and brutes, are placed in parts of the brain common to man and 
 brutes, — at the inferior-posterior, the posterior-inferior, and in- 
 ferior-anterior parts of the brain, v. c. of the instinct of propaga- 
 tion, the love of offspring, the instinct of self-defence, of appro- 
 priating, of stratagem, &c. 2dly. Those which belong to man 
 exclusively, and form the barrier between man and brutes, are 
 placed in parts of the brain not possessed by brutes, viz. the 
 anterior-superior and superior of the front; v. c. of comparative 
 sagacity, causality, wit, poetic talent, and the disposition to reli- 
 gious feelings. 3dly. The more indispensable a quality, or faculty, 
 the nearer are its organs placed to the base of the brain, or median 
 line. The first and most indispensable, — the instinct of propagat ion, 
 lies nearest the base; that of the love of offspring follows. The organ 
 of the sense of localities is more indispensable than that of the 
 sense of tones or numbers ; accordingly the former is situated 
 nearer the median line than the two latter. 4thly. The organs of 
 fundamental qualities and faculties which mutually assist each 
 other, are placed near to each other, v. c. the love of propagation 
 and of offspring, of self-defence and the instinct to destroy life, of 
 tones and numbers. 5thly. The organs of analogous fundamental 
 qualities and faculties are equally placed near each other: v.c. 
 the organs of the relations of places, colours, tones, and numbers 
 are placed in the same line, as well as the organs of the superior 
 faculties, and the organs of the inferior propensities. 11 
 
 Although the arrangement of the organs is so beautiful, we 
 must not imagine that Gall mapped out the head at pleasure, ac- 
 cording to preconceived notions. He discovered one organ after 
 another, just as it might happen, and often one became known to 
 him situated very remotely from the organ last discovered. The 
 set of organs discovered by him turned out as it is, and a strong- 
 argument is thus afforded to the truth of his system. 
 
 “ I defy,” says he, “ those who attribute my determination of 
 the fundamental faculties and of the seat of their organs to 
 caprice or arbitrary choice, to possess a tenth part of the talent 
 necessary for the most obscure presentiment of this beautiful 
 arrangement ; once discovered, it displays the hand of God, 
 
 d Gall, 1. c. t. iii. p 208. sqq. 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 whom we cannot cease to adore with wonder increasing as his 
 works become more disclosed to our eyes.” e 
 
 If Gall’s is the only satisfactory account of the mental faculties, 
 and to me it certainly appears so, this alone is a proof of the truth 
 of his organology. For such an account could not have resulted 
 from imagination ; and observation, unaided by reference to de- 
 velopment, never produced much that is satisfactory in me- 
 taphysics ; and it was in fact derived from studying the organi- 
 sation. 
 
 Gall discovered each organ and its faculty either by meeting 
 with individuals very remarkable for the latter, so that he was led 
 to examine their heads ; or by noticing a peculiarity of formation 
 in the head which induced him to ascertain their talents and cha- 
 racter. He would never have made his discoveries had he not 
 met with persons remarkable in these respects. Sometimes the 
 relation between the remarkable faculty or quality and the local 
 development was tolerably obvious, but generally he had to make 
 numerous observations before he found himself right. After find- 
 ing two individuals remarkable in the same point of character, and 
 casting their heads, he has examined the casts daily for months 
 before he could discover the precise spot in which they agreed. 
 The discovery being now made, a good organologist will give 
 judgments upon character which must astonish and incontestably 
 prove the truth of phrenology ; but the difficulty of making the 
 discovery when all was utter darkness must have been extreme. 
 The indefatigable industry of Gall for so many years, travelling as 
 he did to most of the prisons, mad-houses and hospitals of the Con- 
 tinent ; examining the habits and heads of brutes innumerable for 
 comparison; and engaging persons at salaries to examine points 
 for him, in the way of reading, dissecting, casting, and observing 
 living persons, is astonishing ; f and the success and importance of 
 his researches will, I am satisfied, ensure him a place among the 
 greatest names of the human race, although, like every other 
 discoverer and benefactor, he has been loaded with ridicule and 
 abuse. Whoever knows him must, so far from finding him a 
 quack, admire the profundity and candour of his conversation and 
 the extent of his attainments, and be delighted with his disin- 
 terested kindness, and the gentleness and elegance of his manners. 
 
 e 1. c. t. iii. p. 210. sq. 
 
 f 1. c. t. iii. p. 1S7. sqq. 206. sq. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 211 
 
 The composure with which he hears the ill-treatment of the world 
 is most enviable, and demonstrates a mind conscious of truth and 
 good intention . s 
 
 e “ The followers of the different schools of philosophy among the Greeks, 
 accused each other of impiety and perjury. The people, in their turn, detested 
 the philosophers, and accused those who investigated principles, with presump- 
 tuously encroaching upon the rights of the deity. The novelty of the opinions 
 of Pythagoras caused his banishment from Athens ; those of Anaxagoras threw 
 him into prison ; the Abderites treated Democritus as a madman, because he 
 dissected dead bodies to discover the cause of insanity ; and Socrates, for demon- 
 strating the unity of God, was condemned to drink hemlock. 
 
 e< The same scandal has been renewed at all times and in all nations. Many of 
 those who distinguished themselves in the fourteenth century by their knowledge 
 of natural things, were put to death as magicians. Galileo, for proving the 
 earth’s motion, was imprisoned at the age of seventy. Those who first main- 
 tained the influence of climate upon the intellectual character of nations were 
 suspected of materialism. 
 
 “ Universally, nature treats new truths and their discoverers, in a singular, but 
 uniform manner. With what indignation and animosity have not the greatest 
 benefits been rejected ? For instance, potatoes, Peruvian bark, vaccination, &c. As 
 soon as Varolius made his anatomical discoveries, he was decried by Sylvius as 
 the most infamous and ignorant madman. Vesanum, litterarum imperitissimum, 
 arrogantissimum, calumnialoreni maledicentissimum, rerum omnium ignarissimum, 
 transfugam, impium, ingratum, monstrum ignorantice, impietatis exemplar pemi- 
 ciosissimum, quod pestilentiali halitu Europam venenat, &c. Varolius was reproached 
 with dazzling his auditors by a seductive eloquence, and artificially effecting the 
 prolongation of the optic nerves as far as the thalami. Harvey, for maintaining 
 the circulation of the blood, was treated as a visionary ; and depravity went so 
 far as to attempt his ruin with James and Charles the First. When it was no 
 longer possible to shorten the optic nerve, or arrest the course of the blood in its 
 vessels, the honour of these discoveries was ail at once given to Hippocrates. 
 The physical truths announced by Linnaeus, Buffon, the pious philosopher Bon- 
 net, by George Le Roy, were represented as impieties likely to ruin religion 
 and morality. Even the virtuous and generous Lavater was treated as a fatalist 
 and materialist Every where do fatalism, and materialism, placed before the 
 sanctuary of truth, make the world retire. Every where do those, upon whose 
 judgment the public relies, not merely ascribe to the author of a discovery the 
 absurdities of their own prejudices, but even renounce established truths if 
 contrary to their purposes, and revive ancient errors, if calculated to ruin the 
 man who is in their way. 
 
 “ This is a faithful picture of what has happened to me. I have, therefore, some 
 reason to be proud of having experienced the same lot as men to whom the world 
 is indebted for so great a mass of knowledge. It seems that nature has subjected 
 all truths to persecution, in order to establish them the more firmly ; for he who 
 
212 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 Whoever acquires sufficient knowledge of the subject to make 
 observations for himself, will soon find the shape of the skull to 
 be as various as character and countenance, and will have hourly 
 amusement both in remarking the relation between intellectual 
 and moral character, sexual, national, and individual, and cranial 
 form and size, and in tracing the resemblance of children in the 
 latter respect to their parents, as well as in talent and disposition. 
 
 Should any one doubt his acquaintance with the real talents 
 and character of those friends whose heads he can select for ob- 
 servation, he has only to study the heads of some celebrated men 
 now living, or the authentic casts of the departed, of whose 
 talents and disposition no one can have the slightest doubt, and he 
 will find the coincidence astonishing and invariable. 
 
 If these are facts, all objections on the score of fatalism and 
 materialism, however correct, are unworthy of attention. But in 
 truth, phrenology gives no additional support to such views. A 
 stone is destined not to feel ; a fish is destined to swim, and a vul- 
 ture to be a bird of prey ; man is destined to be 
 
 can snatch one from her, always presents a front of brass to the darts hurled 
 against him, and has always force enough to defend and establish it. History 
 shows us that all the efforts and sophisms which are directed against a truth once 
 drawn from darkness, fall like dust blown by the winds against a rock. 
 
 “ The instance of Aristotle and Descartes should particularly be quoted, when 
 we wish to display the influence of prejudice upon the good or bad fortune of 
 new doctrines. The opponents of Aristotle burnt his books : afterwards, the 
 books of Ramus, who had written against Aristotle, were burnt, and the oppo- 
 nents of the philosopher of Stagira declared heretics ; and it was even forbidden 
 by law to dispute his doctrines, under pain of being sent to the galleys. Now 
 there is no longer any discussion about the philosophy of Aristotle. Descartes 
 was persecuted because he taught the innateness of ideas, and the University of 
 Paris burnt his books. He had written the most sublime thoughts upon the 
 existence of God ; Voet, his enemy, accused him of atheism. Afterwards, this 
 same university declares itself in favour of innate ideas; and when Locke and 
 Condillac attacked innate ideas, the cry of materialism and fatalism resounded 
 on all sides. 
 
 “ Thus, the same opinions have at one time been regarded as dangerous because 
 they were new, and at another as useful because they were ancient. We must, 
 therefore, pity mankind, and conclude that the opinions of cotemporaries as to 
 the truth or error, and dangerous or innocent tendencies of a doctrine, are very 
 suspicious, and that the author of a discovery should be anxious only to ascertain 
 whether he has really discovered a truth or not.” 1. c. t. i. p. 221. sq. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 213 
 
 “ Not prone 
 
 And brute as other creatures, but endued 
 With sanctity of reason, and to erect 
 His stature, and upright, with front serene, 
 
 Govern the rest, self-knowing.” Parad. Lost. vii. 
 
 The very expression “ human nature” implies certain innate 
 faculties and dispositions, generally ; the circumstance of peculiar 
 degrees of disposition and talents being hereditary, and of each 
 age having its distinctive character, are quite as favourable as 
 phrenology to the belief of fatalism. Each has his own talents 
 and disposition ; in some way or other they must be obtained, and 
 if the way is discovered, the case does but remain the same as 
 before. 11 Yet whatever may be our innate propensities and 
 powers, we know how much various circumstances influence the 
 development of faculties and the strength of dispositions, and we 
 feel as if we were free agents : we seem to move our right hand or 
 our left, and to sit still or walk, exactly as we choose, and we pos- 
 sess reason and conscience to guide our conduct. But the more 
 we yield to any inclination, the less are we able to withstand it. 
 
 “ Reason in man obscured or not obeyed, 
 
 Immediately inordinate desires 
 
 And upstart passions catch the government 
 
 From reason : and to servitude reduce 
 
 Man, till then free." Parad. Lost. xii. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this feeling of freedom, “ all theory is,” 
 certainly, as Dr. Johnson said, “ against the freedom of the will.” 1 
 The objections on the ground of materialism are not more ap- 
 plicable to phrenology than to the doctrine now universally ad- 
 mitted, — that the brain is the organ of the mind; and were an- 
 swered at p. 66. sqq. 
 
 Those who have so little soul as always to ask what is the good 
 of any discovery in nature , may be told that phrenology is cal- 
 culated to assist parents in the choice of occupations for their 
 
 h All know that sexual desires are so connected with the genital organs as 
 generally to commence when these become mature, and be prevented by their 
 removal during childhood ; but the world does not, therefore, exculpate ravishers 
 and adulterers. The circumstances are precisely the same with all the cerebral 
 organs of propensity. 
 
 1 “ All theory is against the freedom of the will ; all experience for it.” “ We 
 know that we are free, and there’s an end on’t,” said Dr. Johnson in conversa- 
 tion. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. iii. 294. vol. ii. 74. 
 
 Consult Gall on Free IVill and Liberty, 1. c. t. i. p. 266. sqq., especially on 
 Illusory Liberty. 
 
 P 3 
 
214 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 children. And it may be of much service in confirming some 
 moral views which good sense indeed ought previously to have 
 suggested. Humility and benevolence are two leading duties. 
 If we detect the signs of intellectual deficiency and vice in our 
 own heads, we may learn to think humbly of ourselves ; and being 
 put in possession of true self-knowledge, endeavour to strengthen 
 what is too weak and repress what is too strong. If we detect the 
 signs of great talents and virtues in the heads of others, we may 
 love them the more as superior and highly-favoured beings : 
 whereas if we detect the signs of great virtues and talents in our 
 own heads, we may learn to take no praise to ourselves, but be 
 thankful for the gift ; and if we detect the signs of intellectual de- 
 ficiency and vice in others, we may learn to pity, rather than to 
 censure. We may learn not to judge others, nor even our own- 
 selves, but to leave judgment to Him who only knows exactly what 
 natural strength of evil inclination, what weakness of good, and 
 what unhappy external circumstances, each has had to contend 
 with. Not revenge, but example, is the professed object of our 
 legal punishments : — example to the culprit himself and others, 
 or, if the punishment is capital, to others only; and therefore 
 frauds, which, from being very easily committed, may become very 
 detrimental to society, are punished more severely than those 
 which, caeteris paribus, from being difficult of perpetration, can 
 scarcely from their frequency become dangerous. Were moral 
 demerit regarded, the fraud easily committed, would, caeteris 
 paribus, be punished the most lightly. A vicious man must be 
 restrained, as a wild beast, k for the good of others, though, for 
 aught we know, his faults may, like the acts of the beast of prey, 
 be chargeable rather on his nature ; and while we feel justified in 
 confining, and the culprit is perhaps conscious how richly he de- 
 serves his fate, we may pity in our hearts and acknowledge that 
 we ourselves have often been less excusable. 
 
 “ Teach me to love and to forgive. 
 
 Exact my own defects to scan. 
 
 What others are to feel, and own myself a man.” 
 
 Gray, Ode to Adversity. 
 
 Phrenology, too, may be of the highest use when in criminals 
 there may be suspicion of idiotism or insanity. Idiotism often 
 
 k A man of determined bad principle may in like manner be shunned by the 
 most benevolent, on account of being odious and dangerous, though they wish 
 him so well as ardently to long for his reformation, and pity his organisation, his 
 education, and the circumstances under which he has been placed. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 215 
 
 depends on deficiency of cerebral development, and many idiots 
 have been executed for crimes when it was not exactly proved that 
 they were idiotic enough to be unfit for punishment, but whose 
 cranial development might have settled the point at once. Many 
 persons also have been executed who should have been con- 
 sidered madmen, but were not because the fact of illusion was not 
 made out ; yet the extreme preponderance of the development of 
 the organs of the propensities over that of the moral sentiments 
 and intellect, would have proved that they were deserving of 
 coercion rather than punishment. Such does the skull of 
 Bellingham, the murderer of Mr. Percival, prove him to have been. 
 
 By phrenology the true mental faculties have principally been 
 discovered. 
 
 If phrenology teaches the true nature of man, its importance 
 in medicine, education, jurisprudence, and every thing relating 
 to society and conduct, must be at once apparent . 1 
 
 (K) While the brain is evidently the organ of mind, the nerves 
 united with it, and the spinal marrow, together with its nerves, 
 are as evidently the instruments by which it affects, and is affected 
 by, the other parts of the body, to which these nerves are distri- 
 buted. By their instrumentality, the brain contracts the volun- 
 tary muscles, influences the functions of every other part when 
 under the operation of the different passions, and receives im- 
 pressions made upon every other part. m The consequences of 
 divisions of the nerves or spinal marrow, fully substantiate these 
 points. 
 
 If a nerve supplying an organ of sense, as the olfactory, optic, or the 
 portio mollis, is compressed, the organ becomes insensible to odours, 
 light, or sounds. If one supplying muscles only, as the motor oculi, 
 patheticus, abducens, portio dura, or lingualis, the will loses power 
 over such muscles. If the spinal marrow, or nerves conveying both 
 volition from the brain and impressions to the brain, the supplied 
 parts lose both sense and motion. n In either this or the preceding 
 
 1 See Phrenological Journal, and Mr. Combe’s System, and Essay on the Con- 
 stitution of Man, passim, as well as Gall and Dr. Spurzheirn. 
 
 m No part of the body but the brain can have sensation. The different parts 
 may be so affected, that, by the intervention of nerves between them and the brain, 
 the latter perceives the impressions made upon them ; but the sensation is in the 
 brain, although instinctively referred to the spot which is its source. 
 
 n These facts are too frequently proved to be doubted ; and, consequently, four 
 cases, in which the spinal marrow is said to have been divided without the effect 
 
 P 4 
 
216 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 case, if the divided surface now unconnected with the brain, is 
 irritated (or if, indeed, the parts are not divided, but irritated by 
 pinching), contractions occur in the muscles supplied by them ; 
 and if a sedative is applied the muscles become inert. In these 
 cases, too, if the divided surface connected with the brain is 
 irritated, acute pain is felt, as if in the part on which the nerve 
 originally terminated ;° and after the removal of a limb, it is common 
 for sensations to be experienced by the patient as if he still pos- 
 sessed his hand or his foot. The nerves which only convey 
 volition, and those of the other four senses than touch, give little 
 or no pain when mechanical stimulus is applied : and these have 
 not, like those which are sensible, a ganglion at a short distance 
 from their origin. p When nerves supply both muscles and an 
 organ of sense, they are compound, one portion performing but one 
 function, as Mr. Charles Bell first and Dr. Magendie farther proved 
 by separately dividing the nervous bands proceeding from the 
 anterior and posterior parts of the spinal marrow, before their 
 conjunction, when the division of the former deprived the parts 
 supplied of the influence of volition ; and the division of the latter, 
 of sensation. <i The anterior portion of the spinal marrow is nearly 
 insensible, while the posterior is acutely sensible : the division 
 of the former has the same effect as the division of the anterior 
 nerves ; of the latter, as the division of the posterior nerves. The 
 destruction of the centre of the spinal marrow by a wire, impairs 
 
 of paralysis, must be suspected of error. [ Sec Metzer's Principes de Medicine 
 legale, translated, with notes, by Ballard, p. 357. sq.) Another has been quoted 
 from Dr. Magendie’s Journal de Phijsiologie, t. iii.; but here the anterior portion 
 of the medulla was continuous (p. 184.), though the posterior was destroyed ; and 
 the description is confused. 
 
 0 Thus, after the loss of the glans penis, the extremities of the nerves are sen- 
 sible to venereal pleasure ; and I once had an out-patient at St. Thomas’s hospital 
 with gonorrhoea, and only an inch of a remnant of penis. 
 
 p See Dr. Magendie’s Precis de Physiol. t.;i. p. 166._sq. 
 
 g The Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves- By Charles Bell. Jour- 
 nal de Physiologie, t. ii. Mr. C. Bell also proved, in a similar manner, that the 
 fifth pair, except probably the branch not coming from the ganglion of Meckel, gives 
 sensation to the face, &c., and the portio dura, and probably the branch not coming 
 from Meckel’s ganglion, convey volition. See Mr. Mayo also, 1. c. p. 24. sq. 
 
 The opinion that there are distinct nerves for sensation and for motion, had 
 been entertained since the time of Erasistratus by many writers, from the fact 
 of paralytic limbs being sometimes deprived of sensation only, sometimes ot mo- 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 217 
 
 neither sensation nor motion, 1 ' nor is pain felt by the experiment. 
 The effects of the division of the spinal marrow are of course 
 more extensive in proportion as the division is made higher up, 
 and if made above the origin of the phrenic nerves, which are 
 the chief agents in causing the contraction of the inspiratory 
 muscles, and consequently above the origin of all the nerves of 
 inspiration, death immediately ensues. s Yet, in brutes, after re- 
 moving the head or dividing the spinal marrow, if any limb is 
 irritated, its muscles are thrown into action : thus Sir Gilbert 
 Blane, whose practical labours have equalled and, in a national 
 point of view, surpassed in utility those of every other physician of 
 St. Thomas’s, found, after such operations in kittens a few days old, 
 the hind legs to shrink from the touch of a hot wire applied to the 
 hind paws ; and the tail move when irritated, after the division of 
 the marrow below the last lumbar vertebra . t More divisions than 
 one do not prevent this effect, and if the whole brain is removed 
 except a portion to which the third pair is attached, and the 
 optic nerve is divided, the iris instantly contracts when the extre- 
 mity of the optic nerve is pinched . 11 Magendie also remarks, that 
 when the posterior roots of the spinal marrow are irritated, besides 
 signs of extreme pain, the muscles below the part irritated are 
 thrown into action, but only on the same side of the body ; facts 
 
 tion only, or even, in' the latter case, becoming more sensible than previously. 
 In Pouteau’s (Euvrcs Posthumes, published in 1783. vol. ii. p.532., it is main- 
 tained, but the author remarks that it had long been abandoned by anatomists. 
 He erred in supposing that the nerves of sensation came from the cerebrum, and 
 of volition from the cerebellum. 
 
 r Magendie, Journal de Physiol, t. iii. p. 153. sq. The subject is still rather 
 obscure, for Magendie saw some signs of sensation on irritating the anterior 
 bundles, as well as muscular contraction on irritating the posterior. 1. c, t. ii. 
 p. 368. sq. See also Dr. Bellingeri’s experiments, in the Bulletin des Sciences 
 Medicates. June, 1825. 
 
 3 It is thus that animals are every day killed by pitting ; a blow on the back 
 of the neck is sufficient to destroy rabbits. Livy informs us, that at the sug- 
 gestion of Asdrubal, in the battle in which he was slain, when the Carthaginian 
 forces were routed, and their elephants became unmanageable, the drivers de- 
 stroyed them in a moment by one blow of a hammer upon a knife fixed between 
 the junction of the head and spine. Histor. 1. xxvii. c. 49. The division of the 
 phrenic nerve only, does not put a stop to respiration. See Outlines of Human 
 Physiology, by LI. Mayo, p. 96. 
 
 1 Select Dissertations on several Subjects of Medical Science. By Sir Gilbert 
 Blane, Bart. London, 1822. p.262. 
 
 u Mr. II. Mayo, 1, c, p. 234. 
 
218 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 all showing a peculiar relation between the nerves of sensation 
 and motion, that originate at the same portions of the nervous 
 system. x 
 
 If the medulla oblongata exists, consciousness and volition be- 
 come evident. Mr. Lawrence saw a child with no more ence- 
 phalon than a bulb, which was a continuation for about an inch 
 above the foramen occipitale from the medulla spinalis, and to 
 which all the nerves from the fifth to the ninth pair were con- 
 nected.y The child’s breathing and temperature were natural; 
 it discharged urine and faeces and took food, and at first moved 
 very briskly, and lived four days. If the cerebrum and cerebellum 
 are removed in a living brute, and the same portion of the medulla 
 oblongata left, the poor thing cries if attempts are made to give 
 it pain, and moves its extremities, even sometimes for two hours. z 
 Cold-blooded animals live much longer, and the lower we descend 
 in the scale of brutes the more diffused appear the powers of the 
 nervous system : indeed, in the lowest there is, strictly speaking, 
 no brain nor spinal marrow, but ganglions and nerves, which, no 
 doubt, perform the same functions as far as required in those ani- 
 mals, and are, in fact, brains to them, but of a different form and ac- 
 commodated to their structured The higher we ascend, the more 
 parts exist above the medulla oblongata, till, rising from fish and 
 reptiles, through the numerous warm-blooded brutes, all distin- 
 guished by the relative magnitude of each cerebral part, accord- 
 ing to their several mental characters, and seeing the successive 
 additions of cerebral structure and cerebral mass, and of intelli- 
 gence, we arrive at man, in whom the successive imposition of 
 cerebral matter has reached its maximum, so that the summit of 
 the nervous system, which corresponds with the forehead and 
 vertex, is much larger in him than in any brute, b and his intellect 
 and moral feelings are proportionally greater. According to the 
 
 * Journal de Physiologie, t. iii. p. 154. 
 
 y Medico-Chirurgical Trans, vol. v. p. 166. sqq. Some children so circum- 
 stanced have even cried. Gall, 1. c. t. vi. p. 231. 
 
 1 Anatomie du Syst. Nerv. par MM. Magendie and Desmoulins, p. 560. 
 Dr. Magendie, for whose head the dogs, cats, and rabbits of France would offer 
 a reward, if they knew their own interest, says, “It is droll to see animals skip 
 and jump about of their own accord, after you have taken out all their brains a 
 little before the optic tubercles.” And as to “ new-born kittens,” he says, they 
 « tumble over in all directions, and walk so nimbly, if you cut out their hemispheres, 
 that it is quite astonishing.” Journal de Physiologie, t. iii. p. 155. 
 
 3 Gall, l.c. t.i. p.25. sqq. 
 
 * See Gall, l.c. t. ii. p. 153. sqq. 365. sqq., t. vi. p. 298. sqq. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 219 
 
 smallness of the anterior-superior and of the superior portions of the 
 brain, will individual mental superiority to the brute creation be 
 small. Idiotism may arise from faultiness of texture, but many con- 
 genital cases depend upon deficiency of anterior development; and 
 such idiots, as well as the whole brute creation, may be regarded 
 as examples of various cerebral mutilations, made bjr nature, illus- 
 trating the use of the cerebral parts. Attempts to mutilate arti- 
 ficially are not calculated to afford much information. Animals 
 can generally give no opportunity of observing what mental 
 change has been produced by the removal. For instance, when a 
 writer says that the removal of the cerebellum causes no other 
 effect than sluggishness in the animal, — how does he know that 
 sexual desire is not extinguished? When various portions of brain 
 are removed, how can any inference be drawn, during the short 
 existence of the poor animal, as to the state of its various faculties 
 and inclinations ? And when another asserts, that after the re- 
 moval of the hemispheres and cerebellum we may make observ- 
 ations whether the animal will copulate or not, — how can he ascribe 
 any indisposition that may occur, to the removal, when any circum- 
 stances of suffering, wound, confinement, or want of food, will 
 make it very difficult to induce an animal to indulge itself with 
 sexual intercourse ? c It is, besides, difficult, if not generally im- 
 possible, to remove one cerebral organ entirely and alone ; other 
 parts of the encephalon, &c. are almost certain to be injured ; d 
 and if others should not be injured, they may be influenced 
 
 0 See Gall, 1. c. t. vi. p. 210. From page 178 to 288. are excellent remarks 
 upon the unsatisfactory nature of such experiments as have been made by Fleu- 
 rens, Rolando, &c. &c. See also t. iii, p. 37 9. sqq. The first three quarters 
 of the sixth volume should be read by all who are acquainted with the writings 
 of these experimenters, or of Tiedemann, Rudolphi, Serres, &c., upon the brain. 
 
 d “ Where is the anatomist or physiologist who precisely knows all the origins, 
 the whole extent, all the ramifications, all the connections of an organ ? You 
 remove the cerebellum, at the same moment you severely injure the medulla 
 oblongata and spinalis, you injure the tuber annulare, you injure the tubercula 
 quadrigemina, consequently, your results relate not merely to all these parts, but 
 to all those which communicate with them, either directly or indirectly. You 
 think you have insulated the tubercles, but these tubercles have connections with 
 the corpora olivaria, the medulla oblongata, the cerebellum, the sense of vision, 
 and many convolutions ; the thalami optici, the corpora striata, are connected 
 below with the crura cerebri, the tuber annulare, the medulla oblongata, the 
 pyramids, and the spinal marrow ; above, with all the cerebral membrane, all 
 the convolutions, the non-fibrous, grey substance of their surface, with the dif- 
 
220 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 by the irritation of the injury, e and the effects arising from the 
 sympathetic affection of such parts ; just, for example, as we often 
 see epilepsy from exciting causes in every part of the encephalon, 
 and from exciting causes even in distant organs. Amaurosis is 
 frequently induced by wounds of the supra-orbital nerve ; some- 
 times by wounds of the infra-orbital nerve and of the portio dura. f 
 Some parts which have distinct names are only portions of organs, 
 so that injury of several parts may have the same effect; we 
 may have blindness from wounding the optic nerves, the tractus 
 optici, or the corpora quadrigemina. Some parts which have distinct 
 names are compound, so that one immediate and obvious effect of 
 injuring them is not the only consequence which would be ob- 
 served if the others had an opportunity of becoming apparent, — 
 the medulla oblongata is an instance of this, ® and the recent dis- 
 covery that many nerves are two-fold. h 
 
 ferent commissures, as the anterior commissure, the great commissure or corpus 
 callosum ; with the fornix, the septum lucidum. Thus there does not exist a 
 cerebral part which we do not know to have numerous connections with other 
 parts. I do not except even the corpora mammilaria, the pineal gland, the in- 
 fundibulum, &c. The connections yet unknown are unquestionably still 
 more numerous.” Gall, 1. c. p. 240. sqq. 
 
 e See Gall, 1. c. t. iii. p. 409. sqq., where examples are given. 
 f See many cases in Mr. Wardrop’s work, On the Morbid Anatomy of the Eye, 
 vol.ii. p. 179. sqq. The fact is even mentioned by Hippocrates ; and, what is sin- 
 gular, the blindness generally arises from an imperfect division of the nerve, and has 
 been cured by making the division complete. The blindness has sometimes taken 
 place instantly, sometimes come on very gradually. 
 
 6 “ The tubercula quadrigemina are a continuation of the bands of the me- 
 dulla oblongata and medulla spinalis. They are also formed by ganglia, one 
 portion of which gives origin to the fibres of the optic nerve. 
 
 In the same manner, the medulla oblongata is in a great measure a continua- 
 tion of the spinal marrow, besides containing many collections of non-fibrous 
 substances, which, like so many ganglions, are the origins of many nerves of the 
 highest importance, and relating to very' different functions. 
 
 The tuber annulare is not only composed of the nervous bundles of the two 
 hemispheres of the cerebellum, or of the commissure of the cerebellum, but is 
 also a continuation of several bundles of the medulla oblongata and spinalis, of 
 the anterior and posterior, or inferior and superior, pyramids, and contains a 
 considerable quantity of non-fibrous substance interposed between the transverse 
 and longitudinal bundles, and giving rise to fresh filaments for the crura cerebri, 
 the tubercules,” &c. Gall, 1. c. t. vi. p. 243. sq. 
 
 h “ You cannot insulate even the nerves of sensation before they are com- 
 plete. The origin of the nerves of taste is confused with the masses of the origin 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 221 
 
 Hence the contradictory and strange observations and inferences 
 of most experimenters on the brain of living brutes." The same 
 effects moreover do not occur in the same experiments upon 
 different species of animals. The observation of nature’s own mu- 
 tilations in brutes which have little or no development of parts 
 that are large in others, or in man, is therefore preferable ; and 
 next to this comes the observation of morbid changes of different 
 parts, a subject, however, incapable of affording information till 
 the faculties had been ascertained by Gall. (See supra, p.71 ) Still 
 some results of mutilating the living brain appear generally al- 
 lowed, and are not at all in contradiction to phrenology. The 
 experiments of Fleurens are allowed by Gall to be very ingenious 
 and sometimes satisfactory; 11 and with respect to injuring the 
 cerebellum, Gall remarks, “ if it is true that the lesion of the tu- 
 
 of many other nerves ; the auditory is confused with the nervous and non-fibrous 
 masses of the fourth ventricle ; the optic nerves at first with all the mass of the 
 tubercles, with the corpora geniculata and their attachments, with the crura ce- 
 rebri, with the grey layer situated immediately behind their junction. The 
 olfactory nerves are at first intimately connected with the grey substance placed 
 upon the interior and inferior convolutions of the middle lobes, with the anterior 
 cerebral cavities,” &c. 1. c. t. vi. p. 245. 
 
 1 Fontana says, that after removing the brain of a turtle, and entirely emptying 
 the cranium, the animal lived six months, and walked as before. M. Rolando 
 attempted the experiment repeatedly, but the animal always died as soon as a 
 cut was made behind the cerebellum. 
 
 M. Rolando says, he “ made innumerable experiments upon goats, lambs, pigs, 
 deer, dogs, cats, and guinea-pigs, to ascertain the results of lesion of the tu- 
 bercles, and parts near the optic thalami, but rarely obtained the same results.” 
 M. Rolando says, that lesion of the thalami optici causes convulsions ; M. Fleurens 
 deniesit. (Gall,l.c. t. vi. p.191.) M. Rolando found an unsteadiness like that of 
 intoxication follow the removal of two thirds of the lobes of the cerebrum in 
 a chicken. M. Fleurens declares he must have wounded the cerebellum. M. 
 Fleurens protests that the experiments of M. Rolando are contradictory to each 
 other, (p. 215.) And after finding a chicken walk, fly, and swallow, shake its 
 wings, and clean them with its beak, subsequently to losing the hemispheres of its 
 brain, infers, that these are the residence of the understanding and feelings : the 
 cerebellum, according to him, is destined to balance, to regulate motion ; yet 
 birds, after losing these parts, pecked and clawed their enemies, and perched, 
 (p. 266.) M. Rolando considers muscular action to depend upon the cerebellum, 
 yet Magendie found animals perform regular motions after losing 
 
 k 1. c. t. vi. p, 249. 
 
222 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 bercles in birds always causes convulsions, it is not less true that 
 the tubercles are destined to vision ; and in the same way the 
 cerebellum (connected as it is with the medulla oblongata, &c.) 
 may participate in the vital function of the medulla oblongata 
 and spinalis, may give rise to disturbed motion when injured, and 
 yet have its own particular animal functions.” 1 That animals 
 should skip and jump, and eat, after losing their hemispheres, is 
 not surprising, if these parts perform the phrenological functions 
 assigned to them, and are not necessary to motion. The medulla 
 oblongata and other lower parts of the encephalon have, no 
 doubt, much to do with motion as well as the spinal marrow, and 
 accordingly, when the oblongata was pressed in the child men- 
 tioned by Mr. Lawrence convulsions occurred ; and the same 
 effect ensued on irritating it, in Dr. Gall’s experiments and those of 
 Lorry.™ Pressure, however, of it, is also said by vivisectors to 
 occasion stupor. 
 
 Dr. Magendie informs us, that, 
 
 1. Deep cuts of the hemispheres do not affect motion in mam- 
 malia, reptiles, fish, and many birds, any more than their removal; 
 but the latter is said to occasion a blindness in mammalia and 
 birds, though not in fish or frogs, probably from the arrangement 
 of the cerebral parts being different, so that a similar wound affects 
 different organs. 
 
 2. If the white matter of both corpora striata is cut, the animal 
 darts forward, and retains the attitude of progression, if prevented. 
 He often found animals perform very regular movements after the 
 removal of the cerebellum ; yet he observed, that wounds of it and 
 of the medulla oblongata, gave mammalia and birds a tendency to 
 move backwards, though the same effect does not occur in fish. 
 
 3. In a vertical section of the crura of the cerebellum, or of 
 the pons varolii from before backwards, the animal immediately 
 rolls forcibly on the same side, making sometimes sixty revo- 
 lutions in a minute ; and a vertical section of the cerebellum 
 from before backwards through the whole substance of the me- 
 dullary arch over the fourth ventricle has the same effect, and the 
 motion is the more rapid as the section is nearer to the pons 
 varolii. An animal will continue rolling for eight days. If a 
 section is made on each side, the animal rolls from one side to the 
 other. 
 
 1 I. c. t. vi. p. S85. sq. 
 
 1. c. t. iii. p. 392. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 223 
 
 4. Notwithstanding the decussation of the anterior pyramids, a 
 division of one or both had no sensible effect, except, perhaps, that 
 of retarding motion a little ; and a complete division of one-half of 
 the medulla oblongata neither affects sensibility nor prevents ir- 
 regular motions, though the power of volition appears lost on the 
 same side. 
 
 Similar phenomena occur in disease. Persons labouring under 
 hysteria or chorea sometimes roll violently, or spin round. 11 Per- 
 sons have been known to feel an impulse to move forwards or 
 backwards. 0 An infinite variety, however, of extraordinary and 
 regular movements also occur. 
 
 From these experiments I draw no inference. The consider- 
 ations already mentioned prevent me from concluding that the 
 parts which are cut are the sole organs concerned in giving origin 
 to the peculiar motions, that their sole purpose is for such motions, 
 or even that peculiar motions depend originally upon them. We 
 can only say, as in the case of amaurosis following an injury of 
 the supra-orbital, or infra-orbital nerve, such effects ensue. 
 
 In foetuses without brain or spinal marrow, P the circulation, nu- 
 trition, secretion, &c. proceed equally as in others, which, besides 
 spinal marrow, nerves, and ganglia, possess a brain, q Vege- 
 tables absorb, assimilate, circulate, secrete, and in many instances 
 contract on the application of stimuli, and yet are not known to 
 possess nerves. Muscles, after the division of the nerves which 
 connect them with the brain, contract equally as before, when 
 irritated. In animals liable to torpor, the season of torpidity 
 produces its effects equally upon those muscles whose nerves have 
 been divided, or if the brain, &c. is destroyed. After the removal 
 or destruction of the brain and spinal marrow in animals, the heart 
 still continues to act and the blood to circulate, provided respir- 
 
 n See Med. Chir. Trans, vol. v. p. 1. sqq., also vol. vii. p. 237. sqq. 
 
 ° Precis de Physiologie. 
 
 p See Mist, de C Acad, des Sciences, 1711. p. 26. 586., for an instance of 
 the absence of spinal marrow : brainless foetuses are not uncommon. 
 
 Also, Phil. "Trans. 1 775. 
 
 Also, Dr. Philip, Exp. Inquiry into the Laws of the Vital Functions, p. 49. 
 
 q Imperfect foetuses have been seen, with some organs evolved, though not 
 even nerves could be discovered. See Phil. Trans. 1<793. See on this subject 
 the excellent remarks of Dr. Marshall, in his works edited by Mr. Sawrey, in 1814, 
 and already quoted at p. 68. 
 
224 
 
 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF 
 
 ation is artificially supported. r But the involuntary functions 
 are closely connected with the brain and spinal marrow, for the 
 sudden destruction of these parts or a certain portion of them, 
 puts a stop to the circulation ; s the application of stimuli to them 
 excites the action of the heart and, even after its removal, of the 
 capillaries ; 1 the passions of the mind do the same ; nay, more, the 
 involuntary functions seem, in some experiments, as dependent 
 upon the brain and spinal marrow as they probably are upon the 
 ganglia and gangliac nerves, for the removal of a piece of the par 
 vagum, or the destruction of that part of the brain with which it 
 is connected, or of a considerable portion of the spinal marrow, 
 heavily impairs the functions of the lungs and of the stomach, u 
 putting a stop, not to the muscular action of the stomach, or to its 
 circulation, but to the secretion of gastric juice and to digestion, 
 and causing the blood to experience no longer the chemical changes 
 in the lungs, but the air-cells to become filled with frothy mucus, 
 the substance gorged with blood, and the surface marked with dark 
 patches, and causing these changes in the two organs even after 
 death, if the experiment is made as soon as the animal is killed,* 
 for after the mental functions have ceased, secretion and capillary 
 circulation continue for a time ; and although the division of the 
 spinal marrow, or of its nerves, or compression or disorganisation 
 of these or parts of the brain, prevents voluntary power over the 
 corresponding muscles, without suspending the circulation, &c. 
 in them, and does not impede the functions of the lungs or stomach, 
 
 r Dr. AVhytt, Essays and Obs. Phys. and Literary, vol. ii. Edin. 1756. 
 
 Experiments, &c., by A. P. Wilson Philip, M.D. and Wm. Clift, Philos. 
 Trans. 1815. 
 
 Also, Experimental Inquiry, by the former. London 1826. 3d edit. 
 
 3 Le Gallois, Sur le Principe de la Vie; and Wilson Philip, 1. c. Probably 
 by excessive stimulus, as the voluntary muscles arc afterwards insensible to sti- 
 muli, although, after a mere division of their nerves, they retain their excitability. 
 
 t Dr. Philip, 1. c. He conceives this influence of the brain and spinal mar- 
 row to be galvanic, as he prevented the ill effects of the removal of a piece of 
 the par vagum upon the lungs and stomach, by supplying these organs with gal- 
 vanic influence, p. 210. sqq. 
 
 Division of the nerve had no effect if the divided ends lay opposite each other, 
 although distant a quarter of an inch from each other, p. 226. sqq. 
 
 u Le Gallois, 1. c. and many former writers. 
 
 * A mechanical stimulus, or a substance in its nature stimulating, applied to 
 the brain about the origin of the nerves, excites contractions in the voluntary 
 muscles ; a substance in its own nature stimulating, excites the heart and capil- 
 laries, when applied to any part of the brain or spinal marrow, but requires to 
 be applied to a considerable portion. Dr. Philip, 1. c. 
 
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 225 
 
 yet circulation, and what are dependent upon it, — nutrition and 
 frequently animal heat, are evidently impaired, though perhaps, in 
 some measure, from the want of muscular action and the stimulus 
 of volition. Sir Everard Home found that by dividing the nerves 
 running to the horn of a buck, the temperature of the horn fell 
 about 6° below that of the other, and as the divided ends pro- 
 ceeded in the course of union, the temperature rose again towards a 
 level, y In hemiplegia, the least irritation will often produce in- 
 flammation, ulceration, and a rapid slough. Division of the fifth 
 pair of nerves close to the brain causes inflammation of the upper 
 part of the eye, and cloudiness of the upper part of the cornea ; and 
 its division at the ganglion Gasseri produces opacity of the cornea 
 and ulceration and destruction of the eye. 2 The indisputable con- 
 nection which exists between the brain and various parts of the 
 body, and the effect which any injury of them must, therefore, be 
 supposed to have over other parts, together with the fact of children 
 living and eating and preserving their temperature for many days, 
 though born without brains, and the fact of amaurosis and even 
 cataract following wounds of the nerves of the face, render it 
 doubtful how far the above-mentioned circumstances show a de- 
 pendence of the organic or vegetable functions upon the brain and 
 spinal marrow, — more than a connection. But a powerful argu- 
 ment in favour of the dependence of these functions upon the gan- 
 glions and ganglionic nerves is, the fact, that the ganglionic system 
 of nerves is formed before the brain and spinal marrow ; indeed, 
 the nervous system of the chest and abdomen are fully formed, 
 while the brain appears still a pulpy mass. 3 
 
 These ganglia and nerves would hardly be formed before the 
 brain and spinal marrow but for the sake of the organs which they 
 supply, and the functions of which (with the exception of the ge- 
 nitals) are as perfect at birth as at adult age ; while the mind and 
 brain are slowly perfected. 
 
 A striking difference is observed in the structure and effect of 
 injuries upon them. Bichat asks, “ What anatomist has not been 
 struck with the difference between the cerebral and gangliac 
 nerves? Those of the brain are larger, more numerous, whiter, 
 denser, subject to fewer variations. On the other hand, extreme 
 
 y Phil. Trans. 18S6. 
 
 1 Journal rle Phyr-iologie, t.iv. I have frequently witnessed the experiment. 
 
 The removal of the deer’s horns causes the genitals in like manner to waste ; and 
 v. v. ; yet this is not thought to show dependence, but merely connection. 
 
 a Gall, 1. c. t. i. p. 191 . 
 
 Q 
 
226 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 tenuity, considerable number, especially at the plexuses, a grey 
 colour, remarkable softness, and very frequent varieties, are the 
 characters of the gangliac nerves, if you except those which com- 
 municate with the cerebral, and some of those which unite these 
 little nervous centres.” b 
 
 If they are cut, or the ganglia torn, no pain is produced, 
 while similar operations on the cerebral or spinal nerves produce 
 horrid torture. If all the ganglia of the neck are removed, and 
 even the first thoracic, no sensible or immediate derangement of 
 the functions is observable, even in parts to which the filaments 
 united with them may be traced. 0 Bichat long since remarked 
 no disturbance of the heart’s motion on attempting to irritate, or 
 on dividing, the cardiac filaments of the sympathetic ; nor of the 
 stomach, bladder, &c. by applying violence or stimuli to their 
 nerves. Neither did he succeed with galvanism,* 1 but Humboldt 
 and Dr. Fowler say they succeeded with galvanism in the case of 
 the heart. * 
 
 (L) These oscillations are purely hypothetical. Were their 
 existence proved, we should know nothing more of the real nature 
 of the cerebral functions, for we should have to learn what were 
 the peculiar properties of the nervous system, that enabled it 
 alone of all substances to produce, when oscillating, the pheno- 
 mena which it exhibits. We might as well attempt to explain 
 the phenomena of motion or of chemical affinity and galvanism by 
 vitality and mind, as the phenomena of vitality and mind by me- 
 chanics or chemical affinity and galvanism. They are altogether 
 distinct principles, although there can be no question that the 
 laws of mechanics and of chemical affinity and galvanism are 
 important and indispensable in every living system, in subser- 
 vience to life and mind. The mind, for aught we know, may 
 stimulate the voluntary muscles by means of galvanism commu- 
 nicated along the nerves, but then the galvanism is not mind, it 
 is merely an instrument employed by the mind. f 
 
 b Recherches Physiologigues , p. 72. sq. 1805. 
 
 See also Gall, 1. c. t. vi. p. 312. 
 
 Magendie, Precis Element, t. i. p. 171. sq. 
 
 * Magendie, 1. c. says he has made these experiments repeatedly. 
 
 d L c. 334. sqq. 360. sqq. 
 
 0 Dr. Le Gallois, Experiences sur la Vie. 
 
 1 The voluntary muscles contract for some time after death, when their nerves 
 are galvanised ; the involuntary will not, although for twenty-four hours after 
 death the heart is excited on the contact of a mechanical or chemical irritant, 
 v. e. Wilson, Lectures on the Blood, &c. p. 139. 
 
227 
 
 SECT. XIII. 
 
 OF THE EXTERNAL SENSES IN GENERAL, AND OF TOUCH IN 
 PARTICULAR. 
 
 227« The other office of the nerves we found to consist in 
 communicating to the sensorium the impressions made by 
 external objects. This is accomplished by the external senses 
 which are, as it were, the watchmen of the body and informers 
 of the mind. 
 
 These alone belong to our present subject. For to regard, 
 with Gorter, the stimulus which inclines us to relieve the in- 
 testines, the sensation of hunger, and other internal calls of 
 nature, as so many distinct senses, is unnecessary minuteness, 
 as Haller long since observed. 3 
 
 228. Touch merits our first attention, because it is the first 
 to manifest itself after birth, its organ is most extensively 
 spread over the whole surface, and it is affected by many 
 properties of external objects. 
 
 229. For we perceive not only some qualities, as heat, 
 hardness, weight, &c. by the touch only, but our knowledge 
 obtained by other senses respecting some qualities is rendered 
 more accurate by the touch ; such qualities are figure, dis- 
 tance, &c. (A) 
 
 230. It is less fallacious than the rest of the senses, and 
 by culture capable of such perfection as in some measure to 
 supply the deficiency of others, particularly of vision. b 
 
 231. The skin, whose structure we formerly examined, is 
 
 a J. De Gorter, Exercitationes Mediae, iv. Amst. 1737. 4to. 
 
 b Consult Rol. Martin, Scliwed. Abhandl. vol. xxxix. 1777. 
 
 G. Bew, Memoirs of the Society of Manchester, vol. i. p. 159. 
 
 Ch. Hutton, Mathematical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 214. 
 
 2 2 
 
228 
 
 OF TOUCH. 
 
 the general organ of touch. 0 The immediate seat of the sense 
 is the papillae of the corium, of various forms in different 
 parts, commonly resembling warts, d in some places fungous,® 
 in others filamentous. f The extremities of all the cutaneous 
 nerves terminate in these under the form of pulpy penicilli. 
 
 232 . The hands are the principal organs of touch, properly 
 so called, and regarded as the sense which examines solidity, 
 and their skin has many peculiarities. In the palms and on 
 each side of the joints of the fingers, it is furrowed and free 
 from hairs, to facilitate the closing of the hand : and the 
 extremities of both fingers and toes are ridged internally by 
 very beautiful lines more or less spiral ; 6 and are shielded 
 externally by nails. 
 
 233 . These scutiform nails' !* are bestowed upon man and a 
 few other genera of mammalia only (we allude to the qua- 
 drumana which excel in the sense of touch), 1 for the purpose 
 of resisting pressure, and thus assisting the action of the fingers, 
 while examining objects. 
 
 They are of a horny nature, but on the whole very similar 
 to the epidermis. For under them lies the reticulum, which 
 
 c F. de Riet, De Organo Tactus. LB. 1743. 4to. reprinted in Haller’s 
 Anatomical Collection, t. iv. 
 
 6 Dav. Corn, de Courcelles, leones Musculor. Capitis. Tab. i. fig. 2, 3. 
 
 e B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acadern. 1. iii. tab. iv. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 f Ruysch, Thesaur. Anal. iii. tab. iv. fig. 1. Thes. vii. tab. ii. fig. 5. 
 
 B. S. Albinus, 1. c. L. vi. tab. ii. fig. 3, 4. 
 
 6 Grew, Phil. Trans, n. 159. 
 
 h B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 1. ii. tab. vii. fig. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 1 Namely, simise, papiones, cercopitheci, and lemures, the apices of whose 
 fingers in their four hands are very soft, and marked, as in the human subject, 
 with spiral lines. 
 
 Physiologists have disputed whether the sense of touch is bestowed on any 
 besides man and the quadrumana. In determining this controversy, we must 
 recollect what was formerly said (81) concerning the difference of constitution 
 according to mode of life. On one side, I would grant to both parties that the 
 snowy hands of a delicate girl must enjoy a much more exquisite sense of touch 
 than what I called the fingers of brutes. But, on the other, I have frequently 
 seen simiae and papiones possessing much softer fingers, and using these fingers 
 to explore surfaces much more dexterously, than many barbarous nations and 
 innumerable persons among the lower orders of Europeans, whose hands have 
 been hardened by labour. 
 
OF TOUCH. 
 
 229 
 
 in negroes is black; k and under this again is found the 
 corium, adhering firmly to the periosteum of the last phalanx. 
 These constituent parts of the nails are striated lengthwise. 
 The posterior edge, which, in the hands, is remarkable for a 
 little lunated appearance, is fixed in a furrow of the skin ; and 
 the nails growing constantly from this, are protruded forwards, 
 so as to be perfectly renewed about every six months. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (A) The little analogy there is between our sensations of heat 
 and cold and the other sensations commonly ascribed to the sense 
 of touch, has led many writers to consider that such dissimilar 
 feelings must arise from the sensations of different organs. Dr. 
 Spurzheim 1 says, “ It may still be asked whether feeling produces 
 ideas of consistency, of hardness, of softness, of solidity and 
 fluidity, of weight and resistance ? I think it does not. For the 
 mind to examine these qualities employs the muscular system, 
 rather than the sense of feeling properly so called.” This opi- 
 nion accords with that of Dr. Brown, m who states, “ The 
 feeling of resistance,” (of which he considers the qualities enu- 
 merated above as modifications), “ is, I conceive, to be ascribed, 
 not to our organ of touch, but to our muscular frame, to which I 
 have already directed your attention, as forming a distinct organ 
 of sense ; the affections of which, particularly as existing in com- 
 bination with other feelings, and modifying our judgments con- 
 cerning these (as in the case of distant vision, for example), are 
 not less important than those of our other sensitive organs. The 
 sensations of this class are, indeed, in common circumstances, so 
 obscure as to be scarcely heeded or remembered by us ; but there 
 is probably no contraction, even of a single muscle, which is not 
 
 k B. S. Albinus, De Habitu et Colore JEthiapum. fig. 3. 
 
 1 Phrenology, p. 247. 
 
 m I.ectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind. 2d edit. 1824. p. 480. 
 
 2 3 
 
230 
 
 OF TOUCH. 
 
 attended with some faint degree of sensation that distinguishes it 
 from the contractions of other muscles, or from other degrees of 
 contraction of the same muscle.” 
 
 Some recent discoveries of Mr. Charles Bell corroborate the 
 views above stated in every essential particular. In a memoir 
 “ On the nervous circle which connects the voluntary muscles 
 with the brain,” inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 
 1826, he proves that every muscle has two nerves of different 
 properties supplied to it, so that between the brain and the 
 muscles there is a circle of nerves, one nerve conveying the 
 influence from the brain to the muscles, the other giving the 
 sense of the condition of the muscles to the brain ; also, that if 
 the circle be broken by the division of the motor nerve, motion 
 ceases, and if it be broken by the division of the other nerve, 
 there is no longer a sense of the condition of the muscle, and, 
 therefore, no regulation of its activity. He shows that the 
 spinal nerves are compounded of filaments possessing these different 
 powers, and that each nerve having several properties or endow- 
 ments collected within itself, proceeds to its destination without 
 intricacy ; but where nerves of different functions take their origin 
 apart (viz. when they are derived from the encephalon), and run 
 a different course, two nerves must unite in the muscles, in order 
 to perfect the relations betwixt the brain and these muscles. 
 
 The following passages are quoted in Mr. Bell’s own words : 
 
 “ Why are nerves, whose office is to convey sensation, profusely 
 given to muscles, in addition to those motor nerves which are 
 given to excite their motions ? To solve this question, we must 
 determine whether muscles have any other purpose to serve 
 than merely to contract under the influence of motor nerves. 
 For if they have reflective influence, and if their condition is to 
 be felt or conceived, it will presently appear that the motor 
 nerves are not suitable internuncii betwixt them and the senso- 
 rium. I shall first inquire if it be necessary to the governance of 
 the muscular frame, that there be a consciousness of the state or 
 degree of action of the muscles ? That we have a sense of the 
 condition of the muscles appears from this : that we feel the 
 effects of over-exertion or weariness, and are excruciated by 
 spasms, and feel the irksomeness of continued position. We 
 possess a power of weighing in the hand; what is this but esti- 
 mating the muscular force ? We are sensible of the most minute 
 
OF TOUCH. 
 
 231 
 
 changes of muscular exertion, by which we know the position of 
 the body and limbs, when there is no other means of knowledge 
 open to us. If a rope-dancer measures his steps by the eye, yet, 
 on the other hand, a blind man can balance his body. In stand- 
 ing, walking, and running, every effort of voluntary power which 
 gives motion to the body is directed by a sense of the condition 
 of the muscles, and without this sense we could not regulate 
 their actions, and a very principal inlet to knowledge would be 
 cut off.” 
 
 In the preceding quotation Mr. Bell attributes to the muscular 
 feeling the power of preservation of the equilibrium of the body. 
 This opinion was originally advanced by Dr.Wells,“ the profoundest 
 philosopher who was ever physician to St.Thomas’s, in the follow- 
 ing words : — - “ What is there within us to indicate these positions 
 of the body ? To me it appears evident, that, since they are 
 occasioned and preserved by combinations of the actions of 
 various voluntary muscles, some feeling must attend every such 
 combination, which suggests, from experience, perhaps, the 
 particular position produced by it. But in almost all the positions 
 of the body, the chief part of our muscular efforts is directed 
 toward sustaining it against the influence of its own gravity. 
 Each position, therefore, in which this takes place, must be 
 attended with a feeling which serves to indicate its relation to the 
 horizontal plane of the earth.’’ 
 
 " Essays, 1818. p. 70. 
 
 8 4 
 
232 
 
 SECT. XIV. 
 
 OF TASTE. 
 
 234 . W E perceive tastes by the tongue, and in some degree 
 by the other neighbouring internal cutaneous parts of the 
 mouth, especially by the soft palate, the fauces, the interior 
 of the cheeks, and lips ; by them, however, we taste only 
 what is acrid and very bitter. a 
 
 235 . The chief organ of taste is the tongue , b agile, obse- 
 quious, changeable in form ; in its remarkably fleshy nature, 
 not unlike the heart ; and endowed with far more irritability 
 than any other voluntary muscle. c 
 
 236 . Its integuments resemble the skin. They are, an 
 epithelium, performing the office of cuticle ; the reticulum 
 Malpighianum ; d and a papillary membrane, but little different 
 from the corium. 
 
 237 . The integuments of the tongue differ from the skin 
 chiefly in these respects — in the epithelium being moistened, 
 not by the oily fluid of the skin, but by a mucus which proceeds 
 from the foramen caecum of Meibomius e and the rest of the 
 glandular expansion of Morgagni/ — and, secondly, in the 
 
 a Grew, Anatomy of Plants, p. 284. sq. 
 
 Petr. Luchtmans, De Saporibus et Gustu. LB. 1758. 4to. p. 58. sqq. 
 
 J. Gotti. Leidenfrost, De sensu qui in faucibus cst, ab eo qui in lingua exerceiur, 
 diverso. Duisb. 1771. 4to. 
 
 b Sbramerring, leones Organorum Humanorum Gustus. Francof. 1808. fol. 
 
 c This fact, contrary to the opinion of others, I have proved by dissection 
 of living animals, and by pathological observation. Specimen histories naturalis ex 
 auctorihcs classicis illustrates. Gotting. 1816. 4to. p. 4. sqq. 
 
 d In dogs and sheep with variegated skin, I have commonly found the reti- 
 culum of the tongue and fauces also variegated. 
 
 e Consult Just. Schrader, Observat. et Histor. from Harvey’s book De Gene- 
 rations Animalium. p. 186. 
 
 f Morgagni, Adversar. Anal. Prima. Tab. I. 
 
OF TASTE. 
 
 233 
 
 conformation of the papillae, which are commonly divided into 
 petiolated, obtuse, and conical. g The first are in very small 
 number and situated in a lunated series at the root of the 
 tongue ; the others, of various magnitudes, lie promiscuously 
 upon the back of the tongue, and chiefly upon its edges and 
 apex, where taste is most acute. h 
 
 238. These papillae are furnished with extreme filaments 
 of the lingual branch of the fifth pair ; ‘ and through them, 
 probably, we acquire the power of tasting. 
 
 The ninth pair, k and the branch of the eighth which also 
 supplies the tongue, 1 appear intended rather for the various 
 movements of the organ, in manducation, deglutition, speak- 
 ing, &c. 
 
 239. For the tongue to taste properly, it must be moist, 
 and the substance to be tasted must be liquid, holding salts 
 in solution. m (A) For if either is in a dry state, we may 
 perceive the presence of the substances by the common sense 
 of touch, which the tongue possesses in great acuteness, but 
 cannot discover their sapid qualities. 
 
 When the tongue tastes very acutely, the papillae around 
 its apex and margins seem to be in some degree erected. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (A) Certainly an infinite number of bodies are sapid, winch con- 
 tain no kind of salt. 
 
 6 Ruysch, Thesaur. Ancit. 1. tab. iv. fig. 6. 
 
 13. S. Albinus, Annotal. Acad. 1. i. tab. i. fig. 6 — 11. 
 
 ” Consult Haller’s excellent description of the tongue of a living man, in the 
 Dictionn. Encyclopedique. Yverdon, vol. xxii. p. 2S. 
 
 * J. Fr. Meckel, Be Qumto pare Nervorum Cerebri. Gotting. 1748. 4to. 
 p. 97. fig. 1 . n. 80. 
 
 k J. F. W. Bohmer, Be Nona pare Nervorum Cerebri. Gotting. 1777. 4to. 
 
 1 See Haller, Icon. Anatom, fasc. ii. tab. 1. letter g. 
 
 Monro, On the Nervous System. Tab. xxvi. 
 m Bellini, Gustus Organum novissime deprehensum. Bonon. 1 665. 12mo. 
 
234 * 
 
 OF TASTE. 
 
 Two dissimilar metals in contact, when applied to the moistened 
 tongue, have a decidedly acid taste. It is by no means proved 
 that the moisture indispensable for taste is requisite to dissolve 
 the substance tasted and not to fit the papillae for their office. 
 
 Dr. Nehemiah Grew, an eminent naturalist of the seventeenth 
 century, endeavoured to show that there are at least sixteen 
 different simple tastes, which he enumerates. All these, he 
 states, have various degrees of intenseness and weakness, and 
 may be combined together in an innumerable variety of pro- 
 portions. Many of these have other modifications ; in some the 
 taste is more quickly perceived upon the application of the sapid 
 body, in others more slowly ; in some the sensation is more per- 
 manent, in others more transient ; in some it seems to undulate 
 or return after certain intervals, in others it is constant : the 
 various parts of the organ, as the lips, the tip of the tongue, the 
 root of the tongue, the fauces, the uvula, and the throat, are some 
 of them chiefly affected by one sapid body, and others by another. 
 All these, and other varieties of tastes, Dr. Grew illustrates by a 
 number of examples. 0 
 
 n Dr. Reid, Inquiry into the Human Mind, c. S. 
 
235 
 
 SECT. XV. 
 
 OF SMELL. 
 
 240. W hile taste and smell are closely related by the 
 proximity of their organs, they are not less so by the analogy 
 of their stimuli and by some other circumstances. For this 
 reason, they have been generally classed together under the 
 name of chemical or subjective senses. 
 
 By smell we perceive odorous effluvia received by inspir- 
 ation and applied principally to that part of the Schneiderian * 
 membrane which invests both sides of the septum narium and 
 the convexities of the turbinated bones. 
 
 241. Although the same moist membrane lines the nostrils 1 * 
 and their sinuses, c its nature appears different in different 
 parts. 
 
 Near the external openings it is more similar to the skin, 
 and beset with sebaceous follicles, from which arise hairs 
 known by the name of vibrissae. 
 
 On the septum and the turbinated bones it is fungous and 
 abounds in mucous cryptae. 
 
 In the frontal, sphenoidal, ethmoidal, and maxillary sinuses, 
 
 3 Conr. Viet. Schneider, De Osse Cribriformi et Sensu ac Organo Odoratus. 
 Witteb. 1 655. 12mo. 
 
 This classical work forms an epoch in physiological history, not only because 
 it was the first accurate treatise on the function of smell, but because it put an 
 end to the visionary doctrine of the organ of smell being the emunctory of the 
 brain. 
 
 b Sommerring, leones Organorum Humanorum Olfactus. Francof. 1810. 
 fol. 
 
 c Haller, leones Anat. fasc. iv. tab. ii. 
 
 Duverney, (Euvres Anatom, vol. i. tab. xiv. 
 
 Santorini, Tab. Post-hum. iv. 
 
 C. J. M. Langenbeck, Neuc Bibl.fiir Chirurgie, vol. ii. P. ii. p. 318. tab. ii. 
 
236 
 
 OF SMELL. 
 
 it is extremely delicate, and supplied with an infinite number 
 of blood-vessels which exhale an aqueous dew. 
 
 242 . It appears the principal, not to say the sole, use of 
 the sinuses, d to supply this watery fluid, which is perhaps 
 first conveyed to the three meatus of the nostrils and after- 
 wards to the neighbouring parts of the organ of smell, pre- 
 serving them in that constant state of moisture which is indis- 
 pensable to the perfection of smell. 
 
 The sinuses are so placed, that, in every position of the 
 head, moisture can pass from one or other of them into the 
 organ of smell. 
 
 243 . The principal seat of smell, — the fungous portion 
 of the nasal membrane, besides numerous blood-vessels, re- 
 markable for being more liable to spontaneous hemorrhage 
 than any others in the body, is supplied by nerves, chiefly the 
 first pair, e which are distributed on both sides of the septum 
 narium, and also by two branches of the fifth pair. The 
 former appear to be the seat of smell : f the latter to serve for 
 the common feeling of the part, that excites sneezing, &c. 
 
 244 . The extreme filaments of the first pair do not ter- 
 minate in papillae, like the nerves of touch and taste, but 
 deliquesce, as it were, into the spongy and regular parenchyma 
 of the nasal membrane. 
 
 245 . The organ of smell is very imperfect and small at 
 birth. The sinuses scarcely exist. Smell consequently takes 
 
 d In my Prolus. <le Sinibus Frontal., Gotting. 1779., 4to., I have brought 
 forward many arguments from osteogeny, comparative anatomy, and pathological 
 phenomena, to prove that these sinuses contribute indeed to the smell, but little 
 or nothing to voice and speech, as was believed by many physiologists. 
 
 e Metzger, Nervorum Primi Paris Historia. Argent. 1766. 4to. reprinted in 
 Sandifort’s Thesaunis, vol. iii. 
 
 Scarpa, Anatomic. Annotat. 1. ii. tab. i, ii. 
 
 f This is shown by pathological dissection and comparative anatomy. Thus 
 in Loder’s Observ. Tumoris Scirrlwsi in basi cranii reperti, Jen. 1779., 4to. is a 
 case of anosmia, following a compression of the first pair by a scirrhus We 
 learn, from comparative anatomy, that in the most sagacious mammalia, v. c. 
 elephants, bears, dogs, bisulcous ruminants, hedgehogs, &c., the horizontal plate 
 of the cribriform bone is very large, and perforated by an infinity of small canals, 
 each of which contains a filament of the olfactory nerve. 
 
OF SMELL. 
 
 237 
 
 place but late, — as the internal nostrils are gradually evolved ; 
 and it is more acute in proportion to their size and per- 
 fection. 8 
 
 246. No external sense is so intimately connected with the 
 sensorium and internal senses, nor possesses such influence 
 over them, as the sense of smell. h 
 
 No other is so liable to idiosyncrasies, nor so powerful in 
 exciting and removing syncope. 
 
 Nor is any other capable of receiving more delicate and 
 delightful impressions ; for which reason, Rousseau very 
 aptly called smell, the sense of imagination .* 
 
 No sensations can be remembered in so lively a manner as 
 those which are recalled by peculiar odours. k 
 
 E While animals of the most acute smell, as those just mentioned, have the 
 nasal organs most extensively evolved, precisely the same holds in regard to some 
 barbarous nations. 
 
 For instance, in the head of the North American Indian (a leader of his nation, 
 and executed at Philadelphia about fifty years ago), which I have given in my 
 Decas prima Collectionis Craniorum diversarum gentium illustrate, tab. ix., the 
 internal nares are of an extraordinary size, so that the middle of the ossa spon- 
 giosa, for instance, are inflated into immense bulla;, and the sinuses, first described 
 by Santorini, which are contained in them, larger than I have found them in any 
 other instance. 
 
 The nearest to these, in point of magnitude, are the internal nares of the 
 Ethiopians, from among whom I have eight heads, now before me, very different 
 from each other, but each possessing a nasal organ much larger than we find it 
 described to be in that nation by Sommerring, iiber die korperl. Verschiedenh. 
 des Negers, &c. p. 22. 
 
 These anatomical observations accord with the accounts given by most respect- 
 able travellers concerning the wonderful acuteness of smell possessed by those 
 savages. 
 
 Respecting, v. c. the North American Indians, consult, among others, Urls- 
 perger, Nachr. von der Grossbritann. Colonie Salzburg. Emigranten in America, 
 vol. i. p. 862. 
 
 Respecting the Ethiopians, Journal des Sqavans. 1667. p. 60. 
 
 h See Alibert on the medical power of odours, Mem. de la Soc. Medicate, t. i. 
 p. 44. 
 
 1 Emile, t. i. p. 367. 
 
 k Respecting the power of smell over morals and propensities, consult Benj. 
 Rush, Medical Inquiries and Observations, vol. ii. p. 34. 
 
238 
 
 OF SMELL. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The causes of the sensation of smelling are, as yet, unknown, 
 and in the absence of positive knowledge on this subject philo- 
 sophers have either avowed their ignorance or contented them- 
 selves with hypotheses destitute of proof. Among the opinions 
 respecting these recondite phenomena which have at various 
 times been advanced, three may merit our consideration. The 
 advocates of the first, designate by spiritus rector, or aroma, a 
 principle independent of the substances which contain it, very 
 volatile and expansible, imponderable, and imperceptible to every 
 sense excepting that of smell ; and to the various modifications of 
 this immaterial substance they attribute the varieties of odour. 
 The second, and most generally received theory, is, that odours 
 are particles which evaporate from the odorous substance itself, 
 and that the cause of the sensation of smell is therefore inherent 
 in, and inseparable from, the odorous body. The third opinion, 
 which is maintained by Professor Walther, is, that olfaction is 
 independent of the emanations of material particles, and is a sim- 
 ple dynamic action of the odorous body upon the organs of smell- 
 ing, similar to the action of sound on the hearing. 
 
 However this may be, odours, to become objects of sensation, 
 must pass the pituitary expansion of the olfactory nerve during 
 the respiratory process. When the breath is held, the most 
 odorous substances may be spread in the interior of the nostrils 
 without their perfume being perceived ; this observation was first 
 made by Galen. It has been frequently remarked that odours are 
 smelt only during inspiration, the same air when returned through 
 the nostrils always proving inodorous. But this is true only when 
 the odour has been admitted from without by the nostrils ; for when 
 it is admitted by the mouth, as in combination with articles of nutri- 
 tion, it is only during expiration that the odour can be perceived; 
 a proof of this maj r be readily obtained, by placing the open neck 
 of a small phial, containing an essential oil, in the mouth during 
 the acts of inspiration, and subsequent expiration. 
 
 It was first observed by Willis , 1 that on placing a sapid sub- 
 stance in the mouth, and at the same time closing the nostrils, 
 the sensation of taste is suspended. This observation has since 
 
 Dc anima brutorum, 1 680. 
 
OF SMELL. 
 
 239 
 
 been frequently repeated, and has given rise to the generally 
 prevailing opinion that a very intimate relation exists between the 
 sensations of smelling and tasting, and that the same qualities of 
 bodies simultaneously affect both these senses. The fact is, that 
 the causes of taste and smell are totally distinct in their nature ; 
 tastes, properly so called, affect only the gustatory expansion, and 
 are, consequently, unaltered by closing the nostrils ; but as most 
 sapid substances have also an odour, and expiration takes place 
 frequently during mastication and generally directly after deglu- 
 tition, the odorous emanations are made to pass over the pituitary 
 membrane. Odour, which thus accompanies taste, is termed 
 flavour. 
 
 Sugar, salt, and vinegar, have each a real taste, which can be 
 affected neither by catarrh nor by stopping the nostrils ; but the 
 flavour and odour of roast meats, of spices, of liqueurs, &c., are 
 identical, and they are affected equally by the same conditions. 
 
 Dr. Prout, I believe, was the first who pointed out the distinc- 
 tion between taste and flavour. 1 He conceived, however, that 
 flavour was intermediate between taste and smell. 
 
 • London Med. and Physical Journal. 1812. 
 
240 
 
 SECT. XVI. 
 
 OF HEARING. 
 
 247. Sound, (A) which is excited by the vibration of elastic 
 bodies and propagated by the air, is perceived by the sense of 
 hearing, a and is first received by the conchiform cartilaginous 
 external earf which few of our countrymen have the power 
 of moving. c By this it is collected; then conveyed into the 
 meatus auditorius, which is anointed by a bitter ceru- 
 men ; d (B) and strikes 6 against the membrana tympani, { C) 
 which is placed obliquely in a circular furrow of the temporal 
 bone and separates the meatus from the internal ear. 
 
 248. Behind this membrane lies the middle portion of the 
 ear, — the cavity of the tympanum , whose fundus is directed 
 upwards and inwards. 
 
 It contains three f vssicula auditus ; of which the exterior, 
 or malleus , adheres by its manubrium to the membrana tym- 
 pani, and is generally united in the adult to the circular fur- 
 row above-mentioned by its spinous process which is directed 
 forwards, and it lodges its round head in the body of the 
 incus. 
 
 The incus is united to the head of the stapes by the ex- 
 
 a Sommerring, leones organor. humanor. auditus. Francof. 1806. fol. 
 b B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Academ. 1. vi. tab. iv. 
 c V. J. Rhodius ad Scribon. Largum. p. 44. sq. 
 
 J. Alb. Fabricius, De Hominibus ortu non differentibus. Opuscul. p. 441. 
 
 Ch. Collignon, Miscellaneous Works. Cambridge. 1786. 4to. p. 25. sq. 
 d Consult J. Haygarth, Med. Obs. and Inquiries, vol. iv. p. 198. sq. 
 
 0 See the distinguished Himly’s acute comparison of the organs of hearing and 
 vision, Bibliothek fur Ophthalmologic, vol. i. p. 6. sqq. 
 
 f The existence of a fourth bone (called lenticular ', commonly admitted since 
 the time of Franc. Sylvius, I have disproved at large in my Osteology, p. 155. 
 sq. edit. 2. It is wanting in the greater number of perfect examples from 
 adults. 
 
OF HEARING. 
 
 241 
 
 tremity of its long process which extends into the cavity of 
 the tympanum. 
 
 The stapes, resting its base upon the fenestra ovalis, runs 
 towards the vestibule of the labyrinth, into which, sounds, 
 struck against the membrana tympani, are propagated by the 
 intervention of these three little bones. 
 
 249. The Eustachian tube 5 runs from the interior of the 
 fauces into the cavity of the tympanum : and the inferior 
 scala of the cochlea has the same direction ; the opening of 
 the latter, termed fenestra rotunda, h is closed by a peculiar 
 membrane. The true and principal use of each is not suf- 
 ficiently known.' 
 
 250. In the deepest part of the petrous bone is placed the 
 labyrinth, or internal ear, consisting of three parts. 
 
 First, of the vestibule, placed between the other two, and 
 into it open not only the fenestra ovalis, but the five orifices 
 of the semicircular canals which lie posteriorly, and the su- 
 perior scala of the cochlea which is placed anteriorly. 
 
 The vestibule and semicircular canals loosely contain very 
 delicate membranous bags, discovered by the celebrated 
 Scarpa r viz , two sacs which lie in the vestibule, and three 
 semicircular ducts in the canals of the same name. k 
 
 251. These sacs as well as the cavity of the cochlea, contain 
 a very limpid fluid, bearing the name of Cotugno, who shewed 
 it to be absorbed by two canals, which are by him deno- 
 minated aqueducts, 1 and by Meckel diverticula „■ lrr the one arises 
 
 E Saunders, Anatomy of the Human Ear. Lond. 1 80S. fol. vol. i. ii, 
 h Scarpa, T)<; Structura Fenestra: Rotunda:, &e. Mutin. 1772. 8vo. 
 
 1 Comparative anatomy renders it most probable that the Eustachian tube is 
 subservient to the action of the membrana tympani. It is found in all red- 
 blooded animals which possess a membrana tympani, but is wanting in fishes 
 which are destitute of this membrane. The different opinions of the moderns 
 respecting its use, may be found in Reil’s Archiv. fiir die Physiol. t. ii. p. 18. 
 iii. p. 165. iv. p. 105. viii. p. 67. ix. p. .“120. 
 
 k Scarpa, Disquisitiones Anatomic# de Auditu et Qlfactu, tab. iv. fig. 5. tab.vii. 
 
 fig. 3. 
 
 ‘ Cotunni, De Aquceductibus auris human#. Neap. 1761. 4 to. 
 m Ph. Fr. Meckel, De Labyrinthi auris contends. Argent 1777. 4to. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 OF HEARING. 
 
 from the vestibule, the other from the inferior scala of the 
 cochlea. 
 
 252. The portio mollis of the seventh pair, together with 
 the portio dura (which afterwards runs along the aqueduct of 
 Fallopius)," having entered the internal acoustic opening, 
 transmits its medullary filaments into the low'er anti cribriform 
 part of it. ° These filaments run partly to the vestibule and 
 semicircular canals, but especially to the base of the cochlea, 
 where, in the form of a medullary zonula, marked by very 
 beautiful plexiform striae, they pass between the two laminae 
 of the septum cochleae. p 
 
 253. The oscillatory tremor, which we formerly followed 
 as far as the fenestra ovalis (248), is propagated to the vesti- 
 bule, where, by means of the water of Cotugno (251), it 
 strikes the auditory nerves distributed among the windings of 
 the labyrinth. 
 
 254. Besides the muscles of the malleus and stapes, q that 
 appear to be voluntary, r the chorda tympani, * passing be- 
 tween the handle of the malleus and the longer leg of the 
 incus, is believed to modify the force of sound which is struck 
 against the membrana tympani and intended to be propagated 
 along the cavity of the tympanum. 1 (D) 
 
 n Fallopius, Observ. Anat. p. 27. b. sq. Venet. 1561. 8vo. 
 
 ° Consult Brendel, Analecta de Concha auris hummus. Gotting. 1747. 4to. 
 
 The same, De Avditu in apice concha , lb. eod. 4to. 
 
 p Consult Zinn, Observ. Botcin. Gotting. 1753. 4to. p. 31. sq. 
 
 Scarpa, 1. c. tab. viii. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 ■i B. S. Albinus, Tabula Muscul. tab. xi. fig. 29. 
 
 r Eustachius, De Auditus Organ, p. 157. 
 
 Caldani, Inslitut. Physiol. 2 45. sq. 
 
 s J. Fr. Meckel, De Quinto pare Nervorum Cerebri, fig. 1. x. 71. 
 
 Leop. M. A. Caldani on the office of the chorda tympani, SagAdell' Acad, 
 di Padova, t. ii. 
 
 1 Cotunni, 1. c. § lxxxviii. 
 
 Marherr, Prcclect. in Boerliaavii Inst. vol. iii. p. 313. 
 
OF HEARING. 
 
 243 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (A)' By Hearing we are able to appreciate the vibratory mo- 
 tions of elastic bodies, when their frequencies are within certain 
 limits. Some recent experiments by Dr. Wollaston prove that 
 these limits vary in different individuals ; but the average extent 
 of the scale of sounds perceptible to the human ear has been 
 estimated to be between 30 and 12,000 vibrations of the sonorous 
 body per second. 
 
 The undulations to which these vibrations give rise may be 
 transmitted through any substance, either aeriform, liquid, or 
 solid : but the air is the ordinary medium by which they reach 
 the ear. The velocity of transmission depends on the specific 
 elasticity of the substance; according to the latest experiments 
 sound travels through air at the rate of about 1142 feet per 
 second. 
 
 With regard to the sensation of sound, four independent qua- 
 lities must be distinguished: 11 
 
 1st. The tune, or pitch ; which depends on the frequencies with 
 which the vibrations succeed each other. 
 
 2d. The loudness, or intensity ; which is determined by the am- 
 plitudes of the vibrations. 
 
 3d. The volume, or richness ; which depends upon the number 
 of co-existing undulations that arrive at the ear. 
 
 4th. Th e timbre: — For this word, adopted in France to express 
 the specific differences of sound which are not comprehended in 
 any of the preceding definitions, there is no analogous term in our 
 language ; nor have we at present the least idea of the true causes 
 of these modifications of sound. In some cases the indefinite ex- 
 pression quality oj tone is employed. 
 
 When two or more sounds are heard simultaneous^, or succes- 
 sively, the mind by a peculiar faculty perceives the relative fre- 
 quencies and coincidences of the vibrations. Two sounds are 
 regarded, as consonant when the ratio of their vibrations is very 
 simple, and as dissonant when the ratio is more complex. The 
 rules which determine the most agreeable successions and com- 
 binations of sounds constitute the science of music. 
 
 u C. Wheatstone, Experiments on Sound. Annuls of Philosophy. New Series, 
 vol. vi. p. 81. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 OF HEARING. 
 
 The power of appreciating musical combinations, and conse- 
 quently the pleasure of listening to them, depends upon a mental 
 faculty seated in a particular portion of the brain, and not upon 
 the acuteness of hearing. A person of the quickest ears may have 
 no music in his soul, and persons of dull ears have often a good 
 ear for music. In great musicians, that portion of the skull cor- 
 responding with the part of the brain that Gall declares to be the 
 organ of music, I have invariably seen large ; and in persons 
 slightly, or not at all sensible to the delights of music, invariably 
 flat, or even hollow. 
 
 (B) The cerumen consists, according to Vauquelin, of albu- 
 men, which, when burnt, yields soda and phosphate of lime, a 
 colouring matter, and a very bitter inspissated oil strongly re- 
 sembling the peculiar matter of bile. Cicero explains one use of 
 the cerumen: — “ Provisum etiam, ut, si qua minima bestiola 
 conaretur irrumpare, in sordibus aurium, tanquam in visco, inhae- 
 resceret.” x The same applies to particles of dust. Its extreme 
 bitterness, too, deters insects from advancing. 
 
 (C) The membrane of the tympanum is not of that importance 
 which the prevailing hypothesis induced physiologists to believe 
 formerly. It may be perforated and even obliterated, and yet 
 the faculty of hearing will remain uninjured. Its uses appear to 
 be chiefly preservative. The mechanism which has been devised 
 to bring the membrane to vibrate in unison with different sounds 
 is entirely imaginary ; for it is evident, from the known laws of 
 vibrating surfaces, that its condition is always such as to render it 
 susceptible of being influenced by any sound whatever. 
 
 When the membrana tympani is stretched by the internal 
 muscle of the malleus, the amplitudes of its vibrations are dimi- 
 nished, and the sound is transmitted to the internal ear, through 
 the fenestra ovalis, with less intensity; when, on the contrary, it 
 is relaxed, by the action of the anterior muscle of the malleus, the 
 amplitudes are rendered greater, and the sound is transmitted with 
 greater intensity. These results, which Dr. Savart has established 
 by experiment, are in direct opposition to the conjectures of 
 Bichat, y 
 
 x De Natura Deorum. 1. ii. 
 
 y Savart, Reclierches sur !es Usages de la Membrane du Tympan et de VoreilU 
 externe. Annales de Chimie, t. xxvi. p. 5. 
 
OF HEARING. 
 
 245 
 
 (D) Some curious and original observations and experiments on 
 the functions of hearing, will be found in a paper by Dr. Wollaston 
 “ On Sounds inaudible to certain Ears,” 2 and in Mr. C.Wheatstone’s 
 “ Experiments on Audition.” a Savart’s memoir, already mentioned, 
 will be found also to contain some facts worthy of notice. 
 
 2 Phil. Trans. 1820. 
 
 a Journal of Science. New Series, vol. ii. p. 67. sqq. 
 
246 
 
 SECT. XVII. 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 rp . , . . 
 
 255. I he instruments of vision, — the eyes, 3 4 are two 
 moveable globes, fixed to the optic nerves, whose decussation 
 we formerly noticed (211), as it were to stalks, in such a man- 
 ner, that their insertion is not exactly opposite the centre of 
 the cornea and iris, but on one side of this imaginary axis, — 
 rather nearer to the nose. 
 
 256. They consist of various coats containing pellucid 
 humours of different densities, so placed that the rays of light 
 can pass from the transparent anterior segment of the bulb 
 to the opposite part of the fundus. 
 
 257. The external coat is called sclerotic. It is deficient in 
 the centre, and that part is filled up by the cornea, which is 
 transparent, lamellated (lined internally by the membrane of 
 the aqueous humour , or of Demours), more or less convex, and 
 projects like the segment of a small globe from one of rather 
 larger size. b 
 
 258. The interior of the sclerotica is lined by the chorioid, 
 which abounds in blood-vessels, e especially vorticose veins, 
 
 3 San. Th. Sommerring, (the father) leones oculi humani. Francof. ISO], 
 fol. 
 
 Detm. W. Sommerring, (the son) De oculorum sectione horizontali Comment- 
 arius. Gotting. 1818. fol. 
 
 b G. H. Gerson, De Forma Cornets deque singulari Pis us Phcsnomeno. Got- 
 ting. 1810. 4lo. 
 
 Al. Clemens, Tunic is Cornets et Humoris Aquei Monographia. Gotting. 1816. 
 
 4 to. 
 
 M. J. Chelius, iiber die durchsichtige Homhaut. Carlsr. ISIS. 8vo. 
 
 c Sam. Th. Von Sommerring, in the Denkschr. der Akad. der Wiss. zu Miincheiu 
 1817. tab. 1. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 247 
 
 and is covered on each side by a black pigment, which adheres 
 but loosely to its concave surface in the form of mucus. d 
 
 259- The chorioid is internally coated by the retina e — a 
 medullary expansion of the optic nerve after this has passed 
 through the sclerotica and chorioid, f of most beautiful tex- 
 ture, 5 and perforated, in the imaginary axis of the eye, 
 between the two principal twigs of the central artery, h by the 
 singular central foramen of Sdmmerring, 1 which is surrounded 
 by a yellow edge. k (A) 
 
 260. The anterior edge of the chorioid is terminated by a 
 cellular belt, called orbiculus ciliaris , by which it adheres 
 firmly to a corresponding groove in the sclerotic, and from 
 which two other membranes of a different kind, viz. the iris 
 and ciliary processes, are expanded in a circular form. 
 
 d C. Mutulini, in the Comm. Instil. Bononiens. t. vii. p. 29. 
 
 H. F. Elsaesser (prass. G. C. Ch. Storr], Be pigmenlo ocnli Nigiro. Tubing. 
 1S00. Svo. 
 
 e B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Academ. 1. iii. p. 59. sq. 1. iv. p. 75. sq. 1. v. 
 p. 66. sq. . 
 
 f Walter, De Venis Oculi, &c. Berol. 1778. 4to. tab. i. fig. 2. tab ii. fig. 2. 
 
 E The extremely beautiful blood-vessels of the retina were first discovered by 
 J. Mery to be visible in a living cat plunged under water, Mem. de l' Acad, des 
 Sc. de Paris, avant 1699. t. x. p. 650 ; and 1704. p. 265. 
 
 The most beautifully radiated surface of the retina in the hare was displayed 
 by Zinn in an admirable engraving. Comm. Soc. Scient. Gotting. t. iv. 1754. 
 tab. viii. fig. 5. 
 
 By Fontana, in the rabbit, Sur le venin de la vipere, vol. ii. tab. v. fig. 12. 
 
 h A plate accurately representing the course of these branches will be found 
 in the CEuvres de Mariotte, p. 527. fig. 1. 
 
 1 Sdmmerring, Be Foramme centrali limbo luteo cincto relince h nmance : in the 
 Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gottingens. t. xiii. 
 
 Ph. Michaelis, Journal dcr Frjindungen in der Natur-und Arzneywiss, P. xv. 
 
 k As I have discovered this central aperture in the eye of no animal besides 
 man, except the quadrumana, the axes of whose eyes are, like the human, parallel 
 to each other, I think its use connected with this parallel direction of the eyes, 
 and have endeavoured to explain the connection at large, in my Handbuch der 
 vergleichendcn Anatomie, p.402. sq. 2d edit. 
 
 As, on the one hand, this direction of the eyes renders one object visible to 
 both at the same time, and therefore more distinctly visible ; so, on the other, 
 this foramen prevents the inconvenience of too intense a light, if there is a pro- 
 bability that it expands and dilates a little under this circumstance, and thus 
 removes the principal focus from the very sensible centre of the retina. 
 
 R 4 
 
248 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 261 . The iris (whose posterior surface is lined by a brown 
 pigment, and termed uvea), lies anteriorly to the ciliary pro- 
 cesses, is flat, and washed on all sides by the aqueous humour ; 
 narrower towards the nose, broader towards the temples. 
 Its texture is dense and cellular, and contains no vestige of 
 muscular fibre. We must regard it, with Zinn, 1 as a mem- 
 brane sui generis, and not as a prolongation of the chorioid. 
 The anterior surface is differently coloured in different pex - - 
 sons, and, during life, has a flocculent appearance.” 
 
 262 . The blood-vessels of the iris run chiefly on its -anterior 
 surface, and in the fcetus are continued into the membrana 
 papillaris , n which begins to open in its centre at the seventh 
 or eighth month of pregnancy, — when the eyes have acquired 
 some degree of size, and when, probably, the elliptic arches 
 of its vessels begin to be gradually retracted into the inner 
 ring of the iris , which ring I have never been able to perceive 
 distinctly before that period. 
 
 263 . The posterior of the two circular membranes ( 260 ) 
 bears the name of ligamentum or corpus ciliare and, inclining 
 backwards, lies at a distance from the iris. Its external edge 
 is thick 0 and adheres to the ciliary circle ( 260 ) : the internal 
 is thin, and, together with the adjacent zonula of Zinn, p sur- 
 rounds the margin of the capsule of the lens. The brown 
 pigment is copiously diffused over it. 
 
 Its anterior surface, lying opposite to the uvea, is striated. 
 
 The posterior, lying upon the vitreous humour, is marked 
 
 1 Comment. Soc. Scient. Getting. tom. iv. p. 199. 
 
 m On the remarkable mutual relation of the arteries and nerves of the internal 
 parts of the eye, and especially of the iris, see Diet. G. Kieser, De Anamorjthosi 
 Oculi. Gotting. 1804. 4to. 
 
 n This beautiful membrane was first discovered by Francis Sandys — a cele- 
 brated maker of anatomical preparations : it was first described and exhibited in 
 an engraving by Ever. J. Wachendorf, Commcrc. Litter. Nor. 1740. hebd. IS. 
 
 0 The ciliary canal, discovered by Fel. Fontana, (Stir le vhiin de la viper e, 
 vol. ii. tab. vii. fig. 8, 9, 10.) and afterwards described more accurately by Adolp. 
 Murray (non. act. Upsaliens, vol. iii.), runs, in bisulcous animals, along this 
 thick edge. 
 
 p Doellinger, Nov. Act. Ac. N.C. t. is. p. 267. sqq. tab. vii. 
 
 C. J. M. Langenbeck, Neve Bibl. fur die Chirurgie, iii. B. 1. St. tab. 1. II. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 249 
 
 by about seventy plicae, which are beautifully fiocculent, and 
 remarkable for a set of indescribably minute and elegant blood- 
 vessels. These flocculi are named ciliary processes, and their 
 use is still an object of enquiry. q 
 
 264. In the bulb of the eye, whose coats we have now de- 
 scribed, are contained the humours , of three principal kinds. 
 
 The posterior, and by far the greater, part of the globe is 
 filled by the vitreous humour, which is in larger quantity pro- 
 portionally in the human subject, especially after puberty, 
 than in other animals, and so dispersed in innumerable drops 
 throughout the cells of the delicate hyaloid membrane that this 
 membranaceo-lymphatic body has the singular appearance of 
 a tremulous jelly. 
 
 2 65. Anteriorly it adheres to, and, the zomda just men- 
 tioned surrounds, the capsule containing the crystalline lens, 
 immediately around which lies the water of Morgagni. 
 
 The lens itself also very pellucid is cellular, but so much 
 more dense than the vitreous humour, that in the hand it 
 seems like a very tenacious, although an amazingly clear, 
 gluten. Its nucleus is more dense than the exterior laminae. 
 The laminae may be reduced into extremely delicate fibres, 
 converging from the circumference to the centre. r 
 
 In an adult man the lens is proportionally to the whole 
 body smaller than in quadruped mammalia; also less convex, 
 especially on its anterior surface. 
 
 2 66. The remaining space of the eye is filled by the aqueous 
 humour , which is very limpid, and divided by the iris into two 
 chambers: — the anterior and larger separating the cornea 
 and iris ; and the posterior, in which the uvea lies towards 
 the corpus ciliare, so small, as scarcely believed by some to 
 exist. 
 
 q Consult, among others, Brandis, Pathologie, p. 253. 
 
 And J. Aug. Hegar, De Oculi parlibus quibusdam . Gotting. 1818. Svo. 
 p. 25. sqq. 
 
 r Th. Young, Phil. Trans . 1795. tab. xx. fig. 2, 3. 
 
 Dav. Hosack, ib. 1794. tab. xvii. fig. 4. 
 
 J C. Reil, De lentis crystalline struclura Jibrtsa . Hal. 1794. 8vo. 
 
250 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 267. These most valuable parts are defended from injury 
 both by the depth of their situation in the orbits and by the 
 valvular coverings of the eye-lids. 
 
 In the duplicature of the palpebrce, lie the sebaceous follicles 
 oi Meibomius, s thickly distributed: and their edges are fringed 
 by a triple or quadruple series of cilia : 1 the cartilaginous 
 tarsi serve for their support and expansion, and also facilitate 
 their motion upon the eye-ball. 
 
 Above the eye-lids, to use the language of Cicero, are 
 placed the supercilia , which preserve the eyes from the sweat 
 flowing from the head and forehead, and in some measure 
 screen them from too strong; a light. 
 
 2G8. To lubricate the eyes, to preserve their brightness, 
 and to wash away foreign matters, is the office of the tears ; 
 the chief source of which is a conglomerate gland placed in 
 the upper and exterior part of the orbit. It has numerous 
 but very fine excretory ducts, which are said to discharge 
 about two ounces of tears upon each eye during the twenty- 
 four hours : the tears are afterwards absorbed by the puncta 
 lachrymalia, the function of which may, in a certain sense, be 
 compared to that of the lacteals in the villous coat of the 
 small intestines ; from the puncta they are conveyed through 
 the snails’ horns, as they are called, into the lachrymal sac, 
 and thence pass into the lower meatus of the nostrils. u (B) 
 
 269. Thus much it was necessary to premise upon the 
 structure of the organ of vision. We now come to the func- 
 tion of the organ, — to the explanation of vision. 
 
 Rays of light falling upon the cornea at an angle more 
 acute than forty-eight degrees, pass through it, and, from 
 both its density and figure, are considerably refracted towards 
 the axis of the eye, and on entering the aqueous humour they 
 experience rather a less degree of refraction. 
 
 Those rays which penetrate the pupil and are received by 
 
 s H. Meiliomius, Be vasis Palpebrarum novis ep. Hclmst. 1666. 4to. 
 
 * B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Academ. 1. iii. tab. iii. fig. 4. 
 
 11 J. Chr. Rosenmiilter, Organor. Lackrymalium Partiumqve Exlemariim Oculi 
 Humani Descriptio Anatomica. Lips. 1797. 4to. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 251 
 
 the Jens, are still more refracted on account of the greater 
 density of this medium. 
 
 The less density of the vitreous humour prevents the focus 
 of rays from being too short, and allows it to fall upon the 
 retina and exhibit the image of objects, though, from the laws 
 of light, necessarily inverted. 
 
 270. The focus, which thus falls upon the retina, is consi- 
 dered as a point, not absolutely, but, on account of the different 
 refrangibility of colours, relatively ; yet the latitude necessarily 
 arising from this aberration of the rays is so small that it not 
 only does not obscure the distinctness of vision in any per- 
 ceptible degree, but is the source of many advantages.* 
 
 271. The celebrated question — why we behold objects 
 erect, while their image is inverted upon the retina/ may 
 be easily answered, by considering that objects are called 
 inverted relatively only to those which appear erect. 
 
 Now, since the images of all objects and of our own bodies 
 are painted on the retina, each in its relative situation, this 
 relative situation must correspond as exactly as if they were 
 viewed erect, so that the mind (to which a sensation excited 
 by the image and not the image itself is communicated) is 
 preserved from all danger of error. (C) 
 
 272. Since many conditions are requisite for distinct vision, 
 the Creator has wonderfully ordered the functions of these 
 organs. 
 
 A sufficient, but, at the same time, a definite, quantity of 
 light, not too intense for distinct vision, is provided in two 
 modes : — First, according to the greater or less intensity of 
 the rays, a greater or less number of them pass to the lens ; — 
 Secondly, that portion which is superabundant and injurious 
 to vision is absorbed. 
 
 The first point is effected by the motion of the iris ; the 
 second, by the pigmentum nigrum. 
 
 * Nev. Maskelyne, Attempt to explain a Difficulty hi the Theory of Vision , 
 depending on, the different Refrangibility of Light, in the Philosophical Transactions, 
 vol. lxxix. p. 2 56. 
 
 1 J. H. Voight, Magazinf 'iir Phy sik und Naturgeschichte , t. v. P. iii. p. 145. 
 
252 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 273. The iris is endowed with remarkable mobility, and 
 thus accommodates itself to the intensity- and distance oflmht, 
 so that, when exposed to a strong light or to near objects it 
 may expand itself and contract the pupil, but when to a 
 weaker light or more remote objects it may contract itself and 
 dilate that opening. z 
 
 Physiologists have given different explanations of this 
 motion. Some ascribe it to the varied impulse of blood into the 
 vessels, others to contraction of the imaginary muscular fibres 
 of the iris. 1 have shown, in a particular treatise, that both 
 these circumstances are impossible, and that its proximate cause 
 may be sought for with more probability and reason in the 
 vita propria of the iris (42) ; the more remote cause, as we 
 formerly hinted (56), can be solely the reaction of the sen- 
 sor ium. a 
 
 274. The function of the dark pigment, so frequently men- 
 tioned, (258, 261, 263,) viz. to absorb the superfluous rays, 
 and, consequently, its importance to the perfection of vision, 
 are demonstrated, among other modes, by the dissection of 
 different kinds of animals, and by the diseased condition of 
 Albinos, whose eyes are very tender and impatient of light 
 from the absence of this pigment. b 
 
 275. The focus of the refracted rays must fall exactly on 
 the retina, so that the point of vision be neither produced 
 beyond it nor fall within the vitreous humour. 
 
 The latter defect exists in short-sighted persons, from the 
 too great convexity of the cornea or gibbosity of the lens. 
 
 The former is the defect of long-sighted persons, in whom 
 there is the opposite conformation of parts. 
 
 276. Since a perfect and sound eye beholds near and 
 remote objects with equal distinctness, it must of necessity be 
 
 z Zinn, De Motu Uvea, 1757. in the Comment. Societ. Scient. Getting. t. i. 
 
 Fel. Fontana, Dei Moti dell' Iride. Lucca. 1765. Svo. 
 
 a For other explanations consult Troxler in Himly’s Ophthalmol. Biblioth. t. i. 
 P. ii. p. 21. 
 
 11 I have spoken of Albinos at large in my work, De Generis Humani Fane- 
 tale Nativa, ed. 3/ p. 274 ; and in my dissertation, De Ocnlis Leucccthiojmm. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 253 
 
 supplied with appropriate powers of accommodation. 0 That 
 these internal changes of the eye are chiefly accomplished by 
 the pressure of the straight muscles of the ball, I am clearly 
 convinced, from this among other arguments, — that in the 
 Greenland whale — an amphibious animal, which must see in 
 media of such different densities, nature has most accurately 
 provided for it, in the remarkable structure and obsequious 
 flexibility of the sclerotica. d (D) 
 
 277. During the waking state, the eyes are perpetually, 
 although unconsciously, agitated, and directed towards the 
 axes of objects, by these muscles. (E) 
 
 For, although the whole of the retina is sensible, it is not 
 throughout equally calculated to receive the images of objects. 
 
 In the first place, the true axis of the human 0 eye, where 
 the optic nerve enters, is proved, by the well-known experi- 
 ment of Mariotte, f to be nearly insensible to light. (F) 
 
 Theprincipal focus of the rest of the retina, and which must be 
 considered as the chief instrument of distinct vision, falls upon 
 an imaginary axis of the globe, corresponding with the centre 
 of the cornea and of the whole eye. This, however, as 
 Kaestner observes in opposition to Boerhaave, is not to be 
 understood as if only one point of an object could be seen 
 distinctly at once, the eye being fixed, and that, to behold 
 another point, the axis of the eye must be changed ; for the 
 sensation of an entire object is simple and complete. 6 
 
 278. The habit of directing the axes of the eyes rapidly 
 towards objects is acquired by practice. This is proved by 
 the example of persons who were born blind but recovered 
 
 c H. AV. Math. Others, De Oculi Mutationibus Inlernis. Gotting. 1780. 4to. 
 
 Ever. Home, Phil. Trans. 1795. P. 1. 
 
 11 Comment. Societ. Scient. Gottingens. t. vii. p. 62. fig. ii. f. g. h. 
 e I say the human eye ; for in some animals now before me, the seal and 
 porcupine, for instance, the true and imaginary axis are the same, the optic nerve 
 lying exactly opposite the centre of the cornea and pupil. 
 f Troxler speaks of this at large, 1. c. t. ii. P. ii. p. 1. 
 
 B In Ojitica Quoidcim Boerhaavii et Halleri Commentatin' A hr. Gotth. Kaest- 
 ner. Lips. 1785. 8vo. p. 7. 
 
254 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 their sight after puberty ; h and of children, who seldom 
 acquire this facility of motion before the third month. 
 
 279. To habit we must ascribe also the circumstance of 
 beholding an object singly, although we have two eyes. ' For 
 infants at first see double, and the double vision which occa- 
 sionally occurs after certain diseases of the eyes may be 
 removed by practice and experience. (G) 
 
 280. The combined power of the two eyes does not exceed, 
 according to Jurin, that of each, by more than one thirteenth 
 part. 
 
 It is needless to add, what the celebrated painter, Leonardo 
 da Vinci, long since remarked, — that, in viewing distant 
 objects, it is preferable to employ but one eye. k 
 
 281. An object can never be seen unless the angle of vision 
 exceeds 34* seconds. This was proved by the very beautiful 
 experiments of the acute Tob. Mayer, who formerly was one 
 of our number: and he demonstrated the great perfection of 
 the human sight, by showing that this still remained the limit 
 of vision in any light, — in the splendor of the meridian sun 
 and the faint light of a lantern : so that vision remains almost 
 equally distinct although the light be considerably dimi- 
 nished. 1 
 
 282. We may hence infer the extreme minuteness of the 
 images of objects projected upon the retina, m and nevertheless 
 impressed so forcibly upon it, that, under certain circumstances, 
 their vestiges remain after the removal of the objects from 
 before the eye. n 
 
 h See Giov. Bortolazzi, Sopra una cieca nala guarila. Verona, 1781. Svo. 
 p. 99. sq. 
 
 ■ W. C. Wells, Essay upon Single Vision with Two Eyes. Lond. 1792. Svo. 
 
 l: Consult Lambert, Sur la partie photometrique de I’art du peintre in the Mem. 
 de VAcad. des Sciences de Berlin, 1768. p. 80. sq. 
 
 1 Tob. Mayer, Experimenta circa visits aciem, in the Commentar. Soc. Scient. 
 Gollingens, t. iv. 
 
 m De la Hire, Accidens de la Vue, p. 375. 
 
 n Gassendi, Vita Peireskii. p. 175. sq. Hague, 1655. 4lo. 
 
 Franklin, Letters on Philosophical Subjects, at the end of his Erpls. on Elec- 
 tricity. Lond. 1769. 4to. p. 469. sq. 
 
OF STGHT. 
 
 255 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) A delicate transparent membrane has been discovered by 
 Dr. Jacob, of Dublin, between the retina and chorioid, and ad- 
 herent to both . 0 
 
 (B) The tears appear to me to pass over the ball of the eye as 
 low as the edge of the superior tarsus, which is so applied to the 
 ball as not ordinarily to allow of their ready escape under it. p As 
 the upper lid descends and nearly covers the front of the eye dur- 
 ing sleep, for the lower has but little motion, and the fine inner edges 
 of both meet, the whole of the ball is at this time readily preserved 
 moist. But when the eyes are open, the front of the eye between 
 the lids would not be moistened unless the upper tarsus occasion- 
 ally descended with the fluid contained behind it. A portion of 
 the fluid thus brought down upon the front of the eye, remains 
 after the upper lid rises again after winking, and trickles by r its 
 gravity as far as the inferior tarsus, which, ascending a little as 
 often as the superior descends, raises it somewhat. Winking thus 
 preserves the front of the eye constantly moist during the waking 
 state. 
 
 It may be also observed that, when the tarsi approximate, as 
 they drive before them the moisture of the front of the eye-ball, 
 they quite inundate the puncta lachrymalia, by which circumstance 
 the puncta are, of course, enabled to carry off a large quantity of 
 the secretion, and ordinarily to prevent its overflow, which would 
 occur at the centre of the lower tarsus. During sleep the puncta 
 are not so copiously supplied, as they have only the same share 
 of tears as the eye in general ; and there is less occasion for it, 
 because the removal of the stimulus of air and light by the closure 
 of the eyelids, lessens the secretion. 
 
 Dr. Magendie has found the matter of the tarsal or Meibomian 
 
 Rob. War. Darwin, Expevimenta nova de spectris s. imaginibus ocularibus, qua: 
 objectis lucidioribus antea visis, in oculo clauso v el averso percipiuntur. Lugd. Bat. 
 1785. 4 to. 
 
 Er. Darwin, Zoonomia, t. i. 
 
 C. Himly, Biblioth. Ophtlialmolog, t. i. P. ii. p. I. 
 
 0 Phil. Trans. 1819. Also, on various other points in the anatomy of the eye, 
 'Med. Cliirurg. Trans, vol. xii. P. 2. 
 
 p The object of this firm application of the tarsi to the eye must be the exclu- 
 sion of foreign matters from the orbit. 
 
256 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 glands to be not sebaceous but albuminous, and soluble in the 
 tears : hence we discover why, during sleep, it accumulates on 
 the tarsi, — because its solvent — the tears, are not sufficiently 
 abundant to remove it. 
 
 (C) The notion of our originally seeing objects upside-down, 
 double, and all as at the same distance, till experience lends its 
 aid, has been satisfactorily refuted by Bishop Berkeley and others. 
 The organs of sight, and all the others of sense, present, when 
 perfect, a perfect impression to the inward senses — the faculties 
 for judging of persons or forms, distance, colour, &c., and nothing 
 farther; these do the rest. The eyes of infants are not originally 
 fit for vision: they are at first absolutely insensible to light for 
 some time, and become qualified for their office gradually. But 
 those animals who are are born with perfect eyes, see perfectly 
 the first moment they enter into the world, q Indeed, no expe- 
 rience will make us perceive objects differently from what the 
 external organs present them. Experience tells us that the trees 
 at the end of an avenue are as high as those near us, yet we still 
 see them diminutive ; and that a stick placed in water is straight, 
 but it continues to appear crooked. My reader must consult 
 Gall, Dr. Sp.urzheim, and also Mr. Combe from page 256 to 339. 
 
 Persons, all having excellent eyes, and seeing perfectly well, 
 differ much in their powers of recognising persons, finding their 
 way, &c. In none of these points is the difference so striking 
 as with respect to judging of colours. It is by no means un- 
 common to meet with individuals whose eyes appear excellent, 
 and whose sight is excellent, and who may judge of form and 
 distance correctly, but who cannot distinguish certain colours. 
 Dr. Nicholl describes a boy who confounded green with red, and 
 
 •i A beautiful fact, witnessed by Sir James Hail, is mentioned by Sir George 
 Mackenzie, Phrenological Essays, p. 3S. He bad been engaged in making ex- 
 periments on batching eggs by means of artificial heat, and, on one occasion, 
 observed, in one of his boxes, a chicken in the act of breaking from its confine- 
 ment. It happened, that, just as the creature got out of the shell, a spider began 
 to run along the box, when the chicken darted forward, seized, and swallowed it. 
 In this case it was not merely the eye that was perfect, but innate powers of 
 knowing instantaneously what was proper for it as food, of judging of distance, 
 and of putting its limbs into action. Garin, a young man twenty-four years of 
 age, when recovered from original blindness by an operation, saw objects in their 
 natural position and not reversed. Experience ifeluphysique, ou Divelopement de 
 la Lumiere et des Sensations, par Jauffret. 1S10. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 • 257 
 
 called light red and pink, blue. His maternal grandfather, and 
 one uncle, had the same imperfection. This uncle was in the 
 navy, and, having a blue uniform coat and waistcoat, purchased a 
 pair of red breeches to match . r Dr. Nicholl mentions a gentleman 
 who could not distinguish green from red. The grass in full ver- 
 dure always appeared to him what others call red ; and ripe fruit on 
 trees he could not distinguish from the leaves ; a cucumber and a 
 boiled lobster were of the same colour in his sight, and a leek 
 resembled a stick of sealing-wax. This person had a brother and 
 a niece — the daughter of another brother — in a similar predica- 
 ment. s Indeed, the defect has frequently occurred in several 
 members of the same family, and frequently has been hereditary, 
 sometimes passing over a generation, like other peculiarities of 
 structure. It is observed more frequently, perhaps, in men. In 
 the rarest and most extreme cases, no colour is distinguished, all 
 objects appearing in this respect alike. In all the cases in which 
 the point has been examined, the part of the cranium under which, 
 according to Gall, the organ for judging of the harmony of colours 
 is placed, is flat, or depressed. I have seen several of these cases, 
 and in all this was the fact. In painters, remarkable for their ex- 
 cellence of colouring, this part is full, or prominent. The contrast 
 between this part of the forehead in a person who has this defect, 
 and in another excelling in the power of colouring, placed side by 
 side, is very striking. 
 
 Mr. Dugald Stewart remarks, that “ in the power of conceiving 
 colours there are striking differences among individuals and he 
 does not ascribe the difference to the eyes. “ I am inclined to sus- 
 pect, ”he says, “that in the greater number ofinstancesthesupposed 
 defects of sight ought to be rather ascribed to a defect in the 
 power of conception.” 1 Mr. Stewart is correct in exempting the 
 eye from blame, and ascribing the defect to a defect in conception ; 
 but since he has no idea of a distinct faculty for colours, he means 
 conception in general. Yet, as the individuals are not deficient 
 
 ' Med. Chir. Trans, vol. vii. 
 
 ’ 1. c. vol. ix. A case communicated to Dr. Priestley will be found in the 
 Phil. Trans. 1777. The man had three brothers with the same defect. In the 
 Phrenol. Trans, is another by Dr. Butter. In the Manchester Memoirs, vol. v., 
 are others. One such person painted a man’s head with a green beard and blue 
 cheeks. In Mr. G. Combe’s System of Phrenology, and the Phrenological Trans- 
 actions, are mentioned one of three brothers and a cousin, who inherited it 
 from their maternal grandfather, the intervening generation not having it. 
 
 * Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, ch. iii. 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 in other conceptions, some reason must be given for the defi- 
 ciency of conception in this one point. He thinks it arises “ pro- 
 bably in consequence of some early habit of inattention.” Now 
 this is sad trifling in a philosopher. What particular attention do 
 children, who distinguish colours accurately, bestow? They dis- 
 tinguish without effort ; and those who cannot, are not only not 
 proved to have been inattentive, but have, probably, been often 
 extraordinarily attentive, in the hope of seeing what others can 
 see. How should want of attention to this one point run in fami- 
 lies and be hereditary, passing through a generation, &c. ? This 
 is a specimen of the errors of metaphysicians. They see, and 
 generally acknowledge, that the brain is the organ of the mind, 
 yet they observe the faculties of the mind without even once 
 looking at the organ, which possesses, or is employed in the 
 working of, these faculties. Gall examined the two together, and 
 we now know, that local deficiency of brain exists where the 
 power of distinguishing colours is deficient, and is hereditary with 
 this deficiency. 
 
 (D) The most recent opinion on the causes of the adaptation of 
 the eye to distinct vision, a subject on which innumerable con- 
 jectures have been made, is that of Jean Mile of Warsaw. 0 By a 
 great number of accurate and satisfactory experiments, for which 
 I refer the reader to the original memoir, he has arrived at the 
 following conclusions. 
 
 The eye does not see with equal distinctness objects at all dis- 
 tances, but only when they are within a certain distance. This 
 does not depend on external causes, such as the diminution of the 
 optic angle, and the obscuration of the object by the intermediate 
 air; for, to see clearly and to see distinctly are not identical. 
 The causes of distinct vision are internal, and situated in the eye 
 itself ; they are two in number; one disposes the eye for the con- 
 tinuous distinct vision, and the other for the transient distinct 
 vision of objects at different distances ; but neither of them can 
 act but within certain limits. These limits are greater for the 
 presbyope than for the myope. These adaptations both depend 
 on the action of the iris, which can at the same time act in two 
 ways to produce two effects ; first, the contraction of its aperture, 
 
 u De la cause gui disjtose F ceil pour voir distinctement les objets places a diffirentes 
 distances : par Jean Mile (traduit du Polonois). Magendie, Journal de Physio- 
 logic, tom. vi. p. 166 . 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 259 
 
 and, secondly, the flexion of the cornea ; the alteration of the size 
 of the pupil, however, is visible only. The adaptation of the eye 
 for the continuous distinct vision of objects contained within 
 certain limits, is owing to the diffraction of the rays of light near 
 the edge of the aperture of the iris, in consequence of which there 
 is formed by a single external luminous point, several foci instead 
 of one, successively ranged in a line of a certain length, so that 
 the object may change its distance within certain limits, and yet 
 one of its foci shall always fall on the bottom of the eye. This 
 focal length is inversely as the magnitude of the pupil. The 
 borders of indistinct objects appear radiated, and to the pheno- 
 menon of confusion is added the motion and multiplication of the 
 image when the edges of bodies are brought near the side of the 
 fasciculus of rays which enter the eye ; prismatic colours also 
 appear. All these phenomena which are observed in an eye 
 performing its functions, may be produced by an apparatus, the 
 structure of which resembles that of the eye, and even by a com- 
 mon lens, substituting for the motion of the pupil diaphragms of 
 different sizes. The nature of all these phenomena prove that 
 diffraction is their common origin, and they may be considered as 
 constituting a separate kind of optical illusions resulting from 
 diffraction. The second cause which adapts the eye for the mo- 
 mentaneous distinct vision of objects, depends neither on the 
 action of the external muscles of the eye, the advancement of the 
 bottom of the eye, nor on any alteration of the form or position 
 of the crystalline lens, but appears to be owing rather to the 
 change of the curvature of the cornea by the contraction of the 
 iris, which occurs only when the eye adapts itself to see very 
 near objects, as is proved by the simultaneous approximation of 
 the pupil. 
 
 (E) The motions of the eyes which result from the actions of 
 their external muscles have been investigated, and the mental 
 perceptions attending them have been analysed with considerable 
 success by Dr. Wells ; x and the subject has recently been again 
 taken up by Mr. C. Bell.y An extensive field of enquiry, how- 
 ever, still remains. Mr. Charles Wheatstone is about to publish 
 
 x Essay upon Single Vision with Two Eyes. Phil. Trans. 1792. 
 
 Experiments and Observations on several Subjects in Optics. Phil. Trans. 181 1. 
 
 y On the Motions of the Eye in Illustration of the Uses of the Muscles and Nerves 
 of the Orbit. Phil. Trans. 1823. 
 
 S 2 
 
260 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 some original experiments on this subject that will go a consider- 
 able way towards completing our knowledge of this intricate and 
 important subject. 
 
 (F) Mariotte’s experiment was to make two spots upon a wall, to 
 fix the right eye upon the left spot, the other being closed, or v. v. 
 and gradually to retire till the right spot is no longer distinguish- 
 able, as occurs when its image falls upon the centre of the 
 optic nerve. Picard varied this experiment, by placing an object 
 between the eye and the spot, so that it appeared double, and one 
 image of it covered one spot completely when one eye was closed. 
 
 Mr. C. Wheatstone places two wafers upon a table, and fixing 
 one eye upon the opposite wafer, and closing the other, moves the 
 other wafer gradually away till it ceases to be seen : on being 
 removed still further, it comes into view again. 
 
 (G) Although we certainly use both eyes to look generally at 
 objects before us (those on each side can of course be seen by the 
 eye of the same side only), yet when we fix our view attentively 
 on an object, we employ but one if each eye is not of equal 
 strength. This, at least, is my own case. If I hold up a finger, 
 and look at distant objects, it appears double, and if I then look 
 at it, I of course see it single, and the figure now seen is, in my 
 case, that which was previously seen with the right eye : no dif- 
 ference occurs in it, if now the left eye is closed. The greater 
 facility of threading a needle, when both are open, probably 
 arises from the advantage of increasing the field of vision while 
 one eye is fixed steadily upon the aperture. Some, however, 
 who are profoundly skilled in physics, deny that the use of one 
 eye only in attentive inspection is general. 
 
 Many recorded cases prove that one half of the retina may be 
 paralysed, while the other half remains unaffected ; and this effect 
 may be common to both eyes, or peculiar to one. Dr.Wollaston* 
 relates, that it twice occurred to him not to be able to see but on 
 one side of the axis of vision. The first time, the left side of each 
 eye was affected ; he saw but the half of a man’s face or of any 
 object he looked at ; and in attempting to read the name JOHN- 
 SON over a door, he saw only .... SON, the commencement 
 of the name being totally obliterated from his view : the com- 
 plaint was of short duration. About nineteen years afterwards 
 the phenomenon recurred : this time, the right side of the eye, 
 
 Phil . Trnns. 1824. 
 
OF SIGHT. 
 
 261 
 
 about three degrees from the centre of the retina, was affected, 
 and its duration was ten minutes. Two analogous cases are also 
 mentioned by Dr. Wollaston. Desmoulins 1 states, that M. Arago 
 has experienced this affection of vision three times : the first two 
 times, objects situated to the right of the axis of vision were in- 
 visible; the third time he saw objects on the right only of this 
 axis. The same author notices also the following remarkable 
 case. In consequence of a cerebral fever, the external side of the 
 
 left retina of M. de M became insensible : with this eye he 
 
 saw only objects situate to the left of the centre of vision ; and, 
 as at the same time there was an outward deviation of the axis of 
 this eye, through a paralysis of the nerve of the third pair, when 
 he employed both eyes, he saw objects double ; but, what was 
 still more singular, the right eye being closed, he saw with the 
 left eye the objects removed from twenty to twenty-five degrees 
 to the right of their real position. 
 
 Such facts have been thought a reason for believing the decus- 
 sation of the optic nerves partial, and some say that the outer portion 
 of the tractus optici goes to the outer part of the corresponding 
 nerves, and the inner to the inner portion of the opposite ; but 
 Magendie divided from before backwards the junction of the optic 
 nerves, and found blindness induced. 
 
 The decussation of the optic nerves is shown by blindness of 
 one eye being induced if the nerve on the same side is divided 
 anteriorly to the union, and of the opposite eye if the division is 
 made posteriorly to the union : or by destruction of an eye caus- 
 ing the nerve of the same side te waste as far as the union, and of 
 the opposite side beyond the union. b Yet cases are on record 
 where the wasting of the nerve in loss of sight continued through- 
 out on the same side, but such are probably suspicious. 
 
 The thalami optici are improperly named, as they do not give 
 origin to the optic nerves. These may be traced to the anterior 
 corpora quadrigemina, pressure or disease of which produces 
 blindness, and which waste if the nerve wastes. c 
 
 If the fifth pair, which gives sensibility to the face, is divided, 
 the eye, nose, tongue, lose their sense of touch, — ordinary sen- 
 
 a Anatomie des systemes nerveaux des animaux a vertebres, t. ii. p. 673. 
 
 b Magendie, Precis de Physiologic, t. i. p. 63. sq. 
 
 c On the optic nerve consult Gall, Anatomie et Physiologie, &c. t. i. p. 113. sqq. 
 
 S S 
 
262 
 
 OF SIGHT. 
 
 sibility, — in common with the skin, and are not excited by me- 
 chanical or acrid stimulus as Jbefore. d In this experiment, the 
 - pupil becomes greatly contracted in rabbits and guinea-pigs, 
 and dilated in cats and dogs. e The retina has very little ordinary 
 sensibility, as Magendie showed, by pricking and tearing it with 
 little or no pain ; whence contraction of the pupil does not follow 
 the application of any stimulus excepting light. The third pair, 
 which is a nerve of motion, supplies, in common with the fifth pair, 
 the iris, and therefore, as Mr. H. Mayo has shown, division of 
 it, at least in cats and pigeons, causes dilatation of the pupil, like 
 division of the optic nerve ; the dilatation arising in the former case 
 from the cerebral influence being no longer conveyed, and in the 
 latter from the cerebral influence being no longer excited. On 
 stimulating the ocular end of the third pair, divided in pigeons, 
 after removing the brain, the iris suddenly acts. f 
 
 d Magendie, 1. c. 
 
 e Magendie, 1. c. Mr. Mayo says, that, after death, in the cat and pigeon the 
 pupil is always dilated, and in the rabbit contracted. Outlines , &c. p. 296. 
 
 f Mayo, l.c. p.294. 
 
263 
 
 SECT. XVIII. 
 
 OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 283. We have seen that the nerves perform two offices 
 (220) — the one of feeling, the other of moving. The former 
 we have already considered ; we shall now say something with 
 respect to the latter. 
 
 284. All the motions of the body may be divided into 
 voluntary arid involuntary. 
 
 The pulsation of the heart, and the peristaltic motion of 
 the intestines and other viscera, are commonly adduced as 
 instances of involuntary motion. 
 
 The action of by far the greater number of the other 
 muscles is voluntary. 
 
 Respiration, sneezing, the tension of the membrana tympani, 
 and the action of the cremaster, are regarded by some as be- 
 longing to the former class ; by others, to the latter ; and by 
 others, as of a mixed nature. 
 
 285. If this division is narrowly examined, it will be found 
 embarrassed by so many difficulties that the limits of each 
 class cannot well be determined. 
 
 For, on the one hand, few functions can be termed truly 
 involuntary, especially if we consider the connection of the 
 imagination and passions with the will. 
 
 Again, on the other hand, there are few voluntary motions 
 that may not be rendered involuntary by the force of habit, 
 whose influence upon our animal motions is immense. 
 
 286. Of the latter description are those muscular motions 
 which, although generally voluntary, take place, under certain 
 circumstances, without the knowledge of the mind, or even in 
 opposition to its endeavours. 
 
 s 4 
 
264 
 
 OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 Thus we wink involuntarily, if a friend suddenly moves his 
 finger towards one of our eyes, though it does not come in 
 contact : and the ring finger generally bends if we bend the 
 little finger. 
 
 We often unconsciously move our limbs, even while sleeping 
 soundly. 
 
 On the contrary, some muscles which are almost always 
 obedient to the will, cease, under some circumstances, to be 
 so : an instance of this exists in the difficulty which we ex- 
 perience in attempting to move the hand and foot of the same 
 side in different directions, and in all those motions which, 
 although voluntary and perfectly easy if produced separately, 
 are found very difficult if attempted together. 8 
 
 287. Among those motions which are supposed to be 
 perfectly involuntary, no one is free from exception, as far 
 as we know, excepting the spasms of the uterus during 
 labour. b 
 
 With respect to the motion of the heart, we have the in- 
 dubitable testimony of Drs. Baynard and Cheyne, that they 
 saw the celebrated case of the English officer who could stop 
 the motion of his heart and arteries at pleasure. c (A) 
 
 There is no question that the pulsation of the heart and 
 arteries may be accelerated or retarded by the varied state of 
 respiration. d 
 
 Rumination shows that the action of the stomach may be 
 voluntary, and I myself once distinctly found it so, in a man 
 who had the power of ruminating. 
 
 Although the motion of the iris is involuntary in most per- 
 sons, I am credibly informed that some have been able, by a 
 
 8 Consult Winslow, Mem. de V Acad, des Sciences de Paris, 1739. 
 b That the action of even the uterus in delivery is partly voluntary in some 
 ■warm-blooded animals, is shown in birds when sitting, which, if deprived of their 
 eggs, are well known to lay others in succession. 
 c Cheyne, Treatise on Nervous Diseases, p. 307. sq. 
 
 d See Sam. Lath. Mitchill, On the Gaseous Oxyd ttf Azote, &c. New York, 
 1795. 12mo. p. 26. 
 
 Also Leop. Caldani, Memorie della Accademia di Mantova, t. i. 1795. p. 115. 
 
OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 265 
 
 considerable effort, to subject it to the will, and contract the 
 pupil in a weak light. 
 
 And the motions commonly called involuntary, which be- 
 come voluntary in some particular individuals, especially if 
 aided by attention and liveliness of imagination, are very 
 numerous. e 
 
 Thus I have seen some able to produce, at any time, a 
 spasmodic horripilation of the skin, by representing some un- 
 pleasant sensation to their imagination. 
 
 Others have had the power of exciting local sweat in the 
 hands, &c. f (B) 
 
 288 . This may, perhaps, be explained on the principle of 
 sensorial reaction ( 56 ), which may be produced by imagina- 
 tion — a mental stimulus, as easily as by a corporeal stimulus 
 acting upon the sensorium ( 52 ). Many phenomena accord 
 admirably with this explanation ; v. c. the various causes of 
 the erection of the penis, and of the flow of saliva. 
 
 289 . The voluntary motions are the distinguishing charac- 
 teristics of the animal from the vegetable kingdom. For no 
 plant has been discovered procuring for itself food by means 
 of voluntary motion ; nor any animal incapable of locomotion, 
 or at least of procuring sustenance by the voluntary motion of 
 individual members. 
 
 290 . In ourselves, these motions afford a striking proof of 
 the intimate harmony w'hich subsists between the body and 
 the mind, and is demonstrated in the rapid and various mo- 
 tions of the fingers of a good performer on the harp, and of 
 the vocal organs whenever we speak. s 
 
 • See the Rapport des Commissaires charges par le Roi de Vexamen du Mag* 
 netisme Animal, written by J. Sylv. Bailly, a man worthy of a better fate. Paris, 
 1784. 4to. p. 16. 
 
 f See v. c. T. Bartholin, Act. Hafniens. 1676. vol. iv. p. 191. 
 
 8 A person playing on the harp, dancing, and singing, at the same time, 
 exercises about three hundred muscles at once. G. Ent, Animadv. in Thrustoni 
 diatribam, p. 130. 
 
266 
 
 OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) “ Colonel Townshend, a gentleman of excellent natural 
 parts, and of great honour and integrity, had for many years 
 .been afflicted with a nephritic complaint, attended with con- 
 stant vomitings, which had made his life painful and miser- 
 able. During the whole time of his illness he had observed 
 the strictest regimen, living on the softest vegetables and lightest 
 animal foods, drinking asses’ milk daily, even in the camp; 
 and for common drink Bristol water, which, the summer before 
 his death, he had drunk on the spot. But his illness increasing 
 and his strength decaying, he came from Bristol to Bath in a litter, 
 in autumn, and lay at the Bell Inn. Dr. Baynard and I were 
 called to him, and attended him twice a day for about the space 
 of a week, but his vomitings continuing still incessant and obsti- 
 nate against all remedies, we despaired of his recovery. While 
 he was in this condition, he sent for us early one morning ; we 
 waited on him with Mr. Skrine his apothecary ; we found his 
 senses clear and his mind calm ; his nurse and several servants 
 were about him. He had made his will and settled his affairs. 
 He told us he had sent for us to give him some account of an odd 
 sensation he had for some time observed and felt in himself, which 
 was, that composing himself, he could die or expire when he 
 pleased, and yet by an effort, or somehow, he could come to life 
 again ; which it seems he had sometimes tried before he had sent 
 for us. We heard this with surprise ; but as it was not to be ac- 
 counted for from now common principles, we could hardly believe 
 the fact as he related it, much less give an}' account of it ; unless 
 he should please to make the experiment before us, which we 
 were unwilling he should do, lest in his weak condition he might 
 carry it too far. He continued to talk very distinctly and sensibly 
 above a quarter of an hour about this (to him) surprising sen- 
 sation, and insisted so much on our seeing the trial made, that we 
 were at last forced to comply. We all three felt his pulse first : 
 it was distinct, though small and thready, and his heart had its 
 usual beating. He composed himself on his back, and lay in a 
 still posture some time ; while I held his right hand, Dr. Baynard 
 laid his hand on his heart, and Mr. Skrine held a clean looking- 
 glass to his mouth. [ found his pulse sink gradually, till at last I 
 could not feel any by the most exact and nice touch. Dr. Bay- 
 
OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS* 
 
 267 
 
 nard could not feel the least motion of his heart, nor Mr. Skrine 
 the least soil of breath on the bright mirror he held to his mouth ; 
 then each of us by turns examined his arm, heart, and breath, but 
 could not by the nicest scrutiny discover the least symptom of 
 life in him. We reasoned a long time about this odd appearance 
 as well as we could, and all of us judging it inexplicable and un- 
 accountable ; and finding he still continued in that condition, we 
 began to conclude that he had indeed carried the experiment too 
 far, and at last were satisfied he was actually dead, and were just 
 ready to leave him. This continued about half an hour, by nine 
 o’clock in the morning, in autumn. As we were going away, we 
 observed some motion about the body, and upon examination, 
 found his pulse and the motion of his heart gradually returning : 
 he began to breathe gently, and speak softly : we were all 
 astonished to the last degree at this unexpected change, and after 
 some further conversation with him and among ourselves, went 
 away fully satisfied as to all the particulars of this fact, but con- 
 founded and puzzled, and not able to form any rational scheme 
 that might account for it. He afterwards called for his attorney, 
 added a codicil to his will, settled legacies on his servants, re- 
 ceived the sacrament, and calmly and composedly expired about 
 five or six o’clock that evening. Next day he was opened (as he 
 had ordered) : his body was the soundest and best made I had 
 ever seen ; his lungs were fair, large, and sound ; his heart big and 
 strong, and his intestines sweet and clean ; his stomach was of a 
 due proportion, the coats sound and thick, and the villous mem- 
 brane quite entire. But when we came to examine the kidneys, 
 though the left was perfect!}' sound and of a just size, the right 
 was about four times as big, distended like a blown bladder, and 
 yielding as if full of pap ; he having often passed a wheyish liquor 
 after his urine, during his illness. Upon opening this kidney, we 
 found it quite full of a white chalky matter, like plaster of Paris, 
 and all the fleshy substance dissolved and worn away, by what T 
 called a nephritic cancer. This had been the source of all his 
 misery ; and the symptomatic vomitings from the irritation on the 
 consentient nerves, had quite starved and worn him down. I have 
 narrated the facts, as I saw and observed them, deliberately and 
 distinctly, and shall leave to the philosophic reader to make what 
 inferences he thinks fit ; the truth of the material circumstances 
 I will warrant.” 
 
 (B) Those muscles, I conceive, are called voluntary, which we 
 
268 
 
 OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 have ordinarily the power of directly contracting : those involun- 
 tary, which we have not ordinarily the power of directly contract- 
 ing. These two definitions appear to me unexceptionable. 
 
 The latter does not contradict what is unquestionably true, — 
 that we can indirectly affect involuntary muscles, as the heart or 
 stomach, by thinking of certain objects, and thus exciting certain 
 emotions ; nor does the former contradict another truth, — that 
 voluntary muscles often contract without or against our will. 
 And this leads me to remark, that the respiratory muscles deserve 
 the epithet voluntary as much as any in the body, for we directly 
 contract them : h we feel an uneasy sensation in the chest from 
 the retardation which occurs to the blood, and we inspire to 
 remove it; the uneasiness being removed, our effort ceases, and 
 expiration spontaneously ensues. It is true that respiration con- 
 tinues while we are asleep, and that the uneasiness is so great that 
 we are forced to inspire. But the same is true of all voluntary 
 muscles. If you irritate any part of a person asleep, an effort 
 of some kind is made to withdraw from the source of uneasiness, 
 and people turn in their sleep when uncomfortable ; fowls perch 
 on one leg, voluntarily contracting their claws before they go to 
 sleep, and remain thus supported till they awake ; somnambulists 
 can unconsciously perform astonishing muscular movements ; and 
 while awake, we often continue walking, or performing other actions, 
 while our minds are totally absorbed in reflecting, and give no 
 perceptible attention to our corporeal actions. If you cause 
 strong pain or titillation in a person awake, he will be compelled, 
 whatever restraint he may attempt upon himself, to cry out or 
 laugh, and to make an effort to remove it by motion of some part, 
 as forcibly as he is compelled to remove the uneasiness in the 
 chest by inspiration ; and while history records examples of Chris- 
 tians and heathens so resolute as to remain motionless and silent, 
 by the force of their faith or innocence, or their contempt for 
 their persecutors, in the midst of fire till they were consumed ; 
 we read of suicides so determined as to have accomplished their 
 purpose by merely holding their breath, when deprived of access 
 to instruments of destruction. * 
 
 6 This is the opinion of Haller, and ably defended by him, El. Physiol, t. iii. 
 lib. viii. § 18. 
 
 1 “ Servus barbarus, cum vehementi ira concitatus, mortem sibi consciscere 
 decrevisset, prostratus humi, respirationeque cohibita, longo tempore immobili* 
 
OF THE VOLUNTARY MOTIONS. 
 
 269 
 
 erat ; postea vero paululum volutatus, hoc pacto mortuus est. ” Galen, De Nat. 
 Muse. lib. ii. c. 6. 
 
 A robber named Coma, when taken before the consul Rupilius, is said by 
 Valerius Maximus to have so destroyed himself. “ Let others, says the his- 
 torian, sharpen the sword, mix the poison, take the rope, look for precipices,” — 
 “ nihil horum Coma, sed intra pectus inclusa anima, finem sui reperit.” Lib. ix. 
 cap. xii. externa. 1. 
 
 Few can have so much determination ; and, indeed, success can rarely follow 
 this attempt at suicide, because, as soon as the brain begins to suffer, the effort 
 must decline, and the effects cease. Still, from general or partial tenuity of the 
 vessels of the head, such congestion may readily occur as may occasion rupture ; 
 and suicide of this kind is therefore by no means impossible. I have known the 
 sinuses rupture under strong muscular exertions. 
 
 Dr. Georget mentions that a M. Bourdon has lately made some experiments 
 upon himself, from which it appears that a person may commit this kind of 
 suicide. De la Pliysiologie du Systeme Nerveux, &c., t.i. p.387. 
 
270 
 
 SECT. XIX. 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 291. The immediate organs of by far the greater number 
 of our motions are the muscles , which form the greatest bulk 
 among all the similar parts. 
 
 292. They abound in azote more than other similar animal 
 parts, a and the departure of this principle from its combin- 
 ation with hydrogen and carbon that exists during health, 
 entirely converts them, under particular morbid affections, b 
 and after death, c into an adipocerous substance, somewhat 
 resembling soap or spermaceti. (A) 
 
 293. The muscles are distinguished from other similar 
 parts chiefly by two characteristic features, the one derived 
 from their structure, the other from their singular vital 
 powers. 
 
 294. Their fleshy structure is formed of moving fibres, sui 
 generis , and of a very faint red colour, and every muscle may 
 be resolved into fibrous bands, these into bundles of fibres, 
 and these again into very fine fleshy fibres and fibrils. 
 
 295. Every muscle possesses a covering of cellular mem- 
 brane, d which is so interwoven with its substance as to sur- 
 round the bands, the bundles, and even each particular fibre 
 and fibril. 
 
 1 Sass, Dissertation quoted already at parag. 206. 
 
 b For instance, in Elephantiasis. Consult Ph. Gabr. Hensler, Vom abend- 
 landischen Aussatze in Mittelalter, p. 316. 
 
 Accurately described examples of similar changes in other affections may be 
 found in Hedendaagsche Lettcr-Oefeningen, t. iv. P. ii. p. 45. 
 
 And in the Memories de Mathematique, $-c. presentes a V Acad, des Sciences de 
 Paris, t. vii. p. 301. 
 
 c See Thouret, Journal de Physique, t. xxxviii. p. 255. 
 
 G. Sm. Gibbes, Phil. Trans. 1794. p. 169. 
 
 d See Ad. Murray, De Fascia Lata. Upsal. 1777. 4to. 
 
OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 271 
 
 296. Every part of the muscles is amply supplied with 
 blood-vessels and nervous threads. The latter appear to 
 deliquesce into an invisible pulp, and unite intimately with 
 the muscular fibres : the former are so interwoven with the 
 fibres, that the whole muscle is red, and acquires its own pale- 
 ness (294?) only by being washed. 
 
 297. Most muscles terminate in tendons, e which are 
 fibrous f parts, but so different in colour, texture, elasticity, 
 &c., as to be readily distinguished from muscles : thus dis- 
 proving the opinion of some, — that the tendinous fibres 
 originate from the muscular. This error arose chiefly from 
 the circumstance of the muscles of infants containing a greater 
 number of fleshy fibres, in proportion to the tendinous, than 
 those of the adult. 
 
 298. The other exclusive character of muscles (293), is 
 the irritability of Haller, g the notion of which, and its differ- 
 ence from contractility, we formerly explained (41), but shall 
 now prosecute farther. 
 
 299. This irritability, muscular power, or vis insita or 
 propria, is bestowed upon all muscular parts, but in very 
 different degrees . 11 
 
 e See Fourcroy, Memoires de V Academie des Sciences de Paris, 1785. p.392.; 
 and 1786. p. 38. 
 
 f Albinus, Annotat. Academ. 1. iv. tab. v. fig. 2. 
 
 E I thus distinguish it, not because the luminary of the Gottingen school first 
 discovered it, for he repeatedly bestowed praises upon the opinions entertained 
 with regard to it by his predecessors from the time of Glisson, but because he 
 first investigated it as it deserved, illustrated it, enlarged the knowledge of it by 
 numerous living dissections, and demonstrated the great power and influence of 
 the doctrine, thus remodelled, upon the animal economy. I have also another 
 reason, viz. to distinguish it from the irritability of the truly meritorious Gaubius, 
 who applied the same term to the morbid sensibility of the living solid. 
 
 11 See Haller on the irritable parts of the human body. Comment ar. Soc. Sc. 
 Gotting. t. ii. 
 
 And Nov. Commenlar. Gotting. t. iv. 
 
 Among innumerable other writers on the same subject, suffice it to quote the 
 following : — 
 
 Zimmerman, Be irritabilitate. Gott. 1751. 4to, 
 
 Oeder, on the same. Copenhagen, 1752. 4to. 
 
272 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 300. The highest order are the hollow muscles which per- 
 form the vital and natural functions, and especially the heart 
 ( 1 24?), whose internal surface enjoys a very lively and perma- 
 nent irritability. 
 
 Next to the heart follows the intestinal canal, particularly 
 the small intestines, which, in warm-blooded animals, contract 
 after the heart has ceased to show signs of irritability. 
 
 Next the stomach. 
 
 Then the urinary bladder, &c. 
 
 Among the other muscles, the fibres of the tongue display 
 the greatest irritability (135), then the respiratory muscles, 
 v. c. the diaphragm, the intercostals, the triangularis sterni. 
 
 Then follow the remaining muscles. 
 
 Less, but still, however, some, exists in the arteries. (128) 
 
 Also in the venous trunks contained in the thorax. (95) 
 
 Still less, if it deserve the name of irritability, in the other 
 blood-vessels. (132) 
 
 301. Haller, the great arbitrator in the doctrine of irrita- 
 bility, has ascribed it improperly (40.58. sq.), we think, to some 
 parts possessed indeed of contractility , but in which we have 
 never been able to detect genuine irritability. 
 
 Such are the lacteals, glands, gall-bladder, uterus, the 
 dartos, and the penis. (B) 
 
 And others, with no less impropriety, bestow it upon the 
 iris, the external surface of the lungs, &c. in which it no more 
 exists than in the cellular membrane and those parts which 
 are composed of it, — the common integuments, membranes 
 of the brain, pleura, peritonaeum, periosteum, medullary 
 membrane, tendons, aponeuroses, &c. or in the proper paren- 
 chyma of the viscera, (20) — of the liver, spleen, kidneys, 
 secundines, the brain, and the rest of the nervous system, 
 
 J. Eberh. Andres, on the same. (Prses. Ph. Fr. Gmelin.) Tubing. 1758. 
 4to. 
 
 Some others have been already mentioned. 
 
 As well as three entire Collections of Writers, parag. 210. 
 
OP MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 273 
 
 every one of which parts is destitute alike of muscular fibre 
 and of what is peculiar to it, — irritability. 
 
 302. As we find muscular irritability sometimes confounded 
 with the contractility of the mucous web ; so, on the other 
 hand, some eminent men, particularly in modern times, have 
 attributed it to the nervous energy 
 
 Now, although we cannot deny the influence of the nerves 
 upon the muscles, most strikingly shown of late (225) by the 
 experiments of the celebrated Galvani and others, and although 
 no muscular fibril, however minute, can be found absolutely 
 destitute of nervous pulp, we are not on this account to assert 
 that irritability is not a power sui generis , as clearly different 
 from the nervous energy as from contractility. For parts 
 not muscular are not irritable, however abundantly they may 
 be supplied with nerves, as the corium, the numerous nervous 
 viscera ; and the muscular texture alone exhibits the genuine 
 phenomena of irritability. So that from the force of these 
 united arguments, to omit many others, it appears more just 
 to assign these phenomena to the muscular fibre alone, than 
 to ascribe them to the nerves which are common to so many 
 other parts, but do not in these excite the faintest sign of 
 irritability. We say nothing of many weighty arguments 
 derived, for instance, from the facts, — that no proportion 
 exists between the degree of irritability and the number of 
 nerves in any part, — that one of these descriptions of vital 
 powers is often very energetic, while the other is languid in 
 the same individual, according to national, morbid, or more 
 especially to sexual variety, &c. (C) 
 
 303. The nerves exert their influence upon the muscles, as 
 remote or exciting causes of their action, but by no means as 
 
 1 To this point chiefly relate the celebrated disputes respecting the influence 
 of nerves upon the motion of the heart, and the modus operandi of opium upon 
 the heart and nerves. 
 
 Consult, besides other distinguished authors already quoted, 
 
 Rob. Whytt, Essay on the Vital and other Involuntary Motions of Animals. 
 Edinb. 1751. 8vo. ; and more at large in his Works, ib. 1768. 4to. 
 
 J. Aug. Unzer, Erste Griinde einer Physiologie der eigentlichcn thierischen Natur 
 thierischer Kor'yer. Leipzig. 177 l . 8vo. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 the proximate or efficient, which is the inherent irritability of 
 the muscles. 
 
 The passions, v. c. act upon the sensorium, and this upon 
 the nerves of the heart, so as to excite its irritability, which 
 produces palpitation and other anomalous motions. 
 
 The will acts upon the sensorium, and this re-acts upon the 
 nerves of the arm, which excite muscular motion, as remote 
 causes : but the proximate cause is the irritability of the 
 muscles themselves. 
 
 304 . With this distinction of the two causes of muscular 
 motion, the result of those experiments exactly correspond 
 which have been so frequently made by dividing or tying the 
 nerves. k Paralysis ensued, but irritability continued vigorous 
 for a great length of time afterwards. 
 
 There have been cases where one limb was motionless 
 from paralysis but retained its sensibility, while the other 
 was insensible but still capable of motion . 1 Some persons 
 have had great pain in paralytic parts ." 1 
 
 305 . The true efficacy of the blood, so copiously afforded 
 to muscles, ( 296 ) in promoting their action, is not clearly 
 ascertained. 
 
 In the Stenonian experiment," indeed, paralysis of the hind 
 legs commonly follows the application of a ligature upon the 
 abdominal aorta . 0 (D) 
 
 But, after all, we are confirmed in the opinion formerly 
 mentioned, ( 125 ) — that the action of what are commonly 
 called voluntary muscles, depends less than that of the heart 
 upon the afflux of blood to the moving fibres ; and, on the 
 contrary, more than it, upon the influence of the nerves which 
 excite their irritability. 
 
 k J. H. v. Brunn, Experimenta circa Ligatures Nervorum in vivis Animalibus 
 institute. Gotting. 1753. 4to. 
 
 1 v. J. Stewart, De Systematis Nervosi Officiis. Edinb. 8vo. 
 
 nl C. H. Pfaff, iiber Thierische Elektricitut unit Jteizbarkeit. Leipzig. 1795. 
 8vo. p. 263. 
 
 n Stenonis, Elementor. 1 WyologUc spec. Florent. 1667. 4to. p. 86. 
 
 ° W. Courten, Phil. Trans. No. 335. p. 500. 
 
 Haller, Comment. Soc. Sc. Gotting. t. iv. p. 29S. 
 
OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 27 5 
 
 306. Besides these inherent powers common to all muscles, 
 there are some peculiar and adventitious, arising from figure, 
 situation, &c. and answering their object with perfect ac- 
 curacy. 
 
 307. From the former difference among muscles, they are 
 in general divided into hollow and solid. The first, as we 
 have seen, not directly subject to the will, belong more to the 
 vital and natural functions, and are, consequently, not to be 
 considered at present, while we are speaking of the voluntary 
 muscles, which belong to the order of animal functions. 
 
 308. Among the second, also, there is much variety. For, 
 not to allude to difference of size, there is great diversity in 
 the disposition of their bands and fasciculi, the direction of 
 their fibres, the proportion of the fleshy to the tendinous part, 
 their course, mode of insertion, &c. 
 
 309. The greatest number are long, and their fleshy bellies 
 terminate at each extremity in tendinous chords, inert, and 
 destitute of irritability, and fixed to the bones, which they 
 move in the manner of levers. 
 
 310. While a very few muscles are destitute of tendons, 
 such as the latissimus colli, an equally small number are not 
 inserted into bones ; such are the cremaster, as we generally 
 find it, the azygos uvulae, most of the muscles of the eye, &c. 
 
 311. The muscles endowed with those common (298. sq.) 
 and peculiar (306. sq.) powers, are thus prepared to perform 
 their actions, which also may be divided into common and 
 peculiar. 
 
 312. A property common to all muscles, and the immediate 
 consequence of their irritability, is to become shorter, more 
 rigid, and generally unequal, and, as it were, angular, during 
 contraction. 
 
 To attempt, with J. and D. Bernouilli and other mathe- 
 matical physicians, to reduce this diminution to a general 
 admeasurement, is rendered impossible, by the great dif- 
 ference, among other causes, between the hollow and solid 
 muscles in this respect, and between the solid muscles them- 
 
 t 2 
 
276 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 selves, v. c. between straight muscles (such as the intercostals) 
 and sphincters. 
 
 313. The peculiar actions of muscles (311) correspond 
 with their peculiar powers, and, consequently, vary so much 
 as to be referable to no general laws. 
 
 To cite one instance out of many, that action of certain 
 muscles is peculiar and anomalous, which seldom occurs 
 alone, but nearly always subsequently to, or simultaneously 
 with, the action of some of a different order. Such is that 
 of the lumbricales, when, during rapid motions of the fingers, 
 they follow the action of other muscles of the metacarpus and 
 fore-arm ; and of the lateral recti muscles of the eyes, the 
 adducens of either of which seldom acts, unless simultaneously 
 with the abducens of the other eye. 
 
 The commonly received law — that a muscle during its 
 contraction draws the more movable point of insertion to the 
 more fixed, must be considered, as Winslow wisely remarks, p 
 perfectly relative and subject to various limitations. Thus, 
 for example, sometimes the one point, and sometimes the 
 other, may be the more movable, accordingly as the united 
 action of many different muscles may render the opposite 
 more fixed. 
 
 And, on the other hand, although the action of the flexors 
 is generally so much stronger than that of their antagonists — 
 the extensors, that, when the body is at rest, the arms, 
 fingers, &c. are a little bent, this does not so much depend 
 upon the strength of the contraction of the flexors, as upon 
 the voluntary relaxation of the extensors for our own relief. 
 
 314. Every muscle has, moreover, a peculiar mechanism , q 
 adapted to the individual motions for which it is intended. 
 
 Besides the determinate figure of each, many other kinds 
 of assistance are afforded to their peculiar motions, v.c. by the 
 bursae mucosce, chiefly found among the muscles of the ex- 
 tremities ; the annular ligaments by which some are sur- 
 
 p Mem. de V Acad, des Sc. de Paris. 1720. 
 
 '* P. J. Barthez, Mouvelle Mechanique des Mouvemens de I' Homme et des Ani- 
 mau.r. Carcass. 1798. 4 to. 
 
or MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 277 
 
 rounded ; the fat in which most are imbedded ; the lymphatic 
 vapour around each; and, above all, by the conformation of 
 the skeleton, chiefly in regard to apophyses, condyles, and 
 articulations; nay, even whole bones, v. c. the patella, the 
 pisiform of the carpus, and the sesamoid bones ; r are destined 
 solely to facilitate the actions of certain muscles. 
 
 315. In this mode is compensated, or, at least, diminished, 
 that inevitable loss of power which necessarily takes place 
 from the conformation and stature of the whole system, as, 
 from the acute angle at which some muscles are inserted, or 
 the proximity of their insertion to the centre of motion, much 
 of that power is lost which would have existed, if their inser- 
 tion had been more remote or at a more obtuse angle. s 
 
 316. The human body, possessing about 450 muscles, 
 or upwards, according to sexual or individual variety, is 
 thus furnished with a double advantage, — with an extreme 
 agility of motion in particular parts and throughout the whole, 
 and with a surprising degree of strength and endurance of 
 labour. Both these are accomplished partly by the perfec- 
 tion of the muscles, which, like the perfection of the bones, 
 takes place at manhood ; and partly by habit and practice, 
 the power of the former of which in affording strength and 
 agility to the muscles, is demonstrated in rope-dancers, 
 leapers, runners, wrestlers, porters, savages, and the examples 
 of ancient nations. 1 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Muscle is essentially fibrine, but contains also albumen, ge- 
 latine, fat, salts, &c. and a peculiar substance termed osmazome, 
 
 r Hence, of all animals which I have dissected, the mole is supplied with the 
 most remarkable apparatus of sesamoid bones ; its anterior palmated feet, with 
 which it digs, have many of these bones, which greatly facilitate the action of the 
 brachial muscles. 
 
 s Gilb. Blane, On Muscular Motion, p. 51. 
 
 1 I have treated on this point at large, in the Medic . Biblioth. vol. ii, p. 407. 
 
 T 3 
 
278 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 upon which the peculiar taste and smell of soup depends, and which 
 is a yellowish brown substance, soluble in water and in alcohol 
 hot or cold, and not forming a jelly when concentrated. 
 
 (B) Mr. Hare affirms, that in the field of a moderately power- 
 ful microscope, a muscular fibre evidently appears made up of nu- 
 merous minute tubes, each exhibiting longitudinal striae, with 
 transverse bands ; the average diameter of each of these ultimate 
 fibres or tubes being of an inch. n Under contraction, the 
 portions between the transverse bands draw the latter nearer 
 together, and, swelling out, seem girted by them, so that the 
 whole fibre somewhat resembles a string of eggs. This appear- 
 ance, the writer supposes, led Dr. Croon to adopt the idea that the 
 ultimate fibre of muscle was constituted by a chain of bladders 
 filled with fluid. In fact Mr. Bauer thinks he discovers muscular 
 fibres to be chains of globules, x and Frevost and Dumas declare the 
 same from their microscopic observations, y The muscular tubes 
 are represented by Mr. Hare as filled with a matter which causes 
 them to appear solid, till it is liquefied by heat : Mascagni describes 
 the muscular fibre as a small cylinder, filled with glutinous matter . 3 
 The fibres of tendon are said to be really solid, of infinitely 
 smaller diameter, and disposed in a reticulated manner. Even 
 cellular membrane is said to consist of reticulated tubular fibres, 
 -j-5^ of an inch in diameter on the average, and exhibiting trans- 
 verse contractions . 3 Fontana, by means of glasses of moderate 
 powers, found tendon to be composed of bands, which again are 
 composed of solid spiral cylinders, of uniform size, and pursuing 
 a tortuous course. b He also asserts that the primitive muscular 
 fibre is marked by continual minute crispations and nodosities, and 
 that it pursues a straight course, but is solid like the tendinous. 
 Meckel and Rudolphi believe the primitive muscular fibre solid. 
 Dr. Hodgkin found it not to consist of globules, and to be marked 
 
 u Thomas Hare, A View of the Structure, Functions, and Disorders if the 
 Stomach, &c. p. 28. sq. 1821. 
 
 x Phil. Trans. 1818. J. F. Meckel has made careful microscopical observ- 
 ations, and finds the muscular no less than the nervous fibre, and the substance 
 of the liver, kidney, spleen, &c., to be globular, 
 y Annales de Chimie. t. xviii. 
 
 1 Prodromo. p. 97. 
 
 3 Hare, 1. c. p. 36. 
 b Sur les Poisons- t, ii. p. 230. sq. 
 
OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 279 
 
 by transverse lines, which he thinks distinguish muscular from all 
 other fibres, (supra, p. 3.) 
 
 Prevost and Dumas assert, that the muscular fibres, straight 
 while at rest, approximate each other at intervals, under con- 
 traction, so as to acquire a zigzag course ( N/\y^/ ), and 
 shorten the distance of their two extreme points. 0 They ascer- 
 tained satisfactorily, that during contraction no increase of 
 volume is acquired. If muscles, while the fibres are straight, 
 are stretched still more, as continually happens in the muscular 
 coats of cavities, the subsequent shrinking to the original dimen- 
 sions, is unattended by the zigzag appearance. Nervous fila- 
 ments, they also assert, go perpendicularly to the muscular 
 fibre at the very points where the angles are formed under the 
 zigzag contraction, and yet not to terminate there or unite with 
 the muscular fibres, but to return or anastomose with other nerves. 
 The approximation of the nervous filaments to each other is 
 thought to draw the muscular fibre? into angles, and thus be the 
 cause of muscular contraction. The approximation of the nervous 
 filaments is considered an electric phenomenon. Electricity will 
 effect it, and in whatever way it is effected, electric appearances 
 are said always to be discoverable. 
 
 Muscular power is nowhere more displayed than in some fish. 
 “ I have seen,” says Sir Gilbert Blane, “ the sword of a sword-fish 
 sticking in a plank which it had penetrated from side to side ; and 
 when it is considered that the animal was then moving through a 
 medium even a thousand times more dense than that through which 
 a bird cleaves its course at different heights of the atmosphere, 
 and that this was performed in the same direction with the ship, 
 what a conception do we form of this display of muscular 
 power !” d Muscular strength is proportionably much greater in 
 smaller animals. A flea can draw from seventy to eighty times 
 its own weight, whereas a horse cannot draw with ease more than 
 three times its own weight.” e 
 
 (C) Irritability is the power of contracting upon the application 
 of a stimulus, and ceases with life. It comprehends animal and 
 organic contractility (see Note B. Sect. VI.), and we must sup- 
 pose the lacteals, vessels of glands, gall-bladder, and dartos to be 
 
 c Journal de Physiologic, t. iii. 
 
 11 On Muscular Motion. Select Dissertations, p. 281. 
 
 e 1. c. Haller, El. Physiol. L. ix. S. ii. 
 
 T 4 
 
280 
 
 OF MUSCULAR MOTION. 
 
 possessed of it : the uterus will hereafter be shewn to have mus- 
 cular fibres, according to many anatomists, and their existence 
 will be rendered probable in the corpora cavernosa of the human 
 penis. f 
 
 (D) This paralysis does not show the irritability of the muscles 
 to be impaired ; they would doubtless contract immediately after 
 the experiment, upon the application of a stimulus, as readily as 
 they do after apoplexy. In torpid brutes, after division of the 
 nerves and removal of the brain, cold and warmth destroy and 
 restore the irritability of muscles, as usual. The ligatures act imme- 
 diately by depriving the nerves of the power of stimulating them ; 
 for a supply of arterial blood is necessary to the functions of the 
 nervous system, s and the ligature of the abdominal aorta, prac- 
 tised by Haller, cuts off this from the lower part of the spinal 
 marrow and what originate from it, — the nerves of the hind legs. 
 If venous blood is sent to the brain, we have seen that death 
 ensues, and the function of any part is arrested by forcing venous 
 blood into its arteries .* 1 
 
 Another source of paralysis must ultimately arise, — the loss of 
 irritability from the want of circulation in the muscle. 
 
 f Mr. Shaw has written a paper against the muscularity of the urethra. Med. 
 Chir. Tratis. vol. x. 
 
 K Le Gallois, Sur le Principe dc la Vic. 
 
 11 Bichat, lieckerches Physiologiques. 
 
281 
 
 SECT. XX. 
 
 OF SLEEP. 
 
 317. The faculties both of feeling and motion, possessed 
 by the nervous system whose history we have thus pursued, 
 are so fatigued by their exertions in the day, that rest is 
 necessary dui’ing the night to recruit them by means of sleep a 
 — the image of death. 
 
 318. Sleep is a completely periodical function, by which 
 the intercourse of the mind and body is suspended, and whose 
 phenomena, now to be traced, correspond, if any do, with 
 the supposition of a nervous fluid. 
 
 319. Besides other precursors of sleep, may be enumerated 
 a gradually increasing dulness of the external senses, and a 
 relaxation of most, especially of the long, voluntary muscles ; 
 a congestion of venous blood about the heart, and relief 
 afforded by yawning to the uneasy sensation thus produced ; 
 lastly, a curious kind of short delirium at the moment when 
 sleep is all but present. b 
 
 320. The phenomena of sleep amount to this, — that the 
 animal functions are suspended, and all the rest proceed more 
 slowly and inactively. For the pulse is slower, the animal 
 heat, caeteris paribus, somewhat diminished, perspiration more 
 sparing, digestion imperfect, and nearly all the excretions 
 
 a Consult, besides authors hereafter to be recommended, Er. Darwin, Zoo- 
 nomia. t. i. Sect, xviii. 
 
 And Wienholt, Heilkrafl des thierischen Magnetismus. vol. ii. p. 437. sqq. 
 
 Fr. Aug, Ammon, Commentatio jrrcemio regio ornata de somni vigiliai-unique 
 statu morboso . Gott. 1 820. 4to. 
 
 C. Fr. Heusinger, De variis somni vigiliarumque conditionibus morbosis. Isenac. 
 1820. 8 vo. 
 
 b De Fauw has some singular observations upon it in his Rccherches sur les 
 Jsgypttens et les Chinois. t. ii. p. 159. 
 
282 
 
 OF SLEEP. 
 
 (except that of the semen, and this, indeed, is rather unusual) 
 suppressed. (A) 
 
 321. The remote causes of sleep are evident . 0 To say 
 nothing of narcotics, it is induced by the expenditure of the 
 animal powers from previous fatigue or watchfulness, also 
 by habit, and by darkness, silence, rest, &c. which acquire 
 their somniferous powers in some measure from habit ; by 
 mild, continued, and uniform impressions upon certain senses, 
 v. c. the murmur of a rivulet or the view of a field of standing 
 
 o 
 
 corn agitated by the wind, (B) a previous meal, intense cold 
 applied to the surface, and other modes of deriving blood from 
 the head, as pediluvia, clysters, profuse hemorrhages, &c. 
 
 322. These remote causes may induce the proximate cause, 
 which, upon mature consideration, we think probably consists 
 in a diminished or impeded flow of oxygenated (arterial) 
 blood to the brain ; for that fluid is of the highest importance 
 during the waking state, to the re-action of the sensorium upon 
 the functions of the senses and upon the voluntary motions .* 1 
 
 The influx of blood is diminished by its derivation from 
 
 0 Although the lethargic winter torpor of the Alpine marmot, the cricetum, 
 and many other mammalia brutes, differs importantly from the periodical noc- 
 turnal sleep now spoken of, modern observations respecting this wonderful torpor 
 have shown, that, in their phenomena and remote causes, both correspond and 
 mutually elucidate each other. 
 
 Consult, for instance, Sulzer, Naturgeschichte des Hamsters, p. 162. 
 Spallanzani, Sur la Respiration. Geneva. 1803. 8vo. 
 
 Mangili, and C. Ul. Von Salis in the latter’s and Steinmiiller’s Alpina. t. iv. 
 1809. 
 
 Cuvier, Analyse des Travaux de la Classe Physique de V Institut. 1807. 
 a Those who wish to know and compare other opinions upon the causes of 
 sleep, may consult 
 
 M. de Grimaud, Memoire sur la Nutrition. Petersb. 1789. 4to. p. 194. 
 
 H. Nudow, Versuch einer Theorie des Schlqfs. Koningsberg. 1791. 8vo. 
 Steph. Gallini at the end of his Saggio d' Osservazioni sui nuovi progressi della 
 Fisica del Corpo Umajio. Padua. 1792. 8vo. 
 
 Mauduit, in Fourcroy, in the Medecine Fclairee, &c. t. iv. p. 273. 
 
 T. Chr. Reil, Funclioncs Organo Animce Peculiares. Hal. 1794. 8vo. p. 10S. 
 L,. H. Chr. Niemeyer, Materialien zur Frregungstheorie. Getting. 1 800. 8vo. 
 
 P-71. 
 
 Troxler, Versuche in der Organischen Physik. p. 435. 
 
 Brandis, Pathologie, p. 534. 
 
OF SLEEP. 
 
 283 
 
 the brain and congestion in other parts ; it is impeded by 
 the pressure of foreign matter upon the brain, whether from 
 serous or purulent collections, from depression of fractured 
 bones, &c. 
 
 This diminution of, or impediment to, the flow of blood to 
 the brain, causes a deficiency of water in the ventricles and a 
 collapse of them, upon which that acute and profound physio- 
 logist, David Hartley, whom we have already praised, ex- 
 plains the various phenomena of dreams. 6 
 
 Besides other phenomena which accord with this explana- 
 tion, especially those of hybernating mammalia, £ is a very 
 remarkable one which I witnessed in a living person whose 
 case was formerly mentioned, — that of the brain sinking 
 whenever he was asleep, and swelling again with blood the 
 moment he awoke. 
 
 This opinion is likewise strengthened by the production 
 of continued watchfulness from congestion of blood in the 
 head. (C) 
 
 323. The quantity of sleep depends much upon age, con- 
 stitution, temperament, &c. ; generally speaking, much sleep 
 is the attendant of weakness, as we find in infants born pre- 
 maturely, and in superannuated persons, and is a very frequent 
 source of fatuity and torpor. (D) 
 
 324. We awake refreshed with sleep ; and this return to 
 life is attended by the same phenomena as the approach of 
 sleep, — by gaping, to which is generally associated stretch- 
 ing, by some degree of dulness of the senses, &c. 
 
 325. The causes of waking correspond with those of going 
 to sleep. 
 
 The proximate is the more free return of blood to the 
 head. 
 
 The remote are (besides the pow r er of custom, which is in 
 this respect very great) various stimuli applied to the external 
 or internal senses, either immediately affecting the nervous 
 
 e Observ. on Man, vol. i. p. 48. 
 
 f v. c. Of the alpine marmot, of which Mangili treats in Reil’s Archiv. vol. viii. 
 p. 466. sqq. 
 
284 
 
 OF SLEEP. 
 
 system, as the distension of the bladder, or mediately, by the 
 intervention of the imagination, as in dreaming. 
 
 326. Dreams g are a sporting, as it were, of the imagination, 
 in which it recalls the ideas of objects formerly perceived, 
 especially of objects of sight, and appeal's to employ and 
 interest itself with them. 
 
 It has been disputed whether dreams are natural during 
 health. Some believe that sleep never occurs without them, 
 although they may escape our memory. h Others conceive 
 them the consequence only of derangement in some of the 
 abdominal viscera. 1 Very healthy adults have asserted that 
 they never dreamt. k 
 
 Dreams are generally confused and irregular, but occasion- 
 ally discover extraordinary marks of reason. 1 
 
 The power of corporeal stimulants is very great in pro- 
 ducing dreams ; v. c. of the semen in producing lascivious 
 trains of ideas, of excessive repletion in causing frightful ap- 
 pearances. There is an instance on record of a man, in 
 whom any kind of dreams could be induced, if his friends, by 
 gently addressing him, afforded the subject-matter. m This, 
 however, appears to be a preternatural state between sleeping 
 and waking ; as does also the truly diseased case of sleep- 
 walkers, and the very different, though morbid, affection of 
 somnambulists seized with what is termed magnetic ecstasis." 
 
 Locke and others have regarded all dreams as a species of 
 this mixed state. (E) 
 
 K Schulze, Psyckische Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 277. 2d edit. 
 
 h Consult Kant, Criiik der Urtheilskraft. p. 298. and Anthropologic, p. 80. 
 
 1 See F. Xav. Mezler, Von der Schivarzgallichten Constitution, p. 80. 
 
 fc Consult Locke, Essay concerning Human Understanding, vol. i. p. 74. 
 Lond. 1726. 8vo. 
 
 1 See for instance what Hollman has related of himself in this particular, 
 Pneumatolog. Psycholog. et Theol. Natural. Gotting. 1780. 8vo. p. 196. 
 
 m Beattie, Dissertations Moral and Critical. Lond. 1783. 4to. p. 217. 
 
 n G. Gotti. Richter, De Statu Micto somni et vigilice quo Dormientes multa 
 Vigilantium munera obeunt. Gotting. 1756. 4to. 
 
 Wienholt, 1. c. vol. iii. P. i. p. 10. 
 
OF SLEEP. 
 
 285 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Respiration also proceeds more slowly. The lessened 
 power of evolving heat is strikingly shown by the greater cooling 
 power of a cool air, and the facility with which persons take cold. 
 It is generally thought wise in this country to cover the head 
 preparatively to a nap in the day-time. Noxious agents would 
 appear more powerful during sleep. 
 
 (B) Gentle motion might also be mentioned as illustrative of 
 the effect of a mild and uniform impression on another sense. A 
 combination is of course still more effective, whence experience 
 has taught nurses to rock and otherwise gently agitate infants 
 while they hum them to sleep. 
 
 (C) It is certain that the supply of arterial blood to every part, 
 and especially to the nervous system, is requisite to its functions 
 and its life, and that in proportion to the activity of a part is the 
 activity of its supply of arterial blood. Analogy, therefore, 
 renders it extremely probable that, during the inactivity of sleep, 
 the brain, having less occasion for arterial blood, has a less 
 vigorous circulation than during the waking state ; and we know 
 that whatever diminishes the ordinary determination of blood to 
 the brain (321), or impairs the movement of the blood through it, 0 
 disposes to sleep, p But, although this be granted, it must be 
 
 ° As arterial blood when at rest acquires the venous character, and the slower 
 its motion the greater is its tendency to assume this character, it is evident that in 
 congestion of blood, by which is meant simply an unusual quantity of blood in 
 the vessels of a part, not flowing with its usual freedom, the part affected has not 
 its proper supply of perfectly arterial blood- Hence congestion in the head 
 must, even from this cause alone, produce drowsiness, to say nothing of the effect 
 of pressure on the cerebral fibres. 
 
 9 The phenomena of hybemating animals, which grow dull on the approach 
 of winter, and at length fall asleep, continuing so till the return of mild wea- 
 ther, and generally endeavouring to lose as little heat during the approaching cold 
 as possible, by coiling themselves up and getting into holes and warm situations, 
 covering themselves with leaves, &c. (and all the classes of animals, except birds, 
 contain species that have the faculty of living in this state), are precisely analogous, 
 though very different in degree, to those of common sleep. The sensibility and 
 all the functions are lessened, the temperature becomes nearly as low as that of 
 the surrounding medium, the circulation slow, respiration almost or quite im- 
 perceptible, and digestion suspended. This torpidity is produced by a deficiency 
 of external excitants, usually by cold and want of food, and, in the language of 
 
286 
 
 OF SLEEP. 
 
 viewed, not as the cause, but as a circumstance, or, in fact, a 
 consequence, of ordinary sleep. Increase the activity of an 
 
 Brown, is a state of direct debility, while our ordinary sleep is one of indirect 
 debility, — exhaustion. No structural peculiarity is discoverable, which enables 
 certain animals to exist in the torpid state. 
 
 Such animals at all times produce less heat, and vary more with the sur- 
 rounding medium, than others, so that Dr. Edwards in an hour cooled a 
 dormouse 36° by surrounding it with a freezing mixture, which caused a re- 
 duction of not more than 5° or 6° in adult birds and guinea-pigs exposed to it 
 for even a longer time. (1. c. p. 154. sq.) Some which do not hybernate re- 
 semble them in this inferior power ; mice, for example, which, therefore, at all 
 ages and seasons make for themselves nests, (p. 259.) On the other hand, hyber- 
 nating animals are not all equally deficient in the power of resisting the influence 
 of surrounding low temperatures ; dormice are the most so, marmots the least ; 
 so that animals which preserve their own temperature in low media, and those 
 which readily follow the surrounding temperature, are not widely separated, but 
 insensibly run into each other, (1. c. p. 257. sq.) to say nothing of the inferior 
 power of the newly-born among many of the former, and among all if born 
 before full time, and of the various degrees of this power in different adults, and 
 in all at different seasons of the year. (See note on animal heat.) Cold produces 
 sleep in all, and, if the sleep is indulged, death is the result in those which cannot 
 hybernate. Those which can, become more and more torpid, by the mere con- 
 tinuance of the same degree of cold. A very intense degree of cold has been 
 found actually to arouse animals in a state of torpidity, but the excitement of the 
 functions could not continue long, and death ensued, (p. 398.) It appeared 
 necessary that respiration should be suspended in an experiment of M. De Saissy, 
 who, by mere cold, could not produce torpor in a marmot till he closed the lid 
 of the vessel in which it was placed, (p. 154.) Hence, exposure to carbonic 
 acid, hydrogen, &c., in this state, was found by Spallanzani to have no ill effect 
 upon a torpid marmot. ( Rapports de V Air, t. ii. p. 207.) Yet respiration has 
 often seemed not to cease entirely. (See Dr. Reeve, Essay on the Torpidity of 
 Animals .) The blood has been found in a certain degree coagulated in torpid 
 bats. (Hunter, On the Blood, p. 25.) Cold, at any time of the year, will produce 
 the torpid state, but want of food must greatly assist in lessening the power of 
 maintaining temperature. On the other hand, a continual good supply of food 
 and warm temperature increases their power of evolving heat, and enables them 
 to resist the power of cold, so that by domestication, some cease to hybernate in the 
 winter. (1. c. p. 472.) Dr. Edwards found that the temperature of hybernating 
 animals sinks considerably during sleep, even in summer, (p. 473.) 
 
 Fish, and other cold-blooded animals, will survive an intense torpidity. “ The 
 fish froze,” says Captain Franklin, “ as fast as they were taken out of the nets, 
 and in a short time became a solid mass of ice, and by a blow or two of the 
 hatchet were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one 
 lump. If in this completely frozen state, they were thawed before the fire, they 
 recovered their animation.” “ We have seen a carp recover so far as to leap 
 
OF SLEEP. 
 
 287 
 
 organ, you increase its circulation ; diminish its activity, you 
 diminish its circulation. The alteration of circulation is usually 
 not the cause but the consequence ; necessary, indeed, to the 
 continuance of the altered degree of activity in the organ, but 
 not the cause. The degree of activity of any part, and the 
 degree of its circulation, are exactly and unalterably corre- 
 spondent. If the circulation through a part be mechanically 
 increased or diminished, the sensibility and activity of the part 
 will, doubtless, be proportionally increased or diminished. This 
 example occurs in hemorrhage. Frequently both are affected 
 simultaneously, — when diarrhoea renders the surface pale and 
 cold, both the blood is sent more sparingly to it, and the energy 
 of its vessels is diminished by the increase of energy in those of 
 the intestines. (Sect. VI. Note B.) But in ordinary sleep, the 
 diminished circulation appears only the consequence, for activity 
 is always followed by inactivity. Stimulate a muscle separated 
 from the body, it contracts, but it soon refuses to do so ; after a 
 little rest, it again contracts upon the renewal of the stimulus. The 
 case of the brain is analogous ; and when, after its daily activity, 
 
 about with much vigour, after it had been frozen for six-and-thirty hours.” 
 (. Journey to the Polar Sea, p. 248.) Izaak Walton ( The Complete Angler, p. 257.) 
 quotes Gesner for some large breams being put into a pond which was frozen the 
 next winter into one mass of ice so that not one could be found, and all swimming 
 about again when the pond thawed in the spring, — a thing “ almost as incredible,” 
 says the sentimental sinner, as Lord Byron calls him, “ as the resurrection to an 
 atheist.” 
 
 Insects easily bear torpidity from cold. In Newfoundland, for example. 
 Captain Buchan saw a frozen lake, which in the evening was all still and frozen 
 over, but, as soon as the sun had dissolved the surface in the morning, was in a 
 state of animation, owing, as appeared by close inspection, to myriads of flies 
 let loose, while many still remained “ infixed and frozen round.” Ellis also 
 mentions, that a large black mass, like coal or peat upon the hearth, dissolved, 
 when thrown upon the fire, into a cloud of musquitoes. ( Quarterly Review, 
 1821. April, p. 200.) Those insects which hybernate are not thought by Kirby 
 and Spence ( Entom . vol. ii. 460. sqq. ) to prepare for and enter into that state 
 solely from cold, &c , as they do so when the season comes round, although the 
 weather be as warm as previously, and do not before this period, though the tem- 
 perature chance to be as low as it usually is in the season of hybernation. 
 
 Some animals become torpid on being deprived of moisture. A common 
 garden snail falls torpid if put in a dry place, and may be revived at any time 
 by the application of a little water. Moisture has revived some animalcules after 
 a torpidity of twenty-seven years. Spallanzani, Opuscoli di Fisica animale e ve- 
 getable . 
 
288 
 
 OF SLEEP. 
 
 it falls asleep, the diminution of its circulation consequently 
 ensues. The influence of sleep upon the cerebral circulation is 
 shown by the head-ache and other marks of congestion which 
 follow too much sleep. Boerhaave mentions a physician who 
 took a fancy that sleep was the natural state of man, and so slept 
 eighteen out of the twenty-four hours, till he died of apoplexy. 
 The horizontal posture will not explain these ill effects, because 
 persons with spinal disease will lie a year upon the back without 
 them. 
 
 The notion of Hartley’s is a mere hypothesis, totally unworthy 
 of notice. Dreaming is imperfect sleep, — sleep in which some 
 portions of the brain are more or less active, and the circulation of 
 such portions is no doubt more active at the time than that of the 
 rest. 
 
 (D) In some diseases of the nervous system persons may pass 
 many days, and even entire weeks, with little or no sleep. I have 
 also heard a man declare he never took more than three hours 
 sleep during the most active period of his life. Sir Gilbert Blane 
 states, that General Pichegru informed him, that, “ in the course 
 of his active campaigns, he had for a whole year not more than 
 one hour of sleep, on an average, in twenty -four hours.” <i Sleep 
 varies so much in intensity that a dead sleep of an hour may be 
 an equal repose to an ordinary sleep of many hours. Sleep 
 appears much more profound at the beginning than towards the 
 end, and, I presume, because the fatigue is then greatest and 
 gradually lessens as sleep continues. Thus transpiration, we have 
 seen, is at first greatest, and gradually lessens as the body loses 
 its excess of fluid, and absorption gradually lessens as the body 
 becomes charged with fluid. 
 
 I believe that most adults require from six to eight hours sleep. 
 The longer the waking state is protracted the greater the ex- 
 haustion, whence one advantage of early hours, which is ex- 
 pressed by the adage, — one hour’s sleep before twelve is worth 
 two after. If a person rises proportionally late, he certainly can- 
 not suffer from this course, and if he suffers, it must be ascribed, 
 provided there is no debauch in the case, to his loss of the 
 influence of so much solar light and morning air. The oc- 
 currence of that delirium which is mentioned by Blumenbach, 
 at the near approach of sleep, when we do not fall asleep in a 
 
 '■ Medicnl Logic, p.83. 2d edit. 
 
OF SLEEP. 
 
 289 
 
 moment, and of which we are sensible by slightly recovering our- 
 selves, is a much surer sign that we are about to get to sleep than 
 the greatest drowsiness. The circumstance of our resisting sleep 
 as long as we can keep our eyelids open, and falling asleep, when 
 very sleepy, the moment we allow the eye-lids to drop, is very 
 striking, but explicable on the continuance of voluntary effort 
 in the former case, and cessation of it in the latter. 
 
 Independently of apoplexy, we have cases of extraordinarily 
 long sleep. A woman in Henault slept seventeen or eighteen 
 hours a day for fifteen years. r Another is recorded to have slept 
 once for forty days. s A man named Samuel Chilton, twenty-five 
 years of age, at Tinsbury^near Bath, once slept for a month. Tn 
 two years he slept again for seventeen days, at the beginning 
 of which period he took food, and had evacuations, but at length 
 his jaws fixed. When he fell asleep the barley was sowing, and 
 when he awoke he would hardly believe he saw it reaping. At 
 the end of a year he fell into such another sleep. His farther 
 history is not given. 1 
 
 (E) In sleep the action of the mind is suspended. But the 
 degree of suspension is extremely various. In ordinary sleep the 
 mind is sufficiently alert to feel unpleasant sensations and make 
 an effort to remove their causes; — whether to remove the un- 
 easiness of impeded circulation in the lungs by breathing, or to draw 
 away the hand when tickled. One or more faculties is often active, 
 and one idea associates with it another, constituting dreaming; 
 but the activity of the mind is partial, and though we are able 
 occasionally even to reason correctly in our dreams, we are not 
 sufficiently ourselves to discover the incompatibility of many 
 circumstances which we fancy. In a higher degree of activity, 
 we answer questions put to us, although often ridiculously, as our 
 deficiency of mental power prevents us from keeping our associa- 
 tions in a proper train ; and we sometimes even perform a regular 
 series of movements. Somnambulism is but imperfect and partial 
 sleep. 0 In it persons walk and even perform a variety of other 
 actions, without hearing or seeing, or consciousness of their situ- 
 ation, so that they fall over things placed in their way, or down a 
 
 r Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. i. » 
 s Plott’s Natural History of Staffordshire. 
 
 1 Phil. Trans. 1694. 
 u S all, 1. c. t, ii. p. 503. sqq. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 or SLEEP. 
 
 descent. They will sometimes write excellent letters, compose 
 good verses, and perform accurate calculations, in this state, and 
 on being roused into consciousness know nothing of what has 
 happened. This state generally occurs in sleep, but it occasion- 
 ally seizes persons awake, and is then termed ecstasis. x This is 
 by no means uncommon at the commencement or termination of 
 epileptic or hysteric paroxysms. In the opposite morbid affec- 
 tion, the patient is conscious of every thing around, but unable to 
 move, or give the least sign of life.y 
 
 Night-mare is a cerebral affection, imperfect sleep, a combination 
 of frightful fancies and fear, with an unusual loss of volition, so 
 that we cannot excite the common voluntary muscles to action and 
 with great difficulty move the diaphragm to inspiration. 
 
 Brutes dream as well as ourselves. Dogs start and bark in their 
 sleep. 
 
 The great feature of sleep is the deficiency of our active powers. 
 If we have any external sensation, or if the imagination riots on, 
 presenting trains of images to our internal senses, we reflect upon 
 them but weakly, make great mistakes, and however well we may 
 reason, or whatever corporeal movement we execute, the inferiority 
 of our active powers is conspicuous. 
 
 “ Fancy, — 
 
 Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams, 
 
 Ill-matching words, and deeds long past or late. ” 
 
 But that active power is not suspended, as Mr. Dugald Stewart 
 maintains in his theory of dreaming, a the simple fact of breathing 
 during sleep, to say nothing of the voluntary motions of the limbs 
 and speaking, and the acute, though circumscribed, reasoning 
 which occasionally occurs, is a sufficient proof. 
 
 By certain processes, such as passing the points of the fingers 
 at a short distance from a person, in a direction from the face down 
 the arms, trunk, and legs, with a degree of energy, the state of 
 
 x See examples in Dr. Pritchard’s work on Diseases of the Mervous System. 
 
 y A remarkable example is given in the Psychological Magazine of a young 
 lady thus taken for dead, and after the funeral hymns were sung, &c. dis- 
 covered to be alive by a sweat breaking forth at the moment she found the lid of 
 the coffin was about to be nailed down. See Chrichton on Mental Derangement. 
 
 z Paradise Lost, book v. 
 
 a Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. vol. i. 
 
OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 291 
 
 somnambulism or ecstasis may actually, we are told, be induced. It 
 is then termed magnetic , and the whole phenomena, animal mag- 
 netism. The patient becomes insensible to all around, but has the 
 inward senses augmented as in common ecstasis, — may sing well 
 for the first time in his life, and talk so unguardedly as to disclose 
 secrets. The external senses become so impenetrable, that a 
 pistol fired in the ear is not heard, nor melted wax dropped on 
 the body felt, nor ammonia applied to the mouth or nostrils per- 
 ceived, although the gentlest word of the operator ( magnetiser ) 
 is heard and answered, water similarly treated by him ( magne- 
 tised ) tasted and found ferruginous, and the gentlest touch of him 
 recognised. A delightful feeling of ease and lightness is expe- 
 rienced, the body grows warmer, and perspires freely, though some- 
 times anxiety, palpitation, slight convulsions and wandering pains 
 take place. On the first attempt these occur generally without 
 somnambulism, and it is only after many trials (and sometimes they 
 continue fruitless), that such a state is induced. On coming out 
 of the somnambulism, the person is unconscious of all that has 
 occurred ; but when thrown into it again, recollects the whole and 
 converses on it. The magnetiser can put an end to this state at 
 pleasure. Now some of this is very probable, as we often see the 
 most extraordinary nervous symptoms induced by mental causes, 
 and the testimony in favour of it, supported by the probability, 
 is too numerous and respectable to be doubted. 
 
 But this is not all. We are assured that matters often go much 
 farther ; that the patient can often be so highly magnetised, not 
 only as to taste magnetised water and recognise the magnetiser 
 by hearing and touch, but even to perceive objects of sight by the 
 organ of touch, so as to read a book by the epigastrum ; b nay more, 
 to discover a person in the next room, though a wall intervene; to 
 see the interior structure of his own body, and describe the seat 
 and appearance of a diseased organ, and point out the remedy, 
 though I am not aware of any anatomical discoveries having ever 
 been made, and presume that blood would never have been seen 
 flowing up the cava and down the aorta, unless Harvey had first 
 taught the circulation ; and I suppose the remedies always depend 
 upon the country and the period, — that leeches and ptisans would 
 be called for in France, calomel in the Indies, and iodine for bron- 
 
 b This reminds one 
 
 “ Of Rosicrusian virtuosis, 
 
 Who see with ears and hear with noses.” 
 
 U 2 
 
 Hudibrns. 
 
292 
 
 OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 chocele not before Dr. Coindet had made known its virtues. 
 Having never seen the magnetic phenomena, I have no right to 
 pronounce judgment : but before I can believe these wonders 
 I must see them. 
 
 The most zealous magnetist must allow that deception has 
 frequently been detected ; that women have appeared to be in so 
 deep a magnetic sopor that they have borne sinapisms and 
 melted wax without the least agitation of the countenance, and 
 yet the whole has been proved an imposture. The effects of 
 which none can doubt — Blumenbach says some are undeniable(225), 
 — one would at once ascribe in common language to the imagin- 
 ation. The magnetised person is generally a weak, delicate fe- 
 male ; the magnetiser strong and a male. Great earnestness and 
 energy must be manifested on his part ; repeated operations are 
 required before a high degree of magnetism occurs : not the least 
 effect is produced if the magnetiser is weak and the patient strong, 
 nor if the patient is incredulous ; while a mere look, or mere prox- 
 imity, without a single manipulation, is sufficient when the full 
 effects have been once attained on previous occasions. 
 
 Yet, to prove that there is something more than imagination, 
 we are assured that the magnetiser can succeed though shut in a 
 closet and the patient totally ignorant of what is intended. As 
 collusion is very easy, I must examine this point also myself before 
 I believe. Water, they not only say, can be magnetised so as to 
 taste chalybeate, but inanimate bodies made conductors. 
 
 Magnetism has been successfully applied to the cure of diseases 
 of excitability. It is said to have been discovered by Mesmer, 
 near the end of the last century, who, knowing that the magnet 
 was much employed as a remedy, and hearing from M. Hell, the 
 professor of astronomy at Vienna, that lie had cured himself by 
 magnetic plates of a severe cardiaglia, opened a house for curing 
 every disease in this way, and began to imagine the existence of an 
 universal magnetic power, distinct from that of the common 
 magnet, depending upon a fluid pervading all living and mineral 
 matter, and the source of all in art and nature. To throw this 
 fluid into persons, — to magnetise them, he manipulated as we 
 have mentioned, and employed other processes which are now 
 omitted. He travelled, performed many great cures, and often 
 failed ; was extolled and abused ; but such results appeared as 
 caused a commission of enquiry to be ordered by the government 
 of France. The whole was ascribed to imagination, and the matter 
 dropped. Of late the subject has been revived among some of 
 
OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 293 
 
 the best informed physicians of Germany and France, and a com- 
 mission is now sitting in Paris to enquire into it anew. Those who 
 ascribe all to imagination, consider the agitations and prophecies 
 of the priestess of Apollo, the ecstasies of Dervishes and Santons, 
 and of Shakers and Quakers, and the pretended miraculous cures of 
 all ages, from the days of Serapis of Egypt to those of the blessed 
 Paris of Paris, 0 as only of a piece with animal magnetism, showing 
 how strongly fear or enthusiasm will work upon the brain and 
 all the organs ; discover the expression magnetise in Paracelsus 
 and Van Helmont, and adduce a passage from Plautus to show 
 that manipulations were used in Rome to send persons to sleep. 
 Mercury, thinking of sending a person to sleep, says, — “ Quid si ego 
 ilium tractivi tangam ut dormiat.” Sosia replies, — “ Servaveris, 
 nam continuas has tres noctes pervigilavi.” d The hypothesis of a 
 magnetic fluid is relinquished by many of the most enlightened 
 magnetisers. e They assert the phenomena only. But by means of 
 this fluid, some believers explainwhy a person cannot tickle himself; 
 why, proverbially, when a friend is near, we think of him (“ talk of 
 the devil, &c.”) ; and why, at the moment of death, distant friends 
 have been said to see or hear the dying who happen to be 
 thinking intensely of them so as magnetically to influence them ! 
 
 c Such ecstasies, &c. and miracles were worked at his tomb, that the govern- 
 ment closed it, and forbad any more ! 
 
 “ De par le Roi, defense a Dieu 
 De faire miracle en ce lieu.” 
 
 d Ampliitryo, act 1. 
 
 Consult Lettres Physiologiques et Morales sur le Magnetisme Animate. Par 
 J. Amed£e Dupeau. Paris, 1826. 
 
 e A short and luminous account and defence of animal magnetism will be 
 found in Dr. Georget’s Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux, t. i. from p. 268 to 301. 
 1821. Drs. Hufeland, Treviranus, Oken, Kieser, Carus, &c., believe in it. 
 
 For a good and entertaining history of the magnetic phenomena as they ap- 
 peared in a patient at the Hotel Dieu in 1820, see Experiences Publiques sur 
 le Magnetisme Animal, faites d V Hotel Dieu de Paris. Par J. Dupotet, 3d edit. 
 
 1 826. The woman had gastritis and aortic aneurism, and is said to have de- 
 scribed the inner surface of her stomach as raw with red pimples, and perceived a 
 little pouch full of blood ! 
 
 For a complete history, see the Diction, des Sc. Med. article Magnetisme 
 Animate. The writer remarks, that in some Egyptian monuments, Anubis is 
 represented near the patient as a magnetiser, with one hand raised above the head, 
 the other on the breast, while behind the patient another figure stands with the 
 right hand elevated. See also Dr. Bertrand’s excellent treatise Du Magnetisme 
 Animal, &c. Paris, 1826. Though partly a believer, he ascribes all to imagination. 
 
 u. 3 
 
294 
 
 SECT. XXL 
 
 OF FOOL) AND HUNGER. 
 
 327 . As sleep repairs the loss of the animal powers, so 
 food repairs that of the natural, and supplies fresh elementary 
 particles in the room of those which are constantly wasting. 
 
 328 . We are most effectually induced to procure and take 
 food by calls of nature, different in kind, but tending to the 
 same end: on one hand, by the intolerable torment of hunger 
 and thirst ; and on the other, by the equally powerful allure- 
 ments of appetite. 
 
 329 . Some ascribe hunger to an uneasiness arising in the 
 stomach from its being empty and unoccupied ; others to the 
 mutual friction of its rugae ; others not only to the stimulus 
 of its fluids, now secreted in abundance, — of the saliva and 
 gastric juice, but to an acrimony which they acquire when 
 food is not taken in proper time. (A) 
 
 330 . Thirst appears referable both to a very unpleasant 
 dryness of the fauces, and to the particular stimulus of acrid 
 matters, especially of salts, taken by the mouth. It may be, 
 therefore, the consequence of excessive absorption in the 
 cavity of the mouth, such as occurs when the mother applies 
 her infant to the breast, or, what is not uncommon, when 
 venesection or purging have been ordered. Violent passions 
 frequently induce thirst. (B) 
 
 331 . The necessity of obeying these stimuli is greater or 
 less according to age, constitution, and especially according to 
 habit, and nothing can therefore be positively affirmed re- 
 specting its urgency ; but thus much is certain, that an healthy 
 adult, in whom all the calls of nature are felt in their usual 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 295 
 
 force, a cannot abstain from food a whole day without great 
 prostration of strength, nor scarcely beyond eight days with- 
 out danger to life. (C) 
 
 332. Although thirst is a violent desire, drink appears not 
 very necessary to life and health ; for many warm-blooded 
 animals, — mice, quails, parrots, &c. do not drink at all ; and 
 some individuals of the human species have lived in perfect 
 health and strength without tasting liquids. b (D) 
 
 333. It has been disputed whether our food, by which we 
 satisfy these stimuli, is derived more advantageously and the 
 more consistently with nature from the animal or from the ve- 
 getable kingdom . 0 
 
 334). Some contend that man is herbivorous, from the shape- 
 of his teeth, d the length of his intestines, e the difference be- 
 tween the structure of the small and large intestines, and 
 from the cells of the colon, &c. Rousseau ingeniously urges 
 the circumstance that woman is naturally uniparous and pro- 
 vided with two breasts. f To these arguments it may be 
 added, that some men have ruminated, — a power - peculiar to 
 herbivorous animals, (E) and that tame vegetable feeders are 
 easily accustomed to animal food, whereas carnivorous animals, 
 excepting the dog, can very seldom be brought to feed on ve- 
 getables. 
 
 The arguments of those who, with Helvetius,® regard man 
 as carnivorous, are derived from the conformation of his sto- 
 mach, the shortness of his ccecum, &c. 
 
 a Consult, among innumerable writers on long fasting, James Barthol. Bec- 
 carius, Commentar. instituti Bononiens. t. ii. P. 1. 
 
 And Flor. J. Voltelen, Memorab. apositice septennis hist. LB. 1777. 8vo. 
 b See G. Baker, Med. Transact, published by the Coll, of Physicians in London, 
 vol. ii. p. 265. sq. 
 
 c J. W. Neergaard, Vergleichende Analomie und Physiologie der Verdauungs- 
 werkzeuge der Sailgelhiere und Vogel. Berlin. 1806. P. 244. 
 
 d Gassendi, Letter to J. Bapt. v, Helmont. Opera. Florence. 1727. fob. 
 t. vi. p. 17. Al. Monro, Senr. Essay on Comparative Anatomy, p. 17. 
 e J. Wallis, Phil. Trans. No. 269. 
 
 f Sur VOrigine de V Inegalite parmi les Homines, p. 196. sq. 
 
 E De l' Homme, t. ii. p. 17. 
 
 u 4- 
 
296 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 335. More careful observation, however, proves that man 
 is not destined for either kind of food alone, but for both. 
 His teeth, particularly the molares, 11 (F) and the peculiar 
 structure of his intestines just alluded to, (G) hold a middle 
 rank between the same parts in the ferae and in herbivorous 
 animals. The mode in which the condyles of the lower jaw 
 are articulated with the temporal bones, demonstrates it in the 
 most striking manner. (H) 
 
 336. As the human race exists in more parts of the globe 
 than any other kind of animal, we should have been but ill 
 provided for, if we had been destined to subsist on either de- 
 scription of food alone ; whereas man now inhabits some 
 countries which afford either vegetable or animal food only. 
 
 337. Man is by far the most omnivorous of all animals, 
 capable not only of feasting on luxurious combinations de- 
 rived from each kingdom, but of subsisting with health and 
 vigour on nearly one kind of the most simple food. 
 
 Thus, to mention a very few instances, many at present 
 live on vegetables only, as the tubera of solanum (potatoes), 
 chesnuts, dates, &c. The first families of mankind most 
 probably subsisted for a long period merely on fruits, roots, 
 corn, and pulses. * 
 
 The nomadic Moors have scarcely any other food than 
 gum senega. k (I) 
 
 The inhabitants of Kamtschatka and many other shores 
 scarcely any other than fish. 
 
 The shepherds in the province of Caracas in South America 
 
 h The opinion of Broussonet is singular. He thinks the human molares 
 closely resemble the teeth of herbivorous animals, anil at the same time regards 
 the incisores and canini as allied to those of the carnivorous tribes : and, after 
 comparing the number of the molares with that of the other teeth, concludes that 
 the quantity of vegetable food intended for man is to the quantity of animal food 
 as 20 to 1 2. 
 
 But on this calculation it follows, that infants, who have four molares only 
 in each jaw, are destined to consume a larger portion of animal food than adults, 
 since the proportion of the molares to the other teeth is in them as 8 to 12. 
 
 * Consult my very dear friend Heyne, Opuscula Academ. vol. i. p. 366. sq. 
 k Adanson, Mem . de V Acad, des Sc. de Paris. 1778. d. 26. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 297 
 
 on the banks of the Oronoko , 1 and even the Morlachs m in 
 Europe, live almost entirely on flesh. 
 
 Some barbarous nations devour raw animals. This cannot 
 be denied to have formerly been the case with the Samojedes," 
 the Esquimaux, 0 and some tribes of South America. 1 * 
 
 Other nations are no less remarkable in their drink. 
 
 The inhabitants of many intertropical islands, especially in 
 the Pacific Ocean, can procure no sweet water, and instead 
 of it drink the juice of cocoa-nuts. 
 
 Others take only sea-water, and innumerable similar facts 
 clearly prove man to be omnivorous. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) If hunger arise from merely a sense of vacuity in the sto- 
 mach, why should it be increased by the application of cold to the 
 surface, and instantly by the deglutition of cold liquids, &c. ? 
 
 The explanation by friction of the rugae is equally unsatisfac- 
 tory ; because the friction of these, if it does really occur, cannot 
 be greater than the friction of the stomach against its contents 
 immediately after a meal, when the organ is in great action, but 
 at which time hunger does not exist. 
 
 Nor can the presence of the gastric juice explain the matter: 
 because, as every one knows, no sensation arises in any other 
 organ, which is not excrementory, from the peculiar stimulus of 
 its natural fluid, and I presume that this is the stimulus intended, 
 for the mechanical stimulus, from the bulk of the gastric juice, 
 occurs equally from the presence of food, which does not excite 
 hunger ; because if the hungry stomach is evacuated by vomiting, 
 as in sea-sickness, the appetite is even greater than before, when 
 
 1 Fil. Salv. Gily, Saggio di Storici Americana, vol. iv. p. 120. 
 
 m Gius. Ant. Pujati, Reflessioni sul vitto Pitagorico. Feltri. 1751. 4to. 
 
 n (De Klingstaedt) Mem. sur les Samojedes et les Lappons. 1762. 8vo. 
 
 ° Curtis, Phil. Trans, vol. Ixiv. P. ii. p. 381. 383. 
 
 p J. Winter in Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations of the English Nation , vol. iii. 
 p. 751. 
 
298 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 the sickness has ceased ; and because hunger often ceases after 
 a time, though the gastric juice still remains in the stomach, and 
 is probably more abundant than ever. 
 
 The supposition of an acrimony generated in the gastric juice, &c. 
 being a cause of hunger, is absurd. The fluid would be unfit for 
 its purposes, and would be more likely to destroy than produce 
 appetite. 
 
 Hunger has been attributed by some to a sympathy of the sto- 
 mach with a general feeling of want in the system. But hunger 
 is removed immediately that a due quantity of food is swallowed, — 
 long before the general system can have derived benefit from the 
 meal ; fowls are satisfied when their crops are filled, although 
 their food is not even ground, preparatorily to digestion, till it has 
 passed from the crop into the gizzard ; and ruminating animals leave 
 off eating before they begin to chew the substances with which they 
 have distended their stomachs. Again, persons unable to obtain food 
 in sufficient quantity, lessen their hunger by swallowing any unnu- 
 tritious and indigestible matter. The circumstance giving rise 
 to this opinion is the continuance of hunger, although food be 
 taken in abundance, in cases of scirrhus pylorus and enlarged me- 
 senteric glands. Here, it is urged, the hunger continues, because 
 the body receives no nourishment. But, in scirrhus of the pylorus, 
 vomiting soon follows the reception of food into the stomach, and 
 therefore this organ is reduced to the condition in which it was 
 previously, and the return of hunger is easily explicable. In dis- 
 eases of the mesenteric glands, there is in fact no obstruction to 
 the course of the chyle. They are found permeable (427), and 
 the continued hunger appears rather a part of the diseased state 
 of the chylopoietic viscera. Besides, many cases of imperfect 
 nutrition, from various causes, occur without any increase of ap- 
 petite : — and where there is an increase of appetite, the process 
 of digestion seems to proceed with unusual rapidity', so that the 
 stomach becomes empty sooner than in health — In continued ab- 
 stinence, although the system is daily more in want, hunger usually 
 ceases after a few days, whether from the stomach falling into a 
 state of relaxation, becoming distended with wind, or from other 
 circumstances. 
 
 If hunger arose from fatigue of the stomach, it should be 
 greatest immediately after tbe laborious act of digestion, and gra- 
 dually decrease ; but it on the contrary increases. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 299 
 
 Were irritation the cause, hunger should be greatest when the 
 stomach is filled with food. 
 
 On the whole, hunger may perhaps be regarded as a sensation 
 connected with the contracted state of the stomach. 
 
 It occurs when the stomach, being empty, must be contracted ; 
 and is increased instantaneously by a draught of cold liquid, which 
 cannot but contract the stomach and corrugate its inner coat ; 
 acids, bitters, and astringents, have the same effect, and from their 
 nature they may be supposed to act in the same way. Cold air 
 applied to the surface increases it, and, in all probability, by a 
 similar operation, for the impression of cold upon the skin excites 
 an attempt at evacuation in the urinary bladder, and when all 
 other means fail to induce the intestines to expel their contents, 
 or the uterus to contract after delivery, the affusion of cold water 
 so frequently succeeds, that the omission of the practice in obsti- 
 nate cases is highly censurable. It is diminished by heat and 
 every thing which relaxes. Again, it ceases immediately that the 
 stomach is filled, and thus the stomach dilated and all corru- 
 gation removed, and the more the contents of the stomach are of 
 a nature to be absorbed or passed into the duodenum, the sooner 
 it recurs. Distension of the stomach is universally acknowledged 
 to be incompatible with hunger; whence the proverb, — “ a. full 
 belly loathes the honey-comb.” 
 
 The Otomacs during the periodical innundation of the rivers of 
 South America, when the depth of the waters almost entirely pre- 
 vents fishing, appease their hunger for two or three months by 
 distending their stomach with prodigious quantities, a pound a day 
 and upwards, of a fine, unctuous, strong-smelling, yellowish-grey 
 clay, slightly baked, and destitute of all organic substance, oily or 
 farinaceous, <1 The savages of New Caledonia, in the Pacific Ocean, 
 in times of scarcity, do the same by eating a friable lapis ollaris, 
 consisting of equal parts of magnesia and silex, with a little oxide 
 of copper. The wolves, rein-deer, and kids of Siberia, when 
 pressed by hunger in winter, also devour clay or friable steatites. 
 The Kamschatkans sometimes appease their hunger by distending 
 their stomach with saw-dust, for want of something better. 
 
 Being, in this view, a sensation connected with a local state of 
 
 q Humboldt, Tableaux de la Nature, t. i. They become so fond of it, even 
 when well provided with sustenance, that they take a little, and are compelled 
 to tie their children’s hands to prevent them from devouring it. 
 
300 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 the stomach, it will be affected not only by whatever affects this 
 state, but by whatever affects also the sensibility to this state, and 
 therefore be subject to the common laws of sensation. Hence 
 uncivilized tribes enable themselves to traverse large tracts with- 
 out food by swallowing pills containing tobacco or opium. The 
 pain of all excessive muscular contraction is lessened by pressure ; 
 whence the uneasiness of hunger is lessened* by a belt fixed 
 tightly over the stomach, and some Northern Asiatic tribes place 
 a band there, and lace it behind with cords drawn tighter ac- 
 cording to the degree of the uneasiness. Thus, the state of the 
 stomach remaining the same, hunger may diminish from the 
 occurrence of other feelings which attract our attention more 
 forcibly, by passions of the mind, &c. : as is exactly the case with 
 all other sensations, even with those that are morbid. Under 
 strong attention of the mind to pursuits of either intellect or 
 passion, to delightful or painful sensation, all other feelings cease 
 to be felt, although really violent ; and frequently, from being 
 unattended to, do not recur. Passions, however, and the narcotic 
 pills of savages, may affect hunger, not only by increasing or 
 diminishing the sensibility to the state of the stomach, but b}^ in- 
 creasing or decreasing this state — the cause of the sensation. 
 
 (B) As hunger appears to depend upon the local condition of 
 the stomach, so does thirst more evidently upon that of the mouth 
 and fauces. Every consideration renders it probable that thirst is 
 the sensation of the deficiency of moisture in the parts in which it 
 is seated. Whatever produces this, either by causing the fluids of 
 the mouth and fauces to be secreted in small quantity or of 
 great viscidity, or by carrying off the fluid when secreted, pro- 
 duces thirst ; and vice versa. To be dry means to be thirsty, be- 
 cause the state is removed by directly wetting the parts, or by 
 supplying the system with fluid that they may be moistened by 
 their own secretions. Being a sensation, the same may be re- 
 peated in regard to it as was observed respecting hunger. Rage 
 or terror dry up the mouth and throat and cause violent thirst. 
 Thirst is only momentarily assuaged by wetting the mouth and 
 throat, because they presently grow dry again. Fluids must be 
 swallowed to be effectual, that they may be absorbed and the 
 parts thus preserved moist by constant secretion. 
 
 (C) Hippocrates says that most of those who abstain from food 
 for seven days, die within that period ; and if they do not, and are 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 301 
 
 even prevailed upon to eat and drink, that still they perish. 1 ' Sir 
 William Hamilton, however, saw a girl, sixteen years of age, appar- 
 ently not in bad health, who was extricated from the ruins of a 
 house at Oppido, in which she had remained eleven days without 
 food : an infant in her arms, but a few months old, had -died on 
 the fourth day, as the young are never so able to endure abstin- 
 ence. 8 A moderate supply of water lengthens life astonishingly. 
 Dr. Willan was called to a young gentleman who had voluntarily 
 abstained from every thing but a little water, just flavoured with 
 orange juice, for sixty days: death ensued a fortnight afterwards. 1 
 Redi cruelly found that of a number of starved fowls deprived of 
 water, none lived beyond the ninth day ; whereas one indulged 
 with water lived upwards of twenty. 11 If the water is not swal- 
 lowed, but imbibed by the surface or lungs, it may also prolong 
 life. Fodere mentions some workmen who were extricated alive 
 at the end of fourteen days from a cold damp cavern in which they 
 had been buried under a ruin. x 
 
 A hog, weighing about 160. lbs was buried in its stye under 
 thirty feet of the chalk of Dover Cliff for 160 days. When dug 
 out, it weighed but 40 lbs., and was extremely emaciated, clean, 
 and white. There was neither food nor water in the stye when 
 the chalk fell. It had nibbled the wood of the stye and eaten 
 some loose chalk, which from the appearance of the excrement 
 had passed more than once through the body, y 
 
 In abstinence equally great imbecility of mind takes place as 
 of body; extreme emaciation and cedema of the legs present a 
 frightful spectacle ; urine may still be secreted, but the alvine 
 discharge is greatly diminished or suppressed altogether ; the pain 
 of hunger ceases in a few days, 2 probably from relaxation of the 
 stomach through debility. But when hunger has ceased, though 
 no food has been taken, weakness and sinking at the pit of the 
 stomach are still felt. 
 
 r De carnibus. 
 
 s Phil. Trans, vol. lxxiii. p. 191. sq. 
 
 1 'Medical Communications , vol. ii. 
 
 u Osservaz. intorno agli anim. viventi. 
 
 x Fodere, Medecine Legale, t. ii. p. 285. 
 
 y Linncean Transact, vol. xi. See London Med. Journ. vol. xxxv. 1816. 
 
 2 Among many other accounts of starvation, some of these facts may be seen in 
 Captain Franklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Polar Sea, p. 465. sq. 427. 
 London, 1823 ; where the dreadful force of hunger is too truly illustrated. Our 
 
302 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 A poor diet, even of vegetable matter, sometimes gives rise to 
 symptoms of scurvy, a and famine is soon attended by epidemic 
 fever. 
 
 The torment of thirst increases until drink is procured or 
 moisture applied to the surface or inhaled : inflammation of the 
 mouth and throat and intense fever at length ensue. b 
 
 If abstinence is not forced upon the system, but is absolutely a 
 part of disease, it may, like suspension of respiration in morbid 
 states of insensibility, c and like immense doses of powerful medi- 
 cines in various diseased states, be borne with wonderful indiffer- 
 
 countrymen devoured their old shoes, and any scraps of leather they possessed, 
 (pp. 418. 429. 438. 479.) The putrid spinal marrow left in bones, picked clean 
 by wolves and birds of prey, was esteemed a prize, though its acrimony excoriated 
 the lips ; the bones were also eaten up after being burnt (p. 426.) ; great part of 
 a putrid deer was devoured on the spot (p. 421.) ; and to destroy, skin, and cut 
 up a cow, was the work of a few minutes, after which the contents of the stomach 
 and the raw intestines, were at once devoured and thought excellent, (p. 40".) 
 In the siege of Jerusalem and other ancient cities, we read of women driven by- 
 hunger to devour their offspring ; and Captain Franklin was assured near the 
 Saskatchawan, that men and women were then living, who had destroyed, and 
 fed upon the bodies of their own families, to prevent starvation in very- severe 
 seasons, (p.51.) 
 
 a See Sir George Baker’s account of two women, in the Transact, of the College 
 of Physicians, vol. ii. 
 
 b A horrid description of raging thirst will be found in the account of the 
 black-hole of Calcutta. S ee Annual Register, 1758. 
 
 c I omitted to give an illustration of the impunity with which a long exclusion 
 of air may be borne, when the system is in a morbid nervous state ; but an example 
 may appear to advantage by the side of similar illustrations of the deprivation of 
 food. “ The story of Ann Green,” says the Rev. Mr. Derham, “ executed at 
 Oxford, Dec. 14. 1650, is still well remembered among the seniors there; she 
 was hung by the neck near half an hour, some of her friends thumping her on 
 the breast, others hanging with all their weight upon her legs, sometimes lifting 
 her up, and then pulling her down again with a sudden jerk, thereby the sooner 
 to dispatch her out of her pain, as the printed account of her informs us. After 
 she was in her coffin, being observed to breathe, a lusty fellow stamped with all 
 his force on her breast and stomach, to put her out of pain. But by the assist- 
 ance of Dr. Peity, Dr. Willis, Dr. Bathurst, and Dr. Clark, she was again 
 brought to life. I myself saw her, many years after, between which time, and the 
 date of her execution, she had, as I am informed, borne several children.” ( Physieo - 
 Theology, p. 156.) Her nervous insensibility appears from another writer, who 
 states, that “ she neither remembered how the fetters were knocked off, how she 
 went out of prison, when she was turned off the ladder, whether any psalm was 
 sung or not, nor was she sensible of any pain that she could remember. What 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 303 
 
 ence, and this occurs chiefly among females. But the most 
 extraordinary case that I recollect, stated upon unquestionable 
 authority, is that of a young Scotch woman, who laboured under 
 an anomalous nervous affection, and, excepting that on two occa- 
 sions she swallowed some water, received no nourishment what- 
 ever for eight years. She passed urine enough twice a week to 
 wet a shilling, and for three years had no intestinal evacuation. d 
 
 is most remarkable is, that she came to herself as if she had awakened out of a 
 sleep, not recovering the use of her speech by slow degrees, but in a manner 
 altogether, beginning to speak just where she left off on the gallows.” (Plott’s 
 History of Oxford . ) 
 
 " Phil. Trans, vol. lxvii. In a remarkable instance of imperfect abstinence 
 during fifty years, the woman voided a little feculent matter like a piece of roll- 
 tobacco, or a globule of sheep’s dung, but once a year, and that always in March, 
 for sixteen years. Edinb. Med. and Phys. Essays, vol. vi. It would be inter- 
 esting to examine the changes induced in the air by the lungs and skin of such 
 patients. 
 
 Pouteau mentions the case of one of his patients, a young lady thirteen years 
 of age, who was affected with convulsions and insensibility at a certain period, 
 generally every day, sometimes not quite so often, and great irritability of stomach, 
 lived eighteen months, and grew more than two inches and a half, on syrup of 
 capillaire and cold water. Here, the abstinence was not part of the disease, but 
 the extraordinary state of the system enabled it to bear the abstinence. CEuvres 
 Posthumes, t. i. p. 27. 
 
 Still, many cases of abstinence have been impostures and exaggerations, and I 
 cannot illustrate this better, than by quoting the case of Eve Heigen, the Dutch 
 prototype of our own Anne Moore of Tutbury. She contrived to deceive the 
 world for fourteen years (from 1597 to 1611), pretending that she took no 
 nourishment but the scent of flowers. She had no nervous derangement to 
 render food unnecessary, yet the minister and magistrates of Meurs made trial 
 of her for thirteen successive days without detecting her imposture. Over her 
 picture in the Dutch original, are these lines : — 
 
 Meurne base quem cernis, decies ter sexque peregit 
 Annos, bis septem prorsus non vescitur annis 
 Nec potat, sed sola sedit, sic pallida vitam 
 Ducit, et exigui se delectat floribus horti. 
 
 Thus beautifully rendered in the English translation. 
 
 This maid of Meurs thirty-six yeares spent, 
 
 Fourteen of which she tooke no nourishment ; 
 
 Thus pale and wan she sits sad and alone, 
 
 A garden ’s all she loves to looke upon. 
 
 An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of 
 God. By George Hakewill. 1635. fol. 
 
 Respecting Anne Moore, see Dr. Henderson’s Examination, &c. 
 
304 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 For every example of extraordinary abstinence among females, 
 we have a counterpart in voraciousness among males. When the 
 appetite is so great it is seldom nice, and not only all animals in 
 all states are devoured, but glass, flints, metals, sand, wood, &c. 
 A Frenchman named Tarare, and described by Drs. Percy and 
 Laurent in some measure from their own observation, e will form 
 a good contrast to the Scotch girl. When a lad he once swal- 
 lowed a large basket of apples after some person had agreed to 
 pay for them ; and at another time a quantity of flints, corks, and 
 similar substances. The colic frequently compelled him to apply 
 at the Hotel Dieu ; he was no sooner relieved, however, than he 
 began his tricks again, and once was but just prevented from 
 swallowing the surgeon's watch, with its chain and seals. In 
 1789 he joined the mob and obtained sufficient food without 
 devouring for money. He was then about seventeen, weighing a 
 hundred pounds, and would eat five-and-twenty pounds of beef 
 a day. When the war broke out he entered into the army, and 
 devoured his comrades’ rations, as long as better supplies from 
 other sources rendered them of little value. But when at length 
 his comrades stood in need of them themselves, he was nearly 
 famished, fell ill, and was admitted into the hopital ambulant at 
 Sultzer. He there ate not only a quadruple allowance, the 
 broken food of the other patients, and the waste of the kitchen, 
 but would swallow the poultices and any thing else that came in 
 his way. He devoured so many dogs and cats alive that they fled 
 at the sight of him. Large snakes he despatched with the greatest 
 facility, and once gobbled up in a few moments all the dinner 
 that was provided for fifteen German labourers, viz. four bowls 
 of curd, and two enormous dishes of dough boiled in water with 
 salt and fat. At another time, he disposed of thirty pounds of 
 raw liver and lights in the presence of some general officers, who, 
 finding that he could swallow a large wooden lancet case, took 
 the partitions out, enclosed a letter in it, and made him swallow 
 it and proceed to the enemy’s quarters for the purpose of dis- 
 charging it by stool, and delivering the letter to a French colonel 
 who had fallen into the hands of the Prussians. This he contrived 
 
 e Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, art. Homophage ; where the dissection 
 of another polyphagus is given, whose stomach was found to have been made 
 neither more nor less than a collection of marine stores. See also Percy’s Mi- 
 moire sur le Polypliage in the Journal de Mededne. Brumaire. An. xii. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 305 
 
 to do, enclosed the answer in it, swallowed it again, made his 
 escape, discharged the case again from his bowels, washed it, and, 
 presented it to Beauharnois and the other officers. Having, 
 however, been well drubbed by the enemy, he refused any further 
 secret service, and was readmitted into the hospital to be cured 
 of his hunger. Being no longer a novelty, he excited less in- 
 terest, and felt it necessary to have recourse to sheep-folds, 
 poultry-yards, private kitchens, slaughter-houses, and bye places 
 where he had to contend with dogs and wolves for their filthy 
 food. He was detected drinking blood that had been taken from 
 his fellow-patients, and eating bodies in the dead house. The 
 disappearance of a young child excited strong suspicions against 
 him, and he was at length chased away and unheard of for four 
 years, at the end of which time he applied at the Hospice de Ver- 
 sailles, wasted, no longer voracious, and labouring under a puru- 
 lent diarrhoea, and he soon died, aged twenty-six. The body 
 immediately became a mass of putridity. During his life he was 
 always offensive, hot, and in a sweat, especially at intervals. His 
 breath rolled off like steam, and his dejections were constantly 
 very copious and intolerably foetid. He was of the middle height, 
 thin, and weak. 
 
 All the abdominal viscera were found full of suppurations. 
 
 His stomach was of immense size, and this has usually been the 
 case in persons habitually gluttonous. A polyphagous idiot 
 opened by the same writers displayed an enormous stomach, more 
 resembling that of a horse than of a human being : the intestines 
 also formed several large pouches in succession, which appeared 
 like additional stomachs. Cabrol dissected a glutton of Toulouse, 
 and found the oesophagus terminating in an excessively large 
 cavity, and the intestines running, without a single convolution, 
 but with merely a gentle sygmoid flexure, to the anus. A large 
 pylorus, or a very depending position of it, have been found in other 
 cases. We thus learn the common causes of constitutional vora- 
 ciousness, and obtain an additional reason for referring hunger to 
 the want of distention of the stomach : — a great quantity of food 
 is required to Jill these stomachs. If hunger were independent 
 of the distention of this organ, and connected solely with the 
 want of the system, an ordinary meal would suffice where the 
 stomach is very large, as the extraordinary quantity of food can- 
 cannot be demanded for nourishment, — when food enough for 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 support is taken, hunger should cease. But hunger continues 
 till the stomach is filled, and the prodigious collection in the 
 case of Tarare, was disposed of by abundant stools, sweating, 
 and copious pulmonary exhalation. 
 
 The large capacity of the stomach is generally ascribable to 
 original conformation, but some account for it occasionally by 
 repeated over- distention and the deglutition of indigestible sub- 
 stances, — an opinion rather improbable when we reflect that city 
 gluttons, who give a very fair trial to the distensibilitv of their 
 idol, never acquire such appetites and capaciousness of stomach 
 as qualify them for a show. The power of deglutition may be 
 very much increased by practice. We have all seen the Indian 
 jugglers, and I frequently conversed with a poor man who had 
 swallowed nineteen large clasped knives at different times, having 
 found in a drunken fit that he could get one down his throat for 
 a wager : f yet in him the appetite and capacity of stomach were 
 not augmented. Knife and stone eaters are seen in all countries. 
 
 Some great eaters are prodigies of strength ; as Milo, who killed 
 an ox with a blow of his fist and devoured it ; and the fellow 
 mentioned in a thesis published atWittemberg in 1757, who once, 
 in the presence of the Senate, ate up a sheep, a sucking-pig, and 
 sixty pounds of plums, stones and all, and could carry four men a 
 whole league upon his shoulders. 
 
 Voraciousness is of course sometimes, like depraved appetite, 
 as in chlorosis and pregnancy, but temporary, and referable to 
 merely disordered function. Dr. Satterly details the case of a 
 lad in whom, while labouring under typhus with marked inflam- 
 mation in the head, the exacerbations of fever were accompanied 
 by such hunger, that he ate every day four regular meals, each 
 sufficient for the stoutest labourer’s dinner, and many pounds of 
 dry bread, biscuit, and fruit between them. He had no sooner 
 finished a meal than he denied having tasted any thing, 
 
 f Several pieces of the knives are preserved in the Museum of Guy’s Hospital, 
 and an account of the case may be found in the Med. Chir. Trails, vol. xii. 
 
 There is a collection of cases of extraordinary swallowing from Galen, Ve- 
 salius, Par6, &c., in Shenkius, Observationes Medicts, lib. iii. 
 
 A polyphagus at the Jardin des Plantes, who once ate a lion which had died 
 there of some disease, and at last died himself of eating 8lbs of new bread, most 
 originally conceived, being all for the belly, that animals might be classed ac- 
 cording to their excrement, and actually made a collection of such stores, upon 
 ■which he would descant most eloquently. Diet, des Sc. Med. Cas Rares. p. 199. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 307 
 
 “ cibus omnis in illo, 
 
 Causa cibi est, semperque locus fit inanis edendo,” 
 
 and would suck and bite the bed-clothes or his fingers s if refused 
 more, cared nothing about the quality of what he ate, would pass 
 six or seven large solid motions a day by means of physic, and 
 ultimately recovered. h The stomach here executed its office with 
 excessive rapidity, and was too soon empty again. 
 
 The ailt-lion will exist without the smallest supply of food, ap- 
 parently uninjured, for six months; though when he can get it, 
 he will daily devour an insect of his own size. A spider has lived 
 without food under a sealed glass for ten months, and at the end 
 of that time appeared as vigorous as ever. Reptiles have often 
 lived upwards of a century enclosed in trees or stones. 
 
 On the other hand, herbivorous larvae, as caterpillars, (for in- 
 sects are carnivorous, herbivorous, and omnivorous, like their 
 superiors,) will eat twice their weight of food daily. 1 
 
 (D) Sauvages mentions a member of the Academy of Toulouse 
 who never thirsted, and passed whole months of the hottest sum- 
 mer without drinking ; and a woman who passed 40 days without 
 liquids or thirst. k 
 
 (E) A striking instance of this occurred at Bristol. A man 
 twenty years of age, had, as long as' he could remember, chewed 
 his food a second time, after swallowing it. The process began 
 in a quarter of an hour if he had taken liquid at his meal: later, 
 if he had not. What had passed down first, always came up first. 
 Before the second chewing his food appeared to lie heavy in the 
 lowest part of his throat : after it, the food “ passed clear away.” 
 He found the taste of the food on its return to be chewed, rather 
 pleasanter than at first. If this faculty left him it signified sick- 
 ness, and he was never well till it returned. 1 
 
 Blumenbach has seen four examples of this kind. In two, the 
 
 ? Ovid’s account of Erisichthon is verified in many histories of voracity. 
 
 “ Ipse suos artus lacero divellere morsu 
 
 Ccepit ; et infelix minuendo corpus alebat. Metarn. lib. viii. 
 
 h Transactions of the Royal College of Physicians. London, vol. v. 
 
 See also Phil. Trans. Papers read 1745. and Abridgment, vol. iii. p. 112. 
 
 1 Kirby and Spence, Entomology, p. 398. sq. 
 
 k Nosol. Method, t. i. p. 770. 
 
 See also Eph. Nat. Cur. C. v. and vi. p. 30. 
 
 1 Phil. Trans. Abridgment, vol. iii. p. 111. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 process was compulsory ; in two, it was optional. These subjects 
 also were males, and had a real gratification in ruminating. 111 
 
 (F) In carnivorous animals, the incisors are very large ; and 
 the molares generally of an irregular wedge form, those of the 
 lower jaw closing in those of the upper like scissors, and being 
 adapted for lacerating. In the herbivorous, the surface of the 
 molares is horizontal or oblique, adapted for grinding. 
 
 (G) As the food of herbivorous animals requires more prepar- 
 ation before it becomes the substance of the animal, their stomach 
 is adapted to retain it for a length of time. The oesophagus 
 opens nearer the right extremity of the stomach, and the pylorus 
 nearer the left, so that a blind pouch is left on either side. In the 
 carnivorous, the reverse is the case, and the stomach cylindrical, 
 to favour the quick passage of the food. For the same reason, the 
 intestines in the latter, even among insects, are generally shorter, 
 and have fewer valvuhe conniventes, and, in some instances, no 
 ccecum. 
 
 (H) In animals which subsist on animal food, the condyles of 
 the lower jaw are locked in an elongated glenoid cavity, and all 
 rotatory motion thus prevented, as motion upwards and down- 
 wards is sufficient for the laceration of the food. In vegetable 
 feeders the joint is shallow, so that a horizontal motion is 
 allowed for grinding the food. For its nature in man, see 
 paragraph 339. 
 
 (I) In 1750, a caravan of Abyssinians had consumed all their 
 provisions, and would have starved but that they discovered 
 among their merchandise a stock of gum arabic, on which alone 
 above a thousand persons subsisted for two months. 11 Yet M. 
 Magendie says he finds that dogs perish if fed only with gum or 
 sugar, olive oil, butter, and similar articles, regarded as nutritious, 
 which contain no azote. 0 But although such substances be alone 
 unable to nourish, yet when united with others they may afford 
 some support, for persons accustomed to a mixed diet generally 
 grow thinner if they confine themselves to vegetable food, which 
 is indubitably good nourishment, and even if we grant that such 
 substances are not nutritious to dogs, they may be proper food for 
 other species ; and to render it probable even that these are not 
 nutritious to dogs, the animals should have been gradually brought 
 
 m Comparative Anatomy. By Lawrence and Coulson. 2d edit. p. SS. 
 
 n Hasselquist, Voyages and Travels in the Levant, p. 298. 
 
 0 Annales de Ckimie et de Physique, vol.iii. p. 66. 1816. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 309 
 
 to feed on them only. For animals may be brought to live on food 
 the most opposite to what their nature inclines them, if the change 
 is made insensibly : — Spallanzani made a pigeon live on flesh 
 and an eagle on bread ;P if fresh-water molusca are put at once 
 into sea water, or sea-water molusca into fresh water, they perish ; 
 but if the change is gradually made, they live very well ;4 a 
 spider has fed upon sulphate of zinc ; r we have seen that the 
 Otomacs eat little else some months of the year than large 
 quantities of earth, and that some brutes devour earth. I may 
 here add that not only the Otomacs are so fond of it, as, when 
 well supplied with food, to take a little, but that many nations of 
 the torrid zone have a propensity to geophagism. The negroes 
 of Guinea, the Javanese, the New Caledonians, and many South 
 American tribes, eat clay as a luxury, and the Guajeroes, 
 on the west of Rio da la Hache, carry a little box of lime 
 as sailors do a tobacco-box. German workmen at the mountain 
 of Kiffhonser spread clay instead of butter on their bread, and 
 call it stein butter, and find it every satisfying and easy of 
 digestion. The Otomacs do not suffer by the practice, but 
 in some tribes the people grow sick and thin by indulging too 
 freely in this luxury. Africans who geophagised with impunity 
 at home on a yellow clay r severely suffer from it in the West 
 Indies. 3 The red-clay eaten in Java destroys the appetite and 
 wastes the body. 
 
 It appears that matter which has never belonged to an animated 
 system is calculated to afford nourishment to animals in some 
 degree, but subordinately to matter which has belonged to 
 vegetables or animals, and that it alone will in some instances 
 support life for a time. Vegetables will indisputably live for a time 
 with facility on such alone, but eventually they will not thrive 
 and perfect their seed, unless animal or vegetable remains exist 
 in the soil ; whence the necessity of this kind of manure, which 
 must have likewise been so changed by putrefaction that its 
 carbon has formed a compound resembling the extractive princi- 
 ple, and thus capable of solution in water. It has been contended 
 
 p Experiences sur la Digestion, c. lxxiv. c. lxxv. 
 q Annales de Chimie et de Physique, vol. ii. p. 32. 1816. 
 r Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, vol. xii. p. 454. 
 
 s See also Dr. John Hunter, Diseases of the Army in Jamaica, p. 248 sqq. 
 
 x 3 
 
.310 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER, 
 
 that some animals, as fish, and that vegetables, readily subsist, 
 growing equally with others, and perfecting their seed, on simple 
 water, but the experiments in support of this assertion are not at 
 all decisive.* 
 
 The articles of diet generally employed by every nation and 
 class of society are much determined by the facility with which 
 they are procured. Generally, too, animal food is preferred in 
 cold climates and vegetable in warm ; a mixture, however, of the 
 two is usually preferred to either exclusively, and appears better 
 suited to our necessities. Animal food is chiefly muscle and fat, 
 milk and eggs ; vegetable food, chiefly, seeds and roots, fruits and 
 leaves, with more or less of the stalks. These articles, which are 
 rendered more or less masticable or digestible by beat, are 
 previously subjected to high temperatures in various ways; and 
 as many saline and aromatic substances are taken, not so much for 
 their nutritive qualities and their undoubted assistance when the 
 stomach is weak or chiefly vegetables are eaten, as for their sapid 
 qualities, and since the admixture of these, and the combination 
 of various nutritive substances together, often highly increases the 
 exquisiteness of taste and flavour, the culinary art is cultivated 
 not only for health, but also for luxury. 
 
 The chief proximate principles of animal food are fibrine, 
 albumen, gelatine, ozmazome, oil, and sugar ; of vegetable, 
 gluten, fecula, mucilage, oil, and sugar. My not less excellent 
 than distinguished friend, Dr. Prout, in the paper which has just 
 been honoured with the Copley medal of the Royal Society, 0 
 reduces all the articles of nourishment among the higher animals 
 to three classes : the saccharine, oily, and albuminous. The 
 first comprehends sugars, starches, gums, acetic acid, and 
 some other analogous principles ; the second, oils and fats, 
 alcohol, &c. ; the third, other animal matters, and vegetable 
 gluten, so abundant in wheat. He has favoured me with the 
 following remarks, which are chiefly an abstract from a work on 
 digestion, commenced by him in 1823, but not j^et published. 
 
 “ Observing that milk, the only article actually furnished and 
 intended by nature as food, was essentially composed of three 
 ingredients, viz. saccharine, oily, and curdy, or albuminous 
 
 * Full information on this subject will be found in Dr. Thomson’s System of 
 Chemistry, book iv. c. 3. sect. 2. 
 
 u Phil. Trams. 1827. 
 
OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 311 
 
 matter, I was by degrees led to the conclusion that all the 
 alimentary matters employed by man and the more perfect ani- 
 mals, might, in fact, be reduced to the same three general heads; 
 hence I determined to submit them to a rigorous examination in 
 the first place, and ascertain, if possible, their general relations 
 and analogies. An account of the first of these classes, viz. the 
 saccharine matters, has been just published in the Philosophical 
 Transactions , and the others are in progress. The characteristic 
 property of saccharine bodies is that they are composed simply of 
 carbon united to oxygen and hydrogen in the proportions in which 
 they form water ; the proportions of carbon varying in different 
 instances from about 30 to 50 per cent. The other two families 
 consist of compound bases (of which carbon constitutes the chief 
 element) likewise mixed with and modified by water, and the pro- 
 portion of carbon in oily bodies, which stand at the extreme of the 
 scale in this respect, varies from about 60 to 80 per cent. ; hence, 
 considering carbon as indicating the degree of nutrition, which, 
 in some respects may be fairly done, the oils may be regarded in 
 general as the most nutritious class of bodies ; and the general 
 conclusion from the whole is, that substances naturally containing 
 less than 30 or more than 80 per cent, of carbon are not well, if 
 at all, adapted for aliment. 
 
 “ It remains to be proved whether animals can live on one of 
 these families exclusively, but at present experiments are decidedly 
 against this assumption, and the most probable view is, that a 
 mixture of two at least, if not of all three of the classes of nutriment 
 is necessary. Thus, as has been stated, milk is a compound of 
 this description, and almost all the gramineous and herbaceous 
 matters employed as food by animals, contain at least two of the 
 three. The same is true of animal aliments, which consist, at least, 
 of albumen and oil; in short, it is, perhaps, impossible to name a 
 substance employed by the more perfect animals as food, which 
 does not essentially constitute a natural compound of at least 
 tivo, if not of all three of the above three great classes of 
 alimentary matters. 
 
 “ But it is in the artificial food of man that we see this great prin- 
 ciple of mixture most strongly exemplified. He, dissatisfied with 
 the productions spontaneously furnished by nature, culls from every 
 source, and, by the power of his reason, or, rather, his instinct, 
 forms in every possible manner, and under every disguise, the 
 
 X 4 
 
312 
 
 OF FOOD AND HUNGER. 
 
 same great alimentary compound. This, after all his cooking 
 and art, how much soever he may be inclined to disbelieve it, is the 
 sole object of his labour, and the more nearly his results approach 
 to this, the more nearly they approach perfection. Thus, from 
 the earliest times, instinct has taught him to add oil or butter 
 to farinaceous substances, such as bread, and which are naturally 
 defective in this principle. The same instinct has taught him to 
 fatten animals, with the view of procuring the oleaginous in con- 
 junction with the albuminous principle, which compound he finally 
 consumes, for the most part in conjunction with saccharine matter, 
 in the form of bread or vegetables. Even in the utmost refine- 
 ments of his luxury and in his choicest delicacies, the same great 
 principle is attended to, and his sugar and flour, his eggs and 
 butter, in all their various forms and combinations, are nothing 
 more nor less than disguised imitations of the great alimentary 
 prototype, mil/c, as presented to him by nature.” 
 
 More or less of common salt exists in the food of all animals. 
 It is equally desired by the greater number, and many traverse 
 immense tracts and encounter great difficulties to obtain it. Dr. 
 Prout, I may mention, considers it, or the muriatic acid which it 
 affords, of the highest importance in the animal economy. 
 
313 
 
 SECT. XXII. 
 
 OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 
 
 338. The lower jaw is the chief organ of mastication, 
 and is supplied, as well as the upper, with three orders of 
 teeth. 
 
 With incisores, generally a scalpriform for the purpose of 
 biting off small pieces, and not placed in the lower jaw, as in 
 other mammalia, more or less horizontally, but erect, — one 
 of the distinctive characters of the human race. 
 
 With strong conical canine teeth, by which we divide hard 
 substances, and which in man neither project beyond the rest, 
 nor are placed alone, but lie closely and in regular order with 
 the others. 
 
 With molares of various sizes, adapted for grinding, and 
 differing conspicuously from those of other mammalia, by 
 possessing gibbous apices excessively obtuse. 
 
 339. The lower jaw is connected with the skull by a 
 remarkable articulation, which holds a middle rank between 
 arthrodia and ginglymus, and, being supplied with two car- 
 
 a I say generally : for, omitting particular examples of their obtuseness, I may 
 remark that, in the skulls of most mummies, I have found the crown of the inci- 
 sores thick and obtuse. And since the more remarkable for this variety have 
 resembled, in their general figure and appearance, the singular and never-to-be 
 mistaken physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians, observable in the idols, sarco- 
 phagi, and statues of ancient Egypt, it is probable that this peculiar form of the 
 teeth, whether owing to diet or whatever else, was peculiar to the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, so that it may be regarded as a national mark, or even as a characteristic by 
 which true ancient mummies may be distinguished from those of late formation. 
 
 I have written at large on this subject in the Philos. Trans. 1794. P.ll. 
 p. 184. 
 
314 
 
 OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 
 
 tilaginous menisci of considerable strength, has easy motion 
 in every direction. (A) 
 
 The digaster, assisted somewhat by the geniohyoidei and 
 mylohyodei muscles, draws the lower jaw down, when we 
 open the mouth. 
 
 The masseters and temporal chiefly raise it again when w r e 
 bite off any thing, and are most powerfully contracted when 
 we break hard substances. 
 
 Its lateral motions are accomplished by the internal and 
 external pterygoid. 
 
 The latter can also draw it forwards. 
 
 340. Substances are retained, directed, and brought under 
 the action of the teeth by the buccinator, and by the tongue, 
 which is very flexible and changeable in form. (235) 
 
 341. During manducation, there occurs a flow of saliva , b 
 which is a frothy fluid, consisting of a large portion of water 
 united with some albumen, and holding in solution a small 
 quantity of phosphate of lime — the source of the tartar of the 
 teeth and of salivary calculi. From being constantly applied 
 to the tongue, it is insipid, although it contains some micro- 
 cosmic salt (phosphate of ammonia), as well as muriatic and, 
 invariably, a small portion of oxalic acid. It is antiseptic c 
 and very resolvent. (B) 
 
 342. The saliva flows from three orders of conglomerate 
 glands, placed laterally and interiorally with respect to the 
 lower jaw. 
 
 Th e parotids, d are the largest, and pour forth the saliva 
 behind the middle molares of the upper jaw, through the 
 Stenonian ducts. 6 
 
 The submaxillar y, f through the Whartonian. 5 
 
 b J. Barth. Siebold, Historia Systematic Salivalis . Jen. 1797. 4to. 
 
 c Pringle, On the Diseases of the Army. Append, p. xlviii. L. txi. sq. 
 Lond. 1765. 4to. 
 
 d See De Courcelles, leones Musculorum Capitis, tab. i. g. h. 
 
 e Stenonis, Observationes Anatomical , p. 20. 
 
 f De Courcelles, 1. c. tab. ii. t. t. 
 
 E Wharton, Adenographia, p. 120. 
 
OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 
 
 315 
 
 The sublingual , h — the smallest, through the numerous 
 Rivinian . 1 
 
 343 . The excretion of saliva, amounting, according to the 
 arbitrary statement of Nuck, k to a pound in twelve hours, is 
 augmented by stimuli and by mechanical pressure, or, if the 
 expression may be allowed, emulsion. 
 
 The latter cause, greatly favoured by the situation of the 
 parotids, at the articulation of the jaws, occurs when we chew 
 hard substances, which thus become softened. 
 
 The former occurs when acrid substances are taken into 
 the mouth, which are thus properly diluted ; or arises from 
 imagination ( 288 ), as when the mouth waters during the 
 desire for food. 
 
 344 . The mucus of the labial and buccal glands 1 and of 
 the tongue, as well as the moisture which transudes from the 
 soft parts of the mouth, is mixed with the saliva. 
 
 345 . The mixture of these fluids with a substance which 
 we are chewing, renders it not only a pultaceous and easily 
 swallowed bolus, but likewise prepares it for further digestion 
 and for assimilation. 
 
 346 . The mechanism m of deglutition, although very com- 
 plicated, and performed by the united powers of many very 
 different parts, amounts to this. The tongue being drawn 
 towards its root, swelling and growing rigid, receives the 
 bolus of food upon its dorsum, which is drawn into a hollow 
 form. The bolus is then rolled into the isthmus of the fauces, 
 and caught with a curious and rather violent effort by the 
 infundibulum of the pharynx, which is enlarged and in some 
 measure drawn forward to receive it. The three constric- 
 
 h De Courcelles, tab. v. g. g. g. 
 
 1 Rivinus, De Dyspepsia. Lips. 1678. 4to. 
 
 Aug. Fr. Walther, De Lingua Humana , ib. 1724. 4to. 
 k Nuck, Sialographia, p. 29. sq. 
 
 1 De Courcelles, 1. c. tab. iv. e. e. e. 
 m Fr. Bern. Albinus, De Deglutitione. LB. 1740. 4to. 
 
 P. J. Sandifort, Deglutitionis Mechanismus. Lugd. Batav. 1805. 4 to. 
 
316 
 
 OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 
 
 tores n muscles of the pharynx drive it into the oesophagus. 
 These motions are all performed in very rapid succession, and 
 require but a short space of time. 
 
 347. Nature has provided various contrivances for opening 
 and securing this passage. 0 
 
 The important motion of the tongue is regulated by the os 
 hyoides. 
 
 The smallest particle of food is prevented from entering the 
 nostrils or Eustachian tubes, by means of the soft palate, p which, 
 as well as the uvula suspended from its arch, and whose use 
 is not clearly understood, is extended by muscles of its own, 
 and closes those openings. q 
 
 The tongue protects the glottis, for the larynx at the 
 moment of deglutition is drawn upwards and forwards, and in 
 a manner concealed under the retracted root of the tongue 
 and applied to the latter in such a way, that the glottis, being 
 also constricted and protected by the epiglottis, is most 
 securely defended from the entrance of foreign substances. (C) 
 
 348. Deglutition is facilitated by the abundance of mucus 
 which lubricates these parts, and which is afforded not only 
 by the tongue (237), but by the numerous sinuses r of the 
 tonsils and muciparous cryptae of the pharynx. 
 
 349. The oesophagus, through which the food must pass 
 previously to entering the stomach, is a fleshy canal, narrow 
 and very strong, mobile, dilatable, very sensible, and con- 
 sisting of coats resembling, except in thickness, the coats of 
 the other parts of the alimentary canal. s 
 
 11 Eustachius, tab. xlii. fig. 4. 6. 
 
 Santorini, Tab. Posthum. vi. fig. 1. 
 
 B. S. Albinus, Tab. Muscular, xu. fig. 23, 24. 
 
 0 J. C. Rosenmiiller, leones Chirurgico-Anatomicce. Fasc. 1. Vinar. 1S05. fol. 
 
 p Littre, Mem. de V Acad, des Sc. de Paris, 1718. tab. xv. 
 
 s Santorini, Tab. Posthum. xv — vi. fig. 2. — and vn. 
 
 B. S. Albinus, Tab. Musculor. xii. fig. 11. 27, 28. 
 
 r B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 1. iii. tab. m. fig. 1. n. 
 
 s See Math. Van. Geuns, Verliandelingen van de Maatscliappye te Haarlem, 
 t. xi. p. 9. sq. 
 
 Jan. Bleuland, Observ. de structura (esophagi. LB. 1785. 4to. 
 
OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 317 
 
 The external coat is muscular, and possesses longitudinal 
 and transverse fibres. 
 
 The middle is tendinous, lax, and more and more cellular 
 towards each of its surfaces, by which means it is connected 
 with the two other coats. 
 
 The interior is lined, like all the alimentary tube, with an 
 epithelium analogous to cuticle (176), and is lubricated by a 
 very smooth mucus. 
 
 350. This canal receives the approaching draught or bolus 
 of food, contracts upon it, propels it downwards, and, in the 
 case of the bolus, stuffs it down, as it were, till it passes the 
 diaphragm and enters the stomach. (D) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) The condyles of the lower jaw are prevented from descend- 
 ing very deeply into the glenoid cavity, and thus being confined 
 to vertical movements, by a cartilage which is hollow on each sur- 
 face, and moveable, and permits the condyle to move from the 
 glenoid cavity to a tubercle which stands before this, and thus to 
 
 acquire still greater mobility. 
 
 (B) Saliva is composed of 
 
 Water ------- 992.9 
 
 A peculiar animal matter ... 2.9 
 
 Mucus ------- 1.4 
 
 Alkaline muriates - - - - - 1.7 
 
 Lactate of soda and animal matter - - 0.9 
 
 Pure soda ------ 0.2 
 
 1000.0 t 
 
 What Berzelius calls mucus, Professor Thomson and Dr. Bos- 
 tock regard as albumen : This mucus is insoluble in water, and, 
 when incinerated, but not before, yields a large portion of phos- 
 
 1 J. Berzelius, Medico - Chiru rgical Transactions, vol. iii. p. 242. 
 
318 
 
 OF MASTICATION AND DEGLUTITION. 
 
 pliate of lime. The tartar of the teeth arises from its gradual de- 
 
 composition upon them, and consists of 
 
 Earthy phosphates .... 79.0 
 
 Undecomposed mucus - 12.5 
 
 Peculiar salivary matter - - - - 1.0 
 
 Animal matter soluble in muriatic acid - 7.5 
 
 100.0" 
 
 According to a recent examination by Tiedemann and Gmelin, 
 saliva, mixed with more or less mucus, consists of — 
 
 A peculiar matter termed salivary ; osmazome ; mucus: — all 
 essential to its composition. 
 
 Sometimes a little albumen. 
 
 A little fatty matter, united with phosphorus. 
 
 Potass united with acetic, phosphoric, sulphuric, hydrochloric, 
 and sulpho-cyanic acid : — all soluble salts. 
 
 A large quantity of phosphate, and a smaller of carbonate, of 
 lime: a minute quantity of magnesia: — all three insoluble. x 
 The solid contents amount to about -U- per cent. The alkaline 
 properties of saliva were before ascribed to a free alkali, and that 
 alkali was supposed to be soda. In the dog the alkali is soda, 
 very little potass being discoverable. 
 
 (C) The glottis, when sound, maj' be sufficiently closed inde- 
 pendently of the epiglottis. Dr. Magendie says that he saw two 
 persons perfectly destitute of epiglottis who always swallowed 
 without difficulty, y Targioni also met with one, and in that case 
 neither deglutition nor speech was impaired. z 
 
 (D) Professor Halle observed in a woman, the interior of whose 
 stomach was exposed by disease, that the arrival of a bolus of 
 food in the stomach was followed by an eversion of the mucous 
 membrane of the oesophagus into it, as we observe in the case of 
 the rectum when a horse has finished discharging its faeces. a 
 
 u Die V erdauung nach Versuchen, Sec. By Fred. Tiedemaun and Leopold 
 Gmelin, Professors in the University of Heidelberg. 
 x Precis Elementaire, t. ii. p. 63. 
 y Morgagni, xxviii. 13. 
 z Magendie, Precis Element, 
 a Berzelius. 
 
319 
 
 SECT. XXIII. 
 
 OF DIGESTION. 
 
 251. The stomach is the organ of digestion. It exists, 
 what cannot be affirmed of any other viscus, in perhaps all 
 animals without exception ; and, if the importance of parts 
 may be estimated in this way, evidently holds the first rank 
 among our organs. 
 
 352. The human stomach a resembles a very large leathern 
 bottle, is capable in the adult of containing three pints and 
 upwards of water, and has two openings. 
 
 The superior, called cardia, at which the oesophagus, folded 
 and opening obliquely, expands into the stomach, is placed 
 towards the left side of its fundus. 
 
 The inferior, at which the right and narrower part of the 
 stomach terminates, is called pylorus , and descends somewhat 
 into the cavity of the duodenum. 
 
 353. The situation of the stomach varies accordingly as it 
 is in a state of repletion or depletion. When empty, it is 
 flaccid, and hangs into the cavity of the abdomen, its greater 
 curvature inclining downwards, while the pylorus, being 
 directed upwards, forms, by doubling, an angle with the duo- 
 denum. 0 
 
 When full, the larger curvature is rolled forwards, c so that 
 the pylorus lies more in a line with the duodenum, while the 
 cardia, on the contrary, is folded, as it were, into an angle and 
 closed. 
 
 a Eustichius, tab. x. fig. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 Ruysch, Thes. Aiiat. ii. tab. v. fig. 1. 
 
 Santorini, Tab. Fosth. xi. 
 
 b Vesalius, Be c.h. Fabrica. L. v. fig. 14, IS. 
 
 c Id. 1. c. fig. 2. 
 
320 
 
 OF DIGESTION. 
 
 354. The stomach is composed of four principal coats, se- 
 parated by the intervention of three others, which are merely 
 cellular. 
 
 The external is common to nearly all the alimentary canal, 
 and continuous with the omentum, as we shall presently 
 mention. 
 
 Within this, and united to it by cellular membrane, lies 
 the muscular coat, which is particularly worthy of notice from 
 being the seat of the extraordinary irritability (300) of the 
 stomach. It consists of strata of muscular fibres, d commonly 
 divided into three orders, one longitudinal and two circular 
 (straight and oblique), but running in so many directions that 
 no exact account can be given of their course. 
 
 The third is the chief membrane. It is usually termed 
 nervous, but improperly, as it consists of condensed mucous 
 tela, more lax on its surfaces, which are united on the one 
 hand with the muscular and on the other with the internal 
 villous coat. * It is firm and strong, and may be regarded as 
 the basis of the stomach. 
 
 The interior (besides the epithelium investing the whole 
 alimentary canal), improperly called villous, is extremely soft, 
 and in a manner spongy, porous, and folded into innumerable 
 rugae , 6 so that its surface is more extensive than that of the 
 other coats ; it exhibits very small cells, f somewhat similar to 
 those larger cells which are so beautiful in the reticulum of 
 ruminants. 
 
 Its internal surface is covered with mucus, probably se- 
 creted in the muciparous crypts which are very distinct about 
 the pylorus. 
 
 355. The stomach is amply furnished with nerves 5 from 
 each nervous system (214), whence its great sensibility, owing 
 to which it is so readily affected by all kinds of stimuli, 
 whether external, as cold, or internal, as food and its own 
 
 d Besides Haller, consult Bertin, Mem. del' Acad, des Sc. de Paris, 1761. 
 e Ruysch, Thes. Anat. ii. tab. v. fig. 2, 3, 4*. 
 f See G. Fordyce, On the Digestion of Food, p. 12. 59. 191. 
 
 E Walter, Tab. Nervor. Thome, et Abdom. tab. iv. 
 
OF DIGESTION. 
 
 321 
 
 fluids, or mental ; whence also the great and surprising sym- 
 pathy between it and most functions of the system; to which 
 sympathy are referable the influence of all passions upon the 
 stomach, and of the healthy condition of the stomach upon 
 the tranquillity of the mind. h 
 
 356. The abundance and utility of the blood-vessels of the 
 stomach are no less striking. Its arteries, ramifying infinitely 
 upon the cellular membrane and glands, secrete the gastric 
 juice, which would appear to stream continually from the 
 inner surface of the stomach . 1 
 
 357. In its general composition this fluid is analogous to 
 the saliva, equally antiseptic, very resolvent, k and capable of 
 again dissolving the milk which it has coagulated. 1 (A) 
 
 358. Digestion is performed principally by it. The food, 
 when properly chewed and subacted by the saliva, is dis- 
 solved m by the gastric fluid, and converted into the pultaceous 
 chyme, so that most kinds of ingesta lose their specific qua- 
 lities, are defended from the usual chemical changes to which 
 they are liable, such as putridity, rancidity, & c. and acquire 
 fresh properties preparatory to chylification . 11 (B) 
 
 359. This important function is probably assisted by 
 various accessory circumstances. Among them, some parti- 
 cularly mention the peristaltic motion , which, being constant 
 and undulatory, agitates and subdues the pultaceous mass of 
 
 h J. H. Rahn, Mirurn inter Caput et Viscera Abdominis Commercium. Got- 
 ting. 1771. 4to. 
 
 Dit. Vegens, De Sympathia inter Ventricidum et Caput. LB. 1784. 4to. 
 
 Wrisberg, Commentat. Societ. Scienliar. Gutting, t. xvi. 
 
 1 Ever. Home, Phil. Trans. 1817. p. 347. tab. xviii, xix. 
 
 k Ed. Stevens, De Alimentorum Concoclione. Edinb. 1777. 8vo. 
 
 Laz. Spallanzani, Disserlazioni di Fisica Animate e Vegetabile. Modena, 
 1780. 8vo. vol. i. 
 
 1 Consult Veratti, Comment. Instituti Bononiens, tom. vi. 
 
 m Even the stomach itself, when deprived of vitality, has been found acted 
 upon, and, as it were, digested, by it. See John Hunter, On the Digestion of 
 the Stomach after Death. Phil. Trans, vol. lxii. 
 
 n Consult Ign. Doellinger, Grundriss der Naiurlehre des mensclilichen Orga- 
 nismus, p. 88. 
 
 y 
 
322 
 
 OF DIGESTION. 
 
 food . 0 The existence of a true peristaltic motion in the stomach 
 during health, is, however, not quite certain ; indeed, the 
 undulatory agitation of the stomach that occurs, appears in- 
 tended for the purpose of driving the thoroughly dissolved 
 portions downwards, while those portions which are not com- 
 pletely subacted are repelled from the pylorus by an antipe- 
 ristallic motion. 
 
 360 . The other aids commonly enumerated, are the pres- 
 sure on the stomach from the alternate motion of the abdomen, 
 and the high temperature maintained in the stomach by the 
 quantity of blood in the neighbouring viscera and blood- 
 vessels, which temperature was at one time supposed to be of 
 such importance, that the word coction was synonymous with 
 digestion. 
 
 361 . To determine the time requisite for digestion is evi- 
 dently impossible, if we consider how it must vary according 
 to the quality and quantity of the ingesta, the strength of the 
 digestive powers, and the more or less complete previous mas- 
 tication. 
 
 During health, the stomach does not transmit the digestible 
 parts of the food before they are converted into a pulp. The 
 difference of food must therefore evidently cause a difference 
 in the period necessary for digestion. p It may, however, be 
 stated generally, that the chyme gradually passes the pylorus 
 in between three and six hours after our mea Is. (C) 
 
 362 . The pylorus q is an annular fold, consisting, not like 
 the other rugae of the stomach, of merely the villous, but also 
 of fibres derived from the nervous and muscular, coats. All 
 these, united, form a conoidal opening at the termination of 
 the stomach, projecting into the duodenum, as the uterus 
 does into the vagina, and, in a manner, embraced by it. 
 
 0 Consult Wepfer, Cicutte Aquation Historia el Noxce, in innumerable places. 
 
 p Consult J. Walaeus, De motu Chyli, p.534. LB. 1651. Svo. 
 
 q H. Palm. Leveling, Dissert, sistens Pylorum, <Jc. Argent. 1 7 64. 4 to. 
 
 Reprinted in Sandifort’s Thes. vol. iii. 
 
OF DIGESTION. 
 
 323 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Seven grains of the inner coat of a calf’s stomach were 
 found by Dr. Young of Edinburgh to enable water poured upon it 
 to coagulate 6857 times its weight of milk. r 
 
 (B) It was once imagined that fermentation, and once that tri- 
 turation, was the cause of digestion, but, as neither can produce 
 the same effects on food out of the body that occur in the stomach, 
 these opinions fell to the ground. Besides, no signs of ferment- 
 ation appear when digestion is perfect ; and food, either defended 
 from trituration by being swallowed in metallic spheres perforated 
 to admit the gastric juice, s or immersed in gastric juice out of 
 the body, 1 is readily digested. 
 
 '(C) The digestive process does not go on equally through the 
 whole mass of food, but takes place chiefly where this is in contact 
 with the stomach, and proceeds gradually from the surface to 
 
 r Thomson’s System of Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 596. ed.6. and Fordyce On Diges- 
 tion, p.58. 
 
 6 The Abb6 Spallanzani and Dr. Stevens made such experiments upon brutes : 
 but the latter experimented upon a man also, who was in the habit of swallowing 
 stones and rejecting them, and who of course found no difficulty in doing the same 
 with metallic balls. 
 
 1 Experiments of this kind were made by Spallanzani, who procured the 
 gastric juice by causing hungry animals to vomit, or by introducing a sponge 
 into the stomach. But still nqore marked results were lately obtained in the case 
 of a lad who had a fistulous opening from the stomach, in consequence of a wound, 
 through which, by means of a hollow bougie and elastic bottle, gastric juice was 
 procured at pleasure. A portion of beef was introduced into the stomach on a 
 thread and withdrawn for comparison, at the same time that a similar portion was 
 plunged into a phial of gastric juice, the temperature of which was kept steadily 
 in a sand-bath at 100°, — the degree of the stomach’s temperature, ascertained by 
 the introduction of a thermometer. The portion in the phial became completely 
 dissolved, though more slowly than that in the stomach, probably from the latter 
 being supplied with a succession of fresh gastric juice, and freely exposed to it by 
 motion ; for the action of the fluid is only on the surface, and a portion of chicken 
 placed in a phial of gastric juice, for a similar experiment, was more quickly acted 
 upon if agitated. The gastric juice, when first obtained, was almost as clear as 
 water, and its antiseptic power was shown by the solutions of beef and chicken 
 remaining a whole autumnal month without foetor or sour taste. American Me- 
 dical Recorder, January, 1826. Spallanzani and others found, that if gastric juice 
 is applied to putrescent matter, it removes the foetor and suspends putrefaction, 
 
 Y 2 
 
 I 
 
324 - 
 
 OF DIGESTION. 
 
 the centre of the mass, so that the food at the centre is entirely 
 different in appearance from that at the surface, and, as soon as a 
 portion is reduced to a homogeneous consistence, it passes into 
 the duodenum without waiting till the same change has pervaded 
 the whole. u 
 
 The cardiac portion of the stomach is the chief seat of the pro- 
 cess, and when a part of the food is tolerably digested it passes 
 along the large curvature to the pyloric portion, where the pro- 
 cess is completed. As the cardiac half is the great digesting 
 portion, it is this half that is found sometimes to have been dis- 
 solved by the gastric juice after death ; its contents are much 
 more fluid than those of the pyloric half ; and Dr. Philip, who by 
 the dissection of about a hundred and thirty rabbits has been 
 enabled to furnish the completest account of what goes on in the 
 stomach, relates the case of a woman who had eaten and properly 
 digested to the last, but whose stomach was ulcerated every 
 where except at the cardiac end. Sir Everard Home says he 
 found that fluids which had been drunk were chiefly' contained in 
 the cardiac portion, and, like many others, for upwards of a cen- 
 tury and a half,* that, if the body was examined early after death, 
 the two portions of the stomach were frequently in fact divided 
 by a muscular contraction. y Dr. Haighton observed the same 
 hour-glass contraction in a living dog, and remarked the peristaltic 
 motion to be much more vigorous in the pyloric half . 2 
 
 Van Helmont asserted that the food becomes sour by digestion, 
 but this was afterwards denied, and acidity said never to happen 
 except in cases of disorder. Sir Gilbert Blane, many years ago, 
 however, declared that he had “ satisfied himself that there is 
 such an acid (the gastric) by' applying the usual tests to the 
 inner surface of the stomach of animals. This property in rumin- 
 
 u Dr. Prout, in Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, 1S19. 
 
 Dr. Wilson Philip, An Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of the Vital Func- 
 tions, fyc. 1826. p 121. sqq. 3d. edit. 
 
 x See Dr. Munro (Tertius), Outlines of the Anatomy of the Human Body 
 its soundand diseased Slate, vol.ii. p. 111. 1813. 
 y Phil . Trans. 1808. 
 
 z Transactions of the Medical Society of London, vol.ii. 1788. In the lion, 
 bear, &c., the stomach is usually found divided by a slight contraction at its 
 middle, and in some animals of the mouse kind by a slight elevation of its inner 
 
 coat 
 
OF DIGESTION. 
 
 325 
 
 ating animals,” he added, “ is confined to the digesting stomach.” 1 
 Dr. Prout has discovered that the acid generated is the muriatic, 
 both free and in combination with alkalis. b Tiedemann and 
 Gmelin soon afterwards found the same thing, though without 
 knowing, they assure us, Dr. Prout’s discovery. They assert the 
 clear ropy fluid of the stomach without food to be nearly, or 
 entirely, destitute of acidity, while the presence of food or of the 
 most simple stimulus to the mucous membrane, occasions it to be- 
 come acid, and more so, according to the greater indigestibility of 
 the food. The acid is very copious. They also assert the presence 
 of acetic acid; but Dr. Prout believes this neither necessary nor 
 ordinary, and derived from the aliment when it is observed. The 
 general change of the aliment in the stomach appears a greater 
 or less approach to the nature of albumen, but Dr. Prout has been 
 unable to detect true albumen there when none has been taken. 
 
 Brutes have been the subjects of these experiments; chiefly the 
 rabbit, horse, dog, and cat. 
 
 Besides the labours of Dr. Prout and of the professors of Heidel- 
 berg, a work has lately been published on all the subjects of 
 cliymification and chylification by MM. Leuret and Lassaigne, 
 contradictory in many respects to the results of the others ; but, 
 knowing as I do the extreme accuracy of Dr. Prout in experi- 
 menting and deducing, and seeing that Tiedemann and Gmelin 
 have bestowed infinite labour in repeating, varying, and extend- 
 ing their experiments, and have detailed all their proceedings, 
 while the French writers merely give results and appear to have 
 bestowed far less pains, I must be excused for merely mentioning 
 their work. c 
 
 An immense number of curious facts respecting different 
 articles of food, and many points on the subject of digestion, will 
 be found in the German work, and a good history of opinions in 
 the French. 
 
 In granivorous birds the food passes into the crop, and from this 
 into a second cavity, from which it enters the gizzard, — a strong 
 muscular receptacle, lined by a thick membrane, in which, 
 
 a Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Surgical Know- 
 ledge, vol. ii. p. 138. sq. 
 
 b Phil. Trans. 1824. 
 
 0 Recherches Pkysiologiques el Chimiques pour servir a l' Histoire de la Digestion* 
 Paris, 1825. 
 
 y 3 
 
326 
 
 OF DIGESTION. 
 
 instead of having been masticated, it is ground by means of 
 pebbles and other hard bodies swallowed instinctively by the 
 animal ; hence true salivary glands do not exist about the mouth 
 of birds, but abound in the abdomen, opening into the lower part 
 of the oesophagus and into the crop and gizzard. In carnivorous 
 birds, the gizzard is soft and smooth. The fluids of both crop 
 and gizzard contain a free acid, according to Tiedemann and 
 Gmelin, which is the muriatic or acetic. 
 
 Some graminivorous quadrupeds with divided hoofs have four 
 stomachs, into the first of which the food passes when swallowed, 
 and from this into the second. It is subsequently returned by 
 portions into the mouth, chewed, and again swallowed, when, by 
 a contraction of the openings of the two first stomachs, it passes 
 over them into the third, and from this goes into the fourth. 
 The process can be delayed at pleasure when the paunch is quite 
 full. Some birds and insects also ruminate. The same chemists 
 found the fluids of the two first stomachs alkaline, and of the 
 third and fourth, acid. The stomachs of some insects and Crus- 
 tacea contain teeth. Some zoophytes are little more than a 
 stomach : others have several openings on the surface leading by 
 canals that unite and run to the stomach, — a structure called by 
 Cuvier, mouth-root. Between the most distinct kinds of stomach 
 we see numerous intermediate varieties* The cardiac half of 
 the interior of the stomach of the horse, for example, is covered 
 by cuticle, and appears merely recipient, while the pyloric half 
 is villous and digestive, and the state of the contents in each half 
 is, therefore, very different : a link thus existing between such 
 stomachs as the human and the ruminating. 
 
 Vomiting cannot occur unless the stomach have the resistance 
 of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles, or of something in 
 their stead. Different persons have made the horrid experiment 
 of giving an emetic to an animal, and, after the abdominal muscles 
 were cut away, observing how fruitless were all the efforts of 
 the stomach to reject its contents till they applied their hands 
 in place of these muscles, when the stomach, being forced by 
 the diaphragm against the resistance, instantly accomplished 
 vomiting. 
 
 “ In vomiting, the muscles of the cavity of the abdomen act, 
 in which is to be included the diaphragm ; so that the capacity of 
 the abdomen is lessened, and the action of the diaphragm rather 
 raises the ribs, and there is also an attempt to raise them by their 
 
OF DIGESTION. 
 
 327 
 
 propei - muscles, to make a kind of vacuum in the thorax, that the 
 (Esophagus may be rather opened than shut, while the glottis is 
 shut so as to let no air into the lungs. The muscles of the 
 throat and fauces act to dilate the fauces, which is easily felt by 
 the hand, making there a vacuum, or what is commonly called a 
 suction.” d 
 
 It is generally accompanied by more or less of a peculiar sensa- 
 tion in the stomach, called nausea : this frequently exists alone, 
 and sometimes in a high degree ; but where it increases to a cer- 
 tain amount, usually ends in vomiting During nausea the pulse 
 Is small, the temperature low, and the head giddy, and a large 
 quantity of fluid is secreted in the mouth and fauces. It is ex- 
 cited by disgust, certain articles, pain, sympathy of the stomach 
 with other organs not in health; by general derangement or disease 
 of the stomach ; by turning round, swinging, or the motion of a 
 ship, and from the latter cause takes its name. 
 
 The stomach has been called the grand centre of sympathy. 
 Its sympathies are great, but there is no reason for considering it 
 the centre of sympathy. Blows upon the head or testicle, and dis- 
 eases of the kidney and uterus, nay, the mere pregnant state of 
 the latter, severe pain in any part, or a disgusting sight, will often 
 cause vomiting. Any depressing passion deranges the stomach, 
 but anxiety is a common source of stomach complaints, although 
 the stomach generally bears the whole blame, and is in vain 
 drugged and dieted, or want of exercise or great mental occu- 
 pation is regarded as the cause, while the anxiety is overlooked. 
 Pleasurable mental exertion, “ constant occupation without care,” 
 must be very excessive to injure the stomach. 
 
 The stomach itself, except as far as its inner surface is very 
 extensive and sensible, and therefore highly adapted for the 
 influence of ingesta, appears to affect other organs, by mere 
 sympathy, far less than it is influenced by them. 
 
 The effects of the division of the par vagum upon the lungs 
 and stomach were mentioned at page 224'; but I should remark, 
 that Mi - . Brodie found even digestion uninfluenced, if the division, 
 was made not in the neck, but close to the stomach. e 
 
 d J. Hunter, Observations on certain Parts of the Animal Economy. 
 
 e Phil. Trans. 1814. 
 
 Y 4 
 
328 
 
 SECT. XXIV. 
 
 OF THE PANCREATIC JUICE. 
 
 3 63. The chyme, after passing the pylorus, undergoes 
 new and considerable changes in the duodenum a — a short 
 but very remarkable portion of the intestines, before the 
 nutrient chyle is separated. To this end, there are poured 
 upon it various secreted fluids, the most important of which 
 are the bile and pancreatic juice. 
 
 364. Of these we shall treat separately, beginning with the 
 pancreatic fluid, because it is closely allied both in nature and 
 function to the saliva and gastric juice already mentioned. 
 
 365. Although it is with difficulty procured pure from 
 living and healthy animals, all observations made in regard to 
 it establish its close resemblance to the saliva. At the present 
 day, it would scarcely be worth while to mention the er- 
 roneous hypotheses of Franc. Sylvius b and his followers — 
 Regn. De Graaf, c Flor. Schuyl, d and others, respecting its 
 supposed acrimony, long since ably refuted by the celebrated 
 Pechlin, e Swammerdam, f and Brunner , 2 unless they afforded 
 a salutary admonition, how fatal the practice of medicine may 
 become, if not founded on sound physiology. 
 
 a Lan r. Claussen, De Intestini Duodeni situ et nexu. Lips. 1757. 4to. Re- 
 printed in Sandifort’s Thes. vol. iii. 
 
 And his Tabulce Intestini Duodeni- LB. 1780. 4to. 
 
 b De Chyli afeecibus alvinis secrelione. LB. 1659. 4to. 
 
 c De sued Pancreatici Natura et Usu. ib. 1664. 12mo. 
 
 d pro Veteri Medicina. ib. 1670. 12mo. 
 
 e De Purgantium Medicamentorum Facullatibus. ib. 1672. Svo. 
 
 f Observationum Anatomic. Collegii privati Amstelodainens. P. ii- in quibus 
 preecipue de pisdum pancreate ejusque succo agitur, Amst. 1673. 12mo. 
 
 E Experimenia nova circa pancreas. Amst. 1683. Svo. 
 
OF THE PANCREATIC JUICE. 
 
 329' 
 
 366. The source of this fluid is similar to that of the saliva. 
 It is the pancreas, h — -by much the largest conglomerate gland 
 in the system, excepting the breasts, and extremely analogous 
 to the salivai’y glands in every part of its structure, even in 
 the circumstance of its excretory ducts arising by very minute 
 radicles and uniting into one common duct, which is deno- 
 minated, from its discoverer, Wirsiingian. 
 
 This duct penetrates the tunics of the duodenum, and sup- 
 plies the cavity of this intestine with a constant stillicidium of 
 pancreatic juice. 
 
 367. The excretion of this fluid is augmented by the same 
 causes which affect that of the saliva, — pressure and sti- 
 mulus. 
 
 By the former it is emulged, whenever the stomach lies in 
 a state of repletion upon the pancreas. 
 
 The stimuli are the fresh and crude chyme entering the 
 duodenum, and the bile flowing through the opening common 
 to it and the pancreatic fluid. 
 
 368. Its use is to dissolve the chyme, especially if imper- 
 fectly digested in the stomach, and at all times, by its great 
 abundance, to assimilate the chyme more to the nature of the 
 fluids and render it fitter for chylification. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Brunner, about 150 years ago, removed almost the whole pan- 
 creas from dogs, and tied and cut away portions of the duct ; and 
 they lived apparently as well as before. From one he was not 
 contented with removing the spleen at one time and the pancreas 
 at another, after which the poor animal pancratice valebat ; but, 
 to render it celebrated for experiments, he on a third occasion laid 
 bare the intestines and wounded them for an inch and a half, 
 sewed up the wound, made a suture in the abdominal parietes so 
 badly that the intestines were found hanging out on the ground one 
 
 h Santorini, Tab. Post. xiii. tig. 1. 
 
330 
 
 OF THE PANCREATIC JUICE. 
 
 morning, purple and cold, and then allowed the animal to lick the 
 wound into healing. He also performed the operation for aneurism 
 in the artery of its hind leg, and paracentesis of its chest, inject- 
 ing a quantity of milk into the pleura and pumping it out again. 
 This even was not enough for the gentle Brunner; he gave the 
 dog such a dose of opium, when it had recovered from the oper- 
 ation on the spleen, that it was seized with tetanus. But this also it 
 got the better of, and lived upwards of three pleasant months with 
 its master, “ gratus mihi fuit hospes,” after all these indulgencies, 
 and was at last lost in a crowd ; stolen, no doubt, because “ Celebris 
 ab experimentorum multitudinem, — vivum philosophic experi- 
 mentalis exemplum, et splene mutilus, variis cicatricibus notabilis.” 
 Brunner offered any money for it again, but to no purpose, (p. 6. 
 13 .) 
 
 The pancreatic juice, at least in the sheep, according to Tiede- 
 mann and Gmelin, has twice as much solid contents as the saliva, 
 and conversely a large quantity of albumen and fatty matter, with 
 a small quantity of salivary matter and mucus; is neutral; or has 
 only a little alkaline carbonate, and no sulpho-cyanic acid. 
 
 The use of the pancreatic juice is unknown, but Blumenbach's 
 opinion, that it “ assimilates the chyme more to the nature of the 
 fluids,” is more precisely given by Tiedemann and Gmelin, who 
 conceive that it animalises the unazotised principles of vegetable 
 food. It is certainly much larger proportionately in herbivorous 
 than in carnivorous animals. They assign the same purpose to 
 the saliva. 
 
 The quantity of the pancreatic juice cannot be accurately as- 
 certained. It is, no doubt, produced copiously during chylifi- 
 cation, and cannot be expected to flow readily at other times, or 
 naturally under the torments of an experiment. 
 
 The weight of the human pancreas is about three times that of 
 all the salivary glands together.* 
 
 Consult Marherr, Pralectiones in Her. Boerhaave, Instil . Med. t. i. § ci. 
 
331 
 
 SECT. XXV. 
 
 OF THE BILE. 
 
 369. The bile is secreted by the liver a — the most pon- 
 derous and the largest of all the viscera, especially in the 
 foetus, b in which its size is inversely as the age. The high 
 importance of this organ is manifested, both by its immense 
 supply of blood-vessels and their extraordinary distribution, 
 as well as by its general existence, for it is not less common 
 to all red-blooded animals than the heart itself. c (A) 
 
 370. The substance of the liver is peculiar, easily distin- 
 guished at first sight from that of other viscera, of well-known 
 colour and delicate texture, d supplied with numerous nerves, e 
 lymphatics (most remarkable on the surface), f biliferous ducts, 
 
 a Eustachius, tab. xi. fig. 3, 4. 
 
 Ttuysch, Thes. Anat. ix. tab. iv. 
 
 Santorini, Tab. Posth. xi. 
 
 b J. Bleuland, Icon, hepatis foetus octimestris. Traj. ad Rhen. 1789. 4to. 
 
 F. L. D. Ebeling, De Pulmonum cum kepate antagnnismo. Gott. 1806. 8vo. 
 
 e See Nic. Mulder’s Diss. de functione hepatis, in Disquisilione zoolomica illius 
 visceris niia. Lugd. Bat. 1818. 8vo. 
 
 d In which, however, Autenreith discovers two substances, the one medullary 
 and the other cortical. Archiv. fur die Physiol, t. vii. p.299. 
 
 Consult also J. M. Mappes’s Dissertation, De penitiori hepatis humani structura, 
 Tub. 1817. 8 vo. 
 
 e Walter, tab. iv. 
 
 f Maur. v. Reverhorst, De motu bills circulari ejusque morbis, tab. i. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 Ruysch, Ep. Problemat. v. tab. vi. 
 
 Werner and Feller, Descriptio vasor. lacteor. alque lymphaticor. Fascrc.i. 
 tab. iii. et iv. ; although Fr. Aug. Walter finds fault with these plates, Annot. 
 Academic, p. 191. sq. 
 
 Mascagni, tab. xvii, xviii. 
 
332 
 
 OF THE BILE. 
 
 and, what these ducts arise from, blood-vessels, s which are 
 both very numerous and in some instances very large, but of 
 different descriptions, as we shall state particularly. 
 
 371. The first blood-vessel to be noticed is the vena porta- 
 rum, whose dissimilarity from other veins, both in its nature 
 and course, was formerly hinted at. (97) Its trunk is formed 
 from the combination of most of the visceral veins belonging 
 to the abdomen, is supported by a cellular sheath called the 
 capsule of Glisson, 11 and, on entering the liver, is divided into 
 branches which are subdivided more and more as they pene- 
 trate into the substance of the organ, till they become ex- 
 tremely minute, and spread over every part. Hence Galen 
 compared this system to a tree whose roots were dispersed in 
 the abdomen, and its branches fixed in the liver. 1 
 
 372. The other kind of blood-vessels belonging to the 
 liver, are branches of the hepatic artery , which arises from 
 the coeliac, is much inferior to the vena portae in size, and in 
 the number of its divisions, but spreads by very minute rami- 
 fications throughout the substance of the organ. 
 
 373. The extreme divisions of these two vessels terminate 
 in true veins, which unite into large venous trunks running to 
 the vena cava inferior. 
 
 374. These extreme divisions are inconceivably minute and 
 collected into very small glomerules, k which deceived Mal- 
 pighi into the belief that they were glandular acini, hexagonal, 
 hollow, and secretory. 1 
 
 375. From these glomerules arise the pori biliarii — very 
 delicate ducts, secreting the bile from the blood, and discharg- 
 ing it from the liver through the common hepatic duct, which 
 is formed from their union. 
 
 376. It has been disputed whether the bile is produced 
 from arterial or venous blood. 
 
 £ See Haller, leones Anat. Fascic. ii. tab. ii. 
 
 11 Glisson, Anatomia Hepalis. p. 305. sq. 1659. 
 
 ‘ De Venarum Arteriai'v.mque dissectione, p. 109. Opera. Basil. 1562. Cl. i. 
 k Nest. Maximeow. Anibodiek, He Depute. Argent. 1775. 4to. 
 
 1 De viscerum structure, p. 11. Lond. 1669. 
 
OF THE BILE. 
 
 333 
 
 Although the former opinion m is countenanced by the 
 analogy of the otiier secretions which depend upon arterial 
 blood, nevertheless more accurate investigation proves that 
 the greater part, if not the whole, of the biliary secretion is 
 venous. 
 
 With respect to arguments derived from analogy, the vena 
 portae, resembling arteries in its distribution, may likewise 
 bear a resemblance to them in function. Besides, the liver is 
 analogous to the lungs, in which the great pulmonary vessels 
 are intended for their function, and the bronchial arteries for 
 their nourishment ; and if we are not greatly mistaken, the 
 use of the hepatic artery is similar. We would, however, 
 by no means completely deny its importance in the secretion 
 of bile, but must regard it as inconsiderable, adventitious, and 
 not well established. (B) 
 
 377. The bile flows slowly, but constantly, along the hepatic 
 duct. The greater portion runs constantly through the ductus 
 communis choledochus into the duodenum, but some passes 
 from the hepatic into the cystic duct , and is received by the 
 gall-bladder, where it remains for a short period, and acquires 
 the name of cystic bile. H 
 
 378. The gall-bladder is an oblong sac, nearly pyriform, 
 adheres to the concave surface of the liver, and consists of 
 three coats. 
 
 A n 'exterior, not completely covering it, derived from the 
 peritonaeum. 
 
 m This has lately found an advocate in Rich. Powel, On the Bile and its 
 Diseases. Lond. 1801. 8vo. 
 
 n In the ox and other brutes there are peculiar liepalo- cystic ducts, which con- 
 vey the bile directly from the liver to the gall-bladder. 
 
 See Observat. Anatom. Collegii privati Amstelodamens. P. i. Ams. 1667. 12mo. 
 p. 1 6. fig. 7. 
 
 Also, Perrault, Essays de Physique, t. i. p. 339. tab. ii. 
 
 Some have inconsiderately allowed them also in the human subject: v. c. De 
 Haen, Ratio medendi conlin. P. ii. p. 46. sq. tab. x. fig. I. 
 
 Also Pitschel, Anat. und chirurg. Anmerk. Dresd. 1784. 8vo. tab. i. 
 Consult more at large, R. Forsten, Qiuestiones selectee physiologicee. Lugd. 
 Batav. 1774. 4to. p. 22. 
 
334 
 
 OF THE BILF.. 
 
 A middle , called nervous, and, as in the stomach, intestines, 
 and urinary bladder, the source of its firmness and tone. 
 
 An interior , ° which may be, in seme measure, compared to 
 the inner coat of the stomach, (359) as it contains a net-work 
 of innumerable blood-vessels, abounds in mucous glands, p and 
 is marked by rugae, q which occasionally have a beautifully 
 cancellated and reticulated appearance. 
 
 379. Its cervix is conical, terminates in the cystic duct, is 
 tortuous, and contains a few r falciform valves. r 
 
 380. The bile which has passed into the gall-bladder is 
 retained until, from the reclined or supine posture of the 
 body, it flows dow r n from it spontaneously, or is squeezed 5 
 out by the pressure of the neighbouring jejunum, or ileum, or 
 of the colon when distended by faeces. 
 
 The presence of stimuli in the duodenum may derive the 
 bile in that direction. 
 
 The great contractility of the gall-bladder, proved by ex- 
 periments on living animals, and by pathological phenomena, 
 although it has no irritability (301), probably assists the 
 discharge of bile, especially when this fluid has, by retention, 
 become very stimulating. 
 
 381. For the cystic bile, though very analogous to the 
 hepatic, (377) becomes more concentrated, viscid, and bitter, 
 by stagnation in the gall-bladder ; the cause of which is, in 
 all probability, the absorption of its more watery parts by the 
 lymphatic vessels. * (C) 
 
 382. Our attention must now be turned to the bile itself — 
 a very important fluid, respecting the nature and use of which 
 
 ° Ruysch, Epist. problem, quinta. 'Fab. v. fig. 3. 
 p Vicq-d’Azyr, CEuvres, t. v. p’. 343. 
 q Casp. Fr. Wolff, Act. Acad. Scient. Petropol. 1779. P. ii. 
 r Caldesi, Osservaz. intorno alle Tarlarughe. Tab. ii. fig. 10. 
 
 But especially Wolff, lately commended, 1. c. P. i. tab. vi. 
 
 Also Fr. Aug. Walter, 1. c. tab. i. 
 s Caldani, Institut. Physiolog. p. 364. sq. Patav. 1778. 8vo. 
 
 1 See Reverhorst, 1. c. tab. ii. fig. 3. 
 
 Ruysch, 1. c. tab. v. fig. 4. 
 
 Werner and Feller, 1. c. tab. ii. fig. 5. 
 
 Mascagni, tab. xviii. 
 
OF THE BILE. 
 
 335 
 
 there has been more controversy for these thirty years than 
 about any other fluid. 
 
 The cystic bile, being more perfect and better calculated 
 for examination, will supply our observations. 
 
 383 . Bile taken from a fresh adult subject is rather viscid, 
 of a brownish green colour, u inodorous, and, if compared 
 with that of brutes, scarcely bitter. 
 
 384 . Its constituent parts, obtained by chemical analysis, 
 are, besides a large proportion of water, albumen, resin, 
 soda, x partly united with phosphoric, sulphuric, and mu- 
 riatic acid, a small portion of phosphate of lime and iron, and 
 a variable quantity of a remarkable and peculiar yellow matter . y 
 
 385 . The composition of the bile varies greatly both from 
 the proportion of its parts, particularly of the albuminous and 
 resinous, differing under different circumstances, and also 
 from the addition of other constituents, during morbid states, 
 especially of adipocerous substance, which gives origin to 
 most biliary calculi ; for these consist either of it alone, or of 
 it combined with the yellow matter just mentioned. (D) 
 
 386 . The nature of the bile is not saponaceous and capable 
 of effecting a combination between water and oils, as Boer- 
 haave supposed, but which opinion the excellent experiments 
 of Schroder, z who was formerly of this university, both con- 
 firmed and extended by other physiologists, a have disproved. 
 It even decomposes a combination of those substances. b 
 
 u On the variety of colour in the bile, consult Bordenave, Analyse de la Bile, 
 in the Mem. Presenlcs, &c. t. vii. p. 611. 617. 
 
 x Joachim Ramm, De alcalina bilis natura. Jen. 1786. 4to. 
 
 J. Fr. Straehl, De bilis natura. Gotting, 1787. 8vo. 
 
 W. M. Richter, Experimenta circa bilis naturam. Erlang. 1788. 4to. ' 
 
 y Tbenard, Memoires de la Sociile d’ Arcueil. t. i. 
 
 z His Experimenta ad veriorem cysticee bilis indolem exptorandam capta. Sect. i. 
 Gotting. 1764. 4to. 
 
 a It will be sufficient to quote a few of a large number : — 
 
 Spielmann, De natura bilis. Argent. 1767. 4to. 
 
 Jer. Gysb. ten. Haaf, De bile cystica. LB. 1772. 4to. 
 
 G. Chr. Utendorfer, Experim. de bile. Argent, 1774. 4to. 
 
 Dav. Willink, Considercitio bilis. LB. 1778. 8vo. 
 
 Seb. Goldwitz, Neue Vers, zu einer wahren Physiol, der Galle. Bamberg. 
 1785. Svo. 
 
 b Marherr, Preelect . in Boerhavix institut. 1785. vol. i. p. 463. 479. 
 
336 
 
 OF THE BILE. 
 
 387. The important and various use of the bile in chylifi- 
 cation is self-evident. 
 
 In the first place, it gradually precipitates the faeces, and 
 separates the milky chyle from the mixed and equable pul- 
 taceous chyme, while this is passing through the tract of the 
 small intestines, after being propelled from the stomach into 
 the duodenum and diluted by the pancreatic juice. c 
 
 It separates itself into two portions, the one serous, the 
 other resinous. The latter combines with the faeces, tinges 
 them, and is discharged with them ; the former is probably 
 mixed with the chyle and carried back to the blood. (E) 
 
 The bile seems to act as a stimulus to the peristaltic mo- 
 tion d of the intestines. 
 
 We shall omit other less probable uses assigned to the bile, 
 v. c. of exciting hunger by regurgitating into the stomach, — 
 a circumstance which we think can hardly happen during 
 health. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) The liver exists not only in all red-blooded animals, but in 
 the invertebral with colourless blood, whenever a heart and blood- 
 vessels are present. The pancreas exists in all the mammalia, 
 birds, reptiles, and fishes. 
 
 (B) Two instances have occurred in London, of the vena portae 
 running, not to the liver, but immediately to the vena cava in- 
 ferior. The bile must have been secreted entirely from the blood 
 
 c Chr. L. Werner, (Praes. Autenreith) Experiment, circa modum, quo chymus 
 in chylurn mutatur. Tubing. 1800. 8vo. 
 
 d See G. Fordyce, On the Digestion of Food, p. 70. 
 
OF THE BILE. 
 
 337 
 
 of the hepatic artery. One of these is described by Mr. Aber- 
 nethy, f and the other is mentioned by Mr. Lawrence, s 
 
 We must not forget that, in the mollusca, there is no vena 
 portae, and the liver receives its blood from the aorta. M. Simon 
 informs us, that, after tying the hepatic artery in pigeons, the bile 
 was secreted as usual ; but after tying the vena portae none was 
 produced . 11 A. Kaau found water injected into either the vena 
 portae or hepatic artery, exude on the surface of thS liver ; 1 but 
 this might be mere imbibition. 
 
 (C) Many animals have no gall-bladder; v.c. the horse, goat, 
 &c. All the carnivorous among the mammalia possess it, and all 
 reptiles, mos't of which also are carnivorous ; while those of the 
 class mammalia that are destitute of it, are, with the exception of 
 the porpoise and dolphin, vegetable feeders. Hence, Cuvier 
 thinks that it is intended as a reservoir of bile where the 
 animal is subject to long fasting from the uncertain supply 
 of food. The gall-bladder is sometimes absent in the human 
 subject. I have read of five instances of this. k 
 
 (D) Berzelius 1 stated, that bile contains alkali and salts in the 
 same proportion as the blood, and that no resin exists in it, but 
 “ a peculiar matter, of a bitter and afterwards somewhat sweet 
 taste, which possesses characters in common with the fibrin, the 
 colouring matter, and the albumen of the blood.” This forms, 
 with an excess of acid, a perfectly resinous precipitate. What 
 was considered albumen in the bile, Berzelius regarded as the 
 mucus of the gall-bladder. 
 
 f Phil. Trans, vol. lxxxiii. 
 
 B Medico- Chirurgic. ZVans . vol. iv. p. 174. 
 
 h Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science, No. 1. p. 229. This effect of tying 
 the vena porta: was long ago observed. See Sommering, Be c. h. Fabrica, t. vi. 
 
 p. 182 . 
 
 1 Perspiralio dicta Hippocral. 56 3. 
 
 k Phil. Trans. 1749. The subject was a woman sixty years of age. Also 
 1. c. 1813. Transact, of the Coll, of Phys. vol. vi. Mr. Cooke’s edition of 
 Morgagni, and Gazette de France, 1826. 
 
 J Animal Chemistry, p. 65. 
 
 Z 
 
338 
 
 OF THE BILE. 
 
 Bile contained, according to him, of 
 
 Water .... 907-4 
 
 Biliary matter - - 80.0 
 
 Mucus of the gall-bladder dissolved } Q _ 
 
 in the bile - - - | 
 
 Alkalies and salts common to all ) q „ 
 
 secreted fluids - - ]' y ' 
 
 1000.0 m 
 
 Of the weight of alkalies and salts more than one half was pure 
 soda. 
 
 Tiedemann and Gmelin make the bile of the ox to consist of 
 91.51 water, with 7.30 proximate principles, and 1.19 salts. The 
 biliary matter, or picroipel, they find a compound of resin and 
 a sweet crystallisable substance, which, together with another, 
 termed by them biliary asparagin, renders the resin soluble in 
 water. They discover also ozmazome, and a new acid — the 
 cholic, also cholesterin, gliadine, casein, the oleic, acetic, phos- 
 phoric, sulphuric, and muriatic acids, and colouring matter. The 
 soda, they say, is not pure, but a bicarbonate, and mixed with a 
 little potash. 
 
 (E) Fourcroy first explained the chemical operation of the bile 
 in chylification. 11 According to Dr. Prout, during the precipit- 
 ation of the chyle and the decomposition of the bile, a gaseous 
 product is usually evolved, the mass becomes neutral, and traces 
 of an albuminous principle commence, strongest at a certain dis- 
 tance from the pylorus, — below the point at which the bile 
 enters the intestine, and gradually fainter in each direction. On 
 mixing bile with chyme out of the body, a distinct precipitation 
 takes place, and the mixture becomes neutral; but the formation 
 of an albuminous principle is doubtful, probably from the want of 
 the pancreatic fluid. 0 
 
 The bitter and bilious yellow matter passes off with the fasces, 
 while the alkali (soda) of the bile probably combines with the 
 acid, and contributes to J;he formation of the chyle. The loss 
 of the alkali which preserved the picromel in solution, causes 
 the separation of the latter ; and Dr. Prout found the distinctive 
 
 m Med. Chirurg. Trans, vol. iii. p. 241. 
 
 “ Systeme des Connoissances Chimiques, t. x. p. 49. 
 
 0 Dr. Prout, Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. 1S19. p. 273. 
 
OF THE BILE. 
 
 339 
 
 qualities of it the more evident the further from the intestine it 
 was examined. 
 
 It is no longer wonderful that in jaundice, so intense that no bile 
 is seen in the faeces, and, according to Dr. Fordyce, even in artificial 
 obstruction of the choledochus by ligature, nutrition continues, 
 though, no doubt, less perfectly than in health. For Tiedemann 
 and Gmelin, after tying the biliary duct, which proved on dissection 
 to have continued impervious, p found the thoracic duct still con- 
 taining an abundance of matter, yellowish, indeed, from the jaun- 
 dice, but coagulating, and its coagulum becoming red, precisely 
 like chyle ; the small intestines had the soft flakes usually con- 
 sidered chyle, but thought mucus by them, and both large and 
 small intestines contained nearly all the principles, except those 
 of the bile, seen in sound animals ; but the contents of the large 
 intestines were exceedingly offensive. In the less satisfactory 
 
 p In the year 1817, Dr. James Blundell tied the choledochus several times, 
 in the dog and rabbit, and has ever since mentioned the results in his physiologi- 
 cal lectures. Generally the animal died of peritoneal inflammation, the bile 
 forcing its way into the cavity among the viscera, when the ligature had produced 
 ulceration ; but when the animal did not die, the jaundice disappeared after a 
 time, and the animal was nourished as before : the bile had found some outlet. 
 On opening the animals, about a fortnight after the experiment, he discovered 
 that coagulable lymph had been effused round the tied portion of the duct, so 
 as to re-establish the canal, and the ligatures had disappeared. Dr. Blundell’s 
 well known accuracy renders all confirmation unnecessary, but I may mention, that 
 Mr. Brodie and others have since made the same experiment with the same results. 
 
 Dr. Blundell has on record the cases of two infants, four or five months old, 
 in whom the hepatic ducts terminated blindly ; so that no bile entered the intes- 
 tines, and the stools were white, like spermaceti, and the skin jaundiced. But 
 the infants grew rapidly, and throve tolerably notwithstanding. He therefore 
 saw that nourishment could be accomplished without the mixture of bile and 
 chyme. Of these cases, one was examined by Mr. Luke, of the London Hospital, 
 the other by Mr. Gaunt, of Falcon Square. 
 
 Dr. Blundell has for many years been in the habit of displaying the precipitating 
 agency of the bile upon the chyme, by varying the mode of admixture : 1 . By 
 working chyme and bile together, when the white chyle appears in the mass, like 
 veins in marble : 2 By enclosing chyme in black silk, and wetting a part of the 
 external surface of this printer’s ball, as it may be called, with bile ; when, on 
 rendering it tense, the liquid portion of the chyme oozes through the texture, and 
 renders it generally blacker, but whitens it conspicuously in those spots where it 
 meets with bile: 3. By filtering the chyme repeatedly, and then dipping into 
 the thin strained fluid a rod with a drop of bile at its extremity, white chyle 
 appears at the point of contact. 
 
 He found the same results in the curious hybrid experiment, of employing 
 the bile of a dog and the chyme of a rabbit. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 OF THE BILE. 
 
 experiments of MM. Leuret and Lassaigne, the thoracic duct 
 was still full of chyle. 
 
 Although the bile is seen by experimenting upon the contents 
 of the duodenum, to cause a precipitation (Tiedemann and Gmelin 
 deny it, but Dr. Prout has almost constantly seen it,) the chyle 
 may thus be separated without it ; but probably, Dr. Prout con- 
 ceives, in less quantity and perfection. 
 
 The neutralising effect of the bile, he informs me, is evident 
 on laying a piece of litmus paper through the pylorus, when the 
 portion in the stomach becomes red, and that in the intestines is 
 unaffected, or even shows alkaline agency. 
 
 The further down the intestinal contents are examined, the 
 more do all traces of albuminous matters disappear, as well as of 
 all the highly azotised principles of the pancreatic juice, these 
 being supposed to convert the unazotised principles of the vege- 
 table food into albumen : in man and carnivorous brutes no traces 
 of either are discoverable so low down as the caecum. 
 
 The hypothesis, that one great use of the liver was, like that of the 
 lungs, to remove carbon from the system, with this difference, that 
 the alteration of the capacity of the air caused a reception of calo- 
 ric into the blood, in the case of the lungs, while the hepatic excre- 
 tion takes place without introduction of caloric, — was, I recollect, 
 a great favourite with me when a student, principally from the 
 facts that a supply of venous blood — blood which has been used 
 by the system, — runs to both liver and lungs, and to no other 
 organs ; that the higher the temperature the less carbon passed 
 off by the lungs (less caloric being demanded by the body), and 
 the more abundant, or more acrid, became the bile ; so that bilious 
 diseases are most prevalent in hot seasons and climates. The 
 Heidelberg Professors have adduced many arguments to the same 
 effect. In the foetus, for whose temperature the mother's heat 
 must be sufficient, the lungs perform no function, but the liver is 
 of great size, and bile is secreted abundantly, so that the meco- 
 nium accumulates considerably during the latter months of preg 
 nancy. We shall see, indeed, that at the very time the functions 
 of the lungs suddenly begin at birth, the liver suddenly loses 
 much of its supply of blood- Warm-blooded animals with large 
 lungs, living in the air, have the liver proportionally smaller 
 than those which live partly in water : in cold-blooded animals, 
 and reptiles, which have lungs with such large cells as but 
 
OF THE BILE. 
 
 341 
 
 slightly to decarbonise the blood; in fish, which get rid of 
 carbon but slowly by the gills ; and in the mollusca, which 
 decarbonise still more slowly by gills or lungs, — the liver is 
 proportionally large. More blood flows to the liver, accord- 
 ingly as the lungs are less active organs. In the mammalia and 
 birds it receives the blood of only the stomach, intestines, spleen, 
 and pancreas; but in the cold-blooded, of many other parts; in 
 the tortoise, of the hind legs, pelvis, tail, and vena azygos ; in 
 serpents, of the right renal, and all the intercostal veins ; in fish, 
 of the renal veins, the tail, and genitals. They assert, that in 
 pneumonia and phthisis more bile is secreted, and in the blue dis- 
 ease, and other affections of the heart, that the liver is enlarged. 
 The constituents of the bile contain a large quantity of carbon, 
 which is chiefly in union with hydrogen, and under the form of 
 resin or fatty matter, and resin is most abundant in the bile of 
 herbivorous animals, whose food contains a very large proportion 
 of carbon and hydrogen. In the lungs the carbon may be said to 
 be burnt, whence animal heat ; in the abdomen it passes off still 
 combustible. 
 
342 
 
 SECT. XXVI. 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN. 
 
 388. The Spleen a lies to the left of the liver, with which 
 it has considerable vascular communications ; with its oblong 
 figure, b it accommodates itself, as it were, to the contiguous 
 viscera, but is liable to great varieties in point of form, num- 
 ber, &c. c 
 
 389. Its colour is livid, its texture peculiar, soft, easily 
 lacerated, and therefore surrounded by two membranes, the 
 interior of which is proper to the spleen, and the exterior 
 derived from the omentum. 
 
 390. The situation and size of the spleen are no less 
 various than its figure, and depend upon the degree of the 
 stomach’s repletion ; for, when the stomach is empty and lax, 
 the spleen is turgid ; when the stomach is full, the spleen, 
 being compressed, is emptied. 
 
 It undergoes a continual, but gentle and equable, motion, 
 dependent upon respiration, under the chief instrument of 
 which — the diaphragm, it is immediately situated. 
 
 a Ch. Drelincourt, the younger, has carefully collected and concisely related 
 whatever was known up to his time, respecting the spleen ; De lienosis, at the end 
 of his father’s Opuscula. Boerhaave’s edition, p. 710. sq. 
 
 Consult, also, Chr. Lud. Roloflf, Defabrica et funciione lienis. Frf. ad Viadr. 
 1750. 4 to. 
 
 But among more recent writers, see L. J. P. Assolant, JRecherches sur la 
 Sate, Par. 10. 8vo. 
 
 C. P. Heussinger, iiber den Sau und die Verrichtung dev Milz. Isen. 1817. 
 8vo. 
 
 And Chr. Hellw. Schmidt, Cummentatio (which gained the royal prize) de pa- 
 thologia lienis, &c. Gott. 1816. 4to. 
 
 b Walter, tab. iii. G. 
 
 Mascagni, tab. xiv. P. 
 
 c See Sandifort, Natuur en genees-kundige Sibl. vol. ii. p. S45. sq. 
 
OF THE FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN. 
 
 343 
 
 391. Its texture was formerly supposed to be cellular, and 
 compared to the corpora cavernosa of the penis. This 
 opinion was proved to be erroneous by more careful examin- 
 ation of the human spleen, d which consists entirely of blood- 
 vessels, of enormous size in comparison with the bulk of the 
 organ. They are, in fact, proportionally more considerable 
 than in any other part of the body. 
 
 392. The experiments of Wintringham demonstrate the 
 great tenuity and strength of the coats of the splenic artery. 
 It is divided into an infinite number of twigs, the termina- 
 tions of which resemble pulpy penicilli and give rise to the 
 splenic veins, which gradually unite into large, loose, and 
 easily dilatable, trunks. 
 
 393. This immense congeries of blood-vessels is connected 
 and supported by a sparing cellular parenchyma, from which 
 the absorbents arise. The trunks of these run along the 
 lower surface of the spleen between the two coats just 
 described. 6 
 
 394. This loose structure of the spleen, easily becoming 
 distended with blood, admirably confirms what we formerly 
 remarked respecting the turgor of this organ (390). The 
 congestion and slow return of the splenic blood, if the nature 
 of the neighbouring organs is also taken into consideration, 
 illustrates its peculiar properties, which may throw some light 
 upon the function of this enigmatical viscus — the source of 
 so much controversy. 
 
 395. The splenic blood is very fluid, coagulates with great 
 difficulty, separates the serum from the crassamentum imper- 
 fectly, and is of a livid dark colour, like the blood of the 
 foetus. These circumstances clearly demonstrate the abun- 
 dance in it of carbonaceous matter ; which is likewise proved 
 indisputably by an easy experiment. Whenever I have ex- 
 
 d See Lobstein’s Dissertation, Nonnulla de Liene sistens. Argent. 1773. 4to. 
 
 e The singular and rather paradoxical opinions of Hewson, without doubt, a 
 very superior man, respecting the functions of the spleen, may be found in his 
 posthumous work, entitled Experimental Inquiries. Part III. London. 1777. 
 8ro. C. ii. S. xlv. sq. xcv. sq. 
 
 Z 4 
 
OF THE FUNCTION 
 
 344 
 
 posed sections of a recent spleen to oxygen gas, they have 
 acquired a very bright red colour, while the air, losing its 
 oxygen, has become impregnated with carbon. 
 
 396. But since the spleen is the only organ of that descrip- 
 tion quite destitute of an excretory duct excepting its veins 
 which run ultimately to the liver, its function is probably 
 subservient to that of the latter. This opinion has appeared 
 strengthened by the observation, that in animals from which 
 the spleen has been removed, — a remarkable experiment very 
 frequently made from the most remote period/ the cystic bile 
 is sometimes found pale and inert. 
 
 397. Besides at least twenty hypotheses respecting the use 
 of the spleen, two of more weight have been lately advanced, 
 both supposing a connection between the spleen and stomach, 
 but the one 6 regarding the spleen as a diverticulum to the 
 arterial blood destined to form the gastric juice ; (A) the 
 other, 1 ' supported by excellent arguments and experiments, 
 making the spleen to receive a great portion of our drink from 
 the cardiac extremity of the stomach, so that these may pass 
 through a short cut, hitherto unknown, from the stomach to 
 the spleen, and thus into the mass of blood. The latter hy- 
 pothesis, especially if a few objections were removed,' is highly 
 deserving of further examination. (B) 
 
 f J. H. Schulze, De splene canibus exciso. Hal. 1735. 4to. 
 
 6 Vine. Malacarne, Memorie della Soc. Italiana, t. viii. P. 1. p. 233. 
 
 A. Moreschi, Del veto e primario uso della milza. Milan, 1803. 8vo. 
 
 h Ever. Home, Phil- Trans. 1808. More lately, however, in the same Trans- 
 actions, for 1811, this very acute author regards the spleen rather as a secreting 
 organ, and its large and numerous lymphatic vessels, running to the thoracic 
 duct, as supplying the place of an excretory' canal. 
 
 ■ For instance, the size of the spleen in those warm-blooded animals which 
 never drink ; or in bisulcous animals, whose spleen adheres to the paunch, re- 
 ceiving the crude food only, but never the drink, which is prevented from entering 
 it by the well-known mechanism of a semicanal runuing from the oesophagus to 
 the omasum. 
 
OF THE SPLEEN. 
 
 345 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) This opinion was proposed a century ago, by Dr. Stukely. k 
 
 Considering the spleen to consist entirely of complications and 
 inosculations of arteries, veins and cells, nerves, and (as Malpighi 
 asserted) “ a muscular net-work of fibrillae,” he supposed that it 
 contracted and propelled its blood through the splenic vessels 
 into those of the stomach, when this organ required a larger 
 supply during digestion, (p. 37.) He maintained, likewise, that it 
 accelerated the motion of the blood in the mesenteric veins when 
 the circulation in the vena portae was sluggish, and that it answered 
 various other purposes. The whole is an hypothesis now forgotten : 
 the spleen has no muscularity. 
 
 Some have thought it a diverticulum for the blood whenever 
 this fluid is obstructed in any part of the body, as in the cold 
 stage of fever, great efforts, &c. To prevent too much being 
 thrown upon organs that might be injured, the spleen, they con- 
 tend, is formed to allow an accumulation in its substance. This is 
 ingeniously defended by Dr. Rush. 1 
 
 Dr. Haighton (Lectures at Guy’s Hospital), and Mr. Saumarez 
 (Netv System of Physiology ), have explained its operations as a 
 diverticulum in a very different manner. When the stomach is 
 full, the compression experienced by the spleen impedes its cir- 
 culation, and the blood makes its way the more copiously into the 
 arteries of the stomach, liver, &c. But we have no proof that the 
 repletion of the stomach compresses the spleen materially, and thus 
 can impede its circulation: a fact, indeed, which will be mentioned 
 presently, renders this improbable. Besides, in ruminating animals, 
 as Blumenbach observes, it lies next the first stomach or paunch, 
 and if compressed, must be so before digestion begins ; and in 
 proportion as the fourth stomach fills and digestion proceeds more 
 actively, is the distension of the paunch diminished. It varies 
 in situation in different animals, not being always attached to the 
 stomach. The excitement, too, which the liver must experience 
 
 k Of the Spleen, its description and history, uses and diseases, particularly the 
 vapors, with their remedy. Being a lecture read at the Royal College of Physicians. 
 
 By Wm. Stukely, M.D. C.M.L. and S. R. S. London, 1722. folio. 
 
 ! Cox’s Medical Museum, Philad. 1807. 
 
346 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION 
 
 when chyme irritates the extremity of the ductus choledochus, 
 and still more the provision of a gall-bladder, must render such 
 aid from the spleen superfluous to the liver. The infinite blood- 
 vessels and excerning orifices of the stomach cannot, likewise, 
 but furnish sufficient gastric juice, from the mere excitement 
 which they must experience whenever the stomach contains food. 
 No other glands habitually excited to occasional great activity 
 have such a diverticulum. 
 
 A third view of its influence as a diverticulum is, that it serves 
 for receiving a great part of the venous blood of the intestines 
 during chymification and especially during chylification. When 
 this process is going on, there must be a great increase of blood 
 flowing to the alimentary canal ; the vena portae, through which it 
 all flows, can dilate to only a certain extent, and in order to pre- 
 vent such a congestion in the mesenteric veins as would retard 
 the circulation in the organs, the spleen allows an accumulation 
 in itself. Leuret and Lassaigne found the spleen of a dog weigh 
 a pound and a half in two hours after the application of a ligature 
 to the vena portae, while it ordinarily weighs but two ounces ; and 
 observe that it has a vermillion tint when an animal is fasting, 
 but grows turgid and of a dark purple when the chyme has passed 
 the pylorus. 
 
 If the opinion of Erasistratus that the spleen is useless, was a 
 little atheistical, the notion of Paley was not much better, — that 
 the viscera contained, and the abdomen containing, are so clum- 
 sily adapted to each other, that a pad is necessary to make them 
 fit, just as hatters put stuffing under the leather of a hat which is 
 made too big for the head, — “ It is possible, in my opinion, that 
 the spleen may be merely a stuffing, a soft cushion to fill up a 
 vacuum or hollow, which, unless occupied, would leave the 
 package loose and unsteady.” m When I consider the stupendous 
 power and design displayed throughout nature, I instantly revolt 
 at such an explanation as Paley ’s, to say nothing of its anatomical 
 absurdity. 
 
 (B) Sir Everard Home’s friends having, among other experiments, 
 passed a ligature around the pyloric extremity of the stomach of 
 a dog, injected into this receptacle a solution of rhubarb ; and, 
 on killing the animal some few hours afterwards, none of the ab- 
 sorbents of the stomach were found distended, nor could any 
 
 m Natural Theology, c. xi. 
 
OF THE SPLEEN. 
 
 34? 
 
 trace of rhubarb be detected in the liver, but evident traces 
 existed in the spleen and in the urine. When fluids had been 
 drunk, the spleen was turgid and exhibited cells full of a colour- 
 less liquid that were at other times collapsed and almost imper- 
 ceptible, — a circumstance rendering it unlikely that the spleen 
 is diminished in bulk by the distention of the stomach ; for, first, 
 compression sufficient to prevent the artery from sending into it 
 the usual quantity of blood, would prevent the entrance of fluids 
 by any other vessels ; and, secondly, we learn that the spleen is 
 actually distended by the fluid portion of the contents of the 
 stomach. 
 
 During the distention of the spleen, when the pylorus was not 
 tied, the rhubarb appeared more strongly in the blood of the 
 splenic than in that of other veins. If coloured solids without 
 fluids were introduced into the stomach, the cells of the spleen 
 were not distended, nor did this organ or its veins give more 
 signs of the colouring matter than others. 
 
 From later experiments, published in 1811, the writer com- 
 pletely changes his opinion. It seems that traces of rhubarb were 
 discoverable in the bile as well as in the spleen : and that it 
 tinged the urine if the spleen had been removed before the 
 experiment : so that he abandons what he had before advanced 
 as a discovery. 
 
348 
 
 SECT. XXVII. 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION OF THE OMENTUM. 
 
 398. The omentum gastro-colicum or magnum a (to dis- 
 tinguish it from the parvum or hepato-gastricum), b is a 
 peculiar process of peritonaeum, arising immediately from the 
 external coat of the stomach. 
 
 399. Although there are innumerable continuations of the 
 peritonaeum in the abdomen, c and every abdominal viscus is 
 so covered by it that on opening the abdomen nothing is 
 found destitute of that membrane, nevertheless, it is afforded 
 in different ways, which may be reduced to classes. 
 
 Over some the peritonaeum is merely extended as a smooth 
 membrane, or it affords to them only a partial covering, as is 
 the case with respect to the kidneys, rectum, urinary bladder, 
 and, in some measure, with respect to the pancreas and gall- 
 bladder. 
 
 To some which project into the cavity of the abdomen, 
 although adhering to its parietes, it affords a covering for the 
 greater part of their surface ; v. c. to the livei', spleen, stomach, 
 uterus, and the testes of the very young foetus. 
 
 The intestinal tube, with the exception of the rectum, pro- 
 jects so much into the cavity of the abdomen, that it is, as it 
 were, suspended in loose processes of the peritonaeum, called 
 
 a Eustachius, tab. ix. 
 
 Haller, leones anat. fasc. i. tab. iv. K. M., and the Appendix Colica, which 
 he himself investigated at Gottingen in 1740. ib. R. 
 
 Rob. Steph. Henry, Descript, omenti c. icone nova. Hafn. 1748. 4to. 
 b Eustachius, tab. x. fig. 1. G. H. 
 
 Haller, 1. c. Q. 
 
 c C. J. M. Langeubeck, Commentarius dc structura peritoncri, &c. Gott. 1S17. 
 4to. with copper- plate* 
 
OF THE FUNCTION OF THE OMENTUM. 
 
 349 
 
 mesentery and mesocolon : the broad ligaments of the uterus 
 are similar to these. 
 
 400. The longest and most remarkable process of perito- 
 naeum, is the omentum — a large, empty, delicate, sac, hanging 
 from the large curvature of the stomach, extended over the 
 greater part of the small intestines, applying itself closely to 
 their convolutions, and, in some measure, insinuating itself 
 into their interstices. 
 
 401. Besides the blood-vessels seen upon the omentum, it 
 is marked by fatty striae or bands, which are every where 
 reticulated (whence the German name (Netzhaut) of this 
 membrane), and in corpulent persons increase occasionally 
 to a large and even dangerous size, and, by their means, the 
 whole omentum is lubricated with a halitus, which one might 
 almost call adipose. 
 
 402. On the latter circumstance depends the use commonly 
 ascribed to the omentum, — of lubricating the intestines and 
 assisting their continual movements : this also appears the 
 use of those analogous small bursae which are found d in such 
 numbers about the rectum e and colon. f 
 
 The omentum also prevents the adhesion of the intestines 
 to the peritonaeum, and the consequent impediment to the 
 functions of the primae viae. 
 
 403. There is another two-fold office attributed with great 
 probability to the omentum, g viz. that of facilitating the 
 dilation of the viscera to which it is contiguous, and of 
 acting as a diverticulum to their blood during their state of 
 vacuity. 
 
 404. If we reflect on the singular structure of the omentum 
 parvum or hepato-gastricum especially, we may be inclined to 
 believe that there is another, and, perhaps, principal office 
 attached to it, unknown at present, and discoverable by com- 
 parative anatomy. 
 
 d I have lately seen similar appendices on the peritonseal covering of an uterus 
 unimpregnated, but which had formerly been pregnant. 
 
 * Walter, tab. ii. m. m. m. 
 
 f Bidloo , Anatomia hum. corporis, tab. xxxix. fig. 6. C.C. C. D. D. D. 
 
 s v. Chaussier, Memoires de V Acad, de Dijon . 1784. Semestr. iii. p. 95. 
 
350 
 
 SECT. XXVIII. 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 405. The intestinal tube, over which the omentum is ex- 
 tended, and which receives the chyme to elaborate it further 
 (362, 363), and separate the chyle from the faeoes, is divided 
 into two principal portions — the small and large intestines, 
 of whose functions we shall speak separately. 
 
 406. The small a intestines are again divided into three : 
 
 O 
 
 the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. 
 
 The first is named from its usual length. 
 
 The second from generally appearing collapsed and empty. 
 
 The third from its convolutions : it is the longest of the 
 three, fuller, and, as it were, inflated, and sometimes resem- 
 bling the large intestines by the appearance of bullae. 
 
 407. The coats of the small intestines correspond with 
 those of the stomach. (354) 
 
 The external is derived from the mesentery. 
 
 The muscular consists of two orders of fibres : the one lon- 
 gitudinal, interrupted, external, and found especially about 
 the part opposite the mesentery ; the other, annular and falci- 
 form, possessing the power of narrowing the canal, while 
 the former shortens it. Upon both depends the very great 
 and permanent irritability of the intestines, formerly men- 
 tioned. (300) 
 
 The nervous coat is condensed cellular membrane, easily 
 reduced by handling, or more particularly by inflation, into a 
 spumous tela; b in it the intestinal blood-vessels, which arise 
 
 a Chr. Bernh. Albinus, Specimen anat. exhihens novam tenuium hominis intes- 
 tinor. descriptionem. LB. 1724. 8vo. 
 
 b B. S. Albinus, Annotut . Academ. L. ii. tab. iv. fig. 1, 2. 
 
OF THE FUNCTION OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 351 
 
 from the mesenteric, e are distributed in a beautifully arbor- 
 escent form; d the intestines, no less than the stomach, are 
 indebted to it for their tenacity and strength. 
 
 The interior, lined by its delicate epithelium, and deserving 
 the name of villous in the small intestines more than in any 
 other part of the canal, forms, in conjunction with the inner 
 surface of the former coat, here and there, undulated ridges 
 and rugous plicae, which, in dried and inflated intestines, re- 
 semble the blade of a scythe, and are termed the valvulae 
 conniventes or Kerkringhianae . 6 
 
 408. The villi, which are innumerable f upon the inner 
 surface of the intestines, and whose beautiful and minute 
 vascular structure was first carefully investigated, though de- 
 scribed with exaggeration, by Lieberkiihn, s may be, perhaps, 
 compared, while destitute of chyle, to little loose pendulous 
 bags, internally soft and spungy ; but, w r hen distended with 
 chyle, they have the appearance of a morel. 
 
 409. The base of these villi is surrounded by innumerable 
 glandular follicles, adhering chiefly to the nervous coat, and 
 opening into the intestinal canal by a very small orifice, 
 through which they discharge the mucus that lines the whole 
 tract of the intestines. 
 
 These are distinguished into three orders. The Brun- 
 nerian, largest, distinct, found in most abundance in that part 
 of the duodenum which is contiguous to the pylorus . 11 The . 
 
 c Eustachius, tab. xxyii. fig. 2. 4. 
 
 d B. S. Aibinus, Dissert, de arteriis et vends intestin. hominis, with coloured 
 plates. LB. 1736. 4to. 
 
 Also his Annotat. Acad. L. iii. tab. i, ii. 
 
 e Kerkring, Spicilegium anatomicum, tab. xiv. fig. I, 2. 
 
 f He estimated their number, in the small intestines of an adult, to be about 
 500,000. 
 
 g Defabrica et actione villorum inteslinor. tenuium hominis. LB. 1745. 4to. 
 
 J. Bleuland, Descriptio vasculorum in intestinorum tenuium tunicis. Ultraj. 
 1797. 4to. 
 
 R. A. Hedwig, Disquisitio ampullarum Lieburkiihnii. Lips. 1797. 4to. 
 
 C. A. Rudolphi, Anatomisch-physiologische Abhandiungen. Berlin. 1802. 8vo. 
 p. 39. 
 
 h J. Conr. a Brunn, Glandule duodeni s. pancreas secundarium, Francof. 
 1715. 4to. fig. 1. 
 
352 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION 
 
 Peyerian, smaller, aggregated, found chiefly at the termin- 
 ation of the small intestines, — about the valve of the colon . 1 
 Lastly, the Lieberldihnian, the smallest, said to be distributed 
 in the proportion of about eight to each villus. k The two 
 former orders are so inconstant, that I am inclined to consider 
 the view given of them in the plates alluded to, as morbid ; 1 
 for I have more than once been unable to discover the 
 slightest trace of fungous papillae with a single pore, in the 
 small intestines of healthy adults ; while, on the contrary, in 
 aphthous subjects, I have found nearly the whole intestinal 
 tube beset with them in infinite numbers, both solitary and 
 ao-o’reo-atecl. m 
 
 oo o 
 
 410. As the gastric juice is poured into the stomach, so an 
 enteric or intestinal fluid is poured into the small intestines, 
 demonstrated, among other ways, by the common experiment, 
 first, we believe, instituted by Pechlin. n It is probably of a 
 nature similar to that of the gastric liquor, but an accurate in- 
 vestigation of it is a physiological desideratum. We can say 
 nothing respecting its quantity, but Haller’s estimate, — eight 
 pounds in the twenty-four hours, is certainly excessive. (A) 
 
 411. The intestines agree with the stomach in this par- 
 ticular, that they have a similar, and, indeed, a more un- 
 questionable, or, at least, a more lively, peristaltic action , ° 
 which occurs principally when the chymous pulp enters them. 
 This it agitates by an undulatory constriction of different 
 parts of the canal, and propels from the duodenum towards 
 the large intestines. Although the existence of an antiperis- 
 taltic motion, causing a retrograde course to their contents, 
 
 ' J. Corn-. Peyer, De Glandulis intestinorum. Scafhus. 1677. Svo. especially 
 
 fig. 3. 
 
 k Lieberkiihn, 1. c. p. 17. tab. iii. 
 
 1 The eminent Rudolphi thinks differently, 1. c. p. 212. 
 
 m These intestinal aphthte exactly' resemble those tubercles which Sheldon, in 
 a work which we shall presently quote, exhibits (Tab. 1.) as small ampulla: full 
 of chyle. 
 
 n De purgantium medicament or. facultat. p. 509. — tab. iv. 
 
 0 Benj. Schwartz, De vomitn et motu intestinorum. LB. 1745. 4to. 
 
 J. Foelix, De motu perislaltico intestinorum. Trevir. 1750. 4to. 
 
OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 353 
 
 cannot be disproved, it is in health much weaker, and less 
 common and important, than the former. 
 
 412. By these moving powers and by these solvents which 
 are afforded by means of secretion, the chyme undergoes re- 
 markable changes. p In the jejunum it becomes a more liquid 
 pulp, equally mixed, of a grey colour, and acidulous odour : 
 in the ileum it begins to separate into two parts — into the 
 fseces, of a pale, yellowish, brown colour,* 1 and nauseous 
 smell — and the genuine chyle, swimming upon the former, 
 extracted from the chyme, separated by the bile from the 
 fmces, and destined for absorption by the lacteal vessels, as 
 we shall find in the next section. (B) At present, we shall 
 enquire what course is taken by the faeces. 
 
 413. These, after becoming more and more inspissated in 
 their long course through the ileum, have to overcome the 
 valve of the colon and pass into the large intestines. To fa- 
 
 p Consult the excellent -observations and experiments of A. E. Ferd. Emmert, 
 Archiv. fur die Physiologie, t, viii. p. 145. 
 
 4 We formerly (387) remarked, that the bilious colour of the feces arose from 
 the excrementitious part of the bile. ' In the jejunum, the bile being undecom- 
 posed and mixed with the equable pulp of the intestines, and consequently dif- 
 fused and diluted, cannot exhibit its true colour. But after its separation into 
 two parts, the excrementitious portion, mixed with the precipitated feces, and, 
 as it were, again concentrated, now discovers its original colour, and imparts it 
 to the feces. 
 
 C. F. Wolff' (Act. Pelropolit. 1779. P. ii. p. 245.) entertains a different opi- 
 nion iu regard to the cause of the bilious colour of the feces contained in the 
 ileum. He conceives that an addition of bile occurs near the extremity of the 
 jejunum, by exhaling from the gall-bladder and penetrating this part of the intestine 
 and its contents, and that this bile differing, perhaps, in its nature, from the bile 
 of the choledochus, and not being mixed with the feces as the latter is with the 
 chyme, retains its colour through all the remaining tract of the intestines, and 
 continues pure bile. 
 
 But, besides our being able easily to explain why this colour is not observable 
 before the decomposition of the chyme and bile, it is extremely doubtful whether, 
 during life and health, any exhalation can occur from the gall-bladder and pe- 
 netrate the intestine. For in subjects recent and scarcely cold, we have seen the 
 intestines but slightly tinged with bile, although dyed with it very deeply and 
 extensively after a lapse of some hours or days, i. e. after the coats of the gall- 
 bladder had lost their tone and become incapable of preventing the transudation 
 of their contents. 
 
 A A 
 
354 
 
 OF THF. FUNCTION 
 
 cilitate this, the extremity of the ileum is lubricated very 
 abundantly by mucus. 
 
 414. The valve of the colon , r or, as it may deservedly be 
 termed after its discoverer, the valve of Fallopius, s is a short 
 process or continuation of the portion of the ileum that pene- 
 trates into and is surrounded by the cavity of the large in- 
 testine. Its external lips, while a neighbouring fold of the 
 large intestine at the same time projects considerably, are 
 composed , 1 not like other similar folds, merely of the interior 
 and nervous coats, but of fibres from the muscular coat also. 
 Hence it performs the double office of preventing the passage 
 of too great a quantity of faeces into the large intestines, and 
 regurgitation into the small. 
 
 415. The large intestines, divided like the small into three 
 parts, commence by the ccecum (which has a vermiform process 
 whose use in man is unknown), u and afford a very ample 
 
 r Haller, De valvula coli. Gotting. 1742. 4to., reprinted in his Oper. minor. 
 t. i. p. 580. sq. 
 
 T. Mich. Roderer, De valvula coli. Argent. 1768. 4to. 
 
 s The various opinions respecting the discoverer of this remarkable valve are 
 well known. Haller’s Elementa, t. vii. P. 1. p. 142., may be consulted on this 
 point. 
 
 In the mean time I am certain that, long before the period at which its disco- 
 very is in general dated, it was accurately known to that immortal anatomist 
 Gabr. Fallopius. In the library of our university there is a manuscript of Fal- 
 lopius, containing, among other things, his anatomy of the monkey, in which is an 
 account of the structure and use of the valve of the colon, delivered in a public 
 demonstration at Padua, Feb. 2. 1553, in the following words : “ The use of the 
 ccecum in the monkey, is to prevent the regurgitation of the food during progression 
 on all fours. This is proved by the circumstance of water or air, thrown into the 
 rectum, reaching the ccecum, but not passing beyond the large intestines. But, if 
 impelled from above, it passes into them. The reason is this, — at the insertion (f 
 the ileum are two folds, which are compressed by inflation and repletion, as occurs 
 in the heart, and prevent retrogression ; ivherefore, in mail, clysters cannot pass and 
 be rejected through the mouth, unless in a weak and diseased state of the intestines.” 
 
 * A view of a recent and entire valve is exhibited by B S. Albinus in his 
 Annotat. Acad. L. iii. tab. v. fig. 1. 
 
 And overcharged by inflation and drying, in Santorini’s Posthumous Tables, 
 xiv. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 u Lieberkiihn, De valvula coli et usu processus vermicularis. LB. 1739. 4to. 
 
 Joach. Vosse, De intestino cccco ejusque appendice vermformi. Gotting. 1749. 
 4 to. 
 
OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 355 
 
 receptacle, in which the fasces may be collected and retained, 
 till an opportunity for discharging them arrives. 
 
 416. They exceed the small intestines in thickness and 
 strength, as well as in capacity. The muscular coat has this 
 peculiarity — that its longitudinal fibres, excepting at the 
 extremity of the rectum, are collected into three bands, called 
 ligaments of the colon ; x and the intestines themselves are 
 divided into a kind of bulbous segments. The inner coat is 
 not so beautifully flocculent as that of the small intestines, but 
 more similar to that of the stomach. 
 
 417. Their peristaltic motion is much fainter than that of 
 the small intestines. On the other hand, they experience to 
 a greater degree the pressure of the abdominal parietes, to 
 which the whole length of the colon is contiguous. 
 
 418. They gently propel the faeces into the rectum , which 
 thus becomes internally stimulated to discharge its contents. 
 The discharge is facilitated by the absence of transverse 
 rugae, and especially by the great quantity of mucus at the 
 extremity of the bowels. 
 
 419. It is principally effected by the pressure of the abdo- 
 men downwards, overcoming the resistance of the os coccygis 
 and of both sphincters, the inner of which is a remarkable 
 bundle of circular fibres, the outer, a truly cutaneous muscle. 
 After the excretion, the effort of the abdomen having ceased, 
 the levator ani chiefly retracts the intestine, which is again 
 closed by its sphincter. y (C) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Pechlin’s experiment was simply to include a portion of 
 intestine between two ligatures, so that the fluid secreted into the 
 canal might be collected. 
 
 * Eustachius, tab. x. fig. 2. 4, 5. 
 
 y All these parts may be seen as they exist in each sex, in Santorini’s Posth. 
 Tables, xvi, and xvii. 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION 
 
 (B) A great part of the chyle is generally formed and absorbed 
 before the digested mass reaches the ileum. z On arriving in the 
 large intestines, the mass undergoes fresh changes, at present un- 
 explained, and is converted into excrement. a Here it is that the 
 true succus entericus must be poured forth, for the secretion into 
 the small is probably nothing more than mucus and a simple 
 watery fluid. Tiedemann and Gmelin support, in some measure, 
 the old idea of the caecum being a subsidiary stomach, from its 
 contents being acid, although acidity had disappeared higher up 
 in the canal, and more acid as the aliment is less digestible ; and 
 from albumen often reappearing suddenly in this part of the canal. 
 Dr. Prout found the fluids of the large intestines coagulate lymph 
 even as low as the rectum. The excrementitious mass, consisting 
 of the indigestible part of the food, the resin, and colouring and 
 fatty matter of the bile, with intestinal mucus, loses its fluids 
 gradually as it descends, and in the rectum becomes particularly 
 dry. 
 
 The gas of the stomach contains, besides azote and carbonic 
 acid gas, oxygen, and very little hydrogen ; while that of the 
 small intestines contains, besides the two former gases, no oxygen, 
 and abundance of hydrogen : that of the large intestines has less 
 hydrogen and carbonic acid, and likewise no oxygen. Little or 
 no gas is found in the stomach during chymification. 
 
 The following are the results of MM. Magendie’s and Che- 
 vreuil’s analysis of the gases of the alimentary canal : 
 
 In the stomach of a man just executed, — 
 
 In the small intestines of a subject, four-and-twentj^ years of 
 age, who had eaten, two hours before execution, bread and 
 Gruy&re cheese, and drunk eau rougie, — 
 
 Oxygen 
 Carbonic acid 
 Pure 113'drogen 
 Azote 
 
 11,00 
 
 14,00 
 
 3,55 
 
 71,45 
 
 100,00 
 
 z Dr. Prout, Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. 1819. 
 a See Abernethy, Surgical Observations, Part II. p. 34. 
 
OF THE INTESTINES. 357 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 - 
 
 24,39 
 
 Pure hydrogen 
 
 - 
 
 55,53 
 
 Azote 
 
 - 
 
 20,08 
 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 twenty-three years of age, who had eaten the same 
 
 food, and was executed with the former, 
 
 — 
 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 - 
 
 40,00 
 
 Pure hydrogen 
 
 - 
 
 51,15 
 
 Azote 
 
 - 
 
 8,85 
 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 ■ ■ ■ twenty-eight years of age, 
 
 who, 
 
 four hours before 
 
 execution, had eaten beef, bread, lentils, 
 
 and drunk red wine, — 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 - 
 
 25,00 
 
 Pure hydrogen 
 
 - 
 
 8,40 
 
 Azote 
 
 - 
 
 66,60 
 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 In the large intestines of these three criminals, were found, — 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 - 
 
 43,50 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen and 
 
 some 
 
 } 5,47 
 
 traces of sulphuretted hydrogen 
 
 Azote 
 
 - 
 
 51,03 
 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 - 
 
 70,00 
 
 Hydrogen and pure carburetted ] 
 
 j- 11,06 
 
 hydrogen 
 
 
 Azote 
 
 - 
 
 18,04 
 
 100,00 
 
 The gas of the caecum and rectum of the third was examined 
 separately. 
 
 a a 3 
 
358 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION 
 
 Caecum, — 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 12,50 
 
 Pure hydrogen 
 
 7,50 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen 
 
 12,50 
 
 Azote 
 
 67,50 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 0,00 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 42,86 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen 
 
 11,18 
 
 Azote 
 
 45,96 
 
 
 100,00 
 
 Some traces of sulphuretted hydrogen appeared upon the mer- 
 cury before the last analysis was commenced. 
 
 Berzelius finds human excrement to consist of 
 
 Water ... 73.3 
 
 Remains of vegetable and animal ) „ 
 
 matter - - - J *’ 
 
 Bile - - 0,9 
 
 Albumen - - 0,9 
 
 Peculiar extractive matter - 2,7 
 
 Matter composed of altered bile,) ^ 
 resin, animal matter, &c. - J ’ 
 
 Salts - - - 1,2 
 
 100,0 
 
 The gases are probably disengaged from the contents of the 
 canal ; but I believe, with John Hunter, b that it often secretes 
 gaseous fluids. For mental emotion will suddenly cause extreme 
 discharges of air from the stomach, and the intestines to swell 
 with wind. In many diseases the same will occur, although no 
 fermentation or unusual change is discernible in the contents of 
 the canal. Emphysema has occurred without any wound of the 
 lungs ; and air in the serous membranes, or in the cellular, is 
 known to be absorbed. c 
 
 b Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy. 
 
 c See Dr. Baillie in Transact, of Society for Improvement <f Med. and Surg. 
 Knowledge, vol. i. 
 
OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 359 
 
 The excrements of brutes have been analysed, but not to an 
 extent capable of affording general views. 
 
 (C) Every one knows that the intestines are usually relieved 
 once in twenty-four hours, but that some little variety occurs in 
 this respect. In cases of extreme abstinence, they of course 
 discharge their contents very rarely, as I mentioned formerly. 
 Heberden, however, mentions a person who naturally had a mo- 
 tion once a month only, and another who had twelve motions 
 every day during thirty years, and then seven every day for seven 
 years, and rather grew fat than otherwise. c 
 
 Pouteau’s young lady, mentioned at page 303, had no stool, he 
 says, for upwards of eight years, although during the last year 
 she ate abundantly of fruit, and drank coffee, milk, and tea, and 
 broth with yolks of eggs : but she had copious greasy sweats. 
 
 c Commentarii, p. 14. 
 
 A A 4 
 
360 
 
 SECT. XXIX. 
 
 OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. " 
 
 420. The chyle, which we left in the ileum just separated 
 from the faeces, must evidently be a mixture of different fluids. 
 The proportion derived from the secretions — the saliva, the 
 gastric, pancreatic, and enteric fluids, the bile, &c., surpasses, 
 without the least doubt, that which is derived from the ali- 
 ment, although this cannot be accurately ascertained. Hence 
 must be derived the solution of the problem, — how ingesta 
 of such various kinds can be converted into the chyle b — a 
 fluid constantly of the same appearance, homogeneous, and of 
 an animal nature. 
 
 421. The course of the chyle from the intestines to the 
 blood, is through a part of the absorbent system, which we 
 have hitherto only hinted at, but shall now speak of particu- 
 larly. It is divided into four parts — lacteal and lymphatic 
 vessels, conglobate glands, and the thoracic duct. Each of 
 these will now fall under consideration. 
 
 422. It is certain that the lacteals originate among the villi 
 of the internal coat of the intestines ; but whether they are an 
 immediate continuation of these villi, or merely connected 
 with them by a cellular medium, admits a question. I myself 
 have never been able to trace them so far as to discover their 
 immediate connections with the villi, but the}’ appear to arise 
 here and there in the coats of the intestines, by a conspicuous 
 
 a A very copious list of writers upon the absorbents will be found in Som- 
 mering’s work, De morbis vasorum nbsorbentium corporis liumani. Francof 
 1795. 8vo. 
 
 b Ant. Miiller, Erpcrimcnta circa chylum. Heidelb. 1819. Svo. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS, 
 
 361 
 
 trunk, and we may conjecture that they take up the chyle 
 from the cellular structure into which it is first drawn by the 
 villi. This I have in fact observed repeatedly in puppies, 
 after making them swallow a solution of indigo, according to 
 the celebrated experiment of Lister, c an hour or two before 
 opening them alive. d (A) 
 
 423. The trunks just mentioned run some inches along the 
 surface of the intestines, under the external coat, sometimes 
 meandering in an angular course, before they reach the me- 
 sentery. 
 
 424. In their course through the mesentery they run into 
 the mesenteric glands, of which there are two series. The 
 one nearer the intestines, dispersed, small, and resembling 
 beans in shape ; the other, nearer the receptaculum chyli, 
 large, and aggregated. 
 
 425. Both appear nothing more than closely-compacted 
 collections of lacteals, interwoven with innumerable blood- 
 vessels, e and retarding the course of the chyle ; to the end, 
 perhaps, that it may be more intimately and perfectly assimi- 
 lated to an animal nature, previously to its entrance into the 
 thoracic duct, and its mixtui’e with the blood. (B) 
 
 426. It has been inquired whether lacteals exist also in 
 the large intestines, and their existence has been advocated, 
 from the effects of particular injections, nutrient, inebriating, 
 &c., and also from the circumstance that the faeces, if retained 
 for any length of time, become hard and dry. Although 
 these arguments do not demonstrate the absorption of genuine 
 chyle below the valve of Fallopius, nevertheless it is rendered 
 probable by the visible existence of an abundance of lymph- 
 atics, in the large intestines, f having the same structure and 
 
 c Phil. Trans. No. 143., compared with No. 275. 
 
 d This experiment, which was repeated with the same result by Haller, Foelix, 
 J. Hunter, and others, has not succeeded in the hands of the distinguished Tiede- 
 mann and Gmelin, who have therefore expressed doubts respecting it in their ex- 
 cellent work, uber die Wege auf welchen Substanzen aus dem Magen und Darm- 
 kanal im Blut gelangen, &c. Heidelb. 1821. 8vo. p. 61. sq. 
 
 e Boerhaave and Ruysch, De Jabrica glandularum opusculum . LB. 1722. 
 4to. p. 31. 
 
 f Mascagni, tab. xvi. 
 
362 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 function with the lacteals ; for these absorb lymph from the 
 intestines, s during the absence of chyle. 
 
 But the very different structure of the internal coat of the 
 large intestines from that of the villous coat of the small, 
 strongly argues that they are not naturally intended to absorb 
 chyle. 
 
 427. There is another question more important and diffi- 
 cult of solution, — whether all the chyle absorbed from the 
 small intestines passes through the thoracic duct, or whether 
 some enters the blood by more secret passages. h 
 
 The latter opinion rests upon very unstable arguments. 
 Thus the assertion of Ruysch, — that the mesenteric glands 
 become, in advanced life, indurated and unfit for continuing 
 their functions, was long since disproved : and affections of 
 these glands, swellings, &c., are improperly called obstruc- 
 tions, 1 as the glands remain pervious, readily allowing a pas- 
 sage to quicksilver. The well-known phenomenon of tepid 
 water, injected after death into the mesenteric veins, passing 
 into the cavity of the intestines, has little weight with me in 
 regard to a function which occurs during life ; and much less 
 weight can be allowed to the brass tube with two legs and two 
 branches invented by Lieberkiihn k to prove the existence of 
 
 B See Nuek, De invenlis novis ep. Anatomica, p. 146. sq. 
 h T. Gothofr. Brendel, De chyli ad sanguinem publico privatoque potissimum. 
 commeatu per venas mesaraicas non improbabili. Gott. 1738. 4to. 
 
 ' v. J. Rezia, Specim. Observat. Anatomicar. et Pathologicar. Ticini. 1784. 
 8 vo. p. 18. 
 
 k The circumstance of life continuing, although in a weak state, for many 
 months after the rupture of the thoracic duct (an instance of which is related by 
 Lentin, Beytr. zur ausiib. Arzneywissensch. vol.i. p. 277. and 294.), would be a 
 stronger argument, if extraordinary and unnatural phenomena of this kind could 
 render the regular functions of the healthy human body doubtful, since, in ex- 
 plaining physiological phenomena, we look for natural, to use the words of 
 Seneca, and not rare and fortuitous causes. Who, for example, would entertain a 
 doubt of the functions of the uropoietic organs, because some poor creatures 
 whose urethra was closed from a badly managed wound, have for many years 
 discharged urine by vomiting nearly every day and in proper quantity. A 
 remarkable case of this kind is carefully described by Zeviani, Memorie di A fa- 
 temat. c Fisica della Soc. Italiana, t. vi. p. 93. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 363 
 
 these passages. (C) The assertion — that chyle has been 
 seen in the mesenteric veins, 1 requires farther investigation 
 and proof ; so that I cannot believe that they, at least after 
 birth, m carry any thing more than blood, very carbonised and 
 destined for the formation of bile. 11 (D) 
 
 428. The ultimate trunks of the lacteals, arising, like the 
 lymphatics, from the combination of a great number of small 
 twigs, ° unite into the recejptaculum or cisterna chyli, — the 
 appellation by which the lower and larger part of the thoracic 
 or Pecquetian duct is distinguished. 
 
 429. This duct is p a membranous canal, slender, strong, 
 more or less tortuous, subject to great varieties in its course 
 and division, q destitute of muscular fibre and nerves, and 
 possessing here and there valves. At about the lowest cer- 
 
 1 Werner and Feller, 1. c. p. 12. sq. 
 
 m For that the passage of the yolk into the incubated chicken, takes place dif- 
 ferently, at least as far as I can judge, I have mentioned in the Handb. der ver- 
 gleichend. Anat. p.542. ed. 2. 
 
 n There have been various disputes of late respecting the terminations of both 
 lacteals and lymphatics (viz. whether they belong ultimately and solely to the 
 principal trunks presently (437) to be mentioned, or whether they are in a great 
 measure inserted at once into neighbouring veins), and against absorption being a 
 function peculiar to them, it being ascribed not only to the mesenteric but to other 
 veins by some of the latest physiologists ; “respecting the different opinions of whom 
 consult, among others, 
 
 B. Nath. Gotti. Schreger, Fragment a anatornica et physiologica. Fas. I. Lips. 
 1791. 4 to. p.26. 
 
 Fior. Caldani, Riflessioni sopra alcuni punti di un nuovo sistema de vasi assor- 
 benti, &c. Padua, 1792. 8vo. p. 58. 
 
 And his uncle Leop. M. A. Caldani’s Commentary in the Memorie lette nelP 
 Accad ■ di Padova. 1804. 4to. 
 
 Fr. L. Kreysig, Handb. der pr act. Itrankheitslehre, ii. Th. 1. Abth. p.436. 
 
 F. Magendie, Precis de Physiologic, t.ii. p.222. of the German translation, by 
 C. F. Heusinger. 
 
 Mayer and Ribes, in Meckel’s Promptuarium of Physiology, vol.iii. and v. 
 
 Also C.W. L. Jaeckel, de Absorptione venosa. Berol. 1819. 8vo. 
 
 And Westrumb’s Commentary, which is quoted below in Sect. XXXIV. 
 
 0 Sheldon, 1. c. tab. v. 
 
 p See Haller, Observations de ductu thoracico in theatro Goltingensi factce. 
 Gotting. 1741. 4to. 
 
 B. S. Albinus, Tabula vasis chyliferi. LB. 1757, large folio. 
 
 Mascagni, tab. xix. 
 
 ‘J See v. c. J. C. Bohl, Vice lactere. c. h. historia naturalis. Regioni. 1741, 4to. 
 
 Simmering, Commentat. Soc. Scient. Gotlingens. t. xiii. p. 111. 
 
364 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 vical vertebra, after passing the subclavian vein, it turns back 
 again/ and is inserted into this, being furnished with a pecu- 
 liar valve at the point of insertion. 
 
 430. The motion of the chyle throughout its course is to 
 be ascribed to the contractility of its containing vessels, to 
 their valves, and to the vis-a-tergo. (E) 
 
 431. The use of the valve placed at the opening of the 
 thoracic duct, is probably not so much to prevent the influx of 
 blood, as to modify the entrance of the chyle into the vein, — 
 to cause it to enter by drops. 
 
 By this contrivance, fresh chyle is prevented from having 
 access to the blood so rapidly as to stimulate the cavities of 
 the heart too violently and be imperfectly and difficultly 
 assimilated ; for fresh chyle consists of very heterogeneous 
 elements, brought not only from the prim® viae by the lacteals, 
 but from every part of the body by the lymphatics. 
 
 432. These lymphatics , s which constitute the third part of 
 the absorbent system, and resemble the lacteals in their struc- 
 ture and function, are much more, and perhaps, indeed, uni- 
 versally, diffused. 1 They arise principally from the mucous 
 web, which we therefore called the grand bond of connection 
 between the sanguiferous and absorbing system; (27) but in 
 greatnumbers likewise from the external common integuments," 
 from the fauces and oesophagus, (330) the pleura and perito- 
 naeum, and from the thoracic and abdominal viscera. x 
 
 433. Their origin is similar to that of the lacteals in the 
 intestines, so that the radicle of each lymphatic absorbs the 
 
 r v. Haller, Opera Minora, vol. i. tab. sii. 
 
 s Consult, among others already and hereafter quoted, J. F. Meckel, De vasts 
 lymphaticis glandulisque conglobatis. Berol. 1757. 4to. 
 
 And Al. Monro, filius, De venis lymphaticis volvulosis, ib. same year. 8vo. 
 
 1 W. Hunter, Medical Commentaries, P. i. p. 5. sq. 
 
 u J. Elliotson has adduced new arguments showing that cutaneous absorption 
 has been doubted of late without good reason, in his notes to the English trans- 
 lation of these Institutions, p. 129. 3d edit. 1820. 
 
 x Mascagni, tab. i, ii, iii. 
 
 T. Gotti. Haase, De vasis cutis et intestinorum absorbentibus, & c. Lips. 1786. 
 fol. lab. i. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 365 
 
 fluid from the neighbouring cellular membrane, as from its 
 territory, and propels it onwards. 
 
 434. The lymphatics have double valves, set more or less 
 thickly in different parts ; they almost all enter conglobate 
 glands ; those which are contiguous to each other anastomose 
 here and there ; and those found on the surface of certain 
 viscera, as the lungs, liver, & c. form a most beautiful 
 network. 
 
 435. Besides other aids to their functions, evident from 
 what has already been said, no inconsiderable assistance is 
 derived from the combination of great strength with thinness 
 in their coats, by which they are enabled to support a heavy 
 column of quicksilver. In the limbs, especially, the motion 
 of the muscles, pressing them on every side, is highly useful in 
 increasing their power. 
 
 436. But their principal action, by which they take up 
 fluids more or less rapidly, eagerly absorbing some and abso- 
 lutely rejecting others/ depends upon the peculiar modification 
 of their vitality, and is ascribed by the very acute Brugmans 
 to a certain vita propria. (42) z 
 
 437. The far greater part of these lymphatics terminate in 
 the thoracic duct ; except, however, those of the right arm, 
 the right side of the neck, the right lung, and the right por- 
 tion of the diaphragm and liver, which terminate in the sub- 
 clavian vein of the same side. 
 
 438. From the universal existence of the lymphatics, and 
 especially from their great number on the surface capable of 
 absorbing fluids from without, the heterogeneous nature of 
 the lymph must be obvious ; and this is further proved by 
 
 y On this remarkable difference consult T. Fr. Lucr. Albrecht, Commentatio 
 (honoured with the Royal Prize) in qua proponitur recensus eorum alimentor. et 
 medicaminum, quibus, sive tubo alimentario sint ingesta, sive communibus corporis 
 integumentis applicata, ingressus in syslema vasor. sanguifer. aut concessus a ncu 
 tura, aut negatus sit. Gotting. 1 806. 4to. 
 
 z Conr. Jer. Ontyd (Prsesidente Seb. Just. Brugmans), De Causa absorp - 
 tionis per vasa lymphatica. Lugd. Bat. 1795. 8vo. p. 45. 
 
 v. Al. Van Hees, De causa functionis absorbentis systemalis lympkatici. ib. 
 1817. 4 to. p. 38. 
 
366 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VE.SSF.LS. 
 
 accurately examining it in different parts of a subject ; v. c. 
 that contained in the hepatic or splenic lymphatics is perfectly 
 different from that in the uterine. 
 
 439. We will enumerate the principal fluids which are 
 continually absorbed during health, to say nothing of many 
 different kinds of substances taken up during disease. There 
 is, besides the chyle separated from the faeces in the small 
 intestines, the halitus of the cavities, properly so called, espe- 
 cially that of the fauces and of all the mucous tela, the more 
 watery part of those secreted fluids which are retained for 
 some time in their ducts, v. c. in the breast, the vesiculae se- 
 minales, the gall-bladder, &c. and not a small portion of the 
 stillatitious fluids which are applied to the common integu- 
 ments. 3 
 
 440. The solids, after performing their purpose in the eco- 
 
 nomy, insensibly melt away and are absorbed, as is proved by 
 the absorption of the greater part of the thymus gland during 
 infancy, of the roots of the first teeth, and of the alveoli after 
 the second teeth have fallen out. The constant change of 
 the whole osseous system, arising from the insensible renova- 
 tion of the bony matter, of which we have treated elsewhere 
 professedly, b may also be adduced. # 
 
 441. It is therefore evident, since so great a variety of 
 matter is absorbed, and at the same time nothing crude or 
 improper allowed to enter the blood, that there is a necessity 
 for some peculiar medium to previously subact and assimilate 
 the various substances. 
 
 442. It appears to be the chief office of the conglobate glands, 
 which constitute the last part of the absorbent system, to pre- 
 vent the ill effects upon the heart of the improper admixture 
 of crude fluid 0 with the blood, by assimilating the extremely 
 
 a Consult, among others, Valer. Lud. Brera, Anatripsologia ; fourth edition. 
 Pavia, 1799. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 A. J. Chrestien, De la methode iatroliptice. Montpell. 1803. 8vo. In German, 
 Gotting. 1813. 8vo. t 
 
 b Decade 1 . Collection of the crania of different nations, p. 27. 
 
 c If we consider the winding course which nature has provided for the pur- 
 pose of changing and assimilating the absorbed fluids before their admixture with 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 367 
 
 various fluids more and more to an animal nature, by retard- 
 ing their motion, and perhaps also by superadding to them 
 some fresh secreted fluid. (F) 
 
 44*3. Those glands which are dispersed generally through 
 the body, and aggregated here and there, as in the groin 
 and axillae, are perfectly similar to those found in the mesen- 
 tery, consisting, like them, in a great measure, of convoluted 
 absorbent vessels, supplied with an immense number of 
 blood vessels, and liable to the same diseases.* 1 (G) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Dr. W. Hunter, Mr. Cruikshanks, and others, are said to 
 have seen the villi of the intestines perfectly white in a person 
 who had died soon after eating, and twenty or thirty orifices, in a 
 single villus, forming tubes that ran to its base and united into 
 one trunk. e 
 
 (B) If a gland is well injected, the numerous ramifications of 
 the absorbents prevent cells from appearing, but if injected less 
 minutely, cells are very evident, and distinct from the convolu- 
 tions and ramifications of vessels. “ If an absorbent gland of a 
 horse is filled with quicksilver and dried, and then carefully slit 
 open, the cells will be seen of a large size, and bristles may with 
 ease be passed through the openings by which they communi- 
 cate.” It is imagined that the vasa inferentia pour their contents 
 into these cells, and that the efferentia afterwards absorb it from 
 them. 
 
 the blood ; and, on the other hand, the dreadful symptoms, such as palpitation, 
 convulsions, &.C., which ensue upon the artificial infusion of a minute portion of any 
 mild fluid into the blood, we shall be inclined to believe that those absorptions 
 which Haller endeavours to prove are accomplished by the veins, do really take 
 place by means of the lymphatic system. Be c. li. Fund. vol. i. p. 281. sq. 
 d Nuck, Adenographia Curiosa. LB. 1696. 8vo. 
 e Wilson, Lectures on the Blood, & c. p. 198. 
 
 f Wilson, 1. c. p. 203. Mr. Abernethy has described them in the whale as 
 well as in the horse. Phil. Trans. 1796. 
 
368 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 (C) Lieberkiihn’s tube was of this shape : — 
 
 Water propelled into A, passed out at B and C, but not at F. 
 Even if F was immersed in a coloured fluid, this ascended to H, 
 and passed out at B with the water. 
 
 A G may represent an artery, and G C a branch of it, opening 
 into the cavity of the intestines ; B FI a vein, and H F one of its 
 branches, doing the same. 
 
 (D) Dr. Magendie s contends that the lacteals absorb nothing 
 but chyle, asserting that neither he nor Halle have ever seen the 
 chyle in these vessels tinged by coloured ingesta, and that neither 
 he nor the veterinary surgeon Flandrin ever found any thing but 
 chyle enter the lacteals. Lister’s experiment has succeeded with 
 Blumenbach, John Hunter, Fordyce, h and numerous others, and 
 Hunter in the presence of several persons poured milk into the 
 intestines of a dog, and they all observed it quickly to fill the 
 lacteals. Among other insignificant objections, Dr. Magendie 
 urges that Hunter should have first noticed whether the vessels 
 contained chyle, whereas it is expressly mentioned that before the 
 milk was poured into the intestine, the lacteals were seen dis- 
 tended by a nearly colourless and pellucid fluid. ‘ 
 
 Tiedemann and Gmelin, however, have made an abundance of 
 these experiments with the same result as Magendie, though in 
 some few instances the substance introduced into the canal was 
 discovered in the chyle. 
 
 He also revives the old opinion — that the lymphatics arise 
 from arteries only, and are destined to convey lymph from them. 1 
 
 e Precis Elementaire, &c. t. ii. p. 178. sq. 
 h On the Digestion of the Food, p. 122. 
 
 ■ Medical Commentaries. 
 k 1. c, p. 185. sq. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 369 
 
 John Hunter, after pouring water coloured by indigo into the 
 peritoneum of an animal, saw the lymphatics filled with a blue 
 fluid. In the hands of MM. Magendie, Flandrin, and Dupuytren, 
 this experiment likewise has failed. Magendie does, however, 
 allow, that, in a woman who died with a collection of pus in the 
 thigh, the surrounding lymphatics were distended with pus to the 
 size of a crow’s quill ; — a pretty decisive fact. The absorbents of 
 fish have no valves except at their termination in the red veins, 
 and may therefore be injected from the principal trunks : the 
 injection passes out of the mouths of the absorbents in numerous 
 streams, and especially on the back, if the skate is employed ; — ■ 
 another decisive fact. Peyer, Fallopius, and Kerkring saw bile in 
 lymphatics about the liver. Down to Boerhaave and Haller the 
 doctrine that the lymphatics absorb was maintained, and it 
 was first seriously attacked by Dr. William Hunter. Dr. Munro 
 soon afterwards did the same, and commenced a very acrimo- 
 nious quarrel with Dr. William Hunter for the honour of priority 
 of attack. Dr. Baillie expressly states, that Dr. Hunter had de- 
 livered such opinions six years before Dr. Munro professes to 
 have made his discovery, and the world has generally given 
 priority to Dr. Hunter. Dr. Munro had also an equally acrimo- 
 nious dispute with Mr. Hewson for the honour of the discovery of 
 the lymphatics in fish, but the Royal Society adjudged Hewson 
 the Copley medal in 1769 for the discovery. It is amusing 
 to reflect that the very doctrine, for the honour of having first 
 attacked which so much violence was shown, is now again in high 
 favour, and that Dr. Munro would be now lauded had he shown 
 that Dr. Hunter only had attacked it. 
 
 The ancient doctrine of veins being organs of absorption forms 
 a prominent feature in Dr. Magendie's physiology. 1 John Hunter 
 deposited various fluids in the intestines, but, although he found 
 manifest traces of them in the absorbents, he could discover none 
 in the mesenteric veins. Dr. Magendie, however, relates two 
 experiments in which a decoction of nux vomica, introduced into 
 the alimentary canal, produced its usual effects, notwithstanding 
 the thoracic duct was tied and ascertained to be single. In fact, 
 Sir Everard Home, many years ago found substances to be taken 
 into the circulation and into the urine from the stomach, though 
 
 1 1. c. t. ii. p. 200. sqq. 257. sqq. 
 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 the thoracic duct was tied. m In a similar experiment, instead 
 of the thoracic duct being tied, the portion of intestine containing 
 the solution was totally separated from the body, except in one 
 artery and one vein : but here it may be said, that the poison 
 might be conveyed by absorbents in the coats of the vessels. 
 Another experiment appears at first sight unobjectionable, because 
 not only was every part of a limb separated from the body except 
 the large artery and vein, but even these were cut asunder, quills 
 having been previously introduced into them and fixed to carry on 
 the circulation, and yet some upas plunged into the paw of the 
 animal exerted its peculiar influence, which besides was suspended 
 and permitted at pleasure by compressing or liberating the vein 
 under the finger and thumb. But to all these experiments an ob- 
 jection presents itself : — 1. Many connections have been seen be- 
 tween absorbents and veins, v.c. Mr. Bracy Clarke discovered com- 
 munications in the horse between the thoracic duct and lumbar 
 veins, 11 and Mr. Abernethy traced lymphatic vessels to veins; 
 Tiedemann and Gmelin, and many before them, propelled mercury 
 into the vena portae by absorbents ; Mr. Cruikshanks long ago 
 remarked, that in animals destroyed by violence the lymphatics 
 about the spleen and in the cavity of the abdomen, in peritoneal 
 inflammation sometimes the lacteals, and in peripneumony the lym- 
 phatics of the lungs, are tinged with blood, though no extravasa- 
 tion has occurred, and therefore he believed that lymphatics arise 
 from the internal surface of arteries and veins ;° the connection 
 of the lymphatics with the veins, in the four classes of vertebrated 
 animals has of late years been demonstrated by Lippi, Fohmann, 
 and Louth, and in the Anatomical Museum of Heidelberg are 
 numerous beautiful specimens, showing this fact : p and, 2.- Dr. 
 Magendie allows that the absorbents communicate with arteries, 
 and may frequently be injected from them. Consequently, his 
 poison might be imagined to be taken up by absorbents, carried 
 into blood-vessels, and conveyed with the blood through the body. 
 Indeed, when the poison was placed in a wound, it might contami- 
 nate the blood without being taken up by absorbing extremities of 
 
 m Phil . Trans. 1811. 
 
 " Rees’s Cyclopedia : Anatomy, Veterinary. 
 
 0 On the Absorbents, p. 50. 
 
 p Mr. Coulson’s edition of Mr. Lawrence’s translation of Blumenbach’s 
 Manual of Comparative Anatomy, p. 172. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 371 
 
 vessels, and if Magendie is right in believing that fluids soak 
 through even living solids, another objection is thus afforded. It 
 is universally known, that, after death, fluids penetrate through the 
 various textures of the body; — the aqueous humour diminishes in 
 the eye, which consequently becomes flat, the intestines near the 
 gall-bladder become yellow, and water poured into the stomach or 
 intestines exudes. 1 ' Dr. W. Hunter contended that this imbibi- 
 tion occurs also during life, although not in the case of blood- 
 vessels, and others admitted it. s Dr.Magendie supports the same 
 opinion. After separating a blood-vessel from the surrounding 
 cellular membrane, and laying tincture of nux vomica upon it, 
 the animal was poisoned, and the blood within tasted bitter ; ink 
 placed in the pleura of a young dog, dyed, in less than an hour, 
 the pericardium, heart, and intercostal muscles. Dr. Fodera in- 
 troduced a solution of prussiate of potass into the pleura, and of 
 sulphate of iron into the abdomen of a living animal, when the 
 two fluids became blue by union at the diaphragm, in five or six 
 minutes, and instantaneously if a galvanic current was established . 1 
 Still there is not the slightest reason to imagine that the natural 
 fluids of parts penetrate their substance during life and in a sound 
 condition . 11 Dr. Magendie found absorption (of poisonous matters, 
 for example, applied to surfaces) greatly impeded on rendering the 
 vascular system turgid by injecting water into the veins, and 
 equally accelerated on lessening the repletion by blood-letting. 
 We should expect that the greater the repletion of the sanguineous 
 system, the more difficulty must the contents of the absorbents 
 have to advance, and v. v . ; and from the wise arrangements 
 observed in every function, we should conceive, that supposing 
 absorption a vital action (as I cannot but believe it to be, as soon 
 as a substance has fairly entered the vessel perhaps by mere phy- 
 sical attraction), the vessels would be less disposed to propel their 
 contents in proportion as repletion existed. How it favours the 
 idea of absorption being a mere imbibition through the coats of 
 
 q Hence, especially in a hot atmosphere, if the examination of a dead subject 
 is long delayed, parts may become so dyed with imbibed blood, that their redness 
 may be, and often is, mistaken for inflammation. See an important paper by 
 Dr. John Davy, Med. Chir. Trans, vol. x. 
 
 r A. Kaau, Perspiralio dicta Hippocrati. 563. 
 
 s Med. Commentaries. 
 
 1 Journal de Physiologie, t. iii. 
 
 u See Hewson’s arguments against transudation, Experimental Inquiry, P. ii. 
 
 B B 2 
 
37 2 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 the absorbents, — a notion unsupported and contradictory to 
 established facts, I cannot see. x 
 
 Against the result of an experiment in which, after a solution 
 of prussiate of potass was swallowed, the salt was discoverable in 
 the urine and not in the lymph, Dr. Magendie himself supplies an 
 objection when treating of the urine. For he states, that a minute 
 portion of this substance may be readily detected in the urine, 
 while the quantity in the blood must be large to be discoverable. 
 As the contents of the thoracic duct so nearly resemble blood, be 
 should have ascertained whether it is not difficult to detect in 
 them also a portion of the prussiate which would be easily mani- 
 fest in the urine. A similar experiment with a decoction of 
 rhubarb, lies under the same difficulty. 
 
 In starting all these doubts, I am only desirous of showing that 
 Dr. Magendie’s experiments are not so unobjectionable as he 
 believes, and readily grant that John Hunter’s experiments deserve 
 repetition, and the whole subject farther investigation. I am not 
 prepared to deny that veins absorb, or, what comes to nearly the 
 same thing, that there are lymphatics which do not form trunks, 
 but convey their contents to small blood-vessels ; and I have 
 nothing to suggest against the following facts. 
 
 “ Three ounces of diluted alcohol were given to a dog; in a 
 quarter of an hour the blood of the animal had a decided smell 
 of alcohol; the lymph (of the thoracic duct) had none.”> 7 
 
 “ In the horse, the usual contents of both the large and small 
 intestines are mixed with a large quantity of fluid that gradually 
 decreases towards the rectum, and is therefore absorbed as it 
 passes along the canal. Now, Flandrin, having collected the 
 contents of the lacteals, did not find them smell like this intestinal 
 fluid, whereas the venous blood of the small intestines had a taste 
 distinctly herbaceous ; that of the caecum a sharp taste and a 
 slightly urinous smell ; and that of the colon the same qualities 
 in a more marked degree. The blood of other parts presented 
 nothing analogous. 
 
 “ Half a pound of assafoetida dissolved in the same quantity 7 of 
 honey was given to a horse, which was afterwards fed as usual and 
 killed in sixteen hours. The smell of assafoetida was perceptible 
 in the veins of the stomach, small intestines, and caecum ; but not 
 in the arterial blood, nor in the lymph.” z 
 
 * In this I fully agree with Dr. Bostock, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 587. sqq. 
 
 y Precis de Physiol, t. ii. p. 202, sq. z 1. c. t. ii. p. 267. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 373 
 
 Dr. Segalas cut a portion of living intestine from the rest of the 
 canal, and passed a ligature around its blood-vessels, leaving the 
 absorbents free, and introduced a solution of nux vomica for an 
 hour without ill effect : he then liberated the vein, and the animal 
 was poisoned in six minutes. 
 
 In Tiedemann and Gmelin’s experiments, among a variety of 
 substances taken, coloured, odorous, or saline, very few could be 
 detected in the chyle, but many were found in the blood. 
 
 (E) The force of their contraction is shown by the rupture of 
 the thoracic duct from over-distention when a ligature is passed 
 around it. a Tiedemann and Gmelin saw the thoracic duct con- 
 tract from exposure to air. 
 
 (F) Although some albumen is discovered actually in the duo- 
 denum, and, as Dr. Prout allows, even in the stomach if animal 
 food has been taken, and some fibrin in the first lacteals, the con- 
 tents of the absorbents are found to possess more and more of 
 these substances in proportion to their progress towards the left 
 subclavian vein. The chyle contains a certain fatty matter, which 
 is considered as incipient albumen , and, in proportion as this de- 
 creases, does the quantity of fibrin and albumen increase. b 
 
 The use of the conglobate glands is elucidated by the observ- 
 ations of Tiedemann and Gmelin, mentioned, p. 381. Amphibia 
 and fish are said to have no lymphatic glands. 0 Dr. Magendie 
 denied the existence of lymphatics in nearly all birds, but has 
 been amply refuted by Dr. Louth and many others. 
 
 Dr. Carson argued that the thoracic vacuum would not only 
 draw the blood along the veins, but draw it into their open mouths, 
 thus being an agent of absorption. He concluded that the blood of 
 the corpora cavernosa penis entered the veins in this way, but, as 
 the lymphatics only were believed the organs of absorption, pro- 
 perly so called, when he wrote, he had not a more extended idea 
 
 a Sir Astley Cooper, Med. Records and Researches. A ligature of the tho- 
 racic duct does not necessarily deprive the body of nourishment, because there 
 are sometimes two ducts, and sometimes one or more small trunks, which unite 
 with it, or have a different termination in the venous system. 
 
 Dr. Magendie observed in the dog, that the contents of the thoracic duct flow 
 but slowly, though more quickly during compression of the abdominal viscera. 
 
 On wounding it after a meal, he obtained half an ounce in five minutes, and 
 they flowed for some time. 
 
 b Dr. Prout, in Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy. 1819. p.274. 
 
 c Blumenbach, 1. c. p. 174. 
 
 B B 3 
 
374 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 of the co-operation of the vacuum in producing venous absorption. 
 It must, however, evidently extend to every absorbing vein, and if 
 the veins absorb generally, as is now believed, it must be general. 
 As the great trunk of the absorbents terminates in a vein, they must 
 be circumstanced in this respect exactly like veins, and equally 
 subject to the influence of the thoracic vacuum. Indeed, Dr. Barry 
 found that while a cupping-glass was applied over a wound to which 
 poison was applied, no absorption occurred, no poisonous effects 
 ensued : nor did they, even for some time afterwards ; and when 
 they became apparent, they instantly subsided on the re-applica- 
 tion of the glasses. The pressure of the rim of the glass was not 
 the cause of the non-appearance of poisoning, because if the 
 deleterious substance was passed under the skin beyond the 
 boundary of the glass, no ill effect occurred as long as the glass 
 remained over the wound : an incision between the site of the 
 poison and the rim, destroyed the efficacy of the glass. d 
 
 These experiments, however, do not prove that atmospheric 
 pressure is the cause of absorption: they merely show its co- 
 operation, and that the propulsive powers of the absorbents are 
 insufficient when opposed by the removal of it. Pecquet, nearly 
 two centuries ago, considered whether the chyle was absorbed by 
 suction, and concluded against the opinion, by observing, that, if 
 a ligature was placed upon the thoracic duct, or the lacteals of the 
 mesentery, and all effect of vacuum thus prevented, the lacteals 
 swelled on the intestinal side; therefore, said he, “ non trahitur 
 chylus sugiturve.” e The pressure of ordinary respiration and of 
 muscular efforts is also seen to drive the chyle forwards in the 
 lacteals. 
 
 (G) A short account of the first discovery of the absorbent 
 system may be acceptable at the close of this section. 
 
 Hippocrates knew that the nutritive portion of the contents of 
 the alimentary canal was conveyed by certain vessels to the 
 system. Erasistratus actually saw the lacteals containing chyle — 
 
 d Experimental Researches, p. 102. The application of a vacuum in poisonous 
 wounds has been recommended from the days of Hippocrates to those of Dr. 
 Parry ( Cases of Tetanus and Canine Hydrophobia ), but its effects never shown 
 so beautifully as by Dr. Barry. He recommends that the cupping-glasses should 
 be first applied for an hour; that the suppression of absorption for some hours 
 being thus insured, the part should be excised, and then the glasses re-applied to 
 remove any portion of the poison that may remain, for the vacuum was found 
 to extract some of the poison. 
 
 e JJissertatio Anatomica de circulatione sanguinis et chylimotu, p.76. Paris, 1651. 
 
OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 375 
 
 afT/ifna,^, yaXa.y no<; 77A'/;£iCo From Galen we learn that they were 
 known also to Herophilus. From the year 150 to 1622 no advance 
 was made, except that in 1563 Eustachius discovered the thoracic 
 duct, but he remained ignorant of its use. In 1622 Aselli in Italy 
 saw the lacteals by chance when demonstrating the recurrent 
 nerves to some friends. Thinking they were nerves, he at first 
 paid no attention to them ; but soon observing that they did not 
 pursue the same course as the nerves, and “ astonished at the 
 novelty of the thing, he hesitated for some time in silence,” while 
 all the circumstances of the controversy and quarrels of anatomists 
 passed before his view. He had by chance been reading Costseus 
 on this subject the day before, and, in order to examine the matter 
 further, he “ took a sharp scalpel to cut one of those chords, but 
 had scarcely struck it when,” he continues, “ I perceived a liquor 
 white as milk, or rather like cream, to leap out. At this sight, I 
 could not contain myself for joy, but, turning to the bystanders, 
 Alexander Tadinus and the senator Septalius, I cried out evpi jvta ! 
 with Archimedes, and at the same time invited them to look at so 
 rare and pleasing a spectacle, with the novelty of which they 
 were much moved. But I was not long permitted to enjoy it, for 
 the dog now expired, and, wonderful to tell, at the same instant 
 the whole of that wonderful series and congeries of vessels, losing 
 its brilliant whiteness, that fluid being gone, in our very hands 
 and almost before our eyes, so evanished and disappeared, that 
 hardly a vestige was left to my most diligent search.” The next day 
 he procured another dog, but could not discover the smallest white 
 vessel. “ I now,” he says, with the same admirable naivete, “ be- 
 gan to be downcast in my mind, thinking to myself that what had 
 been observed in the first dog, must be ranked among those rare 
 things which according to Galen are sometimes seen in anatomy.” 
 At length he recollected that the dog had been opened “ athirst 
 and unfed,” and therefore opened a third, after feeding him “ to 
 satiety.” “ Every thing was now more manifest and brilliant than 
 in the first case.” He gave his whole attention to the subject, 
 and was so diligent that not a week, or certainly not a month, 
 passed without a living dissection of dogs, cats, lambs, hogs, and 
 cows, and he even bought a horse and opened it alive. “ A 
 living man, which Erasistratus and Herophilus of old did not fear 
 to anatomise, I confess I did not open.” 
 
 Notwithstanding this discovery of distinct chylous vessels, a 
 large number of high authorities adhered firmly to the old 
 
 B B 4* 
 
376 
 
 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 
 
 opinion of Galen, that they were only mesenteric vessels. “ There 
 is not one among the doctors,” we read in a letter of Thomas Bar- 
 tholin written at Montpellier, during his journey to Italy, “ who ac- 
 knowledges the lacteal veins, so wedded are they to the authority 
 of Galen, for which they contend as pro aris etjbcis, and disregard 
 the experiments of the moderns.” Unluckily, he did not trace 
 the lacteals to the left subclavian vein, but fancied they went 
 to the liver, distributing the chyle through it for sanguification ; 
 this organ, according to the established doctrine, receiving the 
 chyle from the mesenteric arteries and veins to convert it into 
 blood. 
 
 In 1649, Pecquet, a physician at Dieppe, was removing the 
 heart of a dog, when he noticed a quantity of white fluid pouring 
 from the upper cava mixed with blood. He at first thought 
 he had opened some strange abscess, and, after pressing first 
 upon one part and then upon another, he compressed the me- 
 sentery, whose lacteals were full of chyle, when instantly a large 
 quantity of this poured from the superior cava. He traced the 
 lacteals to the thoracic duct, and thus overthrew the doctrine of 
 the liver being the great seat of haematosis. 
 
 Of course, there was as great an outcry against this innovation 
 in doctrine, as there had been against the existence of lacteals, 
 and even Harvey, who was now nearly eighty jears of age, 
 could not at once loosen himself from the bonds of early pre- 
 judice, and Thomas Bartholin, whose eyes had always been open 
 to improvement in medicine, still thought that perhaps the finer 
 parts of the chyle went by the new ducts to the chest, “ while 
 the grosser, needing a larger concoction, enter the liver.” 
 
 About eighty years after the discovery of Asellius, Rudbeck, 
 professor at Upsal, or Thomas Bartholin who was professor at 
 Copenhagen and son of Caspar Bartholin, or Joliff, an English 
 student, discovered the lymphatics. f 
 
 f See an interesting history of these discoveries, by Dr. Meigs, Philadelphia 
 Journal, 1 825. No. 2. New series. Haller gives the discovery to Rudbeck. 
 
 Rudbeck says he first happened to see them while examining the hemorrhoidal 
 vessels of a dog, Jan. 27. 1651. He published in 1653. Bartholin, that he 
 first chanced to see them while dissecting a dog, Dec. 15. 1651., but did not 
 notice them particularly till Feb. 28. 1652. He published in 1653. As to 
 Jolifif, we only read in Glisson, that, at the beginning of June 1652, going to 
 Cambridge for his doctor’s degree, he showed them to Glisson, who was then 
 professor of medicine. Glisson published in 1654 ; Joliff never published, 
 and probably had learnt the continental discovery while travelling. Bartholin 
 is thought to have received a hint of Rudbeck’s discovery. 
 
377 
 
 SECT. XXX. 
 
 OF SANGUIFICATION. 
 
 444. There is scarcely occasion to remark that we employ 
 the term sanguification to denote the assimilation of the chyle 
 to the blood, and the constant reparation, by means of the 
 
 former , of the constant loss sustained by the latter. 
 
 445. The division of all our fluids into three classes (45) — 
 crude, sanguineous, and secreted, turns upon this; — that the 
 middle class contains the stream of the vital fluid itself, from 
 which the numerous secreted fluids are perpetually withdrawn, 
 and to which, on the other hand, there is a constant afflux of 
 chyle and lymph from the absorbent system. 
 
 446. But siifce the blood is a peculiar fluid, sui generis, 
 without its fellow in nature, various assistances and media are 
 evidently requisite to subact and assimilate the heterogeneous 
 and foreign fluids which pass to it from the thoracic duct. 
 
 447. This is, in the first place, especially in the mesenteric 
 and other conglobate glands, favoured by those windings, 
 mentioned formerly, of the lacteals and lymphatics, which are, 
 at the same time, gradually more impregnated, as it were, 
 with an animal nature. 
 
 448. We must also take into consideration, that a great 
 part of the lymph which enters the left subclavian after its 
 admixture with the intestinal chyle in the thoracic duct, has 
 been derived from the substance of the viscera and other soft 
 parts, formerly secreted from the blood, and, therefore, already 
 imbued with an animal nature, and easily, without doubt, 
 again miscible with the mass of blood, to which it does but 
 return. 
 
 449. Something is contributed by the slow and almost 
 stillatitious manner in which the chyle joins the blood through 
 
378 
 
 OF SANGUIFICATION. 
 
 the last valve of the thoracic duct, these very minute portions 
 becoming thus the more intimately combined with the blood. 
 
 450. The heart, too, by means of the remarkable papillary 
 muscles of the ventricles, agitates and mingles the blood just 
 impregnated with fresh chyle. 
 
 451. The great importance of the lungs which receive the 
 blood immediately after its addition of fresh chyle, and also 
 of respiration, in the business of assimilation, 3 will be evident 
 on considering the extraordinary vascularity of those organs, 
 (140) and their constant and regular alternate motion. 
 
 452. The remaining part of sanguification is accomplished 
 by the general circulation and the powers which aid it, par- 
 ticularly by muscular motion, &c. 
 
 453. Although so many means are provided for the com- 
 bination of the chyle with the blood, and although the consti- 
 tuents of the chyle somewhat resemble those of this fluid ; 
 nevertheless, it is commonly asserted that many hours are re- 
 quired for the complete change of the colour of the chyle and 
 for its assimilation. Besides other arsnments in favour of this 
 
 O 
 
 assertion, the pathological fact is urged, that chyle is fre- 
 quently seen in blood drawn many hours after digestion. I 
 myself have witnessed this appearance in cases where the 
 blood too evidently bore an inflammatory disposition, to use 
 a common phrase ; but I am persuaded that no inference can 
 be hence deduced in regard to the healthy state, which alone 
 is the object of physiology. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The fluid collected from the thoracic duct is opake and white; 
 without smell; sweetish, and slightly acid to the taste; and re- 
 
 3 Especially, according to the opinion of Cuvier, in the conversion of the 
 chyle into the lymphatic or fibrous part of the blood. Lemons d' Anatomie Com- 
 paree, t. i. p. 91. t. iv. p. 304. 
 
 Consult Thomson, System of Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 497. 
 
 Also Bostock’s work, recommended above in the chapter On Respiration. 
 
OF SANGUIFICATION. 
 
 379 
 
 stores the blue colour of litmus paper reddened by acetic acid, 
 proving the presence of an alkali. It separates, like the blood, 
 into a solid and a serous portion. If formed from vegetable food 
 only, it is nearly transparent, may be -kept weeks or even months 
 without putrefying, and affords a faintly pink coagulum. If from 
 animal food, it is white and opake, begins to putrefy in a few days, 
 affords an opake coagulum which acquires a more marked pink 
 hue by the influence of the atmosphere, and throws upon its sur- 
 face a white creamy substance. The former gives three times as 
 much carbon as the latter; but the latter being so much richer 
 gives much more carbonate of ammonia and heavy fixed oil, when 
 subjected to the destructive distillation. b 
 
 Chyle collected from lacteals is whiter, coagulates less perfectly, 
 or not at all, and does not acquire a red colour by exposure to the 
 air, c so that sanguification proceeds gradually, as the chyle passes 
 towards the left subclavian vein, — a circumstance already stated 
 in the last section, Note (F). The pink colour, acquired by the 
 coagulum of chyle when exposed to the atmosphere, shows the 
 use of the lungs in sanguification. 
 
 White globules exist in the chyle even at a very early period 
 of its formation, and these most probably it is that become 
 coloured when the chyle grows pink by the action of the air. 
 There are also much larger white particles in the chyle, appearing 
 to be formed of the caseous-like and oily principles, and, being in- 
 soluble in the serum, naturally assume the globular form. d 
 
 Dr. Marcet had reason to believe that the appearance of creamy 
 matter floating in the serum of blood occurs most frequently when 
 the food is chiefly animal, and when therefore rich chyle is poured 
 into the blood faster than it can be assimilated. The serum at first 
 appears milky; but it gradually becomes clear, from the creamy 
 matter separating and rising to the surface. 
 
 The coagulum of the fluid of the thoracic duct is much less 
 firm than that of blood, and after a few days, if allowed to remain 
 in a separate vessel, it passes almost entirely to the fluid state. 
 Vauquelin regards it as unfinished fibrin, something between 
 albumen and fibrin. 
 
 b Dr. Marcet, Med. Chir. Trans, vol. vi. His observations were of course 
 made upon the fluid obtained from brutes. 
 
 0 Emmert, Annales de Chimie, t. lxxx. 
 d Dr. Prout, in Thomson’s Annals. 1819. p. 27 5. 
 
380 
 
 OF SANGUIFICATION. 
 
 I once saw a young married woman whose urine contained 
 very large coagula of chyle. She always dined at noon. In the 
 evening the coagula were white ; in the morning pale with pink 
 streaks. After fasting twenty-four hours at my request, the coa- 
 gula still appeared in the urine, extremely pale, and showing more 
 pink streaks. She had been some months in this way, was in 
 very fair health, and had a great appetite, and perhaps some other 
 general symptoms of diabetes; but there was no sugar in the urine. 
 Notwithstanding the fluid discharged seemed to present as much 
 coagulum as urine, the quantity of chyle proved on drying to be 
 very minute, and from its looseness to have been extremely dis- 
 tended by the urine. As this was a state of disease, I draw no 
 inference from the case respecting the time necessary for the 
 change of chyle to blood. She would not allow me to take any 
 blood from the arm for observation. 
 
 I know that similar cases have been seen by Dr. Prout and 
 other gentlemen now practising in London, and there may be 
 several on record, but the only one of which I have read is quoted in 
 Shenkius. “ I saw,” says the author whom he quotes (in Castro 
 Itri, Comitatus Sundorum), “ a young man, thirty years of age, who 
 daily made a considerable quantity of urine, depositing a white 
 substance like the curd of milk, sufficient to fill a common pot de 
 chambre, besides the urine which was above it. He was in perfect 
 health, not experiencing the slightest ill effect.” e 
 
 Shenkius is generally thought a credulous collector of incredible 
 cases, and no doubt some of his histories as well as of his opinions 
 are ridiculous. But careful modern observation discovers facts 
 precisely similar to the greater number that he has collected. 
 I should have doubted the history just related, more especially 
 the good health of the patient, had not the case of the woman 
 occurred to me. He gives some instances of black urine made 
 by persons in perfect health, and Dr. Marcet has published two 
 such in the Transactions of the Medical and Chirurgical Society l 
 Dr. Prout showed me a specimen of urine from one of these. 
 
 e Observat. Med. rariores, lib. iii. Obs. 27. Dr. Charles Smith, of New 
 Jersey, relates an example of ascites in a boy twelve years of age, where the fluid 
 accumulated was of a chalky white colour, had pretty nearly the smell, taste, and 
 appearance of milk, and threw up good cream after standing a night. Between 
 seven and eight quarts of this were twice removed by tapping. Philos. Mag. 
 vol. ix. p. 168. 
 
 r Vol. xii. 
 
OF SANGUIFICATION. 
 
 381 
 
 Lymph from the hind extremities of a horse was found by Em- 
 mert to be white, with straw-coloured globules, to contain rather 
 less albumen, to coagulate more imperfectly, and become less 
 easily red on exposure to air, than the contents of the thoracic 
 duct.s 
 
 According to the recent observations of Tiedemann and Gmelin, 
 the chyle has no fibrin, so as scarcely to coagulate, nor any red 
 particles, before it passes through the mesenteric glands; but im- 
 mediately afterwards, and especially after it is mixed with the 
 lymph of the spleen, — a fluid abounding both with them and 
 fibrin, — presents both, still more copiously than the lymph of the 
 extremities. 
 
 No fatty matter is discoverable in the lymph, nor indeed in the 
 chyle if the animal fasts or takes food destitute of fat. The fatty 
 matter is merely diffused through the chyle, and found even in 
 the blood after butter has been eaten. 
 
 The serum of the chyle they observed to be nearly always 
 alkaline. 
 
 Ligature of the choleaochus they found to augment the quan- 
 tity of fibrin and red particles, and to diminish that of fatty mat- 
 ter, in the chyle. 
 
 See also Yauquelin, Annales de Chimie, t. lxxxi. 181. 
 
382 
 
 SECT. XXXI. 
 
 OF NUTRITION. 
 
 454. Besides the function of the blood formerly inves- 
 tigated, — of distributing oxygen (as is probable) through the 
 system and removing carbon, its principal use is to afford 
 nourishment to the body in general, and to the secreting 
 organs the peculiar fluids which they possess the power of 
 deriving from it. Nutrition shall be first examined. 
 
 455. Nutrition is the grandest gift of nature, and the com- 
 mon and highest prerogative of the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms, by which they, beyond measure, surpass, even at 
 first sight, all human machines and automatons. Upon these 
 no artist can bestow the faculty, not to say of increasing and 
 of coming to perfection, but even of existing independently 
 and repairing the incessant losses incurred from friction. a 
 
 456. By the nutritive faculty of the body, its greatest and 
 most admirable functions are performed : by it we grow from 
 our first formation and arrive at manhood ; and by it are 
 remedied the destruction and consumption which incessantly 
 occur in our system during life. b 
 
 457. Respecting the nature of this consumption, there has 
 been much dispute whether it affects the solids, c or, whether, 
 
 a “ Nutrition, in fact, appears to be a continued generation,” according to 
 the old observation of the very ingenious Ent. See his work, already (290 g.) 
 recommended. 
 
 b Th. Young, lie corporis humani viribus C 07 iservatricibus. Gotting. 1796. 8vo. 
 
 FI. J. Van Maanen, De nalura humana sui ipsius conservatrice ac medicatrice. 
 Harderv. 1801. 8vo. 
 
 c See the great J. Bernouilli’s Diss. de nutrit. Groning. 1669. 4to. He 
 estimates the continual, though insensible, loss and reparation of the solids so 
 high, that the whole body may be said to be destroyed and renewed every three 
 years. 
 
OF NUTRITION. 
 
 383 
 
 according to some very acute writers, d these, when once 
 formed and perfected, remain invariably entire. 
 
 458. There can be no doubt that some of the similar 
 solids, v. c. the epidermis and nails, are gradually destroyed 
 and renewed ; and the same is proved respecting even the 
 bones, by the well-known experiment of dyeing them, in 
 warm-blooded animals, with madder root, (A) and by the 
 frequently surprising attenuation of the flat bones, espe- 
 cially of the skull, from defective nutrition, in old age. e 
 
 459. If I am not mistaken, those solid parts undergo 
 this successive change, which possess the reproductive power — 
 an extraordinary faculty, by which not only the natural loss 
 of particles, but even the accidental removal of considerable 
 parts through external injuries, is repaired and perfectly sup- 
 plied, as the bones f and a few other parts sufficiently demon- 
 strate. 
 
 460. On the other hand, I have been led by many expe- 
 riments, upon man and other warm-blooded animals, to the 
 conclusion — that this genuine reproductive power appears 
 completely bestowed upon scarcely any similar solid part which 
 possesses any other vital power besides contractility, i. e. 
 irritability, sensibility, or a vita propria. s (B) 
 
 d See J. Chr. Kemrae, Beurtlieilung eines Beweises vor die Immaterialit'dt der 
 Seele aus der Medecin. Halle. 1776. 8vo. 
 
 And his, Zweifel und Erinnerungen wider die Lehre der Aerzte von der Emdh- 
 rung derfesten Theile. Ibid. 1778. 8vo. 
 
 e Respecting this mutability of the bones, I have spoken at some length in my 
 osteological work, ed.2. p.26. and elsewhere. 
 
 f Consult among others G. L. Koeler, Experimenta circa regenerationeni ossium. 
 Gotting. 1786. 8vo. 
 
 Alex. Herm. Macdonald, Ee necrosi ac callo. Edinb. 1799. 8vo. 
 
 B That the corium is not really reproduced, is probable, not only from its per- 
 petual cicatrices (for some contend that the matter of these does not continue, 
 but their form only, w'hich is preserved by a perpetual apposition of fresh particles 
 in the room of the decayed and absorbed), but much more by the lines and figures 
 which are made upon the skin by the singular art of pricking it with a needle 
 (a process denominated in the barbarous language of the Otaheiteans tatooing ), 
 and imparting to the corium a blue or red colour, as permanent as the cicatricula:, 
 by means of charcoal powder, ashes, soot, the juices of plants, or ox -gall ; while 
 on the other hand, the red hue imparted to the bones, by means of madder, 
 quickly disappears, as these parts undergo a continual renovation. 
 
384 
 
 OF NUTRITION. 
 
 461. In those parts, therefore, whose vital powers are, as it 
 were, of a higher order, the parenchyma, constituting their 
 base, appears permanent, and is liable to this change only, 
 — that the interstices of the fibres and parenchyma, while nu- 
 trition is vigorous, are constantly full of nutrient animal gela- 
 tine ; but, when nutrition languishes, are deprived of the 
 gelatine, collapse, and consequently become thin. 
 
 462. For as the plastic lymph, the importance of which 
 has been frequently mentioned, is readily converted into cel- 
 lular membrane, so it appears to constitute the principal 
 material of the body, and, as it were, the animal gluten, 
 which is nourished by its means. 
 
 463. During the growth of the body, peculiar powers 
 are exerted, by which the lymph deposited in the cellular 
 membrane from the blood-vessels is properly distributed and 
 intimately assimilated to the substance of each organ, &c. 
 
 This is referable both to the laws of affinitv, bv which we 
 imagine particles attract, and, as it were, appropriate others 
 which are similar and related to themselves ; and to the nisus 
 formativus, which we shall enlarge upon hereafter, and to 
 which the proper application of shapeless elementary matter 
 and its modification to particular forms must be ascribed. 
 
 464. The union of both these powers, we conceive, must 
 be the source of the nutrition of such similar parts as are not 
 supplied with blood itself, but are, nevertheless, at first gene- 
 rated by a most powerful and infallible nisus, grow, are 
 nourished throughout life, and, if destroyed by accident, are 
 very easily reproduced ; h such are the nails, hairs, Ac. 
 
 465. As this appears to be the true account of nutrition in 
 general, so, on the other hand, this function evidently has great 
 varieties of degree and kind, especially where, from the more 
 
 h Zwo Abhandlungen iibcr die NutritionsJcrqft xcelche von der Acad, dcr H iss, 
 in St. Petersburg den Preiss getheilt erhalten haben. Petersberg. 17S9. 4to. 
 
 Dc Grimaud, Afemoire sur la nutrition qui a obtenu Vaccessit. Ib. same 
 year. 4 to. 
 
 Steph. J. P. Housset, on the same subject (in the same school) in his Afemoircs 
 physiologiques et d'liist. naturelle. Auxerre. 1787. 8vo. t.i. p.98. 
 
OF NUTRITION. 
 
 385 
 
 or less lax apposition of the nutritious matter, the structure of 
 the similar parts is more or less dense, and the specific weight 
 of the whole body more or less considerable . 1 In this respect, 
 not only individuals, but whole nations, differ from each other. 
 The Yakuts and Burats, who are remarkable for the lightness 
 of their bodies, are a sufficient example of this. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) The redness imparted to the bones by feeding animals 
 with madder, does not prove that the matter of the bones is con- 
 stantly changing ; because the opinion that the madder unites 
 with the phosphate of lime in the blood, and thus reddens all the 
 bony matter subsequently deposited, is erroneous. Mr. Gibson 
 proved, by numerous experiments, that the serum has a stronger 
 affinity than the phosphate of lime, for madder. The serum being 
 charged with madder, the phosphate of lime of the bones, al- 
 ready formed, seizes the superabundant madder, and becomes 
 red. If the madder is no longer given to the animal, as it is 
 continually passing off with the excretions, the stronger attraction 
 of the serum draws it from the bones, and they re-acquire their 
 whiteness. k 
 
 (B) The constant renewal cf the epidermis is demonstrated 
 by wearing black silk stockings next the skin. That the hair 
 and nails not only grow perpetually, but are even reproduced, is 
 certain from the great quantity of the former which falls off 
 the head ‘whole if worn long, while a good head of hair still 
 continues ; and from the renewal of the latter, after the loss of 
 a great part of a finger. I once attended a middle-aged woman, 
 in St. Thomas’s Hospital, who had lost nearly the whole of the 
 first phalanx of a finger, and yet the stump was tipped by a nail, * 
 though certainly a clumsy one. An instance of a nail at the end 
 of the stump, after the complete removal of the first phalanx, 
 
 1 J. Robertson, On the specific gravity of living men. Philos. Trans, vol. 1. 
 
 P. i. p. 30. sq. , 
 
 fc Manchester Memoirs, vol. i. 
 
386 
 
 OF NUTRITION. 
 
 may be seen in the London Medical and Physical Journal.' 
 Tulpius declares he has seen examples after the loss of both the 
 first and second phalanges — in secundo et tertio articulo. m The 
 glans penis (in truth a mere continuation of the corpus spongiosum 
 urethrae) was entirely renewed in one case . 11 Nothing more can, 
 I apprehend, be said, respecting the entire restoration of organs 
 in the human body. Portions of cutis, bone, membrane, blood- 
 vessels, absorbents, and nerves, are replaced. That portions 
 of large nerves, fully capable of all the functions of the destroyed 
 pieces, are reproduced, is now a matter of certainty. Minute 
 blood-vessels and absorbents are of course allowed on all hands to 
 be produced in the cure of most solutions of continuity, whether 
 by wounds, ulceration, or whatever else ; 0 but Dr. Parry, senior, 
 has shown, that in the ram, at least, when a blood-vessel which 
 proceeds some way without giving off a branch is obstructed, new 
 branches sprout forth and establish a communication on each side 
 of the obstruction. p The continuance of circulation was previously 
 
 1 1817. m Observations Medico:, iv. 56. 
 
 n Edinburgh Med. and Physical Essays, vol.v. 
 
 0 Mr. Bauer thinks he lias observed vegetable tubes to be constructed by the 
 extrication of carbonic acid gas into a slimy matter prepared for nutrition. Some 
 such opinion was held by Borelli, Tabor, and Hales. He explains the form- 
 ation of blood-vessels in coagulated fibrin and pus in an analogous manner, but 
 his experiments have not yet advanced far enough for me to dwell upon them. 
 Phil. Trans. 1818, and 1819. 
 
 Not only divided parts re-unite, but even portions completely separated and 
 cold, and parts of different bodies. A soldier’s arm was struck off - at the battle 
 of Arlon, with the exception of a piece of skin and the subjacent vessels and 
 nerves, and yet the muscles, bones, &c., completely re-united in about eight 
 months. Eictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, t. xii. Garengeot saw a nose 
 unite after being bitten off, trampled upon, and allowed to lie in the dirt till it 
 was cold. Traits des Operations de Chirurgerie, t. iii. Dr. Balfour saw a si- 
 milar occurrence in the instance of a finger. Edinburgh Med. and Surgical 
 Journal. 1815. Others might be quoted. See Dr. Thomson’s Lectures on In- 
 flammation, p. 243. 
 
 Transplantation, for instance, of the cock’s testes to the hen’s abdomen, as well 
 as of the spur to the head, is very common, and the latter was mentioned nearly 
 two centuries ago in Bartholin, Epist. Cent. i. p. 174. ; and by Duhamel, in the 
 Mem. de V Acad. Royale des Sciences, 1746., as very common in poultry- 
 yards. 
 
 p An Experimental Inquiry, $c. See also Dr. Charles Parry’s work, in 
 which similar experiments are related. 
 
OF NUTRITION. 
 
 387 
 
 attributed solely to the enlargement of the small anastomosing 
 vessels. Muscle is supplied by tendinous matter. The substance 
 formed in the situation of destroyed cellular membrane is so 
 little cellular, that it does not become distended in emphysema 
 or anasarca. <i 
 
 Brutes far surpass man in both the ordinary renewal of the 
 integuments and appendages, and in the extraordinary restoration 
 of destroyed organs. The horse periodically sheds its hair, the 
 bird its feathers , 1 the stag its horns, the serpent its cuticle, 
 the lobster its shell and the teeth which are in its stomach. s 
 The fall of the leaves of trees is an analogous circumstance. In- 
 sects not only change their coats frequently, but undergo com- 
 plete metamorphoses, are first worms, then grubs, and finally 
 winged beings. The crystalline lens extracted from an healthy 
 eye is speedily reproduced in cats, dogs, and rabbits, * and probably 
 in other brutes. The extraordinary reproductive power of some 
 brutes is almost incredible. A lobster can reproduce a claw, a 
 water-newt an extremity : Blumenbach actually observed the 
 reproduction of the whole head with its four horns in a snail, and 
 the complete eye, — cornea, iris, crystalline lens, &c. in a water- 
 newt . 11 Besides greater powers of reproduction than man, brutes 
 generally possess greater also of reparation — will survive injuries 
 which would prove fatal to us, perhaps under any circumstances, 
 or at least without great care. I related Brunner’s numerous 
 attempts upon the life of a dog, of which, violent as they were, 
 “ vim elusit, vegetusque evasit,” as an illustration of this. Less 
 violent injuries are recovered from with far less danger and incon- 
 venience than we experience. The lower we descend in the scale, 
 the greater tolerance of violence and the greater powers of repar- 
 ation and renewal do we observe. If the polype, which is a 
 gelatinous tube, with one end closed and the other fringed for 
 
 11 Dr.'Thomson, Lectures on Inflammation, p. 417. 
 
 r Feathers which are not cast off, have been discovered to receive an increase 
 of colour at the moulting season. Linnaan Transactions. 1818. 
 
 s This corroborates the propriety of the view taken by Dr. Prout in an un- 
 published paper written many years ago, in which he contends that the teeth are 
 to be arranged with the integuments. A similar opinion has been lately pub- 
 lished in France. 
 
 1 M. M. Cocteau and Le Roy d’Etiolle. Magendie’s Journal de Physiologie. 
 Janvier, 1827. 
 
 u Gottingen Literary Notices. 1787. p. 28. 30. 
 
 C c 2 
 
388 
 
 OF NUTRITION. 
 
 the purpose of receiving food and conveying it, is divided, 
 the two halves change at one end, the one closing, the other 
 acquiring fringes, so that both halves become perfect animals ; or, 
 if a polype is inverted, the outer surface forms a digesting cavity. 
 
 Vegetables endure extreme violence. A log of mulberry-tree 
 has sent forth shoots on being placed in the ground as a post, 
 after many years of neglect; a gooseberry -bush will grow if 
 planted with its branches in the earth and its roots in the air. 
 
889 
 
 SECT. XXXII. 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 466. Besides the nutritious fluids, others of extremely 
 various descriptions are produced from the blood by means 
 of secretion , which Haller, no less than his predecessors, with 
 truth and regret declared to be among the most obscure parts 
 of physiology. a 
 
 467. The secreted fluids differ, on the one hand, so con- 
 siderably among themselves, and, on the other, have so many 
 points of resemblance, that their classification cannot but be 
 extremely arbitrary. If we arrange them according to the 
 degree of difference between them and the blood from which 
 they are formed, they will stand in the following order. — 
 
 First, the milk, which may be in some degree considered 
 as chyle reproduced, and appears formed by the most simple 
 process from the blood newly supplied with chyle. 
 
 Next, the aqueous fluids, as they are commonly denomi- 
 nated from their limpid tenuity, although the greater part 
 differ importantly from water in the nature of their consti- 
 tuents, and especially in the proportion of albumen : such are 
 the humours of the eye, the tears, in all probability the 
 vapour contained in the cellular interstices and the cavities of 
 the abdomen and thorax ; nearly similar, also, is the fluid of 
 the pericardium and of the ventricles of the brain. 
 
 The liquor amnii of pregnancy, and the urine, remarkable 
 for the peculiar nature and mixture of its proper constituents, 
 are generally enumerated among these. 
 
 ^ i 
 
 a b. Fouquet on Secretion, in the Encyclopedical Dictionary of Paris, t. xiv. 
 
 Fr. L. Kreysig, De secrelionibus. Sp. i, ii. Lips. 1794. sq. 4to. 
 
 Ignat. Dollinger, IFas ist Absonderung, und wie Geschicht tie ? Herbipol. 
 1819. 8vo. 
 
 c c 3 
 
390 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 The salivary Jluids, concerned in mastication, digestion, and 
 chylification, appear more elaborated. 
 
 Next the viucous, which line the cavities of most of the 
 organs performing the natural and genital functions, and like- 
 wise the tract of the nostrils, larynx, and trachea. 
 
 The mucus within the eye, and under the epidermis, is 
 nearly similar. 
 
 In the same class may be included the cerumen of the 
 ears, the unguent of the Meibomian glands and of the joints, 
 and, perhaps, the ambiguous and nameless fluid commonly 
 poured forth by the vagina during the venereal oestrum. 
 
 The adipose are, besides the common fat, the medulla of 
 the bones and grease of the skin. 
 
 Related to these are the secretion of the corona glandis 
 under the preputium, and of the external female genitals. 
 
 The truly serous , or albuminous, are the fluid of the ovarian 
 vesicles of De Graaf, and the liquor of the prostate. 
 
 The semen virile and the bile are each sui generis. (A) 
 
 468 . It is obvious that so great a variety of secreted fluids 
 cannot be secreted from the mass of blood in the same way, 
 nor by similar organs. They differ extremely from each 
 other in the simplicity or complexity of their preparation. 
 
 469 . The most simple mode of secretion is diapedesis, or 
 transudation: which is the case with the fat and the bony 
 fluid. b 
 
 b Physiologists have lately given different explanations of this mode of secre- 
 tion. Some assert that every fluid is formed by passing merely through inorganic 
 pores from the blood : others altogether deny the existence of these pores. I 
 think much of this is a verbal dispute. Because, on the one hand, I cannot 
 imagine how inorganic pores can be supposed to exist in an organised body, for 
 we are not speaking here of the common interstices of matter, in physics deno- 
 minated pores ; and I am persuaded that every opening in organised bodies is of 
 an organic nature, and possesses vital powers exactly correspondent. On the 
 other hand, these openings or pores, which indisputably exist in the coats of 
 vessels, I think but little different in function at least from the cylindrical ducts 
 through which fluids are said to percolate in conglomerate glands and secreting 
 viscera : for this percolation depends less on the form of the organ than on its 
 vital powers. 
 
 Consult, among others, Schreger, Fragmenta, p. 37. sq. already recommended. 
 
OP THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 391 
 
 470. Secretion by glands c is more complicated. Such is 
 considered the secretion even by follicles and cryptse, which 
 are found, v. c. in some parts of the corium, the fauces, and 
 aspera arteria, and denominated the most simple glands. 
 
 Properly speaking, the conglomerate (as they are called to 
 distinguish them from the lymphatic conglobate) are the only 
 true secreting organs ; such as the salivary and lachrymal 
 glands, the pancreas and breasts. They are provided with 
 an excretory duct coming immediately from the large lobes, 
 which are composed of others, smaller, and whose interior 
 structure was once the source of warm disputes in the schools 
 of medicine. Malpighi d considered the miliary globules, 
 which are easily discoverable in most glands, as acini, according 
 to his expression, internally excavated. Ruysch, on the con- 
 trary, contended that these supposed hollow acini were nothing 
 more than glomerules of blood-vessels, — an opinion shown 
 to be far more consistent with nature by microscopical ob- 
 servation and the effects of minute injection. 
 
 471. The structure of some secreting organs, especially of 
 the liver and kidneys, the latter of which strikingly exhibit 
 the glomerules of Ruysch or the acini of Malpighi, are not, 
 excepting in their peculiar parenchyma, very dissimilar from 
 this structure, and indeed throw considerable light upon the 
 question. On the outer part of these, small twigs arise from 
 the sides of the capillary arteries and run into vascular glo- 
 merules, hanging from them like granules as from stalks : 
 from these arterial glomerules spring both very minute co- 
 
 P. Lupi, Nova per poros inorganicos secrelionum theoria refutata, &c. Romae. 
 1793. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Kreysig, Specimen Secundum ; formerly recommended. 
 
 Also C. Le Gallois, Le sang est-il identique dans tous les vaisseaux qu’il parcourt ? 
 Paris, 1802. 8vo. 
 
 c Sam. Hendy, On Glandular Secretion. Lond. 1775. 8vo. 
 d In works repeatedly quoted, and also in his ZHss. de glandulis conglobalis . 
 Lond. 1689. 4to. 
 
 But consult especially his Opera Posthuma. ib. 1697. fol. ; and published 
 likewise elsewhere. 
 
 C C 4 
 
392 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 lourless secreting vessels whose origin from the extremities 
 of arteries was formerly alluded to (92), and the radicles of 
 veins into which the arteries are continued, and which convey 
 back into the venous trunks the remaining blood deprived of 
 the secreted fluid. e 
 
 472. The organisation of some other secreting parts is 
 evidently peculiar, v. c. of the testes, which are composed of 
 very long and numerous vessels, closely compacted, &c. 
 
 473. That the different nature of the secreted fluids de- 
 pends not so much on the size and external form of the se- 
 creting organs as upon their interior structure and corre- 
 sponding vital powers, is rendered probable by the example of 
 many of our fluids, which, although secreted by organs at 
 first sight very different, have considerable resemblance to 
 each other in nature ; v. c. the saliva and gastric juice. And 
 comparative anatomy teaches us, that the same fluids are 
 formed by organs very different in external appearance, in 
 different animals. f 
 
 474. We shall now investigate the causes why particular 
 fluids are found in particular organs, — the most difficult 
 part of the doctrine of secretion, and still open to very many 
 doubts. 
 
 475. There can be no question that the absolute cause of 
 most secretions is the intimate structure of the secreting 
 organ. This depends, in the conglomerate glands and se- 
 creting viscera especially, both upon the peculiar direction 
 and distribution of the extreme blood-vessels, and upon the 
 peculiar parenchyma of each secreting organ, in some instances 
 distinguishable at first sight from the substance of every other 
 .pai't. (20) 
 
 476. It is likewise probable, and indisputable arguments in 
 favour of the opinion have been continually afforded in the 
 
 e At. Schumlansky, De slructura renum . Argent. 1782. 4to. tab. ii. 
 
 f Compare, for instance, the form of the kidneys in mammalia with the true 
 conglomerate glands which supply their place in birds ; or the pancreas of warm- 
 blooded animals with the pyloric appendices which, although varying in appear- 
 ance in different fish, secrete a fluid very similar to the pancreatic. 
 
OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 393 
 
 course of this work, that secreting organs have not only a 
 peculiar parenchyma, but a vita propria — a peculiar species 
 of vitality distinct from the common vital powers of con- 
 tractility, irritability, and sensibility. 
 
 477 . The absorbent system seems to us of much import- 
 ance in the business of secretion. In every secreting organ, 
 it absorbs, for the purpose of transmission to the blood, a 
 fluid which is, as it were, contaminated by the secretion of 
 the part : v. c. a bilious fluid in the liver ; a spermatic in the 
 testes. 
 
 A constant circle would, therefore, appear to exist in the 
 secretory system, so that the elements of the secretions are 
 incessantly carried to the blood from the secreting organs, 
 and, when they return to the organs, are the more easily at- 
 tracted by a species of affinity, and draw with them those 
 parts of the blood whose nature is related to their own. 
 
 478 . The blood, from which some secretions are produced, 
 is endowed with peculiar qualities. The bile, for example, is 
 derived from blood which contains an abundance of carbon- 
 aceous element. 
 
 479 . We omit other assistances afforded to certain secre- 
 tions ; v. c. congestion and derivation, so striking in the se- 
 cretion of milk, & c. (B) 
 
 480 . There is this difference among the various fluids 
 secreted by the organs and powers now described, — that 
 some pass to the place of their destination immediately, while 
 others are deposited in receptacles, and detained there for a 
 length of time, becoming more perfect before their excretion. 
 The milk in its ducts, the urine, bile, and semen in their re- 
 spective bladders, and in some degree the serum of the vesi- 
 cles of De Graaf, are examples of this. 
 
394 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Dr. Bostock arranges the secretions as the aqueous , albu- 
 minous, mucous, gelatinous, fibrinous, oleaginous, resinous, and 
 saline. a 
 
 The aqueous are the perspiration and pulmonary halitus, in 
 which the proportion of water is so great as to give the chief 
 character. 
 
 The albuminous, — all the membranous or white parts of animals, 
 the fluids of serous membranes and of the cellular membrane, the 
 former differing from the albumen of the blood chiefly in being 
 freed from extraneous matter and coagulated ; the latter from 
 serum, chiefly in containing much less albumen. 
 
 The mucous are the mucus of all mucous membranes, the saliva, 
 gastric juice, tears, and semen. The animal matter which is their 
 basis, much resembles coagulated albumen, and their salts are 
 neutral, while those of the albuminous fluids are alkaline. 
 
 The gelatinous are named from containing jelly, — a substance 
 not found in the blood nor any of the fluids, but abundantly in 
 membranes, and particularly in the skin ; and as albumen may be 
 converted into it by digestion in dilute nitric acid, it appears to 
 be the albumen of the blood with an addition of oxygen. It 
 abounds in the young, so that those parts which at the beginning 
 of life are almost entirely jelly, consist chiefly of albumen as age 
 advances : since it is not found in the fluids, it must be deprived of 
 its oxygen again, and, probably, reduced to the state of albumen. 
 
 The fibrinous are the muscular fibres, abounding in azote, and 
 thus more completely animalised, resembling the fibrin of the 
 blood, — apparently their source. 
 
 The oleaginous are the fat, marrow, and secretions of sebaceous 
 glands, and perhaps the milk, as its properties depend so consi- 
 derably upon oily matter. 
 
 The resinous are the bile, cerumen, and urea, very similar to 
 the former, but owing their specific characters to a kind of resin. 
 Osmazcme, an animal principle in all parts of the body, is referred 
 to this class. 
 
 The saline are the acids, alkalis, and neutral and earthy salts of 
 the various solids and fluids; generally more copious in the fluids 
 
 An Elementary System of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 329. sq. 
 
OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 395 
 
 than in the solids, absent in the simple oleaginous secretions, and 
 abundant in the compound j and still more so in the resinous 
 secretions. Their quantity is greatest in the bones, which are 
 principally phosphate of lime ; but, with this exception, the urine 
 possesses the greatest proportion, as well as the most variety. 
 1. In some secretions they are absent; as the fat. 2. In some 
 they exist in definite quantity, and this different from that in the 
 blood ; as the saliva. 3. In others, they are found in the same 
 quantity, *&nd of the same nature as in the blood; as the fluid of 
 serous membranes. 4 1 . In some, they are different from the salts of 
 the blood, and of variable quantity ; as the urea. These four divi- 
 sions are, i. The solid albuminous, the gelatinous, and simple 
 oleaginous, ii. The mucous, fibrinous, and compound oleaginous, 
 iii. The liquid albuminous, iv. The aqueous and resinous. 
 
 This arrangement is certainly good ; but, like every ar- 
 rangement of natural objects, convenient for general views and 
 memory rather than correct. The semen is mucous, but unlike 
 every other fluid : the gastric juice and cerebral substance are 
 equally sui generis. Fibrous matter as well as mucus exists in 
 semen, and is probably, indeed, its specific part : albumen exists 
 abundantly in milk, united into an emulsion with the oleaginous 
 portion. The bile and urine have few properties in common ; 
 and urea is certainly not a resinous substance. 
 
 Berzelius adopts the old division of secretions and excretions, 
 and makes the following remarks. 
 
 “ There are two classes of secreted fluids, viz. the secretions, 
 properly so called, or the fluids intended to fulfil some ulterior 
 purpose in the animal economy, and the excretions , which are 
 directly discharged from the body. The fluids of the former class 
 are all alkaline, and of the latter all acid. The excretions are the 
 urine, the perspired fluid, and the milk. All the other fluids 
 appear to belong to the former class. 
 
 “ The alkaline secreted fluids may be divided into two very 
 distinct species. The former of these contains the same quantity 
 of water as the blood, so that the change induced by the nervous 
 influence, seems to be confined to that of altering the chemical 
 form of the albuminous materials, 1 without affecting their relative 
 proportion to the water and other substances dissolved in the 
 
 1 This appellation Berzelius gives to the fibrin, albumen, and colouring mat- 
 ter of the blood. 
 
 / 
 
396 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 blood. The bile, spermatic fluid, &c. are of this kind. The latter 
 species consists of fluids, in which the influence of the nervous 
 system has separated a large portion of the albuminous matter, 
 and left the remaining liquid proportionally watery. The saliva, 
 the humours of the eye, and the effused serum of membranes, are 
 of this species, and in these the quantity of salts, and in general 
 also of alkali, is the same as in the blood. 
 
 “ The influence of the chemical agent of secretion is, there- 
 fore, chiefly spent upon the albuminous materials of the blood, 
 which seem to be the source of every substance that peculiarly 
 characterises each secretion, each of which is sui generis , and is 
 its principal constituent. All the other parts of the secretion 
 seem to be rather accidental, and to be found there only because 
 they were contained in the blood out of which the secretion was 
 formed. Therefore, in examining the secreted fluids, the chief 
 attention should be paid to the peculiar matter of the fluid, which 
 varies in all. This matter sometimes retains some of the pro- 
 perties of albumen, at other times, none ; and hence an accurate 
 analysis, showing the quantity and nature of this peculiar matter, 
 is above all to be desired. 
 
 “ If the several secretions be supposed to be deprived of their 
 peculiar matter and the remainders analysed, the same residue 
 Avould be found from them all, which also would be identical 
 with the fluid separated from the serum after its coagulation. 
 Thus we should find, first, a portion soluble in alcohol, consisting 
 of the muriates of potash and soda, lactate of soda, and of an ex- 
 tractive animal substance, precipitable by tannin ; and secondly, 
 of a portion soluble only in water, containing soda (which acquires 
 carbonic acid by evaporation, and is separable by acetic acid and 
 alcohol) and another animal substance, not extract, precipitable 
 from its solution in cold water, both by tannin and muriate of 
 mercury. Sometimes a vestige of phosphate of soda will also be 
 detected. 
 
 “ The excretions are of a more compound nature. They all 
 contain a free acid, which is termed lactic, and in the urine this is 
 mixed with the uric acid. Urine seems to contain only a single 
 peculiar characteristic matter ; but milk has as many as three, 
 viz. butter, curd, and sugar of milk, which, however, seem to be 
 produced by different organs that mingle their fluids in the same 
 receptacle. The perspired fluid appears to have no peculiar 
 matter, but to be a very watery liquid, with hardly a vestige of 
 
OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 397 
 
 the albumen of the blood, and, in short, is the same as the other 
 excretory fluids would be when deprived of their peculiar matter. 
 If we suppose this matter taken away from those excretions which 
 possess it, the remaining fluid will be found to have properties 
 very different from the fluid part of the secretions, when equally 
 freed from their peculiar matter. That of the excretions is acid, 
 contains earthy phosphates, and when evaporated, leaves a much 
 larger residue than the fluid of the secretions. This residue is 
 yellowish-brown, of the consistence of syrup, with an unpleasant, 
 sharp, saline taste of the salt that it contains. It reddens litmus, 
 is most soluble in alcohol, and this spirituous solution contains the 
 muriates of the blood, together with free lactic acid, much lactate 
 of soda (the soda being the free alkali of the blood, neutralised by 
 this acid), and the extractive matter, which always accompanies 
 this neutral salt. The part insoluble in alcohol contains a dis- 
 tinguishable quantity of phosphate of soda, a little of a similar 
 animal matter to that found in the secretions, and also the earthy 
 phosphates which were held in solution by the lactic acid, and 
 were precipitated by the action of the alcohol. The urine pos- 
 sesses also a number of other substances, which will be specified 
 when describing this secretion in particular.” k 
 
 (B) It is of no consequence, in the case at least of some organs, 
 by what vessel the blood is conveyed to the secretory apparatus. 
 Mr. Hodgson, on opening the body of a diabetic person, found 
 the cavity of one renal artery obliterated by an accumulation of 
 atheromatous and calcareous matter in its coats. The glandular 
 structure was perfectly natural. The pelvis contained urine, and 
 a considerable quantity of that fluid was found in the bladder. 
 The kidney was supplied with blood by a large branch from one 
 of the lumbar arteries and by the arteries of the renal capsule . 1 
 The liver we have seen to have been sometimes supplied by the 
 hepatic artery. 
 
 In the next place, some secretions are frequently performed by 
 vessels not destined nor originally employed for their production. 
 Fat accumulates in diseased ovaria, and even the fleshy substance 
 of the heart may be converted into it, as I once saw in a patient 
 of my own. Bone is every day deposited between the inner and 
 
 k General Views of the Composition of Animal Fluids, by J. Berzelius, M. D. 
 Medico-Chirurgic. Trans, vol. iii. p. 234. 
 
 1 A Treatise on the Diseases of Arteries and Veins, fyc. 
 
398 
 
 OP THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 middle tunics of the arteries, and the serous membranes are con- 
 tinually ossified. If the kidneys refuse to secrete, urine may be 
 found in the ventricles of the brain, and when there was no outlet 
 for it, an urinous fluid has been furnished by the stomach, in- 
 testines, or skin, &c. m In the latter cases, it may be said to have 
 been fabricated by the kidneys and discharged by the other 
 vessels, just as the pus of an abscess has sometimes been absorbed 
 and discharged by the kidneys ; n still we have the singular fact 
 of vessels allowing to stream through them a fluid totally different 
 from that which is natural to them. 
 
 Such facts as the ossification of soft parts show that, the blood 
 remaining the same, a new disposition of secreting vessels can 
 change the secretion : and such as ischuria renalis followed by 
 urinary deposition in the brain, that the accumulation of the ele- 
 ments of a secretion in the blood will force healthily disposed vessels 
 to form a new secretion, — that secretion depends importantly upon 
 the state of the blood. The inevitable alteration of every se- 
 cretion by the irritation of the particular vessels, v.c. of the bland 
 mucus of the urethra to a foetid puriform fluid in gonorrhaea, and 
 of yellow bile, and mild intestinal fluids, to a green, or dark, scalding 
 bile, and foetid intestinal discharges under the influence of acrid ca- 
 thartics, are also facts of the former kind; and Dr. Wollaston’s ob- 
 servations on the change of the urine of birds to nearly pare uric 
 acid if animal food only is taken, and, above all, the actual appear- 
 ance of urea in the blood, if the kidneys are removed, so that none 
 can be secreted, are other facts of the latter . 0 
 
 In the case of nutritive secretion, the new substance may pass 
 through pores in the sides of the secreting vessel, or even through 
 the substance, for we have seen that a solution of prussiate of 
 potass in the pleura, and of sulphate of iron in the peritonaeum, 
 instantly act upon each other when galvanism is applied ; and a 
 
 m See examples in Haller’s EL Physiol. 1. vii. S. i. § ix. Several such have 
 come to my own knowledge. Mr. Howship attended a lady who discharged 
 many quarts of urine alternately from the bladder and rectum, after intervals of 
 several weeks of suppression, and this for four years without serious injury. Prac- 
 tical Treatise on Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 1823. 
 
 “ See Dr. Hennen’s Military Surgery. 
 
 0 Prevost and Dumas found that the removal of one kidney has no particular 
 effect ; but that the removal of both occasions copious vomiting and purging of 
 brown liquid, and death ; and 5oz. of blood, yielded 3i of urea. Annales de 
 Ckimie, f. xxii. 
 
OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 399 
 
 fluid, as milk, enclosed in a membrane, as a piece of intestine, will 
 pass from it, and water around the exterior be transferred into the 
 cavity when the same agent is employed. But in the case of 
 glandular secretion the new substance is formed in the cavity of 
 the canals and streams along them. Yet in this case, no less than 
 in the other, the change must be chemical. Gelatine is merely 
 oxydised albumen ; diabetic 'sugar, urea deprived of azote and 
 some of its hydrogen ; and the labours of Dr. Prout are displaying 
 the various proximate principles of animals and vegetables to have 
 the same elements, and to differ merely in the proportion of com- 
 ponent water, or by the presence of a minute proportion of ad- 
 ditional substance, hitherto regarded as accidentally present and 
 unimportant. Some substances, it is true, exist in vegetables and 
 animals that cannot at present be entirely ascribed to external 
 sources. Dr. Prout, from most careful experiments, concluded, 
 that there is strong reason to believe that the bones of the chick 
 are not derived from the shell, but from internal production, p 
 Vauquelin found the lime of the excrements of hens, and of the 
 shell, to be too great to be ascribed to the food ; a and the products 
 of plants, fixed in sand and moistened with distilled water, contain 
 so much more carbon and earthy matter than can be supposed to 
 enter them from the atmosphere or the water, that Dr. Bostock 
 and others of our best chemists conceive their existence inex- 
 plicable entirely upon these sources. r If such is the fact, we 
 may conclude that these substances, though classed, as air and 
 water once were, as elements, because not yet decomposed by 
 chemists, are really not so ; for creation is impossible. But al- 
 though secretion is, I apprehend, merely a chemical process, de- 
 pendent upon the quality of the blood and aided by the length 
 and diameter of the vessels and other mechanical circumstances, 
 the chemical relations of the various particles, existing quite in- 
 dependently of life, are brought into play — circumstanced so as 
 to become efficient — by the vital powers : how, we know not. 
 But life cannot create any more than it can annul the physical or 
 
 p Phil. Trans. 1822. 
 
 q Annales de Chimie, t. xxix. 
 
 r See Dr. Bostock’s 1. c. vol."ii. p. 387. sq. Braconnet concludes that 
 earths, alkalies, metals, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, and perhaps azote; are 
 thus produced. The immense quantities of calcareous strata, which appear 
 to be the remains of marine animals, are thought referable to organic production 
 only. 
 
400 
 
 OF THE SECRETIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 chemical qualities of matter. It may counteract one inanimate 
 force by opposing to it another inanimate force ; it may render 
 one inanimate force efficient by withdrawing opponent inanimate 
 forces. But this is all ; how it accomplishes this, is yet unknown. 
 
 Secretion does not depend on the mind, though, like every 
 function, much influenced by it. Fear increases the production of 
 urine ; any depressing passion will vitiate the milk. How far it 
 depends upon nervous influence was considered when speaking of 
 the nervous system. 
 
 The formation of the new substance within the vessels may be 
 demonstrated “ by forcing coloured injections into the arteries of 
 growing bones, when the lime is seen to issue from their orifices 
 in the form of a white powder, and deposit itself, like the farina of 
 a flower, for the office of consolidation. In a similar way, the in- 
 jected arteries of the common domestic hen, while her eggs are 
 incomplete, will show the deposition of lime from their exhalant 
 branches upon the membrane which afterwards becomes the 
 shell .” 6 
 
 E A View of the Structure, fyc. of the Stomach, fic. By Thomas Hare, F.L.S. 
 1821. p. 77. 
 
401 
 
 SECT. XXXIII. 
 
 OF THE FAT. 
 
 481. Of most of the secreted fluids, a concise and con- 
 nected view of which was given in the last section, distinct 
 mention has been made in its proper place : the rest will be 
 described as opportunity may permit. Two remain, which 
 cannot be discussed more appropriately than at present, — 
 at the close of our inquiry into the natural functions. The 
 one — the fat, is a part of the system (4); the other — the 
 urine, is excrementitious. We will examine each separately. 
 
 482. The fat a is an oily fluid, very similar in its general 
 character to vegetable oils, b bland, inodorous, lighter than 
 water ; containing, besides the two elements common to 
 water, to the oils just mentioned, and to wax, viz. carbon 
 and hydrogen, sebacic acid, c which is pretty similar to the 
 acetic. 
 
 483. When secreted from the blood and deposited in the 
 mucous tela, it exists in the form of drops, divided by the 
 laminae of the tela, in a manner not unlike that in which 
 the vitreous humour of the eye is contained in very similar 
 cells. 
 
 484. The relation of fat to different parts is various. 
 
 a W. Xav. Jansen, Pinguedinis Animalis Consideratio Physiologica et Patholo- 
 gica. Lugd. Bat. 1784. 8vo. 
 
 b J. D. Brandis, Comm, (rewarded with the Royal Prize) de oleor. unguinosor. 
 natura. Gotting. 1785. 4to. p. 13. 
 
 c Joach. J. Rhades, De Jerro sanguinis hum. aliisque liquidis animalium. Ibid. 
 
 1753. 4to. ch. 4. 
 
 Dav. H. Knape (Praeside Segnero) De acido pinguedinis animalis. Ibid. 
 
 1754. 4to. 
 
 Laur. Crell, Ckemisches Journal. 1778. P.i. p.102. 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 OF THE FAT. 
 
 In the first place, some parts, even those whose mucous 
 tela is extremely soft and delicate, never contain fat. Such 
 are the palpebras and penis. 
 
 In very many parts, it is diffused indefinitely, especially in 
 the pannicidus adiposus, the interstices of the muscles, &c. 
 
 In some few, it is always found, and appears to be con- 
 tained in certain definite spaces, and destined for particular 
 purposes. Such we consider the fat around the basis of the 
 heart : d and in the mons veneris, where it forms a peculiar 
 and circumscribed lump. e 
 
 485. Its consistence varies in different parts. More fluid 
 in the orbit, it is harder and more like suet around the 
 kidneys. 
 
 486. It is of late formation in the foetus; scarcely any trace 
 of its existence is discoverable before the fifth month after 
 conception. (A) 
 
 487. There have been controversies respecting the mode 
 of its secretion : some, as W. Hunter, contending that it is 
 formed by peculiar glands ; others, that it merely transudes 
 from the arteries. Besides other arguments in favour of the 
 latter opinion, we may urge the morbid existence of fat in parts 
 naturally destitute of it; — a fact more explicable on the sup- 
 position of diseased action of vessels, than of the preternatural 
 formation of glands. Thus, it is occasionally formed in the 
 globe of the eye ; a lump of hard fat generally fills up the 
 place of an extirpated testicle : and steatoms have been found 
 in almost every cavity of the body. (B) 
 
 The glands which some celebrated characters have con- 
 tended secrete the fat, are only imaginary/ 
 
 d Hence it is clear how many exceptions must be made to the assertion of the 
 celebrated Fourcroy, — that fat is an oily matter, formed at the extremities of 
 arteries, and at the greatest distance from the centre of motion and animal heat. 
 See his Philosophic Chimique, p. 1 1 2. 
 
 e I found this still more distinct in the body of a female of the species simia 
 cynomolgus, from which, by T means of cold, I was able to remove it with its sym- 
 metrical form entire. 
 
 f The singular opinion of the distinguished Home, respecting the origin and 
 use of the fat, viz. that it is formed in the large intestines, chiefly by the instru- 
 
OF THE FAT. 
 
 403 
 
 Whatever may be the truth of this matter, the deposition 
 and absorption of the fat take place with great rapidity. 
 
 488. The use of the fat is multifarious. 
 
 It lubricates the solids and facilitates their movements ; 
 prevents excessive sensibility ; and, by equally distending the 
 skin, contributes to beauty. 
 
 We pass over the particular uses of fat in certain parts, 
 v.c. of the marrow of the bones. 
 
 During health, it contributes little or nothing to nourish- 
 ment. 5 
 
 The modern opinion has more probability, — that it affords 
 a receptacle for the superfluous hydrogen, which could not 
 otherwise be easily evacuated, * 11 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Fat is accumulated under the skin chiefly in the first years 
 of childhood, and again between the fortieth year and old age. 
 Women grow fat earlier, and especially if married. 
 
 (B) The intestines occasionally discharge lumps of fat.' I 
 have seen several such cases, and some were attended by violent 
 pain. 
 
 mentality of the bile, and that it supplies .a kind of secondary nourishment to the 
 body, will be found fully described in the Phil. Trans. 1813. p. 146. 
 
 E P. Lyonet conjectures with probability, that insects destitute of blood derive 
 their chief nourishment from the fat in which they abound. Tr. anat. de la 
 Chenille qui range le bois de Saule, p,428. 483. sq. and the Preface, p.xiii. 
 
 11 See Fourcroy, l.c. 
 
 1 As some biliary concretions are evidently fatty, and the liver is much disposed 
 to become fatty, it has been thought that these may be of hepatic origin. Abundant 
 references will be found in Dr. Good’s Study of Medicine, vol. i. p.304. 
 
 Yet ambergris is a fatty matter found in the intestines of the spermaceti whale, 
 but never higher than six or seven feet from the anus. Its quantity has ex- 
 ceeded a hundred pounds, and though so frequently discharged as to be found on 
 the shore, and floating on the waves, accumulation, or the state which occasions it, 
 sometimes appears to destroy life. It is more abundant in proportion as the 
 animal is costive and sickly, l.c. 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 
 
 OF THE FAT. 
 
 (C) The fattest person on record is, I believe, Lambert of 
 Leicester. He weighed seven hundred and thirty-nine pounds, k 
 and died at the age of forty years. In him rats and mice might 
 certainly have nested, if it is true that a Bishop of Mentz, or 
 
 “ A Saxon Duke did grow so fat 
 That mice (as histories relate) 
 
 Ate grots and labyrinths to dwell in 
 His postique parts without his feeling.” 1 
 
 Excessive formation of fat may be strongly opposed by regu- 
 larly taking great exercise, little sleep, and little, but dry, food. ra 
 Fretfulness of temper, or real anxiety of mind, will prevent any 
 one from getting fat, and make any fat man thin. A passage 
 that occurs in the most magnificent of Shakspeare’s Roman plays, 
 and is founded on some information of Plutarch’s, will instantly be 
 remembered. 
 
 Ceesar. Let me have men about me that are fat; 
 
 Sleekheaded men, and such as sleep o’nights ; 
 
 Yond’ Cassius has a lean and hungry look ; 
 
 He thinks too much -. such men are dangerous. 
 
 Antony. Fear him not, Caesar, he’s not dangerous ; 
 
 He is a noble Roman, and well given. 
 
 Ceesar. ’Would he were fatter : — But I fear him not: 
 
 Yet if my name were liable to fear, 
 
 I do not know the man I should avoid 
 So soon as that spare Cassius. 
 
 Great obesity occurs frequently in infants. I saw a pro- 
 digiously fat female, but a year old, who weighed sixty pounds, 
 and had begun to grow fat at the end of the third month. She 
 was also of Herculean general development, and, like most 
 dwarfs, had a flat nose. At an early age I believe females are 
 more commonly the subjects of the affection than males. 
 
 k Dr. Good says, that some German Journals mention cases of eight hundred 
 pounds weight, but he gives no references. 
 
 1 Hudibras , P.ii. Canto i. 
 
 ro Semper vero et certissime debellanda, (obesitas) si modo bona volantas et vis 
 animi fuerit, valida corporis exercitatione, brevi somno, parca et sicca diaeta. Nec 
 focile miles gregarius repertus fuerit, qui tali morbo laborat. Gregory, Con- 
 spectus Med. Theor. lxxxix. Iodine is the best medicine against it. 
 
 See the instructive case of the Miller of Billericay, in the Transactions of the 
 Royal College of Physicians, London, vol. ii. 
 
 A large collection of cases of obesity will be found in Mr. Wadd’s Cursory 
 Remarks on Corpulence. 
 
 ° Julius Ceesar, act i. scene 2. 
 
405 
 
 SECT. XXXIV. 
 
 OF THE URINE. 
 
 489. Besides the nutritious fluids and those which form a 
 part of our system (4), others are superfluous and excre- 
 mentitious, commonly termed the excrements of the second 
 digestion, and of two kinds. The one exhaled by perspir- 
 ation, of which we treated formerly; the other — the urine , 
 streaming from the kidneys. 
 
 490. The kidneys 3 are two viscera, situate at the upper 
 part of the loins on each side, behind the peritonasum ; rather 
 flattened ; more liable than any other organ to varieties of 
 figure and number ; b suspended by the emulgent vessels, c 
 which are excessively large in proportion to them ; and im- 
 bedded iu sebaceous fat. (485) 
 
 491. They are enveloped in a membrane of their own, 
 which is beautifully vascular; and each, especially during 
 infancy, consists of eight, or rather more, smaller kidneys, 
 each of which again consists, as Ferrein asserted, of seventy 
 or eighty fleshy radii, denominated by him pyramides albidag. 
 
 492. A kidney, if divided horizontally, presents two sub- 
 stances ; the exterior, called cortex ; the interior, medulla. d 
 
 Each abounds in blood-vessels, but the cortical portion has 
 
 a See Al. Schumlansky, l.c. 
 
 b See Jer. Blasius, Renum monstrosorum exempla, at the end of Bellini, de 
 structura et usu renum. Amstel. 1665. 12mo. 
 
 c Eustachius, tabula, i. — v. which belong to his classical work De renibus, 
 published with this great man’s other Opusc. anatom. Venet. 1564. 4to. also 
 tab. xii. 
 
 11 C. W. Eysenhardt, De structura renum Observationes Microscopic ce. BeroL 
 1818. 4to. 
 
 D D 3 
 
406 
 
 OP THE URINE. 
 
 likewise very minute colourless vessels which secrete the urine; 0 
 the medullary part contains those which carry it off. 
 
 These secreting ducts arise in the manner formerly de- 
 scribed (471), from minute arteries formed into glomerules in 
 the cortical part, of which they constitute the greatest portion. 
 They may be readily distinguished by their angular course 
 from the excreting or Bellinian tubes, in which they ter- 
 minate. These, pursuing a straight course, run from the 
 cortical to the medullary substance, which principally con- 
 sists of them, and, after they have coalesced into fewer trunks, 
 their mouths perforate, like a sieve, the papillae of the pelvis 
 of the organ. f 
 
 493. These papillae usually correspond in number with the 
 lobes which form the kidneys, and they convey the urine, 
 secreted in the colourless vessels of the cortex and carried 
 through the Bellinian tubes of the medulla, into the infundi- 
 bula, which finally unite into a common pelvis. 
 
 494. The pelvis is continued into the ureters, which are 
 membranous canals, very sensible, lined with mucus, extremely 
 dilatable, generally of unequal size in the human subject in 
 different parts, s and inserted into the posterior and inferior 
 surface of the bladder in such a way, that they do not imme- 
 diately perforate its substance, but pass a short distance 
 between the muscular and nervous coats, which at that part 
 are rather thicker than elsewhere, and finally open into its 
 cavity by an oblique mouth. This peculiarity of structure 
 prevents the urine from regurgitating into the ureters from 
 the bladder. (A) 
 
 495. The urinary bladder, h varying in shape according to 
 
 e These secreting ducts appear to have imposed upon Ferrein as a new descrip- 
 tion of vessels, which lie called neuro-lymphatics or white tubes, and of which he 
 imagined the whole parenchyma of the viscera to he composed. He affirmed 
 that they were of such tenuity, that their length in each kidney of an adult man 
 was equal to 1000 orgyite (60,000 feet) or 5 leagues. 
 
 f Eustachius, tah.xi. fig. 10. 
 
 c See Nuck, Adenagraphia, fig. 82. S4, 35. Leop. M. Ant. Caldani, Saggi dell' 
 Accad. di Padova, t.ii. p. 2. 
 
 11 Duverney, (Euvres anatomiques, vol.ii. tab.i — iv. 
 
OF THE URINE. 
 
 407 
 
 age and sex, is generally capable, in the adult, of containing 
 about two pounds of urine. Its fundus, which in the foetus 
 terminates in the urachus, is covered posteriorly by the peri- 
 tonaeum. The other coats correspond with those of the 
 stomach. 
 
 The muscular consists of interrupted bands of fleshy fibres, 
 variously decussated, and surrounding the bladder. 1 These 
 are usually called the detrusor urinae : the fibres which im- 
 perfectly surround the neck and ai’e inconstant in origin and 
 figure, have received the appellation of sphincter. 
 
 The nervous chiefly imparts tone to this membranous viscus. 
 
 The interior , abounding in cribriform follicles, k is lined 
 with mucus, principally about the cervix. 
 
 496. The urine conveyed to the bladder gradually becomes 
 unpleasant by its quantity, and urges us to discharge it. For 
 this purpose the urethra is given, which varies with the sex, 
 and will be farther considered in our account of the sexual 
 functions. 
 
 497. The bladder is evacuated from the constriction of the 
 sphincter being overcome both by the action of the detrusor 
 (495) and by the pressure of the abdomen. To these in 
 men is superadded the action of the acceleratores, which 
 force out even the drops of urine remaining in the bulb of 
 the urethra. 
 
 498. The nature of the urine varies infinitely 1 from age, 
 season of the year, and especially from the length of the period 
 since food or drink was last taken, and also from the quality 
 of the ingesta, m &c. The urine of a healthy adult, recently 
 
 1 Santorini’s posthumous tables, xv. 
 k Fior. Caldani, Opus.anat. Patav. 1803. 4to. p.4. 
 
 1 See Halle, Mem. dela Soc. de Medecine, vol.iii. p.469. sq. 
 m The specific quality of some ingesta manifest themselves in the urine so 
 suddenly, even while blood drawn from a vein discovers no sign of their presence, 
 that physiologists have thought there must be some secret ways leading directly 
 from the alimentary canal to the kidneys, besides the common channels. An ex- 
 amination of them will be found in Aug. H. L. Westrumb’s Commentary (ho- 
 noured with the royal prize) de phanomenis, qua ad vias sic dictas lotii clandesiinas 
 
 D D 4 
 
408 
 
 OF THE URINE. 
 
 made after a tranquil repose, is generally a watery fluid of a 
 nidorous smell and lemon colour, which qualities depend on 
 a peculiar uric substance, besides a variety of other matters n 
 held by a large quantity of water in solution, and differing in 
 their proportion to each other in different persons. There is 
 a remarkable quantity of phosphoric acid united with other 
 constituents, forming phosphates of soda, ammonia, and lime. 
 A peculiar acid — the lithic or uric, is found in the urine 
 only . 0 (C) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Mr. Charles Bell has described two long muscles running 
 from the back of the prostate gland to the orifices of the ureters. 
 Their action is not only to assist in emptying the bladder, but to 
 pull down the orifices of the ureters, thus assisting to preserve 
 that obliquity of insertion which the ureters have a tendency to 
 lose in proportion as the bladder is depleted, p 
 
 (B) Sir Everard Home observed, in his experiments on the 
 spleen, that colouring matters began to manifest themselves in the 
 urine about seventeen minutes after they were swallowed, became 
 gradually more evident, then gradually disappeared, and after 
 some hours, when the mass had unquestionably passed into the 
 intestines, again tinged it as strongly as ever. 
 
 demonstrandas referuntur. Gotting. 1819. 4to., and P. G. C. E. Barkhausen’s 
 Dissertation (which gained the second prize) de viis clandestmis u rime. Berol. 
 1820. 8 vo. 
 
 ” See Fr. Stromeyer, Theoret. chimie, t. ii. p.609. 
 
 ° Consult on the analysis of the urine, among others, Berthollet, Mini . de 
 V Acad, des Sc. de Paris, 1780. p. 10. 
 
 Th. Lauth (praes. Spielmann), De analysi urince et acido pliosphoreo. Argent. 
 1781. 4 to. 
 
 H. F. Link, Commentatio (honoured with the royal prize) de analysi uriius et 
 origine calculi. Gotting. 1788. 4to. 
 
 Fourcroy, Annales de Chimie, t. vii. p.180. and t.xvi. p. 1 13. 
 
 C. Fr. Gaertner, Observata qutsdam circa uriius naluram. Tubing. 1796. 4to. 
 p Med. Chir. Trans, vol. iii. 
 
OF THE URINE. 
 
 409 
 
 (C) The following is Berzelius’s analysis of urine : <i 
 
 Water - 
 
 Urea - 
 
 Sulphate of potass - 
 
 Sulphate of soda - 
 
 Phosphate of soda - 
 Muriate of soda - 
 
 Phosphate of ammonia ... 
 
 Muriate of ammonia - - 
 
 Free lactic acid - - - \ 
 
 Lactate of ammonia - - / 
 
 Animal matter soluble in alcohol, and usually y 
 accompanying the lactates - - / 
 
 Animal matter insoluble in alcohol - 1 
 
 Urea, not separable from the preceding / 
 Earthy phosphates with a trace of fluate of lime 
 Uric acid ..... 
 Mucus of the bladder ... 
 
 Silex ..... 
 
 933.00 
 
 30.10 
 
 3.71 
 
 3.16 
 
 2.94 
 
 4.45 
 
 1.65 
 
 1.50 
 
 17.14 
 
 1.00 
 
 1.00 
 
 0.32 
 
 0.03 
 
 1000.00 
 
 Like the blood, urine affords carbonic acid gas under the re- 
 ceiver of an air-pump, r and more after a meal. s 
 
 It is a common mistake, even at present, to ascribe, as Blumen- 
 bach does, the colour and smell of urine to the u^ea, which is 
 now known to be colourless, and to have an extremely faint, and 
 by no means urinous, smell. Dr. Prout has established that urea 
 consists of 
 
 Hydrogen ... .2 66 
 
 Carbon ... .799 
 
 Azote - - 1.866 
 
 Oxygen ... 1.066 
 
 4.000 4 
 
 q Med. Chir. Trans, vol. iii. 
 r Vogel, Annales de Chimie, t. xciii. 
 
 8 Mr. Brande, Phil. Trans. 1810. 
 
 1 Med. Chir. Trans, vol. viii. p. 535. 
 
410 . 
 
 OF THE URINE. 
 
 The large proportion of azote in the urea, leads to the con- 
 clusion that the kidneys are the great outlet for azote, as the 
 lungs and liver are for carbon. 
 
 Dr. Prout procured from uric acid a curious substance which 
 he denominates the purpuric acid. u 
 
 The urine of birds is generally discharged with the fasces, and 
 becomes solid by exposure to the air. That of serpents is dis- 
 charged only once in some weeks, is of a caseous consistence, 
 and likewise becomes perfectly solid afterwards. Both are urate 
 of ammonia. x The urine of the turtle and tortoise is also 
 destitute of urea, but does not contain urate of ammonia so 
 pure. The analysis of the urine of brutes is highly interesting, 
 but not yet either extensive or accurate. Dr. Wollaston found 
 the uric acid to be only part in a goose feeding on nothing 
 but grass; and in birds taking nothing but animal food, to consti- 
 tute nearly the whole mass. 
 
 In disease no urine has sometimes been secreted for twenty- 
 two weeks, y Dr. Richardson mentions a lad of seventeen who 
 had never made any, and yet felt no inconvenience. 2 
 
 u Phil. Trans. 1818. 
 
 x Dr. Prout, Thomson s Annals of Philosophy. Dr. Davy, Phil. Trans. 1818. 
 y Haller, Biblioth. Medic, vol. ii. p. 200. 
 z Phil. Trans. 1713. 
 
411 
 
 SECT. XXXV. 
 
 OF THE GENERAL DIFFERENCES OF THE SEXES. 
 
 499. Although the functions hitherto examined are 
 common to both sexes, some are performed very differently 
 in each. The most prominent differences shall be briefly 
 reviewed before examining the sexual functions, properly so 
 called. a 
 
 500. In general, each sex has its peculiar foi'm ; more or 
 less striking after birth, but not very obvious in the young 
 foetus ; for the genitals of the male and female, at this period, 
 are not at first sight different, on account of the clitoris being 
 remarkably large b and the scrotum scarcely formed. c (A) 
 
 a Melch. Sebiz, De differentiis corporis virilis et muliebris. Argent. 1 629. 4to. 
 
 F. Thierry E. prater genitalia sexus inter se discrepant. Paris. 1750. 4to. 
 
 Diclionn. Encyclopid. (Yverdon edit.) vol. xviii. art. Femme, and vol. xlii. 
 art. Viril. 
 
 J. Fidel Ackermann, De discrimine sexuum prceter genitalia. Mogunt. 1788. 
 8vo- 
 
 The same writer's Hisloria et ichnographia infantis androgyni. Jen. 1805. 
 fol. p. 61. sq. 
 
 P. Roussel, Systeme physique et moral de la Femme. 2d edit. Paris. 1803. 8vo. 
 
 Ad. F. Nolte, Dissertat. sistens momenta qucedam circa sexus dijferentiam. 
 Gotting. 1788. 8vo. 
 
 J. Louis Moreau de la Sarthe, Histoire naturelle de la Femme. Paris. 1802. 
 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Autenreith, Arcliiv. fur die Physiol, t. vii. p. 3. sq. 
 
 b Langguth, Embryo 3J mensium qua faciem exlernam. Viteb. 1751. 4to. 
 
 James Parsons, Phil. Trans, vol. xlvii. p. 143. 
 
 Morgagni, De sedibus et causis morborum. xlviii. 10. 
 
 c This I lately found confirmed in twin abortions of different sexes and of 
 about sixteen weeks’ formation, in which, although they were most beautifully 
 and correctly made, the difference of the genitals was not at first discoverable. 
 In every other respect, • — in the general figure, physiognomy, the dimensions of 
 the loins, &c. , they were perfectly similar. 
 
412 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 501. During infancy, the general figure is but little dif- 
 ferent, but becomes more so as age advances, when the round 
 and plump breasts, the general conformation, the delicacy, 
 softness, and the proportionally low stature of the female, 
 form a striking contrast with the sinewy and robust body of 
 the male. d 
 
 502. The relation of parts, in well-formed females, is 
 somewhat different from that in the male. For instance, in 
 the female the face is proportionally smaller ; the abdominal 
 and lumbar portion of the trunk longer ; the hips broader, 
 not, however, if well formed, broader than the shoulders ; the 
 buttocks larger ; the legs in their descent gradually approach 
 each other towards the knees. (B) 
 
 503. A similar difference is remarkable in the osseous 
 system. In females, the bones are, caateris paribus, smoother 
 and rounder, the cylindrical more slender, and the flat thin- 
 ner; to pass over individual differences, v. c. the very slight 
 prominence of the frontal sinuses, the more elliptic edges of 
 the alveoli, the greater narrowness of the chest, the gi'eater 
 capacity on the contrary of the pelvis, the difference of the 
 clavicles, thigh bones, &c. e (C) 
 
 504. With respect to the soft parts, the female mucous 
 tela is more lax and yielding, so as to dilate more easily during 
 pregnancy ; the skin is more delicate, and of a clearer white, 
 from the quantity of fat below’ it. 
 
 The hair of the head is commonly longer : but other parts, 
 which are covered with hair in men, are either quite smooth 
 
 d Consult, besides our great countryman Alb. Diirer, Yier Bucher von mensch- 
 licher Projwrtion. Nurenb. 1528. fol. the two celebrated male and female 
 figures, painted by Titian, or one of his school, in Vesalius’s Epitome suor. libror. 
 d. c. h. anatome. Basil. 1542. fol. 
 
 Also the three delineated by that excellent artist, Jer. Laidresse, in Bidloo, 
 tab. i, ii, iii. 
 
 And Girardet’s figures in the Cours complet d’ Anatomic grave par A. E. 
 Gautier, et explique par M. Jadelot. Nantes. 1773. large fol. 
 
 e I have described these differences more fully throughout the skeleton, in my 
 Osteological work, p. 87. sq. 2d edit. 
 
 Compare Sommerring’s Tabula sceleti feeminei. Francof. 1796. fol. with the 
 male figure in B. S. Albinus’s Tabulce sceleti, tab. 1 . 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 413 
 
 in women, as the chest and chin ; or less hairy, as the peri- 
 naeum ; or smaller in circumference, as the pudenda ; or co- 
 vered with merely a very delicate and soft down, as the arms 
 and legs. (D) 
 
 505. Among the particular differences of function, must 
 be mentioned the pulse, which is, in females, caeteris paribus, 
 more frequent (1 16) ; and the quantity of blood passing to 
 the abdomen is greater. The lungs, on the other hand, are 
 smaller, from the greater narrowness of the chest, which is 
 however more moveable above. The os hyoides is much 
 smaller ; the larynx scarcely prominent and more contracted, 
 whence the voice is less grave. 
 
 506. As to the animal functions, besides the greater abun- 
 dance of nerves in the organs of generation, the general nervous 
 system of females is far more mobile, and their liability to emo- 
 tion stronger. On the other hand, the muscular system is 
 weaker, and the muscles (with the exception of the glutei, 
 psose, quadrat! lumborum, and a few others) proportionally 
 smaller. (E) 
 
 507. In regard to the natural functions, the stomach and 
 the appetite for food are less ; f the growth of the body more 
 rapid ; and the periods of dentition, puberty, and full growth, 
 earlier. 
 
 508. But by far the greatest difference exists in the genital 
 functions, which are intended in man for impregnating, and 
 in woman for conceiving. The fuller investigation of these 
 now remains to be prosecuted. (G) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Sir Everard Home has published a singular hypothesis, s 
 He suggests that the sex is not determined at the first formation 
 
 f Hence genuine and indubitable cases of long abstinence from food have 
 generally occurred in females. (F) See, among many others, FI. James Vol- 
 telen, Diatr. memorabilem septennis aposilue historiam exhibens. Lugd. Bat. 
 1777. 8 vo. 
 
 E Phil. Trans, vol. lxxxix. 
 
414 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 of the individual, but that the parts of generation are originally 
 so situated, and of such a nature, that they are capable of be- 
 coming either male or female organs when the sex is subsequently 
 fixed. His arguments are the following. — 1. The testes and 
 ovaria lie originally in the same situation. 2. The clitoris is at 
 first of great size. 3. When the female among brute mammalia 
 has inguinal mammae, so likewise has the male ; men also possess 
 breasts. 4. The scrotum occupies in the male the place occu- 
 pied in the female by the labia, and is of the same structure with 
 them. 5. The nymphae of the female exactly correspond to the 
 preputium of the male. 6. Twins are usually of the same sex, as 
 if the same cause had influenced the generative organs of each ; 
 when they are of different sexes, it is a common remark that they 
 seldom breed, nature probably having been disturbed in her 
 operations. 7. When among black cattle twins are produced of 
 different sexes, that which appears the cow is really an imperfect 
 hermaphrodite, possessing a mixture of incomplete male and fe- 
 male organs, sometimes, for instance, having testicles in the place 
 of ovaria, sometimes four substances, looking like testes and 
 ovaria, is incapable of breeding, and vulgarly termed a free martin ; 
 — a circumstance in every respect analogous to the preceding. h 
 It may be added, that the round ligaments of the female descend, 
 like the two spermatic chords of the male, to the abdominal ring; 
 that marsupial bones exist, without any function whatever, in the 
 males of some marsupial animals ; that the hen has a bursa Fa- 
 bricii ; and that the glans clitoridis of the female opossum is bifid. 
 Comparative anatomy furnishes many similar facts. But the ex- 
 istence in both sexes of parts which can be useful only in one, — 
 confessed by Paley to have been a complete puzzle to him, ‘ is 
 now universally regarded as merely an instance of Nature’s ob- 
 servance of general rules in the formation of beings : k even some 
 
 h J. Hunter, Observations on Certain Parts of the Animal Economy, p. 55. 
 
 * Natural Theology, c. 25. p. 472. 
 
 fc “ It shows in the function of generation an union of the teleological and 
 mechanical principles, which were formerly thought to be incompatible with each 
 other.” In one sex we have “ a clear instance of the teleological principle, i. e. 
 a peculiar part formed for a certain purpose.” In the other sex, “ where the 
 end and purpose of the part do not exist, we have the mechanical principle ; as 
 if the part had been merely framed in compliance with some general model for 
 the structure of the species.” Blumenbach, Comparative Anatomy, c. ii. § 5S. 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 415 
 
 species of animals have parts that are useful only in others. The 
 resemblance of the scrotum to the labia, and of the nympliae to 
 the preputium, and the original identity of the situation of the 
 testes and ovaria, may be simdarly explained. The usual identity 
 of the sex of twins still shows only Nature’s general plans, and the 
 frequent infecundity of twins of different sexes, together with the 
 circumstances of the free martin, even when of that description in 
 which testes are substituted for ovaria, shows only that general 
 plans have been somehow thwarted . * 1 * And it must be remem- 
 bered, that if testes are occasionally substituted for ovaria in the 
 free martin, an attempt is sometimes made to produce both 
 testes and ovaria, a fact not explicable on the supposition of a 
 substance capable of becoming either testes or ovaria. 
 
 Mr. Knight considers that the sex of the offspring is deter- 
 mined by the female rather than by the male. He observed that 
 individual cows, &c. however various the males, produce one sex 
 rather than the other, so that he has with tolerable certainty pre- 
 dicted the number of male and female young; while nothing 
 similar was ever observable in regard to his bulls, rams, &c. 
 Even the external appearance and the habits of brutes and 
 vegetables, he has found much more, and sometimes altogether, 
 influenced by the female. The quantity of pollen employed in 
 the fecundation of female plants, he found of no importance in 
 this respect . 111 
 
 But M. Girou de Busareingue, from repeated and extensive 
 experiments, has lately ascertained that, whatever may be the 
 influence of particular individuals, the age of the male, among 
 sheep and horses, has a very great general influence upon the 
 sex. The younger the males, the greater the number of females 
 produced, and v- v . The better also the mothers were fed, 
 
 Such parts are peculiarly called vestiges ; some consider the os coccygis the vestige 
 of a tail ; the odorous glands of the human genitals are vestiges of what are really 
 useful in brutes. 
 
 1 This writer’s hypothesis reminds me of one that prevailed among the Greek 
 and Arabian physicians (Galen, Avicenna, fEgineta, Rhases), who asserted 
 that the male and female organs differed in situation only ; that the structure was 
 
 originally the same, but that when the constitution had a good degree of heat, 
 the parts protruded, and a male was formed ; whereas when the temperature was 
 low, they were not excited, and remained within, giving the female sex. 
 
 m Phil. Trans, vol. xcix. 
 
416 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 the greater the number of females and twin births. n The stronger 
 also the mother, and the more in her prime, the greater the 
 number of females ; the weaker from any cause, or if she was 
 below or beyond her prime, the more males were produced. 
 This was noticed also among cows. 
 
 (B) The form as well as the texture of the female is more 
 delicate : her surface has no muscular protuberances, but is beau- 
 tifully rounded ; her legs, therefore, have no calves, but, like the 
 arms and fingers, gently taper ; her feet and hands are small ; 
 her stature one sixth shorter than that of the male ; her neck 
 longer. From the smaller stature and the greater size of the 
 abdominal and lumbar regions, it follows that the middle point 
 which lies at the pubes in the male, is situated higher in the 
 female. Her abdomen is more prominent and rounded, and her 
 shoulders stand less forward and distant from the trunk. Her 
 thighs are more voluminous and distant from each other. 
 
 (C) The greater capacity of the female pelvis, which contains 
 the chief organs of generation and affords a passage for the 
 child, arises from the greater expansion of the ossa ilei, the 
 larger angle of the junction of the ossa pubis, and the greater 
 concavity and breadth of the os sacrum : the os coccygis like- 
 wise is more slender and moveable. The clavicles are less bent; 
 the thorax more projecting, whence deeper, although narrower 
 and shorter ; the sternum shorter and broader ; the cartilago 
 ensiformis shorter; the two superior ribs flatter. Camper re- 
 marks, that if the male and female forms are traced within two 
 ellipses of equal dimensions, the male shoulders will stand with 
 out and the pelvis within, while the female shoulders will remain 
 within and the pelvis without. 0 The face and brain are abso- 
 lutely smaller than in men, the face likewise proportionally so ; 
 yet such is the relative size of the cranium, that, while in the male 
 the head, including the teeth, is as 1 to 8 or 10, in the female it 
 is as 1 to 6, of the weight of the rest of the skeleton. 
 
 (D) Hen birds have a far less beautiful and copious plumage 
 than cocks. 
 
 An instance is related by M. Roux of a woman forty years of 
 age, who, had one child, and whose breasts were well developed, 
 
 n Journal de Physiologique, t. vii. 
 
 ° Memoire sur le beau Physique . 
 
or THE SEXES. 
 
 417 
 
 having a strong and long beard : the lobes of her ears were also 
 covered with hair. <i 
 
 (E) Inferior to man in reasoning powers and corporeal 
 strength, woman possesses more sensibility of both body and 
 mind, more tenderness, affection, and compassion, more of all 
 that is endearing and capable of soothing human woes, but less 
 firmness of character, except indeed where affection subsists; — 
 although Varium et mutabile semper Jcemina, is a true character, 
 yet nothing is too irksome, too painful, or too perilous, for a 
 mother, a wife, or a mistress, to endure or attempt for the object 
 of her love. 
 
 “ A thousand acts in every age will prove 
 Women are valiant in a cause they love. 
 
 If fate the favour’d swain in danger place, 
 
 They heed not danger, — perils they embrace. 
 
 They dare the world’s contempt — they brave their name’s disgrace. 
 They on the ocean meet its wild alarms. 
 
 They search the dungeon with extended arms, 
 
 The utmost trial of their faith they prove, 
 
 And yield the lover to assert their love.” 
 
 ■ Crabbe, Tales of the Hall, xxi. 
 
 The head of the female is as different from that of the male as 
 her mental character. It is altogether smaller. The forehead is 
 smooth, from its various parts being equally developed ; full above 
 the nose ; narrower, but of only moderate height, and gently 
 retreating : the inferior parts of the sides and occiput are small 
 (amativeness, destructiveness, combativeness) ; but the develop- 
 ment immediately above is proportionally considerable (philo- 
 progenitiveness, adhesiveness, secretiveness) ; the summit of the 
 head is proportionally high (veneration). 1 ' 
 
 (F) And beastly gluttons are generally men. 
 
 (G) All the Linnaean classes of vegetables whose sex is known, 
 are hermaphrodite, excepting Dicecia and in part Polygamia. 
 Some inferior animals also are naturally hermaphrodite ; and 
 among others, for instance, moths, eels, carp, crabs, monstrous 
 hermaphrodites are not uncommon, each half of the body possess- 
 ing the characteristics of a different sex. There probably exists 
 
 q Anatomic descriptive, par Xav. Bichat, t. v. 
 
 r See a delightful paper upon the female character by Mr. W. Scott, in the 
 Phrenological Journal, No. vi. art. 17. 
 
 E E 
 
418 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 no authentic account of a true hermaphrodite, s capable of im- 
 pregnating and being impregnated, among mammalia. Yet, 
 
 Hermaphroditus was the son of Mercury and Venus, — Hermes and Aph- 
 rodite, who, while bathing in a fountain of Caria, smote the heart of its presiding 
 nymph, Salmacis. He rejected her intreaties, and she, endeavouring to obtain 
 her wishes by force, closely embraced him, and implored the gods to make them 
 one body ; her prayers were heard, and the characteristics of each sex were pre- 
 served. 
 
 Mercurio puerum diva Cithere'ide natum, 
 
 Naxdes Idaris enutrivere sub antris. 
 
 Cujus erat facies, in qua materque paterque 
 Cognosci possent : nomen quoque traxit ab illis. 
 
 Ovid, Metam. 1. iv. 
 
 Formerly, the existence of true hermaphrodites was not doubted. In Winrich 
 (de orlu monst. c.20.), Riolan {de hermapiir. c.8.), and Shenkius {Obs. Med. 5~o.), 
 we read of a maid servant who, in 1461, was condemned to be buried alive for 
 having got her master’s daughter with child. Montuus declares that he knew 
 an hermaphrodite, supposed to be a female, who had brought her husband several 
 children, and was in the habit also of intriguing with females. Sanchez, the ce- 
 lebrated Jesuit casuist of Cordova, in the 17th century (Dispui. de sancti ^Matri- 
 monii Sacramento, cvi.), determines that an hermaphrodite should adopt the 
 predominant sex, or, in case of equality, choose one and adhere to it, nor be al- 
 lowed to marry till this is done. The Jewish and Canon law treat of hermaph- 
 rodites, and Lord Coke says (lib. 1. § 1. fol. 8. of fee simple), every heir is 
 male, female, or hermaphrodite, i. e. both male and female, and “ an hermaph- 
 rodite, which is also called an androgynus, shall be heir as male or female, ac- 
 cording to the kind of sex which doth prevail, and accordingly ought to be 
 baptized.” The ancients thought them ill omens (Cicero, de divinatione), 
 and drowned them. Eusebius says, that the Christian emperor, Constantine, 
 once ordered them for destruction, because the Nile did not overflow so much as 
 usual. For much learned information, see Dr. Parsons On Hermaphrodites, 
 When there is no'combination of the organs of both sexes, a little variety has 
 frequently given rise to a mistake in the sex. If the septum of the scrotum is 
 narrow, each half may so closely surround the testis as to give an appearance 
 of labia. If, at the same time, the urethra terminates before it reaches the ex- 
 tremity of the penis, and especially if the testes are ill developed, — a circumstance 
 very common in this malformation, the feminine appearance is much augmented. 
 As smallness of the testes is often accompanied by want of the constitutional 
 male characters, — beard, prominent larynx, grave voice, and broad shoulders, and 
 in these circumstances the female character of broad hips, breasts, &c., more or 
 less appear, a superficial observer may easily mistake the sex of such persons. 
 A deficient development, or total absence, of the testes, may be attended by all 
 these general effects, without malformation of the scrotum or urethra. The 
 malformation of the scrotum just mentioned, together with smallness of the penis ; 
 has sometimes occasioned a mistake of the sex till the period of puberty, when 
 the true sex has become evident, and the individual been imagined to have changed 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 419 
 
 occasionally, brutes of this class have perfect organs of one sex, 
 combined with imperfect ones of the other ; l and both they and 
 the human subject each set imperfect, so as to be, though in va- 
 rious proportion to each other in different cases, neutrumque et 
 ulrumque. u Nor that in such combinations in the human subject 
 
 his sex. Ambrose Part: mentions a Marie Germain, who had been always thought 
 a girl ■ but, while she was leaping over a ditch one day at puberty, a penis suddenly 
 disclosed itself and proved her to be a lad. Montaigne also mentions him ( Essais , 
 1. 20.), and another to whom the same fortune happened while playing in bed 
 with a female. Livy and Shenkius have recorded many such. In the Journal 
 de Med. Chir. et Pharm. 1816, a young man is said to have passed for a female 
 all his life, and was on the point of marrying with another young man, when 
 his parents, being aware of something wrong in his construction, and that he had 
 never menstruated, determined on a previous medical examination. The doctors 
 pronounced him (Mary) a male ; he instantly burst into tears (so much had 
 friendship all along taken the place of love), and exclaimed, that then she should 
 lose her bon ami. His dress and register were changed by order of the authorities, 
 and he was very nearly made a soldier. 
 
 On the other hand, with a bulky clitoris, which is common in the Mandingo and 
 Ibbo nations, especially if accompanied by coherent labia, or by no labia, an 
 opening at the same time existing under it and leading to the urethra and vagina, 
 a female may be carelessly mistaken for a male : but the clitoris is imperforate, and 
 has no preputium at the lower part, and, consequently, no fraenum ; and a probe 
 passes at once into the bladder, whereas in ambiguous males, it has far to go. 
 (Dr. Baillie, Morb. Anal.) 
 
 We thus see the origin of the stories in Virgil and Ovid of Cceneus ( /F.nnis VI.), 
 and Scytha [Melam. II.), whom Ausonius Gallus knew to be quite unnecessary 
 to establish the fact : 
 
 Nolo tamen veteris documenta accersere famaa ; 
 
 Ecce Ego sum factus fcemina de puero. 
 
 Zacchias, Qucest. Med. Leg. p.496. 
 
 On a person so metamorphosed, Bauhin made the verse — 
 
 Mas, mulier, monachus, mundi mirabile monstrum. 
 
 ' In the Phil. Trans. 1799, Sir Everard Home describes a bull which had 
 begot five calves, and possessed ordinary male organs, and had the general ap- 
 pearance of the male, except in the flanks and hind quarters, but which had an 
 udder and teats affording milk, and a small vagina, incapable of admitting the 
 male organ. 
 
 u See a human instance in Dr. Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy. The general aspect 
 was masculine, except that no beard existed. There were breasts, a clitoris, and 
 meatus urinarius of the natural female appearance ; but a vagina only two inches 
 long, and terminating blindly, and no nymphae ; labia very long, and each contain- 
 ing a body feeling like a testicle: Menstruation had not occurred. In the Medical 
 Repository an adult is said to be described of general masculine aspect, having 
 in the left groin a small scrotum containing a testicle, and on the other side a 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 at least one testis and one ovarium now and then exist, do I at 
 all doubt, after reading the case given by Maret, x and seeing the 
 creature shown here lately under the name of Lefort. In the 
 former, a testicle on one side and an ovarium on the other are 
 decidedly said to have existed, besides vesiculae seminales, a Fal- 
 lopian tube, an uterus, a blind vagina, and a blind penis : from 
 
 labium ; a vagina and hymen, or at least a small opening existed, and the urethra 
 resembled the female ; but the clitoris was 2- inches long, when not erect, and 
 had a groove below as if for a male urethra : menstruation had not occurred, nor 
 sexual desires been experienced. 
 
 M. Petit ( Mini . clc V Acad, des Sciences, 1729, p. 29.) has described the ge- 
 nerative organs of a soldier, who -died of his wounds. The penis is not men- 
 tioned, and therefore probably was normal, but the scrotum was destitute of testes, 
 and there was a blind vagina communicating with the urethra. Two testes were 
 discovered in the usual situation of the ovaria, possessing vasa deferentia, which 
 passed as usual to vesiculae seminales. There was also a prostate gland. This 
 person might have performed the part of a male bedfellow, hut unfruitfully from 
 the termination of the urethra in the vagina, unless such means could be suc- 
 cessfully employed as are mentioned in John Hunter’s Treatise on the Venereal 
 Disease. 
 
 Analogous cases of spurious hermaphrodism among brutes are the free martins 
 of black cattle already mentioned, (p.414.) In two, John Hunter found imperfect 
 testes in the situation of the ovaria, and in a third were both testes and ovaria 
 lying together. In an hemaphrodite ass he also discovered substances resembling 
 both testes and ovaria. Sir Everard Home has described a similar dog, which 
 had long been a favourite in Lord Besborough’s family, and had never been in 
 heat. “ There was not the smallest appearance of teats on the skin of the belly ; 
 so that in this particular it differed both from the male and female; nor was there 
 the least trace of any thing like the gland of the breast under the skin. The cli- 
 toris w r as very large, being one-third of an inch long, and one-half of an inch 
 broad ; the orifice of the meatus urinarius was uncommonly large, as if it was 
 intended for a common passage to the bladder and vagina, so that the external 
 parts were only the clitoris, meatus urinarius, and rectum. Internally, in the 
 situation of the ovaria, were two imperfectly-formed small testicles, distinguished 
 to be such by the convolution of the spermatic artery ; from these passed down an 
 impervious chord, or vas deferens, not thicker than a thread, to the posterior part 
 of the bladder, where they united into one substance, which was nearly two 
 inches long, and terminated behind the meatus urinarius. The other parts of the 
 animal were naturally formed. When the testicles were cut into they appeared 
 to have no regular glandular structure.” Phil. Trans. 1799. 
 
 Haller describes a very similar kid : the imperfect testes were in the same situ- 
 ation. There was likewise a canal or vagina, which divided like the uterus into 
 two horns, extending to the testes. There were also vesiculae seminales. 
 
 x Mem. de V Acad, de Dijon, t. ii. See also a remarkable case in the A Tew 
 Yorlt Medical Repository, vol. xii. p. 86. 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 421 
 
 the middle upwards the general characteristics of the female were 
 conspicuous, and from the middle downwards those of the male. 
 Lefort had the general characteristics of each sex. The relative 
 proportion of the trunk and extremities, that of the shoulders and 
 pelvis, and the conformation and dimensions of the latter, were 
 those of the male ; the chin had as good a beard, and the breasts 
 and extremities were covered with as abundant hair, as we usually 
 observe in fair young men of the same age. Yet there were 
 beautifully formed breasts with perfect areolae and nipples, the 
 hands and feet were small, and, like the other portions of the ex- 
 tremities, most elegantly tapering. Its unforeseen departure from 
 London deprived me of the advantage of a second interview, but 
 I thought that the voice, face, cranium, and mental character 
 were a mixture of those of both sexes. I could not have said, on 
 seeing such a face only, whether it belonged to a man or a woman. 
 The eyes certainly sparkled with desire. Now had this been a 
 man with imperfect organs, there might indeed have been the 
 characteristics of the female more or less marked, but certainly not 
 those of the male ; and vice versa : nor would the eyes in either 
 case have expressed the warmth of passion. On this account I 
 am disposed to believe it in possession of at least one testis 
 and one ovarium. The best judges in Paris pronounced it a 
 woman; the best in London, a man. With respect to the genitals, 
 I own myself to have been disinclined to examine them at 
 a first interview, but learn there was a small clitoris — with 
 an imperforate gland, and an urethra running along it inferiorly 
 (a structure perhaps unknown in monstrous formation of simply 
 female organs), and opening underneath by five small holes, v A 
 passage existed at the foot of the clitoris into which a catheter 
 passed, but which afforded no urine. The catheter introduced 
 into it might be directed downwards behind a membrane that 
 united the labia below — where the opening of the vagina is com- 
 monly found, and would probably be divided with advantage, as 
 the menses come through this passage. In fact both they and 
 the urine pass through it and the five holes of the canal that is 
 under the clitoris, and the urine is reported to come through both, 
 although the catheter could bring none, and neither passed into 
 the bladder nor excited a desire to make water, if introduced 
 into the lower canal. Whence there is probability in the con- 
 
 Dictiannaire ties Sciences Medicates, Art. Hermathrodisme, 
 E E 3 
 
422 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 jecture, that the urethra communicates with this passage within, 
 by similar openings to those observed externally in its lower 
 part. 
 
 Lefort has been seen to menstruate, and those who have not 
 inspected the pudenda when visiting it at this period, have de- 
 clared the countenance to be pale and languid as in a menstru- 
 ating woman. It boasts of having menstruated ever since eight 
 years of age, of having desires for each sex, and of being able 
 fully to enjoy both. But a little exaggeration of this kind must 
 be expected. The attendant told me that it had kept a young 
 French girl some years. Whether seminal discharge takes place, 
 is doubtful, as the communication between the testes (if there are 
 any) and urethra may be deficient in some point. That it can 
 derive any pleasure from sleeping with a male, except in the 
 general contact, is impossible. On the contrary, the membrane 
 that unites the labia must prevent coition and render every ap- 
 proach of the male organ extremely painful. No wonder, there- 
 fore, that, though its habits are feminine (it does needle-work), 
 perhaps in some measure from confinement, it has chosen a girl 
 for its associate. Independently, however, of these circumstances, 
 I do not suppose that Lefort’s beard and disgusting hairiness of 
 breasts and limbs would easily procure a cavalier servente. 
 
 This is a good opportunity for speaking of malformation in 
 general. 
 
 In the important points of our frame the same plan is pretty 
 steadily followed ; but in indifferent particulars Nature is so far 
 from uniform that she appears delighted with variety. We are 
 seldom disappointed in expecting the natural structure of the 
 spine, great vessels, or important viscera ; but it is not very 
 uncommon to find the brachial artery dividing near the axilla, 
 the obturatrix arising from the epigastric, the palmaris or plan- 
 taris muscle wanting, the biceps having an additional slip from 
 the os humeri, or the latissimus dorsi from the angle of the 
 scapula, or the spleen accompanied by one or more little ones. 
 These merit the name of varieties only, and in the arrangement of 
 minute blood-vessels, the length of bony processes, and other 
 little insignificant matters, there exists so much uncertainty that 
 it would be difficult to say which is the natural structure. In 
 truth, were we all alike, there would be the confusion of indis- 
 tinguishableness. The existence of small moles can hardly be 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 423 
 
 deemed even a variety ; large ones may be considered such. 
 Deviations of a more striking and uncommon character are called 
 hisns natures. Such are, the absence of colouring matter in the hairs 
 and in the cutis and iris in Albinoes (XLIV. last note) ; spots and 
 patches of white in the skin of piebald negroes ; and of brown and 
 black, often seen with tufts of hair, in truth, very large hairy 
 moles, in whites; a peculiar colour of the whole or a portion of 
 one iris, of the eyelashes of one eye, or of some of the hair of the 
 head ; the cuticle of the porcupine family (p. 179) ; the course of 
 the vena portse to the inferior cava, without distribution in the 
 liver (p. 336) ; the malformations of the heart in the morbus 
 cceruleus (p. 155); the situation of the heart on the right side, 1 2 
 and the general transposition of the thoracic and abdominal 
 viscera ; oval irides ; irides entirely deficient under the centre ot 
 the pupil ; a bifid uvula, the two parts sometimes very distant, 
 and the soft palate deficient above ; a bifid glans penis, with two 
 fraena ; the termination of the urethra behind the glans, or in the 
 vagina ; a double uterus; deficient vagina ; deficiency of tendinous 
 parietes of the abdomen, so that a connate ventral hernia ex- 
 ists; a supernumerary, whole or partial, thumb or toe : an instance 
 of each of which, and of several more than one instance, I have 
 myself seen, (with the exception of the unusual course of the vena 
 portse, and with the exception of the heart, &c. and uterus,) in the 
 living subject. If the deviation among visible parts is still more 
 considerable, and, indeed, though it be much r less than those of 
 invisible parts, but, by being obvious, greatly disfigures, it is 
 termed a monstrosity. Such was the deficiency of the upper 
 extremities from below the shoulders in Miss Biffin, whom most 
 frequenters of English fairs have seen, and of the arms and legs 
 in Marc Catozze, a the Venetian, whose hands were attached to 
 his shoulders, and his feet to his hips or thighs ; absence of the 
 radius and ulna on one side, between the os humeri and hand, 
 or of one or more metacarpal bones; absence of the front of the 
 bladder and abdominal parietes, so that the ureters terminate and 
 discharge urine externally; or of the phalanges; or an additional 
 forearm and hand ; are not so rare but that I have seen them also in 
 
 1 I saw an instance of this in the museum at Edinburgh; it occurred also at 
 the Hotel Dieu. (Winslow, Mem. de V Acad. 1743.) See three cases in Shen- 
 kius, p. 310. 
 
 a Eccentric Mirror, vol. ii. 
 
 E E 4 
 
 / 
 
OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 424 > 
 
 the living subject. 15 Zacchias saw a globular head upon the clavi- 
 cle without the intervention of a neck. c Extreme hairiness of the 
 skin, such as described at p. 180, is a monstrosity ; the skin may be 
 considered as covered by a hairy mole ; the absence of gastrocnemii 
 is a lusus naturae. 1 * Similar aberrations from Nature’s usual course 
 out of the animal kingdom were designated ostenta, portenta, 
 prodigiaf from the notion of their being ominous ; whence the 
 opinion of Cicero is highly probable that these aberrations in the 
 forms of human beings are called monstra from the superstition of 
 their pointing out something that will happen ; not, as Licetus f 
 contends, because they are shown as sights. Whatever may have 
 been the reason of the appellation, it clearly implies something 
 visible, obvious to all ; which circumstance is the reason that 
 mere degree of deviation does not constitute a monster, and that 
 visible disfigurement is requisite to the idea ; whence the defini- 
 tion of the most learned Zacchias, — “an animal formed enor- 
 mously different from the goodness and simplicity of figure belong- 
 ing to its species.” s 
 
 Varieties, lusus naturas, and monstrosities, may all be arranged 
 accordingly as they are excesses, deficiencies, or misplacements. To 
 
 b I think I saw an additional head at the side of the other in a human foetus, 
 both at Edinburgh and Vienna, and once I witnessed this in a living calf. In 
 the Hunterian museum are the two skulls of a child, that was the son of a native 
 farmer in the East Indies, and lived to be four years old. The additional one 
 was placed upside down on the top of the other. Each contained a brain, in- 
 vested by its own dura mater, and the upper received its blood from the lower. 
 The features of the upper head were sometimes unaffected, when the lower head 
 cried, and were never affected when it smiled. The gums of both were cut by 
 front teeth. When the nipple was presented to the upper head, it made a slight 
 attempt to suck. The tears of the upper head constantly ran over, but especially' 
 when the lower head cried. The eyes of the upper head would open on a sudden 
 impression, but even then, as well as at all other times, were directed to no object. 
 They remained open during sleep. The mouth of the upper head showed signs 
 of gratification when the lower sucked. The upper head had much less sen- 
 sibility. {Phil. Trans, vol. lxxx. and lxxxix.) 
 
 Winslow saw in 1698, an Italian with an additional little head, attached by 
 the lower half of the right side of the face and cranium, to the thorax, below the 
 cartilage of the third rib ; it had been separately baptized, and the man felt if it 
 was touched. Mem,, de VAcad. des Sc. 1733. 
 
 c 1. c. De monstris. 
 
 d Three cases will be found in M. Paletta’s Exercit. Patholog. 
 
 e Ostcndere, portendere, prtedicere. 
 
 1 Me monstris. 
 
 E 1. c. 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 425 
 
 this classification of monsters by Buffon, h unnatural formations 
 are added by Blumenbacly as a part may be monstrously formed, 
 although neither excessive, defective, nor misplaced. k 
 
 BufFon’s arrangement relates to whole organs ; but were it 
 applied to portions of them also, Blumenbach’s fourth class 
 would be exceedingly small. For instance, the first illustration 
 given of it by Mr. Lawrence, is when the anterior part of the 
 urinary bladder and corresponding integuments are absent, the 
 ossa pubis not conjoined, and the posterior part of the bladder 
 projecting between the recti abdominis muscles, forming, “ by its 
 mucous lining, a soft, red, sensible protuberance on the lower part 
 of the abdomen, contiguous at its circumference with the common 
 skin, with the ureters opening upon it, and constantly allowing a 
 free passage to the urine.” Now this is really a case of deficiency 
 as far as respects the bladder and integuments, and of misplace- 
 ment as respects the ossa pubis and recti muscles. Spina bifida, 
 again, is in fact an example of deficiency. Another instance 
 adduced is a single cyclopic eye in the middle of the forehead, 
 — a monstrosity which is a misplacement of each eye, for the 
 organ is plainly always two united ; or of an union of the two 
 kidneys into one. The propriety of applying these subdivisions 
 to deviations of portions as well as of the whole of organs is 
 proved by the occasional deficiency or redundancjr of portions 
 only, v. c. when the arm between the shoulder and hand, or only 
 the front of the urinary bladder, is absent. The hare-lip, which 
 is often accompanied by a cleft in the palate also ; the termin- 
 ation of the rectum in the bladder or vagina, or its termination 
 without an opening; a bifid glans penis : —fairly belong to this 
 fourth subdivision, they being instances neither of excess, defect, 
 nor misplacement, but of unnatural structure. 
 
 Few cases are unmixed. Defect, excess, or misplacement, 
 are often, sometimes indeed necessarily, combined with un- 
 natural structure : and not unfrequently excess, defect, and 
 unnatural structure, all make up the derangement together. 
 
 There may be different kinds of deviation in different parts of 
 
 h Hisloire Naturelle. Supplement, t. iv. p. 578. 
 
 ‘ Although these arrangements are intended only for monsters by Buffon, 
 and the more striking malformations by Blumenbach, they may be applied to all 
 deviations. 
 
 k Handbuch tier naturgeschichle, s. ii. The arrangement is followed by Mr. 
 Lawrence, Med. C/iirurg. Trans, vol. v. 
 
426 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 the same subject, and it is worthy of notice that considerable 
 deviations are generally accompanied by minor ones of other 
 parts. Spina bifida and club feet very frequently co-exist. When 
 the brain is absent, so that the foetus has no forehead and looks 
 like a cat (called in Germany lealzenkopf), there is often some- 
 thing wrong about the extremities or the viscera of the trunk ; 
 and absence of heart is always, according to Mr. Lawrence, ac- 
 accompanied by considerable deviations in other parts. 
 
 The highest degree of deviation may combine the extremes 
 of more than one of the four subdivisions, and sometimes presents 
 a being very like a brute. In old books we read of women bring- 
 ing forth dogs, pigs, monkeys, nay, even lions, elephants, 1 and fish," 1 
 and even little devils with hoofs, claws, horns, tail, and a black 
 skin, n since intercourse of this kind was two centuries ago thought 
 common enough, and monsters were ascribed to it. 
 
 As an instance of the lowest degree of unnatural structure, 
 I may mention a minute opening in the lachrymal sac on the 
 side of the nose of a young lady whom I know : the highest 
 degree is perhaps instanced in the malformations of the heart. 
 The lowest degree of misplacement is exemplified when a testis 
 is placed for life in the groin : the highest is perhaps witnessed in 
 the transposition of the viscera. 0 The lowest degree of defect is 
 instanced in the absence of the gall-bladder: thehighest, where only 
 the lower half of the trunk with the lower extremities, or only one 
 extremity, exists. In excess the addition may be merely attached, 
 or may be mingled with the same part into one larger. The highest 
 decree of excess is where a second foetus is attached. Zacchias saw 
 
 0 
 
 1 Shenkius, Obs. Med. 691. 
 
 m Roederer, Dissertation couronn.ee a. Petersbourg. 
 
 Licetus, De Monstris, with plenty of plates, shows what can be done in the 
 way of incredible cases. 
 
 n After many learned examples of women loved by brutes and devils, to which 
 monsters were formerly ascribed, Burton gravely declares, “ Many divines stiffly 
 contradict this, but I will conciude with Lipsius, that since examples, testimonies, 
 and confessions of those unhappy women are so manifest in this our town of 
 Lovan, it is likely to be so. One thing I will add, that I suppose in no age past 
 (I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time) have there ever appeared 
 or showed themselves, so many lecherous divels, satyrs, and genii, as in this of 
 ours, as appears by the daily narrations and judicial sentences upon record.” 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, 3. 2. 1. 1. 
 
 0 Mr. Lawrence refers to five examples of this, and 6ome of the subjects were 
 adults, and one lady died at 72 years of age. 
 
OF THE SEXES. 
 
 427 
 
 at Rome, in 1617 and 1623, a well-formed handsome boy, named 
 Lazarus Coloreto, to whose chest there grew another, with only 
 one leg, and that too short, mutilated arms, a hideous face, a 
 thick head unable to take food, perpetually dribbling, and with no 
 sense but that of touch, which he showed by moving himself 
 when hurt, and who had been christened John Baptist, p 
 
 p The poor people very consistently thought he must have a soul as well as 
 Lazarus, and so baptized him. Zacchias disapproves of this, and very reasonably, 
 as the brain showed no intelligence ; being compelled to measure mind solely by 
 cerebral power, and, seeing none, to conclude that John Baptist had no soul. Yet 
 though this was reasonable, it was very inconsistent with his belief in soul, since, 
 according to it, John Baptist’s case was exactly like that of all idiots : — A soul 
 existed, but merely because the brain — the instrument it had to play upon, was 
 bad, its operation was prevented. Zacchias, who was chief physician at Rome 
 to the ecclesiastical states, extricates himself from the difficulty as cunningly as 
 the Jesuits did when publishing Newton’s doctrine as a mere hypothesis. “ Latis 
 a summis pontifieibus contra telluris motum, decretis nos obsequi profitemur,” 
 said they. “ Ecclesiae Catholicas, in hoc et in caateris omnibus, humiliter me sub- 
 jicio,” says Zacchias. (1. c. vii. 1. 4 — 17.) The manifestation of mind must de- 
 termine whether a monster should have the rights of a human being, and its 
 parents those of fruitful spouses. Without some mind, it cannot live at all after 
 separation from the mother, unless attached to another ; but should it have no 
 more sense and volition than is sufficient for breathing, it ought not to be destroyed. 
 Two women, one a midwife, were prosecuted at York fof drowning a child with 
 deficient cranium, that would probably have lived but a few hours or days. The 
 judge expressed a hope that the prosecution would prove the erroneousness of 
 the vulgar opinion, that the law allows the life of any human being to be taken 
 away by another. In catholic times, all monsters were destroyed without cere- 
 mony, as the offspring of the devil. 
 
 Montaigne saw a boy exactly fourteen years old, who had a headless brother 
 fixed front to front, looking “ as if a small child was endeavouring to embrace 
 a bigger.” The place of union was below the breasts, and about the extent of 
 four fingers, so that “ if you lifted up the imperfect child, you saw the other’s 
 navel.” (Essays, ii. 30.) Winslow saw attached to t]ie body of a well-formed 
 girl, twelve years of age, the abdomen and lower extremities of another smaller 
 than herself. It discharged feces, and she felt when it was touched. Winslow 
 was consulted upon the propriety of administering extreme unction to it as well 
 as its sister. (Mem. de V Acad, des Sciences, 1733.) If it had a soul, Van Hel- 
 mont was right in placing the soul in the abdomen. A male pelvis with lower 
 extremities attached to the pubes of a well-formed Gentoo boy, are described in 
 the Phil. Trans, lxxix. The lad had no power over his burthensome piece of a 
 brother, but felt if it was touched. In the medical journals for 1821, is an au- 
 thentic case of a lad in China, sixteen years of age, named Ake, who had a brother 
 growing to the pit of his stpmach, without a head, so that this attached brother 
 seemed as if he had run his head into Ake’s body. Whatever part of this was 
 
428 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES 
 
 Where there is no great difference in the size of the two beings, 
 the case can hardly be styled an excess, or at any rate either 
 party has an equal right to consider the other the exuberance. 
 Such were the Hungarian sisters mentioned by Blumenbach (78), 
 who were united at the back below the loins. All the viscera 
 were double ; but the recta and vaginae of both formed one 
 common opening. The aortae and inferior cavae also united. 
 They menstruated, evacuated, felt hungry, slept, and were ill 
 at different times, but of course died together, a One was rather 
 stronger than the other, and dragged her sister with her when 
 they wished to go in contrary directions, and they sometimes 
 quarrelled when one only wished to retire; but fortunately 
 Judith and Helen were extremely fond of each other. They 
 attained the age of twenty-one. 
 
 One of the most extraordinary compound monsters is described 
 by M. Mannoir, of Geneva, r and the subject is preserved in our 
 Hunterian Museum. The two children of which it was com- 
 posed may be fancied to have been divided transversel} r , and the 
 two upper halves united at the cut part, and the two lower like 
 wise, and then the two compound pieces laid across each other. 
 
 The additional being is sometimes not united in this way, but 
 contained in a cyst, and attached to the exterior of the other. A 
 perfect child was born in Devonshire, 1746, with a tumour at- 
 tached to the sacrum, containing the rudiments of a foetus. 3 
 
 The second child, thus encysted, is occasionally placed inter- 
 nally, and may at last cause serious inconvenience. At Genoa, 
 
 touched, Ake said he felt as if the same in his own body was touched, and really, 
 on the narrator pinching the little one’s hip while Ake was looking the other 
 way, Ake instantly turned about and clapped his hand upon his own hip. When 
 Ake made water the little one always did the same. A similar case was lately pub- 
 lished in the second volume of the J\[edico Chirurg. Trans, of Edinburgh, in which 
 the perfect brother could discharge urine at pleasure from his pendulous brother. 
 Many other such cases are recorded. 
 
 *) The following epigram, related by Petrarch, was inscribed on stone figures of 
 a similar pair, christened Peter and Paul. 
 
 Non veto nobis unus somnusque cibusque 
 Nec risus nobis, fletus et unus erat. 
 
 Unus membra dabat somno ridebat et alter, 
 
 Surgebatque unus, flens quoque et alter erat. 
 
 F. Petrarch, Be Her. Mem. iv. 6. 21. 
 
 r Med. Chir. Trans, vol. vii. 
 
 ' Phil . Trans', vol. xlv. p.325. 
 
OP THE SEXES, 
 
 429 
 
 in 1699, a boy, fourteen years of age, had a perfect foetus taken 
 from his abdomen, through an opening made in a very large 
 tumour just above the umbilicus, that had been increasing from 
 his birth. 1 A girl, five years old, born at Dangerhorst, proved 
 to have in her abdomen all the distinct parts of a foetus. u The 
 Medical and Chirurgical Society has published the case of a boy 
 in whose abdomen was a cyst, containing all the rudiments of a 
 foetus; and of a girl, two years and a half old, who had a large tu- 
 mour in the left side, occasioned by a cyst with parts of a foetus. x A 
 boy who had reached his fifteenth year in good health, was found 
 to bear in his abdomen a pretty large imperfect female foetus, by 
 Mr. Highmore, in Dorsetshire, y A boy, fourteen years of age, 
 was some years ago discovered after death, at Paris, to have the 
 rudiments of a foetus in his abdomen ; z and in the last century one 
 at Tours. a A girl at Naumburg became such a kind of a mother 
 in eight days from her birth. b A male greyhound is said to 
 have voided a live whelp per anum, at Chester in 1695. c An 
 egg has sometimes been contained within another. d 
 
 Of the same nature as these are perhaps certain cases, in 
 which hair and sebaceous fat, and frequently teeth, are found 
 collected. The hair has no roots, and occasionally is in immense 
 quantity, the greater part making a compact ball, and the rest 
 immersed in the fat. The teeth are generally molares, and have 
 no fangs. The usual seat of these collections is the ovaria, but 
 then it is the ovaria of virgins. A case lately occurred, in which 
 the mass was situated in the anterior mediastinum of a young woman, 
 twenty-one years of age, and consisted of serous fluid, hair, fat, 
 two cuspidati, two incisores, and three molares, a portion of bone 
 resembling the superior maxillary, and alveolar processes around 
 
 1 Said to be related in the Thesaurus Med. Chir. Observat. curios. Leipsice,1715. 
 u Said to be related in Lieutaud’s Observ. Med. fasc. 1. 1760. 
 x 1809 and 1815. 
 y Case of a foetus, &c. 1815. 
 
 z Corvisart’s Journal, t. ix. Gazette de Sanle, No. 1. 1804. Saltz. Med. 
 Chirurg. Zeitung, 1804. 4. B. 290.; all referred to by Plouquet as for three differ- 
 ent cases. 
 
 a Journ. de Med. 1755. 
 b Diet, des Sciences Mid. Cas rares. 
 c Phil. Trans, xix. p.316. 
 
 d Grew, Parities, p. 18. Phil. Trans, xix. p.632. Gentlemans Magazine, 
 xvii. p. 573. 
 
430 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES OF THE SlfXES. 
 
 several of these teeth. e Such a mass has been situated in the loins 
 of a gelding ; — probably in a testis which had not descended. f 
 
 Monstrous formations are frequently discharged prematurely. 
 Autenreith observes “ that he found three abortions monstrous out 
 of nineteen whose parts could be distinguished ; that Wrisberg met 
 with two among five ; and Ruysch two in twelve : — altogether 
 seven to twenty-nine.” 
 
 Sommerring states that most monstrous abortions are of the 
 male sex. 
 
 A sound offspring is frequently born at the same time with a 
 monstrous production, and monstrous productions occasionally 
 alternate with well-formed children. 
 
 Sometimes one unusual formation only occurs in a large family ; 
 sometimes several, and perhaps in immediate succession. 
 
 These circumstances show, as Duverney, and immediately after 
 him Winslow, contended about a century ago (Mem. del' Acad, des 
 Sc. 1743), that monstrosity generally arises from original faulty 
 formation, or rather faulty powers in the ovum, and not from sub- 
 sequent injury. How far the mind can influence the formation 
 we will consider in the section on the nisus formativus. 
 
 e Med. Chir. Trans. London, 1825. vol. siii. 
 f Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy. 
 
431 
 
 SECT. XXXVI. 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 509. The male genital fluid is produced by the two testi- 
 cles, which hang in the scrotum, by their spermatic chords, 
 through a ring called abdominal, or through, more properly, 
 a fissure in the tendon of the external oblique muscle of the 
 abdomen. (A) Besides abundant lymphatics, three orders of 
 vessels are found in the testes. — 
 
 The spermatic artery , which is, in proportion to the fine- 
 ness of its calibre, the longest artery, by far, in the system, 
 and usually conveys blood to the testicle immediately from 
 the abdominal aorta. 
 
 The ductus deferens, which carries to the vesiculae semi- 
 nales the semen secreted from the arterial blood. 
 
 The pampiniform plexus of veins, which return to the 
 cava or renal vein the blood remaining after secretion. (B) 
 
 510. The testes are not originally suspended in the 
 scrotum. In the very young male foetus, they are placed in 
 a very different part, and the nature and successive changes 
 of their situation that were first accurately investigated 
 by Haller, a but have since been variously stated, have 
 given rise to numerous controversies. 11 I shall derive my 
 account of this subject from the natural appearances which I 
 have preserved in a great number of small embryos, dissected 
 by me with this view. 
 
 a Haller’s Program, de hemiis congenitis, reprinted in his opusc. patkolog. 
 p. 311. sq. vol. iii. Opera minora. 
 
 b C. J. M. Langenbeck, Commentatio de structura peritoncei, testiculorum tu- 
 nicis eorumque in scrotum descensu, Gotting. 1817. fol. 
 
 B. W. Seiler, Observationes de testiculorum ex abdomine in scrotum descensu. 
 Lips, same year. 4to. 
 
432 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 \ 511. On opening the lower part of the abdomen of a 
 
 young foetus, there appears in each groin, at the ring of the 
 oblique muscles, a very small opening in the peritonaeum, 
 leading downwards to a narrow passage which perforates the 
 ring and runs to a peculiar sac that is extended beyond the 
 abdominal cavity towards the scrotum, is interwoven with 
 cellular fibres, and destined for the future reception of the 
 testicle. 
 
 512. At the posterior margin of this abdominal opening, 
 there is sent off another process of peritonaeum, running 
 upwards, and appearing, in the young foetus, little more than 
 a longitudinal fold, from the base of which arises a small 
 cylinder, or rather an inverted cone, that terminates above 
 in a globular sac, containing the testis and epididymis, so that 
 the testis, at first sight, resembles a small berry resting on its 
 stalk, and appears hanging, like the liver or spleen, into the 
 abdomen. (399) 
 
 513. The vessels, which afterwards constitute the sper- 
 matic chord, are seen running behind the very delicate and 
 pellucid peritonaeum; the spermatic artery and vein de- 
 scending along the sides of the spine, and the vas deferens 
 passing inwards, in the loose cellular substance behind the 
 peritonaeum, towards the neck of the bladder. They enter 
 the testis in the fold of peritonaeum just mentioned. 
 
 514. After about the middle period of pregnancy, the 
 testis gradually descends and approaches the narrow passage 
 before spoken of (511), the fold of peritonaeum and its 
 cylinder becoming at the same time bent down, until it lies 
 directly over the opening of the passage. 
 
 515. The testis being now ready for descent, the opening, 
 which was hitherto small, becomes dilated, so as to allow the 
 organ to pass it, the abdominal ring, and the whole passage, 
 and to descend into the bulbous sac (511) ; after this occur- 
 rence, the opening soon becomes strongly closed and even 
 grows together, leaving scarcely any vestige of itself in 
 infancy. 
 
 516. In proportion to the slowness with which the testis 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 433 
 
 proceeded towards the opening, does its transit through the 
 abdominal passage appear rapid, and, as it were, in- 
 stantaneous. It is common to find the testis in mature 
 foetuses either lying over the peritonaeal opening, or, having 
 passed this, resting in the groin ; but I have once only met 
 with the testis, and then it happened to be the right and in 
 a twin foetus, at the very time when it was adhering, and in a 
 manner strangled, in the middle of the passage, being just 
 about to enter the sac ; in this instance, the left testis had 
 passed the abdominal canal and was already in the sac, and 
 the abdominal opening of the same side was perfectly closed. 
 
 517. This remarkable passage of the testis from the 
 abdomen through the groin is limited to no period, but 
 would seem to occur generally about the last month of 
 pregnancy ; the testicles are found, however, not very rarely 
 in the abdomen or the upper portion of the groin at birth. 
 For they have always another part of their course to finish, 
 after leaving the abdomen, viz. to descend, together with their 
 sac, from the groin into the scrotum. 
 
 518. Repeated observation demonstrates this to be the 
 true course of the testicles. To assign the powers and causes 
 of its accomplishment is no easy matter. For I am every day 
 more convinced that neither of the powers to which it is 
 usually ascribed, viz. the action of the cremaster or dia- 
 phragm, or the mere contractility of the cellular membrane, 
 interwoven with tendinous fibres, that exists in the cylindrical 
 process of peritonaeum (512), and is called the Hunterian 
 gubernacidum , is sufficient to explain so singular a movement, 
 and least of all to explain the transit of the testis through the 
 passage so often mentioned ; but that the whole affords, if 
 any thing does, a striking illustration of a vita propria, 
 without the peculiar influence of which, so remarkable and 
 unique a course, similar to no other function of the system, 
 cannot even be imagined. (C) 
 
 519. The coats of the testes, after their descent, are con- 
 veniently divided into common and proper. 
 
 The common is the scrotum , consisting of the skin having a 
 F f 
 
434- 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 very moderate substratum of fat, and differing from tlie rest 
 of the integuments in this, — that it is continually changing 
 its appearance, being sometimes lax and pendulous, sometimes 
 (especially during the venereal orgasm and the application of 
 cold) constricted and rigid, and in the latter case, singularly 
 marked by rugae and furrows. c 
 
 520. With respect to the coats proper to each testis, the 
 dartos lies immediately under the scrotum, and is endowed 
 with a peculiar and strong contractile power, which deceived 
 the celebrated Winslow, Haller, &c. into the belief of the 
 presence of muscularity. (D) 
 
 521. Next to this, with the intervention, however, of 
 much soft cellular substance, are found three orders of tunica: 
 vaginales ; A viz. an exterior, common to the testis and sper- 
 matic chord, and to which the cremaster muscle adheres by 
 disjointed bundles of fibres. 
 
 And two interior, one proper to the chord, and one to the 
 testis ; the latter of wdiich usually adheres by its fundus to 
 the common coat, but is internally moistened, like the 
 pericardium, by a lubricating fluid. (E) 
 
 522. d he origin of these vaginal coats, — the subject of so 
 much controversy, may, I think, be readily explained, from 
 the circumstances, already mentioned, attending the descent 
 of the testis. 
 
 The coat common to the testis and chord arises from the 
 descending bulbous sac or peritonaeal process. (511) 
 
 The proper coat of the testis, from that production of the 
 peritonaeum which, ascending from the cylinder (512), origi- 
 nally invests the testis. 
 
 The coat proper to the chord, from that fold and short 
 
 c Besides the assertion that the scrotum differs strikingly from the rest of the 
 integuments in being reproduced after its destruction by gangrene ; although 
 many careful observers declare this reproduction, as it is termed, to be very im- 
 perfect, and even imaginary. See v. c. Stalp. v. d. Wiel. cent. 1. p. S64. 
 Quirot, Mem., de l' Acad, de Chirurg. t. iv. p. 97. 
 
 d J. E. Neubauer, Dc tunicis vaginalibus testis et funiculi spermatid. Giess. 
 1767. 4to. 
 
 F. L. Eichhorn, De hydrocele. Gott, 1809. 4ta, 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 435 
 
 cylinder of the peritonaeum in which the fold terminates 
 before it surrounds the testicle. (F) 
 
 523. To the body of the testis e there adheres very firmly, 
 like the bark of a tree, a coat called albuginea, through the 
 combination of which with the internal part of the vaginal 
 coat, blood-vessels penetrate into the pulpy substance of the 
 testis. f This pulpy substance is entirely composed of innu- 
 merable vessels, about a span in length, s and convoluted into 
 lobules, both conveying blood and secreting semen, h the latter 
 of which is carried, through the rete vasculosum of Haller* 
 and the vasa efferentia of de Graaf, to the apices of the cones 
 of the epididymis. k 
 
 524. The epididymis, lying on the side of the testicle and 
 consisting of one vessel about thirty feet in length, is divided 
 into about twenty glomerules or cones at the part called its 
 head, 1 and is continued into the vas deferens, at its lower 
 part, w T hich gradually becomes thicker m and is denominated 
 its tail. 
 
 525. Each vas deferens, ascending towards the neck of the 
 urinary bladder and converging towards the other under the 
 prostate gland, is then directed backwards and dilated into 
 the vesiculse seminales, in such a manner, that the common 
 mouth both of the vesicles and vasa deferentia opens into the 
 urethra, behind the caput gallinaginis. n 
 
 526. The vesicidce seminales, which adhere to the posterior 
 and inferior surface of the bladder, surrounded by an 
 
 e Alex. Monro, fil. Do testibus et de semine in variis animalibus. Edinb. 1755. 
 8vo. 
 
 f B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 1. ii. tab. vii. fig. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 B Vide Grew, Museum Regalis Societatis, p. 7. 
 
 11 The celebrated Sommerring was so successful as to inject all the vessels 
 composing the testis, and the entire head of the epididymis, with mercury. TJeber 
 die korperl. Versch. des negers vom Europaer, p. 38. 
 
 1 Haller, De viis seminis in the Phil. Trans. No. 494. fig. 1. g. g. 
 
 k De Graaf, De Viror. organis generationi inservientibus. tab. iv. fig. 1, 2. 
 
 1 Vide Alex. Monro, fil. Observations , Anatomical and Physiological. Edinb. 
 1758. 8vo. tab. i. E. E. E. F. G. H. 
 
 m B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 1. ii. tab. iii. fig. 1. 
 
 " B, S. Albinus, 1. c. 1. iv. tab. iii. fig. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 abundance of fat, resemble two little intestines winding in 
 various directions and branching into numerous blind ap- 
 pendices. 
 
 They consist of two coats, nearly similar to those of the 
 gall-bladder : the one strong, and of the description usually 
 termed nervous ; the other interior, delicate, abounding in 
 cells, and divided into compartments by prominent ridges, 
 like those found in the cervix of the gall-bladder. 0 
 
 5271 In these passages is slowly and sparingly secreted 
 and contained after puberty, the semen, a very extraordinary 
 and important fluid, of a milky yellowish colour, p of a pe- 
 culiar odour, of the same viscidity as mucus, and of great 
 specific gravity, of greater indeed than any other fluid in the 
 body. q 
 
 5 28. Semen has also this peculiarity, first observed by 
 Lewis Hamme of Dantzic, in the year 1677, r — of being ani- 
 mated by an infinite number of small worms visible by the 
 microscope, of the kind denominated infusoria, s and of dif- 
 ferent figures in different genera of animals. In man , 1 these 
 spermatic animalcules are oval and have very fine tails : they 
 are said to be found in prolific semen only, so that they are 
 in some degree an adventitious criterion of its prolific ma- 
 turity ; we say adventitious, because we hope, after so many 
 weighty arguments and observations, u there is no necessity 
 
 0 See, besides, the figures by Graaf, Haller, Albinus, and Monro, 11. cc. es- 
 pecially the beautiful one by FI. Caldani, in his Opusc. Anal. p. 17. 
 
 p The opinion of Herodotus respecting the black semen of Ethiopians, refuted 
 in ancient times by Aristotle, has, to my surprise, been taken up in modern times 
 by Le Cat, de Pauw, Wagler, &c. 
 
 q F. B. Osiander asserts, “ that fresh semen emitted under certain circum- 
 stances, is occasionally phosphorescent." De causa insertionis placentce in uteri 
 orificium. Gotting. 1792. 4to. p. 16. 
 
 r Vide Fr. Schrader, De microscopior. usu in nat. sc. et Anatome. Gotting. 
 1681. 8vo. p. 34. 
 
 s Handbuch der Ncttitrgesch. p. 506. 10th edit. tab. i. fig. 13. 
 
 1 \V. Fr. v. Gleichen, Uber die Saamen-und Infusionsthierchen. Nurenb. 
 1778. 4to. tab. i. fig. 1. 
 
 u Consult especially Laz. Spallanzani, both in his Opuscoli di Jisica animate e 
 vegetabile, Milan. 1776. 8vo. vol. ii,, and in his Disscrtadoni, &c. Ibid. 1780. 
 8vo. vol. ii. 
 
OP THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 437 
 
 at present to remark, that they have no fecundating principle, 
 and much less are the germs of future offspring. (G) 
 
 529. The genital fluid gradually collected in the vesicles is 
 retained for subsequent excretion, and by its stay experiences 
 changes nearly similar to those of the bile in the gall bladder, 
 — becoming more inspissated and concentrated by the re- * 
 moval of its watery portion. x 
 
 530. For as the whole of the testis and spermatic chord 
 abounds in lymphatic vessels, which carry back to the blood 
 a fluid with a seminal impregnation and thus facilitate the 
 secretion of semen in the manner before described (477) ; so 
 the vesicuke seminales are likewise furnished with a similar 
 set of vessels, which, by absorbing the inert watery part, 
 render the remaining semen more powerful. 
 
 531. But I very much doubt whether genuine semen is 
 ever absorbed during health ; still more that it ever passes, as 
 is sometimes asserted, into the neighbouring veins ; and most 
 of all, that by this absorption, if it does occur, unseasonable 
 venereal appetites are prevented, since, if we compare the 
 phenomena of animals, procreating at particular periods, with 
 the constitution of those which are castrated, we must con- 
 clude that this absorption is rather the cause of ungovernable 
 and almost rabid lust. 
 
 532. We conceive that this end is accomplished in a very 
 different mode, by a circumstance which occurs, as far as we 
 have been able to discover, in no animal but man, — by noc- 
 
 x A paradoxical opinion was formerly entertained by some, that the semen 
 is not discharged from the vesiculaj seminales but from the vasa deferentia, and 
 that the fluid of the vesicles is not truly spermatic and derived from the testis, 
 but of quite another kind, and secreted in peculiar glands belonging to the 
 vesicles. This has gained some advocates among the moderns. J. Hunter, On 
 certain jmrts of the Animal Economy, p. 27. 
 
 J. A. Chaptal, Journal de Physique. Febr. 1787. p. 101. 
 
 But it has been refuted by Sommerring, in the Bibliotheca Medica, which I 
 edited, vol. iii. p. 87. (H) 
 
 Add the remarkable instances of men and other male animals possessed of 
 vesiculae seminales, that have discharged prolific semen after complete castration. 
 
 Consult, among others, the distinguished Elliotson in his English translation 
 of these Institutions, p, 329. 3d edit. 1820. 
 
 FI ,3 
 
438 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 turned pollutions , which we regard as a natural y excretion in- 
 tended to liberate the system from the otherwise urgent super- 
 fluous semen, more or less frequently, according to the variety 
 of temperament and constitution. z 
 
 533. The semen is never discharged pure but mixed with 
 the prostatic Jluid , which is very much of the appearance of 
 the white of egg, and has acquired its name from the organ 
 by which it is produced, — an organ of some size, of a 
 peculiar and vei’y compact texture, lying between the vesiculae 
 seminales and the bulb of the urethra, and commonly deno- 
 minated prostate gland. The passages for the course of this 
 fluid are not well known, unless perhaps they communicate 
 with the sinus of the seminal caruncle, the orifice of which 
 opens into the urethra 3 between the two mouths (525) of the 
 seminal vesicles. 
 
 534. The male urethra is the common outlet of three dif- 
 ferent fluids, — the urine, semen, and prostatic liquor. It is 
 lined with mucus which proceeds from numerous sinuses dis- 
 persed along the canal. b We find it surrounded by a spongy 
 texture, upon which lie two other spongy bodies c of much 
 greater thickness, constituting the major part of the penis. 
 
 y Ch. R. Jaenisch, De pollutione noctuma. Gotting. 1795. 4to. 
 
 Aug. Gotti. Richter, SpecieUe Tlierapie, vol. iv. p. 552. sq. 
 
 C. W. Hufeland, Abhandl. der ITimigl. Akademie der irissensch. in Berlin, 
 1819. p. 170. 
 
 y I willingly grant that barbarous nations, of a phlegmatic temperament and 
 copulating promiscuously, do not require this excretion ; but I must contend that 
 it is a perfectly natural relief in a young man, single, sanguineous, full of juices, 
 with a strong imagination, and living high, although enjoying the completest 
 health. 
 
 a Morgagni, Adversar. Anat. iv. fig. 1, 2. 
 i b J. Ladmiral, Effigies penis humani. LB. 1741. 4to. 
 
 c Ruysch, Observat. anat. Chirurg. Centur. p. 99. fig. 75 — 82. 
 
 And his Ep. problemat. xv. fig. 2. 4. 6, 7. 
 
 T. H. Thaut, De virgee virilis statu sano el morboso. Wirceb. 1808. 4to. 
 fig. 1. 
 
 The distinguished Home has clearly and faithfully displayed this truly cellular 
 or spongy texture of the cavernous bodies of the penis, that was lately in general 
 confounded with the blood-vessels in which it abounds. Phil. Trans. 1S20. 
 P. ii. p. 183. sq. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 439 
 
 The penis is terminated anteriorly by the glans — a continu- 
 ation of the spongy texture, and usually covered by a delicate 
 and very moveable skin, which is destitute of fat, and, at the 
 corona of the glans, forms the preputium, and freely moves 
 over the gland, nearly as the eyelids do over the eyeball. The 
 internal duplicature of the preputium, changing its appear- 
 ance, is reflected over the glans, like the albuginea of the eye, 
 and is beset at the corona with many Littrian d glands, simi- 
 lar to the Meibomian of the eyelids and secreting a peculiar 
 smegma, 0 
 
 535. The virile organ, thus constructed, possesses the 
 power of erection , — of becoming swollen and stiff and chang- 
 ing its situation, from the impetuous congestion and effusion f 
 of blood into its corpora cavernosa either by corporeal or 
 mental stimulus, and of detumifying and collapsing after the 
 return of the blood. s (I) 
 
 536. When in a flaccid state, it is considerably bent at its 
 origin from the neck of the bladder, 11 and thus perfectly 
 adapted for the discharge of the urine, but quite unfit for the 
 
 d Morgagni, Aversar. Anal. 1 . tab. iv. fig. 4. i. k. 
 
 e This smegma in young men, especially when they are heated, is well known 
 to accumulate readily and form an acrimonious caseous coagulum. The in- 
 habitants of warm climates are particularly subject to this inconvenience, and the 
 chief use of circumcision appears to be the prevention of this accumulation. We 
 know that for this reason Christians, in the scorching climate of Senegambia, 
 occasionally cut off the preputium, and that uncircumcised Europeans residing 
 in the east frequently suffer great inconvenience. Guido de Cauliaco, the ce- 
 lebrated restorer of surgery in his day, who flourished in the middle of the four- 
 teenth century, said that circumcision was useful to many besides Jews and 
 Saracens, “ Because there is no accumulation of sordes at the root of the gland, 
 nor irritation of it.” Chirurg. Tr. vi. doctr. ii. p. m. 111. 
 
 f Vide Theod. G. Aug. Rooze, Pkysiologische Untersuckungen. Braunsv. 
 1796. 8vo. p. 17. 
 
 6 A phenomenon worthy of remark, even from the light which it promises to 
 throw on this function in general, is the erection so frequently observed in those 
 who are executed, especially if strangled. 
 
 Consult, besides Garmann’s compiled farrago (de Miraculis Mortuorum, 
 I. xi. 7 sq.) 
 
 Morgagni, De sed. et caus. morb. xix. 1 9 sq. (K) 
 
 11 See Camper, Demonstration, anat. pathologic. L. ii. tab. iii. fig. 1. 
 
 F V 4 
 
440 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 emission of semen, 1 because the beginning of the urethra 
 then forms too acute an angle with the openings of the seminal 
 vesicles. 
 
 537. When the penis swells from desire, the prostatic fluid 
 generally flows first, and indeed is often discharged pure, 
 though rarely together with the urine : its principal use is to be 
 emitted with the semen and by its albuminous lubricity to 
 correct the viscidity and promote the emission of this secretion. 
 
 538. The emission of semen is excited by its abundance in 
 the vesicles and by sexual instinct ; it is effected by the violent 
 tentigo which obstructs the course of the urine, and, as it were, 
 throws the way open for the semen ; by a kind of spasmodic 
 contraction of the vesiculag seminales ; by a convulsion of the 
 levatores ani k and of the accelerators urinae ; and by a suc- 
 cussion of the whole system, short and less violent, though 
 almost of an epileptic nature and followed by depression of 
 strength. 1 (L) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Instances of more than two testes are extreme^ rare. 
 Three, four, and even five, are said to have existed, and several 
 authors declare that they themselves have seen three in individuals 
 many of whose families were equally well provided. m Unless 
 such cases are related by an experienced medical man from his 
 own observation, they deserve no credit, and even then must be 
 regarded with suspicion, if anatomical examination or the peculiar 
 pain of pressure have not proved the additional bodies to be ana- 
 logous to testes no less in structure than in form and situation. The 
 
 ‘ Gysb. Beudt, De fabrica et usu viscerum uropoielicorum. LB. 1774. 4to. 
 reprinted in Haller’s Collection of Anatomical Disputations, t. iii. tab. iii. 
 k Carpus in Mundinum, p. 190 b and 310. 
 
 1 For which reason Zeno, the father of the Stoic philosophy, called the loss of 
 semen the loss of part of the animating principle. (M) 
 
 m Dionis, V Anatomie des corps hu mains. Demonstration quatrieme. Sect.l. 
 Fernelius, Forestus, De Graaf, Borelli, &c. &c. Sbenkius has collected several 
 examples. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 441 
 
 late eccentric Dr. Mounsey, who ordered that his body should 
 either be dissected by one of his friends or thrown into the 
 Thames, was found to have in his scrotum a small steatom, which 
 during life might have given the appearance of three testes. 
 
 The writers of such wonderful cases completely disagree in 
 their account of the powers of these triorchides, tetrorchides, 
 and pentorchides, some asserting them to be prodigious, others 
 greatly below those of ordinary men. 
 
 One testis is commonly larger than the other, and, the right 
 spermatic chord being for the most part shorter than the left, the 
 right testis is generally the higher. 
 
 (B) The original situation of the testes accounts for the cir- 
 cumstance of their blood-vessels arising from the loins, as John 
 Hunter remarked; for parts generally derive their vessels from 
 the nearest source. The same applies to their nerves. Hence, 
 too, the right spermatic artery frequently springs from the 
 right renal as being nearer than the aorta, and the left sper- 
 matic vein frequently pours its blood into the left renal as being 
 nearer than the inferior vena cava. 
 
 The original situation of the testes accounts also for the cir- 
 cumstance of the vas deferens arising from the lower part of the 
 epididymis and bending upwards ; in the foetus this is not the 
 case, but it is the necessary consequence of the subsequent 
 change in the situation of the testes . 11 
 
 (C) The descent of the testes into the scrotum must, I appre- 
 hend, be owing to the growth of their nerves and vessels, and to 
 the direction afforded by the contraction of the gubernaculum ; 
 the growth of the former, and therefore the whole process, is 
 accounted for in the minds of some by the contraction of the 
 latter . 0 Mr. Hunter’s original account of the gubernaculum 
 may not be unacceptable. “ At this time of life, the testis is 
 connected in a very particular manner with the parietes of the 
 abdomen, at that place where, in adult bodies, the spermatic ves- 
 sels pass out, and likewise with the scrotum. This connection is 
 by means of a substance which runs down from the lower end of 
 
 n J. Hunter, A description of the situation of the testis in the foetus, with its 
 descent into the scrotum, in his Observations on certain Parts of the Animal Economy, 
 
 p. 13. 
 
 8 Bichat, Anatomie descriptive, t. ii. p. 234. 
 
442 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 the testis to the scrotum, and which at present I shall call the 
 ligament or gubernaculum testis, because it connects the testis 
 with the scrotum, and seems to direct its course through the rings 
 of the abdominal muscles. It is of a pyramidal form ; its large 
 bulbous head is upwards, and fixed to the lower end of the testis 
 and epididymis, and its lower and slender extremity is lost in the 
 cellular membrane of the scrotum. The upper part of this liga- 
 ment is within the abdomen, before the psoas, reaching from the 
 testis to the groin, or to where the testicle is to pass out of the 
 abdomen; whence the ligament runs down into the scrotum, pre- 
 cisely in the same manner as the spermatic vessels pass down in 
 adult bodies, and is there lost. That part of the ligamentum 
 testis, which is within the abdomen, is covered by the peritonaeum 
 all round, except at its posterior part, which is contiguous to the 
 psoas, and connected with it by the reflected peritonaeum and by 
 the cellular membrane. It is hard to say what is the structure or 
 composition of this ligament : it is certainly vascular and fibrous, 
 and the fibres run in the direction of the ligament itself, which is 
 covered by the fibres of the cremaster or musculus testis, placed 
 immediately behind the peritonaeum. This circumstance is not 
 easily ascertained in the human subject; but is very evident in 
 others, more especially in those whose testicles remain in the 
 cavity of the abdomen after the animal is full grown.” p 
 
 (D) We know that the skin of every part relaxes by heat and 
 contracts by cold, although it be not muscular : in the cold fit of 
 an ague, it is constricted throughout so forcibly as to have 
 acquired, during this state, the appellation of Cutis Anserina. 
 The scrotum, being much more lax than any other portion of the 
 skin, experiences these effects to the greatest extent. What is 
 termed dartos is merely thick cellular membrane. 
 
 (E) A coat, exterior to the rest, is described by M. Roux, 
 and termed Envelope Jibreuse. It is an elongated sac, large below 
 to contain the testis and epididymis, and narrow above, affording 
 a sheath to the chord. It vanishes among the cellular membrane 
 of the ring. q M. Roux considers this coat as having been known 
 to Haller, from the following passage in Haller’s account of the 
 testicle. “ Ita fit ut interiores cavese duae sunt; superior vasculis 
 
 p l.c. p. 6. 
 
 q Bichat’s Anat. Descrip, t. v. p. 176. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 443 
 
 spermatids circumjecta; inferior testi propria.” But Haller con- 
 tinues thus : “ Ita ssepe se habet, ut etiam aquae vis aut in partem 
 testi propriam solam, intacta parte vasculosi funiculi, aut in istam 
 solam, intacta testis vagina, effundatur, neque flatus impulsus de ea 
 vaginali ad istam commeet.” r He appears therefore to describe 
 merely the tunicae vaginales of the chord and testis. 
 
 (F) The cremaster deserves a little attention. This muscle 
 arises from the superior anterior spinous process of the ileum, 
 from the transversalis abdominis, the internal surface of the Fal- 
 lopian ligament and neighbouring parts, and, passing through the 
 ring, spreads upon the chord, vanishing upon the beginning of 
 the testicle. Its office is evidently to support the testicle, and to 
 draw it upwards against the groin during procreation. In those 
 animals whose testes, instead of hanging in the scrotum, lie in the 
 perinaeum, in the groin, or in the abdomen, this muscle is, as 
 might be expected, much less considerable. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that the human testes do not always 
 descend into the scrotum, but occasionally remain, one or both, 
 in the groin or abdomen. Individuals so circumstanced were 
 called Kpvipopx or testicondi, by the ancients. A ridgil is a bull 
 in which one only has descended. In these instances the genera- 
 tive powers are not impaired ; — a testicle which has not descended 
 is prevented by the pressure of the neighbouring parts from fully 
 evolving itself, but such persons, it is certain, “ militant' non sine 
 gloria .” 
 
 The generative powers indeed are not impaired by the removal 
 of one testis : the Hottentots have been said frequently to deprive 
 their sons of one on arriving at eight years of age, s from the 
 belief that monorchs are swift runners. We read in Varro, that, 
 if a bull is admitted to a cow immediately after both testes are 
 removed, impregnation takes place, — “ Exemptis testiculis, si 
 statim admiseris, concipere (vaccas).” 1 This at least is certain, 
 that some men have perfectly performed the act of copulation, 
 though unfruitfully, after castration. u Many such accounts are 
 suspicious, but in a case mentioned by Sir Astley Cooper in his 
 
 r Elementa Physiologies, t. vii. p. 420. 
 
 6 Wilh. ten Rhyne, I)e promontor. Cap. bon. spei. 22. pag. m. 64, and others 
 quoted by Schurig, Spermatologia, p. 60. Sparmann informs us that this custom 
 no longer prevails. 
 
 1 De Re Ruslica. ii. 5. 
 
 u See examples collected by Schurig, Spermatologia, p. 395. 
 
444 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 surgical lectures as perfectly unquestionable, the complete power 
 of coition positively remained some time after the removal of both 
 organs by that surgeon, and gradually diminished. 
 
 The notion that each testicle, or each ovarium, is destined for 
 the procreation of but one sex, is too nonsensical. 
 
 (G) Lewis Hamme, a young German, discovered the seminal 
 animalcules, and shewed them to Leeuwenhoeck ; and the saga- 
 cious Dutchman, catching eagerly at the discovery, published an 
 account of them illustrated by plates. Hartzoeker, ambitious of 
 the honour of the discovery, wrote upon the subject the following 
 year, and asserted that he had seen the animalcules three years 
 before they were observed by Hamme. The subject, being the 
 very summit of filthiness, excited the earnest attention of all 
 Europe. Physiologists, naturalists, Popish priests, painters, opti- 
 cians, and booksellers, all eagerly joined in the pursuit of the 
 seminal animalcules, and the lascivious Charles the Second of 
 England commanded them to be presented to him swimming 
 and frisking in their native fluid. Some of the curious could not 
 find them. Others not only found them, hut ascertained their 
 length was T ooVoo °f an inch, their bulk such as to admit the 
 existence of 216,000 in a sphere whose diameter was the breadth 
 of a hair, and their rate of travelling nine inches in an hour. 
 They saw them too in the semen of all animals, and, what is 
 remarkable, of nearly the same size and shape in the semen 
 of the largest and of the smallest, — in the semen of the sprat and 
 of the whale ; they could distinguish the male from the female ; 
 in the semen of a ram they beheld them moving forwards in a 
 troop with great gravity like a flock of sheep ; and in the human 
 semen, Dalenpatius actually saw one indignantly burst its wormy 
 skin and issue forth a perfectly formed human being. The little 
 creatures would swim in shoals towards a given point, turn back, 
 separate, meet again, move on singly, jump out, and dive again, 
 spin round, and perform various other feats, proving themselves, 
 if not the most delicate, at least the drollest, beings that ever 
 engaged the attention of philosophers. Their strength of con- 
 stitution being an important object of enquiry, they gave proofs 
 of their vigour not only by surviving their rough passage through 
 the urethra, three, four, and seven daj'S, but by impregnating a 
 female at the end of this time, and, on being removed from her, 
 by impregnating even a second. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 445 
 
 Surely never was so much folly and bestiality before committed 
 under the name of philosophy. 
 
 Abr. Kauw, Boerhaave, Maupertuis, Lieutaud, Ledermuller, 
 Monro Secundus, Nicolas, Haller, and, indeed, nearly all the phi- 
 losophers of Europe, were satisfied of the existence of the 
 animalcules. Buffon and his followers, prejudiced in favour of an 
 hypothesis, although they did not deny that the semen contained 
 innumerable rapidly moving particles, contended that these were 
 not animalcules, but organic particles, and Linnaeus imagined 
 them to be inert molecules thrown into agitation by the warmth 
 of the fluid. Their reality, however, might be regarded as esta- 
 blished. But, finally, to determine the question, and accurately 
 to ascertain every circumstance relating to them, .the celebrated 
 Spallanzani began a long course of observations and experiments 
 about the middle of the last century, unbiassed in favour of any 
 opinion, and endeavouring to forget entirely all that had been 
 written upon the subject. The human semen the worthy Abbe 
 assures us that he procured from dead bodies immediately after 
 dissolution; but that of brutes was obtained either after death or 
 during life. 
 
 He found in the former innumerable animalcules with an oval 
 body and a tail, or appendix, tapering to a point. This appendix, 
 by moving from side to side, propelled them forwards. They were 
 in constant motion in every direction. In about twenty-three 
 minutes their movements became more languid, and in two or 
 three hours they generally died, sinking to the bottom of the 
 fluid, with their appendices extended. The duration of their 
 life, however, depended much upon the temperature of the 
 weather; at —2° (Reaumur) they died in three-quarters of 
 an hour ; while at 7° they lived two hours; and at 12£°, three 
 hours and three-quarters. If the cold was not too intense, they 
 recovered upon the temperature being raised ; when only — 3° 
 or — 4 they recovered after a lethargy of fourteen hours and 
 upwards ; and, according to the less intensity of the cold, they 
 might be made to pass from the torpid to the active state more 
 frequently. They were destroyed by river, ice, snow, and rain- 
 water ; by sulphur, tobacco, camphor, and electricity. Even the 
 air was injurious to them ; — in close vessels their life was pro- 
 longed to some days, and their movements were not constant 
 and hurried. They were of various sizes and perfectly distinct 
 from all species of animalcules found in vegetable infusions, &c. 
 
446 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 The seminal animalcules of different kinds of animals had gene- 
 rally each some peculiarity. In short, Spallanzani completely 
 confirmed the principal observations of Leeuwenhoeck, and satis- 
 factorily explained the sources of the inaccuracies of other 
 enquirers.* 
 
 Although these beings are most numerous in the semen, he 
 detected them occasionally in other fluids ; — in the mesenteric 
 blood of female frogs and salamanders, and in the blood of a 
 tadpole and a calf, y 
 
 According to Vauquelin’s analysis of the semen, 100 parts 
 contain, 
 
 Of Water . . . . • 90 
 
 Mucilage .... 6 
 
 Phosphate of lime . . 3 
 
 Soda ... .1 
 
 In some days it putrefies and becomes covered with the byssus 
 septica. 2 
 
 (H) Mr. Hunter’s arguments are the following: — 1. “The 
 semen, first discharged from the living body, is of a blueish 
 white colour, in consistence like cream, and similar to what is 
 found in the vasa deferentia after death ; while that which fol- 
 lows is somewhat like the common mucus of the nose, but less 
 viscid. The semen becomes more fluid upon exposure to the 
 air, particularly that first thrown out; which is the very reverse 
 of what happens to secretions in general. The smell of the 
 semen is mawkish and unpleasant, exactly resembling that of 
 the farina of a Spanish chesnut : and to the taste, though at first 
 insipid, it has so much pungency, as, after some little time, to 
 
 * Opuscoli di Fisica animate e vegetabile, vol. ii. Prevost and Dumas have lately 
 confirmed the observations of Spallanzani as to the semen of various animals. 
 But for obvious reasons, they say, they determined from the first not to search for 
 the animalcules in man, and recommend this examination to the anatomists of 
 Paris, where there are so many executions. Annates des Sciences FTaturelles, 
 t. i. and ii. 
 
 y Creatures of an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, and of the same 
 general shape as the seminal animalcules, inhabit the mesenteric arteries of asses, 
 horses, &c. Mr. Hodgson found them in seven asses out of nine. (A Treatise 
 on the the Diseases of Arteries and Veins, &c.) To increase the wonder, the intes- 
 tines of the human embryo have been found containing worms. Goeze, Versuch 
 einer naturgescliichte der Fingeweidwiirmer. 
 
 z Annates de Chimie, t. x. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 447 
 
 stimulate and excite a degree of heat in the mouth. But the 
 fluid contained in these vesiculae in a dead body, is of a brownish 
 colour, and often varies in consistence in different parts of the 
 bag, as if not well mixed. Its’ smell does not resemble that of 
 the semen, neither does it become more fluid by being exposed 
 to the air.” On opening two men immediately after death, the 
 contents of the vesiculae were of a lighter colour than he usually 
 found them in persons who had been some time dead, and in one 
 of the instances so fluid as to run out upon cutting the vesiculae, 
 but they were similar to the semen neither in colour nor smell. 
 An examination of the vesiculae of the horse, boar, rat, beaver, 
 and guinea-pig, afforded the same results. In the last animal, 
 the contents near the fundus of the vesiculae were viscid, and 
 gradually firmer, till, near the opening into the urethra, they 
 were as solid as common cheese, and no such substance could 
 be detected in the vagina of the female after her union with the 
 male. 2. During lasciviousness, the testicles swell, and they 
 become painful if the semen is not discharged ; in coition, it 
 may be added, they are drawn forcibly by the cremaster against 
 the pubes, as if to assist the discharge of their contents at the 
 period of emission. 3. In the old and debilitated, the vesiculae 
 are as full as in the young and vigorous. 4. Nay, in four men 
 who had each lost a testicle, the vesicula on one side was equally 
 full as on the other, although the men had survived the operation a 
 considerable length of time. The same was discovered in two 
 cases, where, by mal-formation, one testicle had no communica- 
 tion with the corresponding vesicle. In the gelding and the 
 stallion their contents are similar and nearly equal in quantity. 
 The vas deferens has no communication in some animals with 
 the vesiculae, and in others, as the horse, where a communi- 
 cation does exist, the common duct is not of sufficient length to 
 permit the regurgitation of the semen into the vesiculae. 4. Some 
 animals, especially among the carnivora, have no vesiculae semi- 
 nales, yet in their copulation they differ not from those which 
 have. M. Richerand indeed asserts, that animals destitute of 
 these organs are longer in coition than others, from having no 
 reservoir for an accumulation of semen. a But he is mistaken. 
 For on inspecting Cuvier’s account of animals without and with 
 
 a Elemensde Physiologie, c. x. 
 
448 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 vesiculse, no connection whatever appears between their presence 
 or absence and the length of copulation. 
 
 In opposition to these arguments it is urged, that a fluid, gently- 
 propelled along the human vas deferens, does not pass into the 
 urethra, but regurgitates into the vesiculaA But, granting this 
 true, we have no proof that the secretion of the testes leaves the 
 vasa deferentia except during emission, when this regurgitation is 
 impossible. It may also be contended that, in many men, the act 
 of straining at the water-closet often instantly discharges from the 
 urethra, without the least sensation, a large quantity of a fluid, 
 which is exactly similar, in colour, consistence, and odour, to that 
 of a nocturnal emission. The compression cannot squeeze this 
 fluid from the testes. If a partisan of Mr. Hunter should say that 
 the extremities of the vasa deferentia afford it, we may reply to him 
 that Mr. Hunter found them full of the same kind of fluid as the 
 vesiculse. I believe, however, that we are unacquainted with the 
 pure secretion of the testes, and that far the greatest portion of an 
 emission is secreted by the vesiculse seminales and prostate gland; 
 and that therefore some persons may, by forcing down, occasion 
 a discharge apparently identical with an emission, though not 
 containing a particle of matter furnished by the testes. The fact, 
 already mentioned, of emission occurring for a long period after 
 the removal of both testes, — till the removal had much deranged 
 the whole genital system, forcibly corroborates this idea. The dif- 
 ference discovered by Mr. Hunter between the fluid found in the 
 human vesiculse seminales after death and that of an emission, is 
 nothing more than might be expected if we were certain that they 
 were the same , 0 and as the matter squeezed out by some in strain- 
 ing exactly resembles that of a regular emission, this fact alone 
 would be fatal to Mr. Hunter’s opinion, in regard to man, unless 
 we relinquish the notion of the fluid of human emission being 
 chiefly true semen from the testes. 
 
 In different species of brutes the fluid of emission may be fur- 
 nished in different proportions from the testes, vesiculse, and pros- 
 tate, and the effects of pressure and seminal debility in them are 
 unknown. Additional vesiculse seminales are sometimes seen open- 
 
 b Winslow, Ruysch, Duverney and others, quoted by Haller. 
 
 c In the two men opened by J. Hunter soon after death, the vesicular fluid 
 was actually much less brown than usual. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 449 
 
 ing separately. Cuvier says, that the muscular part of the urethra 
 in brutes is full of semen at rutting time, so that it may pass into 
 the additional vesiculse. 
 
 (I) Accumulation of blood it is supposed may be produced in 
 three ways. 1. By a mechanical impediment to its return: but 
 there is no reason whatever to ascribe ordinary erection to com- 
 pression. 2. By an increased flow of blood to a part, so that the 
 vessels receive it faster than they convey it away. Here the 
 vessels of the part itself in which the accumulation exists, are said 
 bjr some to act more violently than usual ; by others, the neigh- 
 bouring larger vessels which supply these : their frequency of 
 action, however, is not increased, but always remains correspond- 
 ent with that of the heart. Were the vessels of the part itself to 
 act more violently than usual, that is to say, to contract to a 
 smaller and relax to a greater dimension than usual, (though an 
 ordinary alternate contraction and relaxation are hypothetical) 
 more blood would indeed subsist in them during their relaxation, 
 but less than usual would subsist in them during their contraction, 
 and there could be no accumulation, no inflammation. If the 
 neighbouring large vessels act more violently than usual, (though 
 their ordinary alternate contraction and relaxation are also hypo- 
 thetical) they may be conceived to produce an accumulation of 
 blood and a distention of the smaller vessels. 3. If the vessels of 
 any part become dilated and do not contract in proportion, this 
 circumstance will be sufficient to produce an accumulation, with- 
 out any necessity for supposing an increased action of the neigh- 
 bouring larger vessels. This explains inflammation : and in Bichat’s 
 Anatomie Descriptive, this explanation is- given of erection. The 
 corpora cavernosa (which always contain florid blood,) sponta- 
 neously dilate, and accumulation ensues. For this purpose it is not 
 necessary that they should be muscular, but Mr. Hunter asserts 
 their muscularity : in a horse he found them muscular to the eye, 
 and they contracted upon being stimulated. 
 
 The heart, however, as in all cases of what is called increased 
 determination of blood, lends its powerful aid by acting with aug- 
 mented force. 
 
 As to the final cause of erection, the organ, by acquiring 
 increased bulk, firmness, and sensibility, becomes adapted for 
 affording and experiencing to the utmost extent the effects of 
 friction both as exciting pleasure and as stimulating the secreting 
 
 G G 
 
450 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 vessels ; the increased length and narrowness of the urethra render 
 the emission more forcible. e 
 
 (K) If Gall is right in placing the seat of sexual desire in the 
 head, this kind of erection may be explained by supposing the 
 irritation, arising in the cerebellum from the great accumulation 
 of its blood, to produce a correspondent irritation in the organs 
 of generation : thus the epileptic paroxysm is not unfrequently 
 accompanied by an emission. Nocturnal emissions occur most 
 frequently after a person has been long in bed and supine, — the 
 cerebellum the lower part of the encephalon, if the occiput is, 
 as usually, raised by a pillow. That may, however, be explained 
 by the urine accumulating in the bladder during the continuance 
 of repose, and stimulating the generative parts connected with 
 this receptacle the more readily in the supine posture ; and this 
 view is countenanced by the large quantity of urine generally 
 made on waking after nature has been thus relieving the chaste 
 unmarried man. 
 
 (L) The discharge of semen resembles the discharge of the fluids 
 of other glands. It is excited by the abundance of the fluid, 
 by mental or local stimulus, but most by mechanical irritation of the 
 extremity of the excretory duct, for in such a point of view must be 
 regarded the friction of the glans penis in copulation. The fluid is 
 accumulated in the bulb of the urethra, since it must be accumu- 
 lated somewhere to be emitted so copiously, and no other use can 
 be assigned to the bulb ; and if the vesiculae do not receive it, no 
 other part than the bulb can; besides, it is upon the bulb that the 
 muscular contraction of the venereal paroxysm first acts. “ The 
 semen acting as a stimulus to the cavity of the bulb of the urethra, 
 the muscles of that part of the canal are thrown into action, the 
 fibres nearest the bladder probably act first, and those more 
 forward in quick succession, and the semen is projected with 
 some force. The blood in the bulb of the urethra is by the same 
 action squeezed forward, but requiring a greater impulse to propel 
 it, is rather later than the semen, on which it presses from behind; 
 
 * Mr. Shaw pointed out a venous network running along the inside of the 
 urethra, but accumulated at what is called the membranous part, connected with 
 the corpus spongiosum, and forming two columns with a groove in the middle. 
 This must principally assist in narrowing the canal during erection, and, as the 
 columns unite before the prostate, must also contribute to prevent the semen 
 from moving towards the bladder, or the urine from flowing from the bladder. 
 Med. C/iir. Trans, vol. x. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 
 
 451 
 
 the corpus spongiosum being full of blood, acts almost as quick 
 as undulation, in which it is assisted by the corresponding con- 
 striction of the urethra, and the semen is hurried along with a 
 considerable velocity.” f 
 
 (M) Zeno’s practice was conformable to his principles. He is 
 recorded to have embraced his wife but once in his life, and then 
 out of mere politeness. 
 
 Zenobia, the celebrated Queen of Palmyra and the East, was 
 as extraordinary a wife. She never admitted her husband’s em- 
 braces but for the sake of posterity, and, if her wishes were baffled, 
 she reiterated the experiment in the ensuing month, s 
 
 Epicurus, Democritus, &c. were nearly of the same opinion with 
 Zeno, and the Athletse, that their strength might be unimpaired, 
 never married. The Rabbies, in their anxiety to preserve their 
 nation, are said to have ordered, with the view of preventing the 
 loss of vigour, that a peasant should indulge but once a week, a 
 merchant but once a month, a sailor but twice a year, and a 
 studious man but once in two years. Moses forbad indulgence 
 before battle. Many plants die as soon as they have flowered : 
 stags and fish are emaciated after the sexual season, and the latter 
 are no longer fit to eat : while the prevention of fructification by 
 the removal of the sexual organs renders annual plants biennial and 
 the latter triennial. 
 
 f Hunter, Observations on the glands situated between the rectum and bladder, 
 called vesiculce seminalcs , l.c. 45. 
 
 s Augustan Histo?y, quoted by Gibbon, Decline and Fall , cj c. vol, ii. p.33. 
 
 
SECT. XXXVII. 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION OF WOMAN IN GENERAL. 
 
 539. As the male organs are fitted for giving, so the 
 female organs are fitted for receiving, and are correspondently 
 opposite to the former. In some parts, the organs of both 
 sexes are very analogous to each other in structure. Thus 
 the clitoris, lying under the pubes in the superior commissure 
 of the labia, agrees in many respects with the penis of the 
 male, although distinct from the urethra and therefore im- 
 perforate, and extremely small in well-formed women. It is 
 recorded to have been, in some adult females, of as compara- 
 tively large size as we stated it usually to be in the foetus, 
 (492) and these instances have probably given rise to most of 
 the idle stories of hermaphrodites. a Like the penis, it has 
 its corpora cavernosa, is capable of erection, is covered with a 
 prepuce, and secretes a smegma not dissimilar from the Lit- 
 trian. (525) b 
 
 540. From the clitoris the nymphce descend, also occasion- 
 ally of great size, c which has been the source of other idle 
 
 a Vide Halier, Comment. Soc. Scient. Golling . vol.i. p.12. sqq. 
 
 And among the moderns, D. Clarke in Sir Everavd Home, Phil. Trans. 
 1799. p- 163. 
 
 b In warm climates it too is liable to accumulation and acrimony, and has hence 
 been the occasion of the custom of female circumcision in many hot parts of 
 Africa and Asia. Carst. Niebuhr has given a view, executed to the life, of the 
 genitals of a circumcised Arabian female, eighteen years of age, whom he himself 
 was singularly fortunate in examining during his oriental tour. Beschrsib. von 
 Ardbien , p. 77. sq. 
 
 And Osiander, Denkwiirdigkeitenf 'dr die Heilkunde, &c. vol.ii. tab.vi. fig. 1. A) 
 c Their number likewise has occasionally varied. Vide Neubauer, I)e triplici 
 nympharum ordine. Jence. 1774. 4to. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 453 
 
 tales, d and, like the clitoi’is, possessing a high degree of sen- 
 sibility. They appear in some measure to direct the stream 
 of urine, because the opening of the urethra , which is very 
 short in females, lies under their commencement ; and it is 
 frequently ciliated, as it were, with small papillary folds. e 
 
 541. Under the termination of the urethra lies the opening 
 of the vagina , surrounded by various kinds of cryptas, v.c. the 
 lacunas urethericae of De Graaf, f and the orifices of the 
 prostates, as they are improperly termed, of Casp. Bartholin, s 
 which secrete an unctuous mucus. h 
 
 542. Across the opening of the vagina, the Hymen 1 is 
 extended, — a membrane generally circular, and found, as 
 far as I know, in the human subject only, of this form and 
 in this situation. k 
 
 The remains of the lacerated hymen become the carunculce 
 myrtiformes, which are of no regular number, and are infalli- 
 ble signs of the loss of virginity. (C) 
 
 543. The vagina , ascending between the urinary bladder 
 
 d I allude to the singular ventral skin of the Hottentot women. Wilh. ten. 
 Rhyne, from personal inspection long ago, considered it as enormous pendulous 
 nymphse. De promontorio b. spei. p. 33. 
 
 I have treated this point at large in my work, De Gen. Hum. Var. Mat. 242. 
 ed. 3. (B) 
 
 Steller relates something similar in regard to the Kamtschatkan women. 
 Beschreib. v. d. Lande JCamtschatka, p.300. 
 
 e I find the opening of the urethra surrounded by very beautiful cutaneous 
 cilia of this kind, in a remarkable specimen of the genitals of a woman upwards 
 of eighty years of age. The hymen is entire, and all the other parts most per- 
 fectly, and, as it were, elaborately, formed. They are preserved in my museum, 
 and my friend and colleague, Osiander, has represented them in a plate. 1. c. 
 tab. v. 
 
 f See J. James Huber’s plates of the uterus, among those of Haller, fasc. I. 
 tab. ii. fig.l. g. 
 
 s Ibid. fig. 1. b. b. — fig. S. d. 
 
 II Such also are the two foramina, very frequently observed in living women by 
 J. Dryander. at the extremity of the vagina. Nic. Massa, Epist. Medicinal, t. i. 
 page 123. b. 
 
 * John Wm. Tolberg, De Varietate Hymenum. Hal. 1791. 4to. 
 
 Osiander, l.c. tab. i. — vii. 
 
 fc Handbucli der vergleich, Anat. p.472. respecting parts somewhat analogous in 
 some brute females, see the distinguished Duverney, Mem. presentees, &c. phy- 
 sical class, t. ii. p.89. 
 
 G G 3 
 
454 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 and rectum, consists of a very vascular cellular parenchyma, 
 is surrounded inferiorly by the constrictor cunni , 1 and lined 
 internally with a very soft coat, which is marked by two 
 beautiful columns of rugae, m — an anterior and posterior, n 
 pouring forth a mucus into its cavity. 
 
 544. Upon the superior part of the vagina rests the uterus, 
 suspended on either side by its broad ligaments. 
 
 Its cylindrical cervix ° is embraced by the vagina, and per- 
 forated by a narrow canal, which, like the vagina, is marked 
 by rugae denominated the arbor vitae, and is generally lined 
 with a viscid mucus at each opening, but particularly at the 
 superior or internal. 
 
 545. The substance of the uterus is peculiar, —a very 
 dense and compact parenchyma p abounding in blood-vessels, 
 which run in a curious serpentine direction, q and the veins 
 are destitute of valves. It has also on its external surface a 
 supply of lymphatics, r and of nerves, s which occasion its 
 remarkable sympathy with other parts. 
 
 546. The uterus is covered externally with peritonaeum ; 
 its internal cavity is small, and lined, especially at the fundus, 
 with a soft and very delicate spongy membrane, which is 
 composed, according to some, (92) of colourless arteries and 
 veins, (92) and, 1 according to others, of lymphatics. u 
 
 547. With respect to its muscularity, asserted by some, x 
 
 I Eustachius, tab. xiv. fig. i. XX. 
 
 Santorini, Tab. Posth. xvii. 1. 1. 
 
 m Huber, De Vagina Uteri structura rugosa, necnon dc Hymene. Getting. 
 1742. 4to. 
 
 ” Vide Haller, leones Anat. fasc. ii. tab. vi. fig. 1. 2. 
 
 ° Roederer, leones Uteri Humani, tab. vii. fig. 2. 3. 4. 
 
 II J. Gottfr. Weisse ( Prjcs. Rud. Boehmer) De Structura Uteri non musculosa , 
 sed celluloso vasculosa. Vitemb. 1784. 4to. 
 
 I. G. Waiter, Was ist Geburtskiilfe. Berlin, ISOS, 8vo. p.54. 
 
 q Id. De Morbis Peritoneal, tab. i. ii. 
 
 r Mascagni, tab. xiv. 
 
 s Walter, Tab. JUerv . Thorac. et Abdom. tab. I. 
 
 J. F. Osiander, Commentalio preemio liegio ornata,qua edisseritur uterum nervos 
 liabere. Gott. 1808. 4to. 
 
 I Ferrein, Memoires de V Acad, des Sc. de Paris, 1741. p,375. 
 
 II Mascagni, 1. c. page 4. 
 
 x See, for instance, Sue, Mem. presentes, vol. v. 
 
 L. Calza, Alii dell' Acad, di Padova, t. i. ii. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 455 
 
 and denied by others, y I may remark that I have never 
 yet discovered a true muscular fibre in any human uterus 
 which I have dissected, whether impregnated or unim- 
 pregnated, recent or prepared ; but it must be allowed by 
 those who maintain the muscularity of the uterus, that the 
 fibres, which they call muscular, have qualities very different 
 from those of all others in the system, especially since they 
 themselves entertain doubts of the existence of nerves in the 
 substance of the uterus, without which, one cannot imagine a 
 true muscle. (302) I am daily more convinced that the 
 uterus has no true irratibility, (301) but, if any part of the 
 body has, a vita propria, (42) perfectly correspondent with the 
 peculiar motions and functions of the uterus, which are not 
 referable to any properties common to the similar parts, 
 (39-41) and which appeared to the ancient physicians and 
 philosophers so peculiar, that the uterus was by them deno- 
 minated an animal within an animal. z (D) 
 
 548. From the angles of the roof or fundus of the uterus 
 arise on each side the Fallopian lubes a — narrow and tortuous 
 canals, running in the upper part of the duplicature of the 
 broad ligaments, similar in texture to the vagina, except that 
 they are internally destitute of rugae, and lined by a very soft 
 and delicate spongy substance. 
 
 549. The extremity which opens into the abdomen is not 
 only larger than that which opens into the uterus, but is sur- 
 rounded by laciniated and, as it were, digitated Jimbrice, pe- 
 culiar and elegant in structure, that are probably of great 
 importance in conception, since they appear to become turgid, 
 as well as the tubes themselves, during the venereal oestrum, 
 and to embrace the ovaria over which they lie. 
 
 y Consult, besides the great Malpighi, Walter, Betracht. iiber die Geburstkeile 
 des weiblichen Gesckl. p. 25. sq. 
 
 Chr. H. Ribke, iiber die Structur der Gebuhrmutter. Berl. 1793. 8vo. 
 
 But chiefly J. F. Lobstein, .Magasin Encyclopedique, redigS par Mii.lin, 
 vol. xlix. 1803, t. i. page 357. sq. 
 
 z I have spoken of these points at large in my program, Be vi vitali sanguini 
 deneganda, &c. Gott. 1795. 4to. p. 15. sq. 
 
 a Fallopius, Observ. Anat. p.197. 
 
 G G 4r 
 
 X 
 
456 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 550. The ovaria, or, as they were termed previously to the 
 time of Stenonis, b the female testes, are composed of a tough 
 and almost tendinous covering, and a dense and closely com- 
 pacted cellular substance, which contains in each ovarium 
 about fifteen ovula, called Graafian, viz. vesicles, or rather 
 drops of albuminous yellowish serum, which coagulates like 
 fine white of egg, if the recent ovarium is plunged into boiling 
 water. 
 
 55 1 . Such an albuminous drop appears to be the chief 
 fluid that the female contributes in the business of conception, 
 and it is probable, that, during the adult state, these drops 
 become mature in succession, so that they one by one force 
 their way and finally burst the covering of the ovarium and 
 are received by the abdominal extremity of the Fallopian 
 tube. 
 
 552. Besides the albuminous drop which escapes from the 
 ovarium, another fluid, improperly styled female semen by the 
 ancients, is poured forth during the venereal oestrum. Its 
 nature, source, and quantity, are enveloped in no less mystery 
 than its office. c 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) This custom is mentioned even by Strabo, (p. 2S4.) 
 JBurckhardt states, that “ the daughters of the Arabs, Ababde and 
 Djaafere, who are of Arabian origin, and inhabit the western 
 bank of the Nile, from Thebes, as high as the cataracts, and 
 generally those of all the people to the south of'Kenne and Esne, 
 as far as Sennaar, undergo circumcision, or rather excision of the 
 
 b For Stenonis was the first who asserted-that the testes of women were ana- 
 logous to an ovarium, in 1667. See his Elemcnlor. Myologies Specimen, page 
 3 17. sqq. 
 
 c Respecting this still problematical fluid see Carpus in Mundinum. P, cscviii. 
 sqq. and cccviii. 
 
 Ilarvey, T)c Generations Animal, p. 95. 
 
 De Graaf, Dc Mulierum Organic, p. 194. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 457 
 
 clitoris, at the age of from three to six years.” The healing of 
 the wound is contrived to close the genitals, excepting at one 
 point for the passage of the urine, and as the adhesions are not 
 broken through till the day before marriage, and then in the 
 presence and with the assistance of the intended bridegroom 
 himself, no doubts of the fair’s virginity can harass his breast. d 
 
 The same traveller, as well as Browne and Frank, relates that 
 many slave girls have their genitals sewn up, and, like eunuchs, 
 become more valuable on account of their unfitness for sexual con- 
 nection. “ Mihi contigit,” says he, “ nigram quandam puellam, 
 quae hanc operationem subierat, inspicere. Labia pudendi acu 
 et filo consuta mihi plane detecta fuere, foramine angusto in 
 meatum urinae relicto.” He adds, “ Apud Esne, Siout, et Cairo, 
 tonsores sunt, qui obstructionem novacula amovent, sed vulnus 
 baud raro lethale evenit.” 
 
 (B) Blumenbach states it to be a prolongation of the labia on 
 the authority of Le Vaillant, but we are now certain that W. 
 ten. Rhyne was correct, and that it is a prolongation of the 
 nymphae, e which often hang five inches below the labia. The 
 
 d Travels in Niibia, p. 332. sqq. The adhesion may prevent admission of the 
 male organ, but, like a dense hymen, does not always prevent impregnation. In the 
 Med. Chir. Trans, vol. xi., a female of the Eboe nation is mentioned as having 
 been at an advanced state of pregnancy, in Jamaica, notwithstanding that, in con- 
 sequence of this operation, performed upon her when a child, in her native land, 
 “ a cicatrix extended from the mons veneris to within an inch of the anus, 
 where there existed a small orifice barely sufficient for the introduction of a small 
 female catheter, through which orifice the urine and menses exuded. The adhe- 
 sion being removed by an incision with a sharp-pointed bistoury, the delivery was 
 easily accomplished.” A case is just mentioned by professor Rossi (Archives ge- 
 ne rales, Oct. 1827), of impregnation with no other canal than one, just sufficient 
 to admit a small sound, opening within the anus. Examples of the necessity for 
 cutting or tearing the hymen, at the time of labour, may be found in Ruysch, 
 Mauriceau, and F. Hildanus, &c. and inthe Transact, of the London Hfedical Society, 
 vol. i. P. 2. When the hymen is imperforate, impregnation obviously never oc- 
 curs, and an incision is required for the escape of the accumulated menstrual fluid. 
 See v. c. Ambrose Pare, lib. xxiii. c.xlii. or the Med. Record sand Researches. Plarvey 
 mentions a beautiful white mare belonging to the queen, in which the entrance 
 of the vagina had been fastened up by iron rings to prevent her being covered, 
 but, to the surprise of every body, she was one day found to have foaled, and her 
 offspring, in coming forth, had lacerated the vagina on one side of the rings, 
 which still retained their situation. Le Tartu Exercit. p. 55 7. Opera. 
 
 e Dr. Somerville, Med. Chir. Trans, vol. vii. 1816. Barrow, Travels into the 
 interior of Southern Africa, vol. i. 
 
458 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 same tribe of Hottentot women have another connate singularity 
 in the same quarter, common also to a variety of their sheep, and 
 the source of all the charms of the Hottentot Venus — a brilliant 
 example of denomination on the principle of lucus a non lucendo. 
 Her immense and tremulous buttocks displayed on dissection an 
 enormous accumulation of fat between the skin and muscles. f 
 
 (C) Cuvier declares he has found the hymen in very many 
 mammalia, s overthrowing the doctrine, so strenuously maintained 
 by Haller, of its existence for moral purposes. And, were it 
 confined to the human female, the various size of its aperture and 
 the various firmness of the organs, must ever leave those in uncer- 
 tainty who can on their marriage indulge in sensual doubts. We 
 read in Hume that Henry the Eighth, who certainly had his 
 share of experience, boasted his discrimination ; 11 but in the east 
 the difficulty was in ancient times proverbial . 1 The lover of 
 Italian literature knows how exquisitely natural is every description 
 of Boccacio’s, and will recollect his story of the daughter of the 
 Sultan of Babylon : — “ Essa, che con otto uomini forse diecemilia 
 volte giaciuta era, allato a lui (al Re del Garbo) si corico per 
 pulcella, e fecegliele credere, che cosi fosse : e Reina con lui 
 lietamente poi piu tempo visse : e percid si disse : Bocca basciata 
 non perde ventura, anzi rinnuova, come fa la luna.” k 
 
 (D) The muscularity of the uterus is allowed by Malpighi, 
 Morgagni, Mery, Littre, Astruc, Ruysch, Monro, Vieussens, 
 Haller, &c. 
 
 Mr. C. Bell gives the following description of the muscular 
 structure of this organ. 
 
 “ The muscularity of the uterus is proved by direct ocular 
 demonstation of the fibres in dissection, by the thickness of the 
 fibres corresponding with their degree of contraction, by the 
 visible action of the human uterus during life, by the resemblance 
 of the laws of its contraction, (as felt and as perceived in its 
 consequences) to those which govern the contraction of other 
 hollow viscera, and lastly, by the vermicular and intestinal 
 motions of the uterus, as seen in experiments upon brutes.’' 
 
 f Cuvier, Memoires du Museum, t. iii. p.269. 
 s Leq. d' Anat. comp. t.v. p. 131-2. 
 h History of England, ch, xxxii. 
 
 1 Proverbs, xxx. 19. 
 
 Decamcrone. Giornata seconda. Novella vii. 
 
OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 459 
 
 “ The most curious and obviously useful part of the muscular 
 substance of the uterus has been overlooked ; I mean the mus- 
 cular layer of fibres which covers the upper segment of the 
 gravid uterus. The fibres arise from the round ligaments, and 
 regularly diverging, spread over the fundus until they unite and 
 form the outermost stratum of the muscular substance of the 
 uterus.” 
 
 “ The substance of the gravid uterus is powerfully and dis- 
 tinctly muscular ; but the course of the fibres is here less easily 
 described than might be imagined. Towards the fundus the 
 circular fibres prevail; towards the orifice the longitudinal fibres 
 are most apparent ; and, on the whole, the most general course 
 of the fibres is from the fundus towards the orifice. This pre- 
 valence of longitudinal fibres is undoubtedly a provision for dimi- 
 nishing the length of the uterus, and for drawing the fundus 
 towards the orifice. At the same time these longitudinal fibres 
 must dilate the orifice, and draw the lower part of the womb 
 over the head of the child. 
 
 “ In making sections of the uterus while it retained its natural 
 muscular contraction, I have been much struck in observing how 
 entirely the blood-vessels were closed and invisible, and how 
 open and distinct the mouths of the cut blood-vessels became 
 when the same portions of the substance of the uterus were dis- 
 tended and relaxed.” “ A very principal effect of the muscular 
 action of the womb is the constringing of the numerous vessels 
 which supply the placenta, and which must be ruptured when the 
 placenta is separated from the womb.” 
 
 “ Upon inverting the uterus and brushing off the decidua, the 
 muscular structure is very distinctly seen. The inner surface of 
 the fundus consists of two sets of fibres, running in concentric 
 circles round the orifices of the Fallopian tubes. These circles at 
 their circumference unite and mingle, making an intricate tissue. 
 Ruysch, I am inclined to believe, saw the circular fibres of one 
 side only , 1 and not adverting to the circumstance of the Fallo- 
 pian tube opening in the centre of these fibres, which would 
 have proved their lateral position, he described the muscle as 
 seated in the centre of the fundus uteri. This structure of the 
 inner surface of the fundus of the uterus is still adapted to the 
 explanation of Ruysch, which was, that this produced contraction 
 
 Discovered by Weitbrecht, and first accurately observed by Dr. Hunter. 
 
460 
 
 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN WOMAN. 
 
 and corrugation of the surface of the uterus, which the placenta 
 not partaking of, the cohesion of the surface was necessarily 
 broken. 
 
 “ Further, I have observed a set of fibres of the inner surface 
 of the uterus which are not described. They commence at the 
 centre of the last described muscle, and having a course at first 
 in some degree vorticose, they descend in a broad irregular band 
 towards the orifice of the uterus. These fibres co-operating with 
 the external muscle of the uterus, and with the general mass of 
 fibres in the substance of it, must tend to draw down the fundus 
 and lower segment of the uterus over the child’s head. 
 
 “ I have not succeeded in discovering circular fibres in the os 
 tineas corresponding in place and office with the sphincter of 
 other hollow viscera, and I am therefore inclined to believe, that, 
 in the relaxing and opening of the orifice of the uterus, the 
 change does not result from a relaxation of muscular fibres sur- 
 rounding the orifice. Indeed, it is not reasonable to conceive 
 that the contents of the uterus are to be retained during the 
 nine months of gestation by the action of a sphincter muscle. 
 The loosening of the orifice, and that softening and relaxation 
 which precede labour, are quite unlike the yielding of a mus- 
 cular ring.” m 
 
 m Med. Chir. Trans, c. iv. 
 
461 
 
 SECT. XXXVIII. 
 
 OF THE MENSTRUA. 
 
 553. An important, and indeed the most frequent, function 
 of the uterus, is to afford a menstrual fluid during about 
 thirty years, a — a law imposed upon no other species of 
 animal : b — Woman, in the words of Pliny, is the only men- 
 struating animal. The females of no nation, hitherto ex- 
 plored, are exempt from this law, c since it is among the 
 requisites in the female sex for the propagation of the 
 species. 
 
 554. The commencement of this function usually occurs 
 about the fifteenth year, preceded by symptoms of plethora, 
 by a sense of heaviness in the chest, and of tension in the 
 loins, by lassitude of the limbs, &c. At first a reddish fluid 
 
 a Consult, besides many others, F. C. Nligele, Erfahrungen iiber Krankh. ties 
 weibl. Geschlcchts. Manheim. 1812. 8vo. p.265. 
 
 b Most writers upon Natural History, and among the rest Buffon, allow the 
 existence of a periodical discharge of this kind in some other animals, especially 
 in certan simiae. But after carefully observing the females of the species of simiae 
 mentioned by bim, («. c. of the simia sylvanus, and cynomolgus, the papio maimon, 
 Sec.) for a number of years, I easily discovered that these supposed catamenia in 
 some did not occur at all, and, in others of the very same species, were merely a 
 vague and sparing uterine hemorrhage, observing no regular period. 
 
 c There is hardly occasion at present to refute the unfounded assertion, that 
 in some countries, particularly on the continent of America, the women do not 
 menstruate. This opinion appears to have originated from the circumstance of 
 the Europeans, who visited those countries, and saw innumerable women nearly 
 naked, never observing any menstrual stains upon them. For this there might 
 be two reasons. First, the American women are, by a happy prejudice, regarded 
 as infectious while menstruating, and retire from society into solitary huts, to the 
 benefit of their health. Secondly, their extreme cleanliness, and the modest po- 
 sition in which they place their limbs, would prevent any vestige of the catamenia 
 from being observable, as Adr. Van Berkel expressly states, Reisen nach Rio de 
 Berbice und Surinam, p. 46. 
 
462 
 
 OF THE MENSTRUA. 
 
 generally flows from the genitals, becoming by degrees of a 
 more bloody colour, and at length completely so. This has 
 a peculiar odour, coagulates but imperfectly, and differs also in 
 other respects from blood. It continues to flow slowly for 
 seme days, and the unpleasant symptoms above described 
 cease in the mean time. 
 
 555. This red discharge returns afterwards about every 
 four weeks, and continues about six days, during which time 
 a healthy woman is supposed to lose, perhaps, from five ounces 
 to half a pound of blood. 
 
 556. This action is usually suspended during pregnancy or 
 suckling. 
 
 It entirely ceases after existing about thirty years ; and, 
 consequently, in our climate, about the forty-fifth year of 
 age. d 
 
 557. By some, the vagina, by others, and with more pro- 
 bability, the uterus, is considered the source of this discharge. 
 Instances of women menstruating although pregnant, or having 
 the uterus imperforate, or inverted and prolapsed, do not 
 favour the former opinion, but prove only the extraordinary 
 compensating powers of nature, who successfully employs new 
 ways, when the usual one is obstructed. On the other hand, 
 the dissection of many women who have died during men- 
 struation, has discovered the cavity of the uterus bedewed 
 with the catamenia. e We say nothing of the a priori argu- 
 ment — that the purpose of menstruation is probably to 
 render the womb fit for pregnancy and for nourishing the 
 foetus. f On the same account, the arteries rather than the 
 veins appear to be the source of the discharge. E 
 
 55 8. The investigation of the causes of the periodical return 
 
 d H. Helm. Spitta, Commentatio prtsmio liegio ornata, sistens muladones in or- 
 ganismo et ceconomiafceminarum cessante Jluxus menstrui periodo. Gotting. ISIS. 
 4to. 
 
 e See, for example, Morgagni, Adv. Anat. 1. tab. iii. M.M.M. 
 
 i L. H. Chr. Niemeyer, Be menstruatiortis fine et usu. Gott. 1796. 8vo. 
 
 E J. Fr. Osiander, on the contrary, argues on the side of the veins, Diss. de 
 jluxu menstruo atque uteri prolapsu. Gott. 1808. 4to. p. 14. 
 
OF THE MENSTRUA. 
 
 463 
 
 of this hemorrhage is so difficult, that we can obtain nothing 
 beyond probability, and must not dare to offer any thing 
 merely conjectural. h > 
 
 The proximate cause is supposed to be a local i plethoric 
 congestion, — an opinion with which the symptoms preceding 
 menstruation, and the abundance and nature of the uterine 
 vessels, agree very well. 
 
 Among the remote causes may be enumerated the erect 
 posture peculiar to the human race, the peculiar parenchyma 
 of the uterus, and its vita propria. 
 
 It will be better to confess our ignorance of the cause of its 
 periodical return, than to indulge in vain hypotheses: for all 
 the periodical phenomena of health and disease, that continue 
 more than twenty-four hours, have hitherto appeared among 
 the mysteries of animal nature. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 I have known some women bear children before they had ever 
 menstruated, and others after menstruation had entirely ceased. 
 Many authors relate instances of women being mothers without 
 ever menstruating. Dr. Fodere attended a woman who had men- 
 struated but once, and that in her seventeenth year, although 
 thirty-five years of age, very healthy, and the mother of five 
 
 h Those who feel interested in this enquiry, may consult, among other writers, 
 Abr. D’ Orville, Disquisitio (Prass. Haller), causes menstrui Jluxus. Gotting. 
 1748. 4to. 
 
 Gisb. Verz. Muiltnan, An ex celebrata hactenus opinione de plethora universali 
 vel particulari vera Jluxus menstrui causa explicari possit ? LB. 1772. 4to. 
 
 Theod. Traug. Jaehkel (Prres. Krause), Aetiologia Jluxus menstrui. Lips. 
 1784. 4to. 
 
 ■ The universal plethoric orgasm, as it was termed, which some formerly re- 
 garded as the cause of menstruation, has been long since refuted by more en- 
 lightened physiologists. To the arguments of the latter, we may be permitted 
 to add the instance of the celebrated Hungarian sisters formerly mentioned 
 (78. notef.), who, from monstrous formation, were united together. Although 
 the same blood flowed in each on account of the union of the abdominal blood- 
 vessels at the loins, they differed frequently both in the period and the quantity 
 of their menstruation. 
 
464 
 
 OF THE MENSTRUA. 
 
 children. k Morgagni mentions a mother and daughter who both 
 were mothers before menstruation. De la Motte saw cases of 
 this kind . 1 Sir Everard Home mentions a young woman who did 
 not menstruate till after her pregnancy. m Dr. Merriman has 
 lately mentioned that he attended a lady who had not menstru- 
 ated for a year and a half previous to her delivery . 11 
 
 Neither is the pleasure of coition requisite to impregnation ; for 
 the mother of one of Napoleon’s generals, as well as of other 
 children, told a friend of mine, “ Qu’elle n’avoit eu que le douleur 
 d’enfanter,” and the late Dr. Heberden has the following pas- 
 sage : — “ Duo mariti mihi narrarunt uxores suas in venerem 
 fuisse frigidas, omni ejus cupiditate et voluptate carentes ; saepe 
 tamen gravidas factas esse, et recte peperisse.” 0 Gall has knowm 
 similar cases, p There can therefore be no reason why a woman 
 should not be impregnated while asleep, if it is possible for her 
 not to be roused. In a preternaturally sound sleep this appears 
 to have been accomplished, a 
 
 Many women menstruate during the first five months of preg- 
 nancy. Heberden mentions one who always menstruated the 
 whole nine. She had lain in four times. 
 
 Women sometimes menstruate during suckling; but when this 
 happens, it is not generally till two or three months have elapsed 
 after delivery. 
 
 The reason that menstrual blood does not coagulate is its want 
 of fibrin; it is, therefore, really not blood. “ It has the proper- 
 ties,” says Mr. Brande, “ of a very concentrated solution of the 
 colouring matter of the blood in a diluted serum. r W hen the 
 catamenia are suppressed, a bloody fluid is sometimes periodically 
 discharged from the aerial or alimentary canal, or even from ulcers, 
 or some sound part of the skin. 
 
 To regard women during menstruation as unclean, is certainly 
 very useful, though the custom among the American women of 
 leaving their husbands’ tents at this period for separate novels, is 
 
 k Mcdecine Legate, t. i. p. 393. 
 
 1 Traiti camplet des Accouchemens, p. 53. 
 
 m Phil. Trans. 1812. p. 11. 
 
 n Med. Chir. Trans, t. xiii. p. 347. 
 
 0 Commenlarii de morborum historia el curatione, cap. 43. 
 
 p Sur les Functions du Cerveau, t. iii. p. 253. 
 
 1 See the Causes Celcbres of Fodere (1. c. t. i. p. 500. sq.; for an account of a 
 priest and what he thought a dead body. 
 
 r Phil. Trans. 1817. 
 
OF THE MENSTRUA, 
 
 465 
 
 said by Hearne to give a pretence for quitting the good men 
 whenever they are sulky, — even twice or thrice in a month. r 
 Moses set a woman apart for seven days, and enacted, that any one 
 who touched her, or even any thing she had sat upon, should wash 
 his clothes and he unclean till evening ; and if he lay with her, 
 should be unclean for seven days. s But menstruating women 
 have been regarded as mysteriously deleterious. The Americans 
 forbid them to walk near where there is fishing or hunting, or to 
 cross the path where deer, &c. have been carried, lest success 
 should be averted. In Pliny, 1 a menstruating woman is declared 
 the most pernicious thing in the world, — blighting fruit, destroy- 
 ing grafts, and hives of bees, drying up fields of corn, causing 
 iron and copper to rust and smell, driving dogs mad, and disgust- 
 ing even ants with their food, &c. &c. In this country it is firmly 
 believed by many that meat will not take salt if the process is 
 conducted by a menstruating woman. 
 
 Gall says that, when he practised at Vienna, “ he soon noticed 
 that during a certain time no women menstruated, and at another 
 a great many menstruated at once. As this frequently occurred, 
 it excited his attention, and made him fancy that perhaps men- 
 struation followed some law. He therefore kept a journal, in 
 which he marked the periods of a considerable number of women 
 for many years. It resulted that women are divided into two 
 great classes ; each class having a different period. The women of 
 the same class all menstruate within eight days ; after this time, 
 an interval of ten or twelve days follows, in which very few women 
 menstruate. At the end of these eight days begins the period of 
 the second great class, all the individuals of which also menstruate 
 within eight days. Suppose a woman of this class begins to 
 menstruate on the first of the month, she will have finished on the 
 eighth, if her catamenia continue eight days. Another, whose 
 catamenia last but three days, will finish on the third ; or, in case 
 she did not begin till the fifth, she equally will finish on the 
 eighth, and so the rest; all who are regular, having an interval of 
 twenty-one, twenty-five, or twenty-six days. The following are 
 the two periods of women, each belonging to a different class, 
 such as they really occurred. In 1818: January 19, 3; Febru- 
 
 r Journey from Prince of Wales Fort to Hudson's Bay, Sic. 1795. p. 313. sq. 
 
 s Leviticus, xv. 
 
 ' Hist, Natur. vii. 13. 
 
 H H 
 
466 
 
 OF THE MENSTRUA. 
 
 ary 16, 1,29; March 14, 28; April 10, 25; May 8, 23; June 5, 
 30, 19; July 26, 17 ; August 21, 13; September 18, 9; October 
 16, 8; November 14, 5; December 12, 2. It appears that each 
 woman menstruated thirteen times in the year ; and that she who 
 began on the 3d of January, menstruates for the fourteenth 
 time on the last of December. 
 
 “ There are always women who, through some accidental cause, 
 have menstruated out of these two great periods ; but after one or 
 two months they usually return to the class to which they belong. 
 Women out of health, young persons who have not yet fully com- 
 pleted their growth, and women who are near the final cessation 
 of the catamenia, are the most subject to these irregularities. 
 
 “ During my travels I continued my journal; and what struck 
 me the most was, that the two periods coincided in all countries, 
 at least in Europe. At the same time that women menstruated 
 in Vienna, Berlin, Hamburgh, and Amsterdam, they menstruated 
 also at Bern, Copenhagen, Paris,” &c. u 
 
 Sur les Fonclions du Cerveau, t. iv. p. 355. sqq. 
 
SECT. XXXIX. 
 
 OF CONCEPTION AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 559. We now come to the functions for which the genital 
 organs are given us, — to conception and the propagation of 
 the species, in treating of which, we shall first merely de- 
 scribe the phenomena that are observed in that admirable 
 and truly divine process, and afterwards investigate the 
 powers by which they are produced. a 
 
 560. In the first place, it is worthy of remark that the 
 human race, unlike most animals, does not copulate at certain 
 periods of the year, b but that with it every season is equally 
 favourable to the flame of love. 
 
 561. When a woman receives a man c and both burn 
 with that animal instinct which is superior to all others 
 in universality and violence, the uterus, swelling I imagine 
 with a kind of inflammatory orgasm, d and animated by its 
 vita propria (547), draws in, as it were, the semen ejacu- 
 lated by the male, e and appears to pour forth a fluid of its 
 
 a On all the subjects of this section, consult, among many others, Fr. B. 
 Osiander, Observations de homine, quomodo fiat etformetur, in the Comment. Soc. 
 Reg. Scientiarum recent, vol. iii. p. 25. vol. iv. p. 109. 
 
 b Unless the observation first made by Wargentin, in Sweden, — that there is 
 a greater proportion of births in September, which corresponds to the preceding 
 December, be considered as relative to this point. Sivensk. Vetenslc. Acad. Had- 
 lingar. 1767. vol. xxviii. p. 249. sq. 
 
 c Of the various circumstances of this admission, I have spoken in my work 
 De gen. hum. variet. nat. p. 17. sq. 3d edit. 
 
 d v. the two instances of uteri seen by Ruysch, immediately after impregnation. 
 The one of a common woman, murdered by her paramour immediately after 
 connection. Adversar. Anat. Med. Chirurg. Dec. i. tab. ii. fig. 3. The other 
 of a married woman, impregnated a few hours previously, and killed in the act 
 of adultery by her husband. Thesaur. Anat. vi. p. 23. sq. tab. v. fig. 1. 
 
 e If we consider the impetus with which the semen is emitted, and, as it were, 
 swallowed by the uterus, and how small a quantity is proved, by experiments on 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 
 
 OF CONCEPTION' 
 
 own against it (552) ; the tubes become rigid, and their 
 fimbriag embrace the ovaria, in one of which a ripe Graafian 
 vesicle bursts like an abscess, and its albuminous drop of fluid, 
 being absorbed by the abdominal opening of the tube, is 
 conveyed to the womb. 
 
 562. After the escape of this drop from the ovarium, the 
 lips of the wound are closed by an external cicatrix, and the 
 vascular membrane which contained the drop is converted into 
 a corpus lutcum . f This is at first hollow, and full, as appears 
 to me, of a plastic lymph, s which in progress of time becomes 
 a fleshy nucleus , 11 surrounded by a thick, remarkably vas- 
 cular, cortex . * 1 (A) 
 
 563. After the impregnation of the womb, the canal which 
 runs along the cervix of the uterus is thoroughly closed, espe- 
 cially towards its superior or internal orifice (544), so that 
 superfcetation, properly so called, k cannot naturally take 
 place. There are scarcely any constant and infallible signs 
 
 brutes, to be sufficient for impregnation, we shall be able to explain those well 
 established eases of conception, where the hymen was imperforate, — cases com- 
 monly brought forwards in support of the existence of a seminal aura. 
 
 1 See J. Chph. Kuhlemann, Observat. circa negot. generat. in ovib. factor. 
 Gotting. 1753. 4to. c.f. ae. 
 
 6 See Everard Home’s contrary opinion respecting the origin of the corpus 
 luteum and its relation to the ovum, Phil. Trans. 1S17. p. 255. and 1S19. p.59. 
 
 b See W. Hunter, Anatomy of the gravid uterus, tab. xv. fig. 5. tab. xxix. 
 fig. 3. tab.xxxi. fig. 3. 
 
 • It is a celebrated question, of great importance both in physiology' and forensic 
 medicine, and much agitated in late years, whether a corpus luteum is the conse- 
 quence of a fruitful coition only, and therefore an infallible sign of conception, or 
 whether it may occur independently of coition, and therefore exist in virgins. We 
 trust that we have established the truth of this point, and shown the conditions 
 under which a corpus luteum may occasionally be formed even in virgins. 
 Specimen pliysiologire comparalce inter animantia calidi sanguinis vivipara et ovipara, 
 in the Commentat. Soc. Reg. Scientiar. Gotting. vol. ix. p. 109. sqq. 
 
 k That different conceptions may occur from the repetition of copulation after 
 very short intervals, is proved by the instances of adulterous women who have 
 brought forth twins resembling different fathers in the colour of their skin : viz. 
 of black women who have brought forth a black and a mulatto, and of European 
 women who have brought forth a white and a mulatto. (B) 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 469 
 
 by which the woman herself can be very certain of the 
 changes that occur within during conception. 1 
 
 564. The internal surface of the uterus becomes lined 
 with plastic, and, as it were, inflammatory, lymph (15), which 
 forms the tunica caduca or decidua of Hunter. m This is said 
 to consist of two laminae, — the crassa n investing the uterus, 
 except at the orifices of the tubes and of the canal of the 
 cervix, 0 — and the caduca reflexa , p so denominated from 
 being, after the ovum begins to be formed and to take root 
 in the decidua, continued over the other parts of the ovum, 
 just as the peritonaeum is continued over the abdominal 
 viscera. 
 
 565. The ovum is produced before the embryo which it is 
 intended to contain, but scarcely 'i begins to be formed earlier 
 than the second week from conception. (C) 
 
 566. This ovum consists, 1 besides the external accessary 
 
 I Ad. El. Siebold, Be cliagnosi conceptionis et graviditatis scope dubia. Wirceb. 
 1798. 4 to. 
 
 Gm. Theoph. Kelch, Be symptomatibus et signis graviditatis earumque causis. 
 Regiom. 1794. 4to. 
 
 m Aretseus Cappadox ( Be Causis et Sig. Morb. Biuturn. 1. ii. c. ii. p. 64. 
 sq., Boerhaave’s edition), seems the first who gave a true account of the origin 
 of this membrane, the more accurate knowledge of which we owe to Wm. Hunter. 
 
 After the revival of anatomy, Fallopius restored the knowledge of it. Observ. 
 Anat. p. 207. 
 
 It is the chorion, either simply called so, or the spongy, tomentous, fungous, 
 filamentous, reticulated, of the following age ; the involucrum membranaceum of 
 B. S. Albinus. 
 
 The first delineation of it was given, as far as my knowledge extends, by 
 Ruysch. Thes. Anal. v. tab. i. fig. I. F.B.C.G. 
 
 II This is called cribriform by the distinguished Fr. B. Osiander. 
 
 ° W. Hunter, 1. c. tab. xxxiv. fig. 3 — 6. 
 
 Home, Phil. Trans. 1817. tab. viii. 
 
 p By Osiander, the membrane, out crassa. See B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 
 l.i. tab. iii. fig. i. e. W. Hunter, 1. c. tab. xxxiii. fig. I — 4. 
 
 q Ever. Home and that admirable artist Francis Bauer give an engraving 
 of an ovulum, thought to be only of eight days. Phil. Trans. 1. c. tab. viii. and 
 xi. 
 
 r Respecting the membranes of the ovum, and their connection with the uterus 
 and embryo, vide J, F. Lobstein, liber die Emahnwg des Foetus. Halle, 1S04. 
 8vo. 
 
 H H S 
 
470 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 covering afforded by the cadaca of Hunter, of two proper 
 velamenta or membranes. 
 
 Of an exterior — the chorion s of the moderns, the external 
 surface of which is, from the first, nearly covered with in- 
 expressibly beautiful knotty flocculi; whence it has been 
 called the Jbcculent, leafy , or mossy, chorion. By means of 
 these flocculi, which are the rudiments of the foetal portion of 
 the future 'placenta , the ovum takes root, as it were, in the 
 uterine decidua. (564) 
 
 Of an interior, — styled amnion , 1 possessing no blood- 
 vessels (5), delicate, but remarkably tough. 
 
 567. These two proper membranes of the ovum differ 
 very much from each other in size the first week after the 
 formation of the ovum ; the chorion appears a large bladder, 
 to the interior of which the amnion, like a much smaller 
 bladder, adheres in that part only which nearly corresponds 
 with the centre of the external flocculent surface of the 
 chorion. 
 
 The remaining space between the chorion and amnion 
 is filled by a clear water, which may be called the liquor 
 cliorii , of doubtful origin and short duration. 
 
 For, since the amnion increases more rapidly than the 
 chorion, and approximates to the latter even during the 
 first months after conception, u in proportion to its ap- 
 proximation must this fluid necessarily be absorbed. 
 
 568. The internal membrane of the ovum is filled, from its 
 first formation (565) to the last moment of pregnancy, with 
 the liquor amnii, x an aqueous fluid, of a yellowish colour, 
 nearly inodorous, of a bland and scarcely saltish taste, and 
 
 6 The il fembrana media of Rouhault, Haller, &c., the vasculosa of Osiander. 
 
 For the various synonyms and homonyms of the membranes of the ovum, 
 consult Haller, Elem. Physiol, vol. viii. P. i. p. 191. sq. and Tabarrani’s letter 
 to Bartaloni, Atti di Siena, t. vi. p. 224. sq. 
 
 1 The membrana tenuis of Osiander; in French, la coiffe. 
 
 u See Hunter’s figures (imaginary indeed), 1 c. tab. xxxiv. fig. 9. S. 7. 
 
 x Paul Scheel, at the end of his Commentat. de liquoris amnii aspens arleriec 
 fcetuum humanorum natura et usu. Hafn. 1799. Svo. 
 
 C. H. D’Zondi. Supplementa ad anal, cl physiolog. jiotissimum comparalam. 
 Lips. 1806. 4to. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 471 
 
 compared to albumen, from which, however, more accurate 
 investigation proves it to differ considerably. y 
 
 Its source is doubtful and cannot be referred to the fcetus 
 or umbilical chord, because it exists in abortive ova containing 
 neither. 
 
 Its quantity is inversely as the size of the foetus. 
 
 Hence we may conjecture that its use is rather to defend 
 the foetus while nearly gelatinous and most liable to suffer 
 from external injuries, than to afford nourishment, which 
 latter opinion is, indeed, refuted by the numerous instances of 
 full-grown and well-fleshed foetuses destitute of a head. 1 
 
 569. The embryo 3 , which swims in this fluid, suspended 
 by the umbilical chord, like fruit by its stalk, begins to be 
 formed about the third week after conception: 15 at first it 
 appears of rather a globular shape, resembling a little bean or 
 kidney, from which the rudiments of the extremities grow, 
 and on which the face is at length formed, See . c 
 
 y Steph. J. Van Geuns, De natura et utilitate liquons amnii. Ultraj. 1793. 
 4to. 
 
 z Consult the distinguished Tiedemann, Anatomie der Kopfiosen Missgeburten. 
 Landshut, 1813. fol. p. 52. D.Welge, a medical practitioner at Goslarand formerly 
 a favourite pupil of my own, has enriched my museum with an excellent example of 
 this kind, viz. a twin female foetus without head, arms or thorax, born (what is par- 
 ticularly worthy of notice) alive, after a perfect and vigorous sister ; for it repeat- 
 edly extended and bent its legs before it perished, on being seized with a general 
 horripilation. 
 
 a C. Fr. Burdach, De primis momentisfurmationis foetus. Regiom. 1814. 4to. 
 
 b There is no occasion in our times to refute the false remarks and figures, 
 published by Mauriceau, Kerckring, and others, of foetuses, one or a few days 
 old. 
 
 The reasons of my fixing upon this term, I have explained at large in the 
 Medicin. Bibliothek. vol. ii. p. 673. sq. 
 
 How remarkably this was afterwards confirmed by fact, will be found in the 
 same work, vol. iii. p. 727. 
 
 c Those who have not an opportunity of inspecting the fragile primordia of 
 our race, may consult the excellent plates in Ruysch’s Thesaur. Anat. vi. tab. ii. 
 fig. 2, 3, 4, 5. 8. 10. Thesaur. x. tab. iii. fig. 1. 
 
 Also B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. I. i. tab. v. fig. 4, 5. 
 
 Trew, Commerc. Litter. None. 1739. tab. iii. fig. 4, 5. 
 
 Abr. Vater, Mus. anatom, propr. tab. viii. fig. 2. 4, &c. 
 
 And, instar omnium, Sommerring’s leones Embryonum Humanor. Francof. 
 ad Moen. 1799. fol. 
 
 H El 4 
 
/ 
 
 47 2 OF COKfiEFIION 
 
 570. By nature woman is uniparous , conceiving but one 
 foetus. Frequently, however, she produces twins, the pro- 
 portion of which to single births, Siissmilch estimates as 1 to 
 70. d In these cases, each child has usually its own amnion, 
 whereas there is a common chorion. 6 
 
 571. The medium of connection between the mother and 
 child are the umbilical chord and the placenta into which 
 it is distributed. 
 
 572. The umbilical chord , which appears coeval with the 
 embryo, varies exceedingly in length and thickness, in the 
 place of its insertion into the placenta, in its varicose knots, 
 &c. It always consists of three blood-vessels twisted spirally 
 together, viz. a vein running to the liver of the foetus, and 
 two arteries arising from its internal iliacs or hypogastric®. 
 They are separated from each other by cellular septa of 
 various directions, f and are throughout narrowed internally 
 by nodules or the quasi-valves of Hoboken. 5 
 
 They are collected into a chord by means of a cellular 
 membrane, which is full of a peculiar, very limpid fluid, 
 called Whartonian, resembling gelatin in appearance, and 
 is surrounded externally by a continuation of the amnion. 
 
 573. At the part of the chord which is united to the fcetus, 
 there enters the urachus h between the two umbilical arteries 
 
 d The proportion is not very constant, and is liable to national variety. (D) 
 
 Egede expressly mentions the infrequency of twins among the Greenlanders, 
 Hescr. du Groenland, p. 112. 
 
 Their remarkable frequency, on the contrary, among the people of Chili is 
 asserted by Molina, Saggio su la Storia Naturcde del Chili, p. 3S3. 
 
 e See Denman, Engravings tending to illustrate generation and parturition. 
 Lond. 1787. fol. tab. ix. 
 
 Twins are very rarely contained in a common amnion. Vide J. de Puyt, 
 Verhandel. der Zeeuwsch Genootsch. te Ulissmgen, t. ix. p.423. sq. 
 
 Consult Hor. Garneri, Mem. de l' Acad, de Turin, 1S09. Append, p. 89. 
 
 * W. Noortwyk, Uteri Humani Gravidi Anatome, tab. iii. fig. 5. 6. 7. 
 
 E Hoboken, Anatome secundin. human, repetita, p. 522. sq. fig. 38. 39. 40. 
 
 This structure is further displayed in the arterial branches of the placenta b> 
 Aug. Chr. Reuss, A T ov. Obsei-v. circa. Struclur. Vasor. in Placenta Humana. 
 Tubing. 1784. 4to. 
 
 h J. Noreen, He Uracho. Gotting. 1749. 4to. 
 
 Ph. Ad. Boehmer on the same, at the end of his Anatome ovi hum. fcccvnd. 
 sed deformis. Hal. 1763. 4to. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 473 
 
 (486), and it arises from the fundus of the urinary bladder. 
 In the human subject, it is pervious but for a very short 
 distance, and, indeed, soon disappears altogether. In many 
 other species of mammalia it leads to the allantoid, 1 which 
 the human foetus does not possess. For I think that the 
 problematical vesicula umbilicalis , found in human ova be- 
 tween the chorion and amnion, k is not analogous to the 
 allantoid' but to the tunica erythroides which is seen in the 
 ova of some mammalia, and to the vitellary sac of the incu- 
 bated egg. It is found in healthy human ova, the second or 
 third month after conception, too frequently and of too 
 constant an appearance to be regarded as accidental, morbid, 
 or monstrous. 1 " 
 
 574. The blood-vessels of the chord pass to the 'placenta, 
 of whose origin from the leafy surface of the chorion that is 
 united to the decidua crassa, we formerly spoke. Hence 
 we discover how the substance of the placenta is double, — 
 
 1 Vide Fabr. ab Aquapendente, De Formato Fcctu. tab. xii. xiii. xiv. xvii. 
 fig. 27. xxv. 
 
 k Vide Commenlat. Soc. Keg. Sc. Goltingens. vol. ix. p. 128. fig. I. 
 
 1 Among the moderns who still compare it to this, are J. F. Lobstein, 1. c. 
 iiber die Ern'dhrung des Fcelus. 
 
 And C. H. D’Zondi, Supplem. ad Anat. el Physiol. 
 
 m The opinions both respecting the natural constancy of the vesicula umbilicalis 
 and its analogy to the tunica erythroides, I originally, as far as I know, pro- 
 posed thirty -four years since, in the first edition of these Institutions (1787), and 
 in my Specimen Vhysiologicc Comparatce (1788) formerly quoted. 
 
 The connection of this vesicle with the intestinal canal of the embryo, and 
 indeed with the appendix vermiformis of the caecum, is shown by Laur. Oken in 
 his and Diet. G. Kieser’s Beylr. zur Vergl. Zoologie, Sec. Fasc. i. ii. Bamberg. 
 1806. sq. 
 
 See likewise Kieser’s Ursprung des Darmkanals aus der vesicula umbilicalis, 
 dargestellt im menschlichen Embryo. Goett. 1810. 4to. 
 
 But, on the contrary, Fr. Meckel shows it to he united with the diverticulum 
 of the small intestines (Diverticulum Littrianum) , Feytr. zur Vergl. Anutomie. 
 vol. i. fasc. i. Lips. 1808. p. 98. ; and more fully in Reil and Autenreith’s 
 Archiv. fur die Physiologic, vol. ix. p. 421. 
 
 Consult, among many others, W. Hunter, Anatomical Description of the Human. 
 Gravid Uterus (a posthumous work edited by Matthew Baillie). Bond. 1794. 
 4to. p. 40. sq. 
 
 B. N. G. Schreger’s Letter to SCmmerring, De funclione placenta: uterinee. 
 Erlang. 1799. 8vo. 
 
474 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 the uterine portion derived from the decidua and forming a 
 spongy parenchyma, the foetal arising from the umbilical 
 vessels distributed on the chorion. 
 
 The increase of the ovum is irregular, the smooth part of 
 the chorion growing more rapidly than the mossy ; conse- 
 quently, the size of the placenta bears a greater proportion to 
 that of the ovum, the shorter the time that has elapsed 
 since conception, and a smaller, as the period of labour ap- 
 proaches. 
 
 As pregnancy advances, its texture becomes gradually 
 more compact ; furrowed and lobular on its external surface, 
 which lies towards the uterus, and smooth on the inner 
 surface, which is covered by the amnion and lies next the 
 foetus. It varies greatly in size, thickness, figure, and situa- 
 tion, or place of attachment to the uterus ; generally it 
 adheres to the fundus ; it is equally destitute of sensibility 
 and true irritability. 
 
 575. Although all agree that the placenta is the chief 
 instrument in the nourishment of the foetus, the true mode of 
 its operation, and its mutual relation to the uterus and foetus, 
 have given rise to great controversies in modern times. 
 After all, the truth appears to be this, — that no anastomosis 
 exists between the blood-vessels of the uterus and of the 
 chord, but that the oxygenised blood which proceeds from 
 the uterus to the portion of the placenta that was originally 
 the decidua crassa, is absorbed by the extreme radicles of 
 the umbilical vein distributed upon the mossy chorion, and 
 carried to the great venous trunk of the chord ; while the 
 carbonised blood returning from the foetus, through the 
 umbilical arteries, being poured in the same manner into the 
 substance of the placenta, is absorbed by the venous radicles 
 of the uterine portion of the placenta, and returned to the 
 uterus. 
 
 This account is supported by very careful but fruitless 
 attempts to inject the umbilical by means of the uterine 
 vessels, and the uterine by means of the umbilical ; or to 
 tinge the bones of the foetus with red, by giving madder to 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 475 
 
 the mother during pregnancy. It is also confirmed by the 
 difference observable between the blood of the mother and 
 foetus, (E) 
 
 576. During the progress of pregnancy, while the foetus 
 and secundines are increasing, the uterus of course under* 
 goes important changes," not only in size, but in situation, 
 figure, and especially in its texture, which is considerably 
 changed both with respect to its blood-vessels and the inter- 
 vening parenchyma, from the constant and great congestion 
 of fluids that occurs in it. 
 
 In proportion as the uterus increases, the blood-vessels 
 from being tortuous and narrow become more straight 0 and 
 capacious, and the veins, near the termination of pregnancy, 
 acquire so great a bulk p as to have been taken for sinuses by 
 some anatomists. 
 
 The parenchyma becomes gradually more thin and lax, q 
 especially in the part nearest the ovum, so that although the 
 gravid uterus is very thick, particularly at its fundus, and in 
 a living and healthy woman is turgid with blood and replete 
 with vital energy, nevertheless it is soft, and its general 
 nature, (especially after death, when, as Arantius long since 
 remarked, it almost appears lamellated if pregnancy was 
 advanced/) extremely different from the firm and compact 
 substance of the unimpregnated uterus. 
 
 577. The remaining important changes s of the gravid 
 uterus, as well as those still more remarkable ones which 
 occur to the ovum and foetus, we will briefly relate in the 
 
 n L. Ph. J. Pott, Commentatio prcemio regio ornata de corporis famines gravities 
 mutationibus, Sec. Gott. 1815. 4to. 
 
 W. Wagner, on the same subject, Commentatio qua: secundam jtalmam tulit. 
 Brunsv. 1816. 8vo. 
 
 0 v. W. Hunter, Anat. Uteri Gravidi, tab. xvi. 
 p Ibid. tab. xviii. 
 
 11 v. B. S. Albinus, Annotal. Acad. i. ii. tab. iii. fig. 2. 
 
 r Arantius, De Humana Fcstu libellus, p. 5. sq. 1579. Compare B. S. Al- 
 binus, Tab. Uteri Gravidi, ii. 
 
 s Among others consult J. Burns, Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus. Glasgotv. 
 1799. Svo. — a work carefully and faithfully executed. 
 
476 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 order of the ten lunar months according to which pregnancy 
 is at present very conveniently calculated. 
 
 578. As the uterus immediately after impregnation always 
 becomes turgid, (561) so, increasing from that period in bulk 
 and weight, it descends rather lower into the upper part of 
 the vagina, still retaining its former figure during the first 
 three months, except that its fundus becomes a little more 
 convex and its anterior portion somewhat recedes from the 
 posterior, and that its cavity, before extremely small and 
 nearly triangular, becoming expanded by the fluids of the 
 ovum, accommodates itself to the subglobular form of the 
 latter. 
 
 The ovum itself, which about the termination of the first 
 month is of the size of a pigeon’s egg, and possesses both 
 deciduae separate from each other, and the minute amnion 
 separate from the larger chorion, commonly attains, near the 
 end of the third month, the size of a goose’s egg ; the decidua 
 reflexa then very closely approaches to the crassa, and the 
 amnion to the chorion ; the former is filled with the large 
 quantity of fluid which bears its name and defends from the 
 pressure of the womb the tender embryo that is now very 
 small in proportion to it, scarcely indeed equal in size to a 
 young mouse, and hanging headlong and rather unsteadily. 1 
 
 579. From the fourth month, the uterus becomes more 
 oval or subglobular, and, its neck gradually softening, short- 
 ening, and almost disappearing or rather extending laterally, 
 it again tends upwards and begins to rise to the superior part 
 of the pelvis. At the same time the tubes ascend with the 
 convex fundus of the uterus, and are extended and elongated, 
 but adhere to the sides of this organ so firmly, that half of 
 their length only is separate from it, and, at first sight, they 
 appear to arise from the middle of it, — • a circumstance which 
 gave occasion to an erroneous opinion of the enormous in- 
 crease of its fundus. 
 
 After this period, the foetus acquires a size more propor- 
 tional to the capacity of the ovum, and becoming, at the same 
 
 * i'. Doeveren, Specimen. Obscrv . Academ. p. 104. sq. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 477 
 
 time, conglobated together, acquires a more fixed situation, 
 which it preserves to the end of pregnancy ; the head is in- 
 clined to the chest, and the back bent and generally placed 
 rather towards one side of the mother. 
 
 580. In the middle of pregnancy, — at the end of the fifth 
 month, so much has the uterus increased, that its fundus is 
 nearly between the navel and pubes, and pregnancy becomes 
 externally evident. 
 
 From this period, the foetus by its motion is generally more 
 distinctly perceptible to the mother : this circumstance, how- 
 ever, occurs at no definite time. 
 
 581. The uterus and foetus continuing to increase during 
 the remaining five lunar months, the fundus of the former 
 reaches the umbilicus about the sixth month ; after the eighth, 
 having risen higher, it approaches the scrobiculus cordis. In 
 the mean time, the cervix is gradually obliterated, flattened, 
 and attenuated. 
 
 582. In the tenth month, the uterus, overwhelmed, as it 
 were, with its own bulk, — being eleven inches in length and 
 nine or more in breadth, begins again to sink. 
 
 Each decidua, but especially the reflexa adhering to the 
 chorion, having for many months been growing thinner, now 
 almost appears a net-work of short white fibres. u 
 
 The larger diameter of the placenta is now nine inches ; 
 its thickness one inch ; its weight one pound or upwards. 
 
 The length of the umbilical chord is generally eighteen 
 inches or more, — which is considerable if compared with 
 that of other mammalia. 
 
 The weight of a common full grown foetus is usually about 
 seven pounds ; its length about twenty inches. x 
 
 u On the various appearances of the decidua during the latter half of preg- 
 nancy, consult W. Hunter, Anat . of the gravid uterus, tab. xxiv. fig. 3, 4. tab. 
 xxix. fig. 45. comparing with these, tab. xxix. fig. 2. 
 
 x This weight and volume are remarkably large in proportion to the mother, 
 if compared with those of the offspring of many other mammalia. But, not- 
 withstanding that, woman is so far from producing the largest fcetus in this 
 respect among the mammalia, that she is far surpassed by some, especially of the 
 bisulea, and most by the Savia pig. 
 
478 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 The quantity of the liquor amnii is too variable to be de- 
 fined ; but, when the foetus is strong, it seldom exceeds a 
 pound. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) The important contents of this and the preceding paragraph 
 demand farther attention. 
 
 Several questions occur. 1. What is the state of the female 
 organs during the vehemence of desire ? 2. How far does the 
 
 semen masculinum penetrate ? 3. Do the Graafian vesicles burst 
 
 from the influence of the semen masculinum, or from mere excite- 
 ment, the semen impregnating only the contents of the vesicles 
 after their escape from the ovaria ? 4. At what period do the 
 
 Graafian vesicles burst ? 
 
 1. Mr. Cruikshank, on inspecting the genitals of a female rabbit 
 during heat, observed appearances nearly similar to those de- 
 scribed by Harvey, Graaf, Ruysch, Diembroeck, &c. 7 He found 
 them all prodigiously turgid with blood ; the vagina was absolutely 
 of a dark mulberry colour, and on the ovaria were prominent 
 spots which injection proved to be vascular and which were swollen 
 Graafian vesicles; the contents of the vesicles, however, remained 
 transparent : the Fallopian tubes were also nearly black, writhing 
 in an extraordinary manner, having a strong peristaltic motion, 
 and embracing the ovaria with their fimbriated extremity so 
 closely as to lacerate on an attempt to disengage them. z These 
 observations were all confirmed by Mr. Saumarez. a During co- 
 pulation, this state of the organs must be carried to the highest 
 pitch of intensity. 
 
 2. Harvey could never detect semen in the uterus after copu- 
 lation. 13 Nor De Graaf in the vagina. c Verheyen found a large 
 quantity in the uterus of a cow, six hours after copulation. d 
 
 y Boerhaave, Prcelecliones Academics, with Haller’s notes, t. vi. p.113. sq. 
 
 z Phil. Trans. 1797. 
 
 3 A new System of Physiology, &c. vol. i. p. 337. 
 
 b Harvey, De Generatione, p. 228, &c. 
 
 c Regn. De Graaf, t. i. 310. 
 
 d Verheyen, Anat. tract. 5. cap. 3. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 479 
 
 Galen always discovered it in the uterus of brutes after copu- 
 lation. e Leeuwenhoeck, in the case of rabbits. Ruysch found 
 it not only in the uterus, but in the Fallopian tubes of two women 
 killed soon after connection, f Postellus, Riolan, Carpus, and 
 Cheselden also believed they found it in the uterus, s Haller 
 once found it in the uterus of a sheep, forty-five minutes after 
 coition . 11 Fallopius frequentty found it in the tubes . 1 Haller 
 very justly remarks that some of those who believed they saw 
 semen in the uterus, probably saw mucus only. He inclines, 
 however, with almost all physiologists, to the opinion that the 
 semen does enter the uterus. The length of the penis, the force 
 of emission, the peristaltic action of the vagina during the heat of 
 some brutes, k the existence of a bifid glans with two orifices in 
 the penis of the males of some species the females of which have 
 two ora uteri , 1 are circumstances of no little weight in favour of 
 the opinion that the semen does penetrate at least into the uterus. 
 Mr. Hunter, however, actually saw it projected into the uterus 
 of a bitch which he killed by dividing the spinal marrow while 
 she was united with the male. m 
 
 c Galen, Be semine, lib. i. c. 2. 
 
 f Tlies. Aruit. and Adversaria Anal. Medic. Cliirurg. 
 
 s Boerhaave, Prcelect. Acad. Haller’s note to p. 182. t. 6. 
 
 h Haller, Elementa Physiol, t. 8. p. 22. 
 
 1 Opera, i. fol. m. 421. 
 
 k See, for instance, Dr. James Blundell, in the Med. Chir. Trans, vol. x. p. 266. 
 
 1 Account of the structure of the Wombat, by Sir E. Home. Phil. Trans. 
 1798. 
 
 m Home, Phil. Trans. 1817. Saumarez, 1. c. p. 429. 
 
 Mr. Saumarez observed in two instances, when two hours and a half only 
 had elapsed after coition, and before corpora lutea were formed, globular, pearl- 
 coloured bodies, as large as a pin’s head, which, on being squeezed, burst and 
 discharged a very subtle fluid to some distance. Dr. Haighton commonly met 
 with them. Whether these were semen, having undergone some change, is 
 uncertain. 
 
 The well known instances of conception, where the admission of the male organ 
 into the vagina was prevented by the great strength of the hymen, are sometimes 
 cited against the opinion that the semen passes beyond the vagina, but certainly 
 with no weight. 1. Because the most minute portion of semen is sufficient to 
 impregnate : — Spallanzani mixed three grains of frog’s semen with a pound and 
 a half of water, and with a little of this mixture fecundated nearly all the nu- 
 merous posterity contained in the threads taken from the female ; and, after 
 mixing three grains with even twenty-two pounds of water, he fecundated some. 
 (Dissertations, vol. 2. p. 191. English transl.) 2. Because the vagina has an 
 
480 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 Dr. Haighton, with the view of ascertaining whether it is ne- 
 cessary to impregnation that the semen pass along the Fallopian 
 tubes, made a number of experiments on the effects of tying and 
 dividing them in rabbits at different periods relative to coition . 0 
 The peristaltic action of the tubes, and their adhesion to the 
 ovaria during the venereal ardour, argue strongly in favour of the 
 semen being conveyed along them, because we can hardly suppose 
 these circumstances to begin to occur at this period for the pur- 
 pose of conveying the contents of the Graafian vesicle, as this 
 does not burst till a considerable time after copulation. Dr. 
 Haighton, indeed, says that these changes in the tubes did not 
 take place in his experiments (all made, however, after copulation), 
 till long (forty-eight hours) after copulation, — till the ovaria were 
 about to discharge into them their vesicular fluids. In this he 
 agrees with Bartholin, De Graaf, Schurig, Deswig, and Lang, who 
 maintained, like him, that the semen, at least as far as examination 
 went, does not enter the tubes . 0 But Mr. Cruikshank and Mr. 
 Saumarez, two of the latest experimenters, assert the contrary in 
 the detail of their experiments, and, as Haller remarks of the old 
 partisans, the negative experiments of the former cannot overturn 
 the positive testimony of the latter, — “ Eorum experimenta 
 negativa non possunt affirmantium fidem evertere Sbaragli, 
 Verheyen, Hartman, and Duverney, could find no change in the 
 state of the tubes at any time, although their negative observ- 
 ations are completely overthrown by the positive observations of 
 all others who have enquired experimentally into the subject. 
 Besides, the great abundance of blood in the genital organs, 
 during the sexual ardour, must cause the tubes to enlarge and 
 apply themselves to the ovaria : this, as Haller mentions upon the 
 
 action of its own sufficient to move the semen onwards to the uterus: — it is 
 seen during the oestrum of brutes (and also the uterus in a lower degree) to have 
 a peristaltic movement ; it often firmly embraces the human placenta; and Dr. 
 Hamilton, the present obstetric professor of Edinburgh, mentions, in his lectures, 
 having attended a physometric patient whose vagina sucked up air from without, 
 as appeared from the emission of air ceasing in the warm bath, and Dr. Monro 
 (secundus), likewise, was perfectly satisfied that the woman drew in the air. Any 
 canal supplying the place of vagina, however small, probably executes the same 
 absorbing action, or convey the influence of an absorbing action of the womb. 
 
 n Experimental Enquiry, &c. by John Haighton, M.D. Philos. Traits. 1797. 
 
 0 Haller, Elein. Physiol, and notes to Boerhaave, 1. c. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 481 
 
 authority of Hartsoeker, occurs even in the dead body by means 
 of injection. 
 
 Dr. Haighton, however, to prevent the semen from passing 
 along the tubes, divided one of them in virgin rabbits, and, after 
 the wound was healed, admitted the animal to the male. The 
 ovarium on this side contained corpora lutea equally with the 
 other, proving that the Graafian vesicles had burst, although the 
 semen could not possibly have reached the ovarium.P No foetus, 
 notwithstanding, was discoverable in any instance : on the other 
 side (for in the rabbit the uterus is double) foetuses were found 
 equal in number to the corpora lutea. Dr. Haighton concludes 
 that impregnation may take place without the advance of semen 
 along the tubes. And his conclusion is perfectly just, according 
 to his test of impregnation, — the escape of the contents of a 
 Graafian vesicle. But I apprehend this to be no more deserving 
 the title of a test of impregnation than the emission of the semen 
 masculinum. Impregnation is that change wrought by means of 
 the male semen in the contents of a Graafian vesicle, which enables 
 them to become a foetus. Now this was never effected when the 
 tube was divided : — although the presence of corpora lutea 
 proved vesicles to have burst, yet a foetus was in no one instance 
 discovered : in other words, the contents of the Graafian vesicles 
 were in no one instance impregnated. Hence I conclude, with the 
 old physiologists before the time of Harvey, that the conveyance 
 of semen beyond the vagina, — where it may come in contact 
 with the contents of an ovarian vesicle, is absolutely requisite to 
 impregnation ; and perhaps the state of the tubes during the heat 
 of some brutes (page 478), and the occasional growth of fcetuses 
 in the tubes, abdomen, and in the ovaria themselves, q render it 
 
 p The divided end of the tube was found totally impervious. The experi- 
 ment succeeded when one tube only was divided : the division of both deprived 
 the animal not only of fertility but of sexual desire, and caused the ovaries to 
 shrink, and even the division of one had this effect in some instances. If the 
 tube was divided after coition, the result was the same, provided the operation 
 was performed before the contents of the vesicles had entered it ; for, if too much 
 time had elapsed, the ova were transmitted to the uterus and grew to maturity. 
 
 q The foetus has frequently remained in the ovarium. See, for instance, the 
 Phil. Trans. 1680-3. and 1797 and 1820; also Schurig’s Embryologia, p.824. sq. 
 where Bohn, Grundius, Ortlob, Blasius, and Littre, are quoted. 
 
 Such cases do not militate against the probability of the approximation of the 
 semen masculinum to the ovarian contents being necessary for impregnation, 
 
432 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 likely that the semen passes even into the tubes. But Dr.Haigh- 
 ton’s experiments were unnecessary for this conclusion, because 
 pathological observation proves sterility to be an invariable con- 
 sequence of complete obstruction in any point between the os ex- 
 ternum and ovaria, — in the Fallopian tubes, in the uterus, or in 
 the vagina. r 
 
 When the obstruction in such cases is so far within as to allow 
 the deposition of the semen, the sterility disproves the notion of 
 Bartholin and Stenonis, — that this fluid operates by absorption. 
 
 3. Dr. Haighton imagines that the bursting of the vesicle is the 
 sympathetic effect of the semen in the vagina or uterus. s Now 
 
 because the tenuity of the vesicles, when ready for this operation, is such as we 
 may suppose presents no barrier to the influence of the male upon the female 
 fluid, especially if we reflect that oxygen and blood affect each other through a 
 piece of moistened bladder (Sect. II. (G). Indeedit is possible, even, that the vesicle 
 bursts and the two fluids come into actual contact, but that imperfect rupture or 
 some other cause detains the ovarian fluid till it has acquired permanent adhesions. 
 r Schurig, Gyncecologia, parsii. p. 172. Morgagni, Ruyscb, &c. &c. 
 
 Dr. Blundel has repeated his uncle’s experiments, with this variation, that 
 he produced the obstruction not in the tubes, but in the uterus or vagina. Impreg- 
 nation was of course equally prevented and the ovarian vesicles burst as usual. 
 Med. Chir. Trans, vol. x. 
 
 s “ That the semen first stimulates the vagina, os uteri, cavity of the uterus, 
 or all of them. 
 
 “ By sympathy, the ovarian vesicles enlarge, project, and burst. 
 
 “ By sympathy, the tubes incline to the ovaria, and having embraced them 
 convey the rudiments of the foetus into the uterus. 
 
 “ By sympathy, the uterus makes the necessary preparations for perfecting the 
 formation and growth of the foetus, and, 
 
 “ By sympathy, the breasts furnish milk for its support after birth.” 
 
 There is reason, however, from one passage, to suppose that Dr. Haighton 
 believes the semen to pass no farther than the vagina. After dwelling upon the 
 opinion opposite to his own, he says, “ The difficulties which were opposed to 
 the conveyance of the semen by the tubes, were, as we should expect, intended to 
 prepare the way for a different explanation ; therefore physiologists, by a very 
 natural transition of thought, were led to suppose that the presence of semen in 
 the vagina alone was sufficient to account for impregnation and he immediatelv 
 proceeds to relate his experiments. In fact I know this to be his opinion, because 
 in a MS. of his lectures that I rendered full and accurate by taking my notes in 
 Latin, I find it said of Haller for believing that the semen always enters the 
 uterus, “ Now it is surprising that a man like Haller should do so, who, from 
 his works would seem to form his opinions, in general, on sound reasoning and 
 lluysch’s cases are quite ridiculed, because this anatomist, “ being now of an age 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 483 
 
 although on the side where the tube was divided the ovarium did 
 discharge the contents of some vesicles, it is not proved to have 
 done this through the operation of the semen. The venereal 
 ardour alone was shown in the observations of Mr. Saumarez as 
 well as in those of Mr. Cruikshank (and the same has been re- 
 marked in the human female ) 1 to produce, among the other great 
 changes of the sexual organs, the enlargement of the vesicles. 
 Nay we are certain that it will occasion the rupture of the vesicle 
 without any commerce with the male. The hens of poultry lay 
 eggs (incapable indeed of being hatched), although separated 
 from the cock, — a circumstance proving that in them the oestrum 
 is sufficient to enlarge and burst a vesicle, apply the tube to the 
 ovarium, and occasion it to convey away an ovum. Aristotle and 
 Harvey relate that many birds lay eggs from mere titillation ; the 
 latter proved it experimentally in the thrush, in the sparrow, and 
 in a favourite parrot belonging to his wife. Blumenbach is satisfied 
 with the accuracy of the accounts which he has read of corpora 
 lutea in virgins, and since he wrote" we have been furnished with 
 abundant instances of their appearance in virgins not only of our 
 own kind but of quadrupeds. Sir Everard Horae* * asserts that 
 the corpus luteum is not a formation that fills up the cavity of a 
 ruptured vesicle, but a substance in which the ovum is produced, 
 and consequently no proof of conception. However this may be, 
 the case remains the same ; for he has repeatedly seen ovaria of 
 both human and quadruped virgins that had discharged ova. In= 
 deed he revives the old opinion of Kerckring,y — that ova grow 
 
 when most other people can see but little, set about looking for something won- 
 derful, and discovered what nobody had ever seen before, viz. semen in the uterus 
 and Fallopian tubes.” 
 
 * In the body of a young woman, eighteen years of age, who had been brought 
 up in a convent and had every appearance of being a virgin, Valisneri found five 
 or six vesicles protruding in one ovarium, and the corresponding Fallopian tube 
 redder and longer than usual, as he had frequently observed in brutes during 
 heat. Bonnet gives the history of a young lady who died furiously in love with 
 a man of low rank, and whose ovaria were turgid with vesicles of great size. 
 Blancaard, Schurig, Brendelius, Santorini, and Drelincourt, mention analogous 
 facts. Haller’s notes to Boerliaave’s Preelect. Acad. 
 
 u Spec. Physiol. &c. anno 17S8. quoted in 562. (note ‘.) 
 x Phil. Trans. 1819. 
 
 y Anthrop. Ichnogr. 1. 3. and 12. quoted by Schurig. “ Tam conjugatas 
 quam virgines haec ova saspissime excernunt, insensibiliter quidem, quia non 
 advertunt, nec quicquam de iis suspicantur.” 
 
 I I 2 
 
484 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 to maturity in succession and are discharged without copulation. 
 On this point I find it difficult in the present state of our know- 
 ledge to make up my mind ; but I think it pretty evident that, 
 although the semen has no share in bursting the ovarium, the 
 high excitement of copulation contributes very considerably to 
 it, since the inferior degree of excitement which occurs during 
 the heat of brutes and in the lascivious states of the human 
 virgin is sufficient frequently to effect the discharge of ova. It is 
 perhaps impossible otherwise to explain the fact that ova are so 
 commonly expelled from the ovaria, and impregnated whenever a 
 connection is arbitrarily or casually brought about. Hen pigeons, 
 if kept with males, lay not only at an earlier age, but all the year 
 round, instead of merely in the spring. 
 
 How the semen operates upon the ovarian secretion in fecund- 
 ating and in transmitting the paternal peculiarities, is a mystery 
 impenetrably concealed from human curiosity. 
 
 4. The rupture of the ovarium has been said not to occur till 
 some time subsequent to coition. 
 
 Dr. Haighton saw the ovaria of rabbits bursting at the end 
 of forty-eight hours, but never found any thing of regular form 
 before the sixth day. Mr. Cruikshank says that he saw no ova 
 in their tubes earlier than about the beginning of the third day. 
 
 (B) An instance of superfcetation of the description granted by 
 Blumenbach occurred to the late Mr. Blackaller of Weybridge. 
 A white woman of very loose character left her husband, and 
 some time afterwards returned pregnant to her parish, and was de- 
 livered in the workhouse of twins, “ one of which,” says Mr. 
 Blackaller, in an account which he sent me, “ was born of a darker 
 colour than I have usually observed the infants of negroes in the 
 West Indies ; the hair quite black, with the woolly appearance 
 usual to them, with nose flat and lips thick:” the second child had 
 all the common appearances of white children. Another is re- 
 corded by Dr. Dewees. z The mother was a servant in Mont- 
 gomery County, and, on the report that she was pregnant, a black 
 and a white man both ran away from the estate. Her mistress 
 was present at the birth of the black and the •white twins, and they 
 were afterwards often seen by Dr. Dewees. One occurred at 
 Rouen in 1806, in which there was a white and mulatto child, and 
 
 z Cox’s Philadelphia Medical Museum, vol. i. The case usually quoted also 
 occurred in America (South Carolina), and may be found in Bufl'ou. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 485 
 
 the woman, the chere amie of a white, confessed, on close examin- 
 ation, that she had twice yielded to the embraces of a negro when 
 she supposed herself four or five months advanced in pregnancy. 3 
 The case of a married negress, who one morning admitted a white to 
 her arms as soon as her black husband had risen, and produced a 
 blade and a mulatto, is recorded by Dr. Moseley as having oc- 
 curred within his own time at Jamaica. b The most recent was 
 recorded in 1821, by M. de Bouillon a negress brought forth a 
 negro and a mulatto child, and confessed having received the em- 
 braces of a white and a negro the same evening. 0 
 
 We may, therefore, agree with Pliny, d who asserts that “ Ubi 
 paululum temporis inter duos conceptus intercessit, utrumque 
 perficitur:” and believe his account of a girl in Proconnesus who 
 produced twins, one resembling her master, the other the bailiff, 
 having favoured both on the same day ; no less than the other 
 case of the same kind to which he alludes, and that there was 
 some foundation for the story of Hercules and Tphicles. 
 
 The uterus has been sometimes wanting, e sometimes destitute 
 of anterior opening, f and sometimes double,® in which last case 
 some imagine superfoetation possible at any period after the first 
 conception, provided each uterus have a distinct orifice. It has 
 been removed after inversion, and when diseased, and lives have 
 of late been saved by this operation. 11 
 
 A dissection is described by Dr. Granville 1 of a woman who had 
 borne eleven children, male and female, and who died soon after 
 being delivered of twins of both sexes. The right half only of 
 the uterus was found developed, the left extending scarcely half 
 an inch from the centre and shaped to a perfectly straight line : 
 
 a Annates de Montpellier, quoted in the Journal de Medecine , t. xii, 
 b Tropical Diseases, p. 111. 
 c Bulletin de la Faculte de Medecine, 1821. 
 
 Hist. Nat. vii. 9. 
 
 e Lieutaud, Sandifort, Morgagni, Stein, Theden, Schraucker, Engel. 
 f Louis. 
 
 8 Ephemerid. Natur. Curios. Dec. 3. Ann. 7 and 8. Obs. 35. Cent. 9. 
 Obs. 75. Phil. Trans, vol. iv. 1699. &c. &c. 
 
 Med. Facts and Observations, vol. iii. translated from the German. 
 h v. c. Newnham, Inversio TJten. Davis, ibid. T. Windsor, Med. Chir. 
 Trans, vol. x. &c. &c. 
 
 ' Phil. Trans. 1818. 
 
 i i 3 
 
486 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 the left tube and ovary did not exist. This proves, if the proof 
 were required, that one ovary is, like one testis, sufficient, not 
 only for procreation, but for the procreation of offspring of both 
 sexes. The writer thinks the case useful in proving also both 
 that twins and twins of different sexes may come from the same 
 ovary, contrary to the opinion of all physiologists, he says, except 
 Sir Everard Home. The not very uncommon fact, however, of 
 three or more children being produced at a birth, has always 
 proved the former circumstance, and the opinion, not held by Sir 
 Everard Elome, was relinquished a century ago. k 
 
 As each fcetus, where there are more than one, may possess a 
 separate placenta and chorion, and may come into the world soli- 
 tarily, at some months distance perhaps from the other delivery, 
 we see how easily practitioners may fancy a superfcetation, when 
 there is simply an expulsion of twins, triplets, &c. at different 
 periods. Still, I think, there can be no doubt of many cases of 
 the simultaneous birth of children apparently of different periods, 
 and of the birth of children apparently of the same period at in- 
 tervals of a few months. 1 
 
 (C) Mr. Bauer says he has detected the human ovum on the 
 eighth day from coition : that it consisted of two membranes: — 
 the external open throughout its length, but with its edges turned 
 inwards, like shells of the genus voluta ; the internal pointed at 
 one end and obtuse at the other, slightly contracted in the middle, 
 and containing, besides a slimy fluid, two globules that might be 
 moved by pressure, but quickly resumed their situations, and were 
 probably the rudiments of the heart and brain. m 
 
 (D) During fifty-seven years, above 78,000 women were deli- 
 vered at the Dublin Lying-in-Hospital, and the proportion of 
 women producing twins or more was about 1 in 57. 
 
 The proportion of males to females, about 10 to 9.“ 
 
 fc The doctrine of each ovarium furnishing a different sex, is indeed found in 
 Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, Lactantius — a superstitious father of the church, 
 Rhases, and Avicenna, but has been so long exploded, that Dr. Parsons, in his 
 Enquiry into the Nature of Hermaphrodites, p. 4S., written above eighty years 
 since, declares it “ cannot but seem obsolete before even a capacity of the lowest 
 class.” 
 
 1 See examples by Dr. Maton, Trans, of Coll, of Physicians, vol. v. 
 Foder4, Med. Legale, t. i. ; and by Dr. Dewees, Philad. Med. 2fus. vol. i. 
 
 m Phil. Trans. 1817. 
 
 n John Cross, Sketches of the Hfedical Schools of Paris, p, 192. 
 
AND PREGNANCY. 
 
 487 
 
 According to Dr. Hufeland the numbers in Germany are as 21 
 to 20, born from 1811 to 1820 inclusively. The number of males 
 exceeded that of females every year, and in the whole was 
 1,664,557, that of the females 1,590,510. 0 
 
 According to the registers of the lying-in-hospital of Paris, 
 during twenty years, 37,441 deliveries occurred ; in 36,922 of which 
 was only one child ; in 444, two ; and in 5 three. No greater 
 number occurred, nor even for forty years before, in the whole of 
 which sixty years were 108,000 deliveries. Of 53; twin deliveries, 
 taken at random from the list, 15 were of a boy and girl ; 13 were 
 of girls ; and 26 were of boys, — nearly half of the whole number . p 
 F our children are sometimes produced, and even five ; but this 
 is the highest number known, except in the case of the wax 
 matron, who, for a judgment, once lay in of as many as there are 
 days in the year. 
 
 There is a notion among the vulgar that if twins are of different 
 
 O o 
 
 sexes they cannot breed. This I know to be erroneous. 
 
 Some women produce more than one child at a birth repeatedly, 
 and Gottlob mentions one who blessed her husband with eleven 
 children at three births. 
 
 (E) Fourcroy is almost the only author who has examined the 
 blood of the foetus, <i and his observations, Berzelius remarks, 
 “ seem to have been made by chance, and not to be deduced from 
 any experiment “ credible authors have asserted that the eye 
 cannot distinguish between the arterial and venous blood of the 
 fcetus.” r Bichat could observe no difference in the arterial and 
 venous blood of the umbilical chords of several guinea-pigs ex- 
 amined while the mother's respiration was still continuing, after an 
 opening had been made into the abdomen, “ — les deux sangs 
 offroient une noirceur egale.” s So too in regard to dogsJ 
 
 Yet Dr. Jeffrey, 11 Dr. Chapman, x and Dr. Bostocky have seen the 
 arterial and venous blood differing in colour, and the latter declares 
 
 ° Edin. Phil. Journal, vol. iii. p. 296. sq. 
 p Edinb. Journal of lied. Science, Jan. 1827. p. 366. sq. 
 q Annales de Chimie, t. vii. p. 162. 
 r Animal Chemistry. Translation, p. 41. sq. 
 s Recherches Physiologiques, p. 271. 
 
 1 Anatomie Generate, t. ii. 344. 
 u De Placenta. 
 
 x Drs. Chapman and Rousseau, PhUadel. Journ. of the Medical and Physical 
 Sciences, No. 1. p. 182. 
 
 y Elements of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 199. 
 
 I I 4 
 
488 
 
 OF CONCEPTION 
 
 the difference to be so obvious that he “ feels surprised” at the 
 opinions of Bichat and Berzelius. 
 
 The changes in the blood can, however, be dispensed with 
 by the foetus much longer than by the adult. For respiration may 
 be deferred a considerable time after birth (as formerly men- 
 tioned, p. 129.), circulation continuing even although the placenta 
 has been expelled, especially if the temperature is maintained by 
 a warm-bath. When respiration has commenced, its continuance 
 is less dispensable, but for some time more so than subsequently. 
 
 In regard to the vascular connection between the mother and 
 child, Prevost and Dumas ascertained that the blood of the foetal 
 and adult goat totally differ in regard to the red particles, — that 
 these are much larger (as large again) in the foetus, just as Hewson 
 observed to be the case in the viper and chicken; see supra p.20. 
 
 So fine is the connection between the mother and foetus, that 
 madder, while it dyes the former, does not appear in the latter. 1 
 But prussiate of potass given to the mother is said to be detected 
 in the foetus. a 
 
 The chick, nevertheless, in the egg, cut off from all intercourse 
 with the mother, requires its blood to be purified by the external 
 air : for if the shell is varnished, the chick dies ; and if, during the 
 latter half of incubation, the shell is carefully opened, the chorion, 
 to use the language of Blumenbach, presents one of the most 
 splendid spectacles in the organic creation ; the arteries are seen 
 carrying blood of a bright scarlet, and the veins of a livid red. b 
 The foetus of the kangaroo has no vascular connection with the 
 mother, being surrounded by a kind of jelly, and is supplied with 
 external air by tubes opening into the uterus from without for 
 this express purpose. 
 
 In the wonderful world of insects, generation depends much, in 
 some instances, upon national circumstances. In a hive of bees, 
 for example, but one female has her sexual organs developed and 
 breeds ; the others of her sex labour only, unless she die, when 
 the hive feed up another with a richer sort of honey which 
 brings out the organs, and she becomes the new queen and breeds. 
 A smaller number of the hive are males, and do no work, but are 
 
 2 Dr. Chapman, 1. c. 
 
 a Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. v. 
 
 b Comparative Anatomy. Translated by Mr. Lawrence, § 375. 
 
ANIJ PREGNANCY. 
 
 489 
 
 destined solely to impregnate the queen, and her successors in 
 case of her death. And this, indeed, is a serious business. The 
 queen, a few days after her birth, takes an airing, in which she is 
 sure to meet with one of her swains, and he generally leaves his 
 organs in her and dies of his laceration in half an hour. Happily, 
 however, this single embrace impregnates all the eggs for two 
 years (though she lays about 1500 a month all the year round) 
 or perhaps for life. 
 
490 
 
 SECT. XL. 
 
 OF THE NISUS FOKMATIVUS. 
 
 583. Having simply described the phenomena of con- 
 ception, and the changes which constant observation proves to 
 occur both in the human ovum and the contained foetus during 
 pregnancy, we now proceed to those powers by which it 
 appears that the stupendous process of generation is effected. 
 
 584. Even in our memory some physiologists of reputation 
 have contented themselves with roundly asserting that true 
 generation never occurs, but that the whole human race pre- 
 existed in the genitals of our first parents, in the shape of 
 previously-formed germs which become evolved in succession. 
 
 Some of these imagined the germs to be the spermatic 
 animalcules of the male ; a others imagined them to exist in 
 the ovaries of the mother. b 
 
 585. This hypothesis of the successive evolution of germs 
 
 a See W. Fr. v. Gleichen, 1. c. 
 
 b v. c. The illustrious Haller, who plainly asserted, that all the viscera and 
 even the bones of the future foetus , nearly fluid indeed and therefore invisible, were 
 preformed, before conception, in the maternal germ. 
 
 In support of this hypothesis, he argued chiefly from the continuity of the 
 membranes and blood-vessels between the incubated chick and the yolk of the 
 egg. Opera Minora, t. ii. p. 418. sq. 
 
 But the more frequently I have demonstrated the phenomena of incubation in 
 the physiological class, the less strength have I found in this argument. 
 
 Nor can I sufficiently wonder how this great physiologist could so constantly 
 reject, as almost absurd, the inosculation, properly so called, of the vessels of the 
 chick with those of the yolk, while at the same time he admitted and defended a 
 perfectly similar inosculation in the connection of the human ovum with the 
 gravid uterus ! 
 
 See his Elem. Physiol. Lausaniue, 1788. t. viii. P. i. p. 94. comparing 
 p. 257. 
 
OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 
 
 491 
 
 pre-formed from the creation, must, if carefully examined, be 
 rejected. 0 
 
 Not only is the superfluous and useless creation, which is 
 supposed, of innumerable germs never arriving at evolution, 
 repugnant to reason, but so many preternatural conditions'* 
 and such a multiplication of natural powers 0 are assumed, that 
 it is perfectly irreconcileable with sound physiology. 
 
 Add to this, that, of the phenomena adduced in its favour, 
 no one is sufficiently consonant with truth to establish the hy- 
 pothesis/ 
 
 On the other hand, we have indubitable observations which 
 refute it directly and completely. 
 
 586. The less this hypothesis of evolution, as it is com- 
 monly termed, is found consonant with fact and the rules of 
 philosophising, the more strongly does the opposite opinion 
 recommend itself to our notice by its simplicity and cor- 
 respondence with nature, supposing as it does, not an evol- 
 ution of fictitious germina by conception, but a true generation 
 and gradual formation of a new conception from the hitherto 
 formless genital matter. 
 
 587. This true generation by successive formation has 
 been variously described by physiologists, but the following 
 we consider as the true account. 
 
 1. The matter of which organised bodies, and therefore the 
 human frame, are composed, differs from all other matter in 
 this, — - that it only is subject to the influence of the vital 
 powers. g 
 
 2. Among the orders of vital powers, one is eminently re- 
 markable and the least disputable of all, which, while it acts 
 
 c See L. P. Zweifel gegen die Entwickelungslheorie. — Aus der Franzosischen 
 Handsclirift von G. Forster. Gotting. 178S. Svo. 
 
 d v. Kant’s remarks on these, Crilik der Urtheilskraft, p. 37?. 
 
 e This defect I have shown at large, Handbuch der Naturgeschichte, p. 14. sq. 
 10th edit. 
 
 f Those who desire a fuller demonstration of this and other assertions but 
 briefly noticed in the present section, I refer to the work, iiber den Bildungslrieb. 
 3d edit. Gotting. 1791. Svo. 
 
 E See Chr. Girtanner, iiber das Kantische Prinzip fur die Naturgeschichte. 
 Gotting. 1796. 8vo. p, 14. sq. 
 
492 
 
 OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 
 
 upon that matter, hitherto shapeless but mature, imparts to it 
 a form regular and definite, although varying according to the 
 particular nature of the matter. 
 
 To distinguish this vital power from the rest, permit us to 
 designate it — nisus formativus. 
 
 3. The nisus formativus occurs to the genital matter , when 
 this is mature and committed to the uterus in a proper con- 
 dition and under proper circumstances, produces in it the 
 rudiments of conception, and gradually forms organs fitted for 
 particular purposes; preserves this structure during life, by 
 nourishing (455, sq.) the body; and reproduces, (459) as far 
 as it can, any part accidentally mutilated. 11 
 
 588. We therefore think it very probable that those 
 fluids which, during a successful coition, are thrown into the 
 cavity of the uterus (527, 533, 551), require a certain period 
 for becoming intimately mixed, acted upon, and matured ; 
 that, after this preparatory stage, the nisus formativus is 
 excited in them, vivifying and shaping the hitherto shape- 
 less spermatic matter partly into the beautiful containing 
 ovum (565) and partly into the contained embryo; (569) 
 and that this is the reason of our inability, notwithstanding 
 the present perfection of optical instruments, to discover, 
 during the first days after conception, any thing more than 
 shapeless fluids in the womb, without the faintest trace of 
 
 h Here allow me to make three remarks. 
 
 1. I have used the expression — nisus formativus, merely to distinguish it 
 from the other orders of vital powers, and by no means to explain the cause of 
 generation, that I consider equally involved in Cimmerian darkness as the 
 cause of gravitation or attraction, which are merely terms given to effects known, 
 like the nisus formativus, a posteriori. 
 
 2. The >vord nisus I have adopted chiefly to express an energy truly vital, and 
 therefore to distinguish it as clearly as possible from powers merely mechanical, 
 by which some physiologists formerly endeavoured to explain generation. 
 
 3. On the contrary, the point upon which the whole of this doctrine respecting 
 the nisus formativus turns, and which is alone sufficient to distinguish it from 
 the vis plastica of the ancients or the vis essentialis of C. Fr. Wolff and similar 
 hypotheses, is the union and intimate co-exertion of two distinct principles in the 
 evolution of the nature of organised bodies, — of the phvsico-mechanical with the 
 purely teleological , — principles which have hitherto been adopted but separately 
 by physiologists in framing theories of generation. 
 
OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 
 
 493 
 
 the form of an embryo, which, however, about the second or 
 third week, suddenly as it were, become observable. 
 
 589 . We should exceed the limits of these institutions, 
 were we to adduce many of the arguments which may be 
 drawn from facts, to illustrate, as in our opinion they most 
 clearly do, the influence of the nisus formativus in generation. 
 We will, however, venture to mention, as briefly as possible, 
 a few, whose weight will, on a little close reflection, be suffi- 
 ciently evident. 
 
 590 . Such, in the history of hybrid animals, is the sin- 
 gular experiment of impregnating those which are 'prolific, 
 for many generations, with male semen of the same species, 
 by means of which the form of the young hybrids becomes so 
 progressively different from the original maternal con- 
 figuration, as to approach more and more to that of the father, 
 till, by a kind of arbitrary metamorphosis, it is absolutely 
 converted into it . 1 
 
 591 . Such, in our knowledge of monsters (which, according 
 to the hypothesis of evolution, are nearly all maintained to 
 have pre-existed in the germs from the first creation), is the 
 well-known fact — that among certain domestic species of 
 animals, and especially among sows, monstrosities are very 
 common, whereas in the original wild variety they are ex- 
 tremely uncommon. 
 
 592 . While the phenomena of reproduction are all much 
 more explicable by the nisus formativus than by the pre- 
 existence of germs for every part, some particular instances 
 (v. c. that of the nails, which, after the loss of the first phalanx 
 of the fingers, have been known to be reproduced on the 
 neighbouring middle phalanx, k ) admit evidently of no other 
 solution. (A) 
 
 1 Jos. G. Kolreuter, Dritte Forsetzung der vorlauf. Ftachr. p. 51. sq. 
 
 k Recent instances of this remarkable phenomenon are related by Corvisart, 
 Journal de Med. March, 1809. 
 
 N. Ansiaux, Clinique Chirurgicale. Lyons, 1816. 8vo. p. 217. 
 
 London Medical mid Physical Journal. July, 1816. 
 
 Another example I owe to my friend F. Sig. Voigt, professor at Jena. 
 
 But the most remarkable case I myself saw in a young medical man, attending 
 
494 
 
 OF THE NISUS FORM ATI VUS. 
 
 593. From an impartial view of each side of the question, 
 it will clearly appear, that the defenders of the germs must 
 allow to the male semen, not only an exciting power, as they 
 do, but likewise great formative powers, and thus their 
 doctrine stands in need of the assistance of the nisus for- 
 mativus; while our explanation, on the contrary, is sufficient, 
 without the aid of pre-existing germs, to explain the pheno- 
 mena of generation. There can, consequently, be no reason 
 for multiplying the entia, as they are called, unneces- 
 sarily. (B) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) See other examples in Note (B) Sect. XXXI. 
 
 The cut part of half a potatoe has been seen covered with little 
 tubercles, similar to those on the convex surface, and from which 
 fresh potatoes originate. See Keratry, Inductions Physiolog. et 
 Morales. 
 
 (B) As in speaking of peculiar properties of any organ, Blumen- 
 bacli designates them vitce proprice, without any explanation, in- 
 tending merely the expression of the fact ; so, in designating the 
 power of the united genital male and female living fluids to 
 change to an organised system, nisus formativus, he simplj’ ex- 
 presses the fact of the existence of this power. 
 
 Although in man, and all animals which have two sexes, two 
 fluids co-operate, it would appear from the facts mentioned, 
 p. 479, that the proportion of the female fluid is much the greater ; 
 and, indeed, there is no certainty that the male fluid combines 
 with the female into a mass, — does more than influence it ; as eggs 
 are laid by birds without sexual intercourse, differing in no visible 
 particular from those which are prolific; and the germ of many 
 animals, also, particularly of the frog, is visible in the ovum before 
 fecundation. The influence of the male, however, is much more 
 
 my lectures, who, when with the French army, lost the last joints of three fingers of 
 the left hand, and two joints of the little finger, by frost, in the famous retreat to 
 Beresina. The following year horny rudiments of nails were reproduced on the 
 last phalanx but one of the fore, middle, and ring finger, but the little finger 
 remained as before. 
 
OF THE NISUS FOR1TATIVUS. 
 
 495 
 
 than to excite development, as the offspring more or less resem- 
 bles the male, and often in the most minute points. The 
 not uncommon occurrence of hair, teeth, and fat in the ovaria 
 of virgins, would be an argument for the existence of the pri- 
 mordia in the female, were they not found also sometimes in other 
 parts and in the testes of the male. 
 
 The supposition of the frame, if one may so speak, of the 
 future animal being furnished by the female, does not imply its 
 microscopic existence in her before the evolution of the ovaria, 
 nor of all mankind in Eve. The embryo has the power of grow- 
 ing and of developing organs; the genital fluids, of changing 
 to an embryo : but the power of developing organs does not imply 
 their previous microscopic existence in the embryo, nor the power 
 of changing to an embryo, the existence of an embryo. The 
 fancy of the existence of all the human race, inclosed like pill- 
 boxes — emboitement , in our hapless general mother, is as un- 
 founded in fact as it is preposterous. 
 
 Domestication has a great influence upon fecundity. The 
 sow, cat, and pigeon are by no means so prolific in the wild 
 state. The wild sow farrows but once a year, and has a litter 
 never of more than ten : the domestic sow commonly twice a 
 year, and perhaps each litter amounts to twenty-one. 1 How could 
 this difference occur, Blumenbach asks, if the young were merely 
 evolved from germs existing from the creation ? 
 
 Indeed, in this strange hypothesis there must have been an 
 uncommon store of germs prepared at the beginning, for the 
 ovaria of a single sturgeon have contained 1,467,500 ova. m 
 
 The nisus formativus produces a being generally resembling 
 the parents, but occasionally different. This subject will be fully 
 treated of in the note on the varieties of mankind. 
 
 It is not probable that the ardour of the procreants affects the 
 energy of the offspring. But from the days of Aristotle it 
 has been remarked that bastards are frequently endowed with 
 great genius and valour, and both ancient and modern history 
 certainly affords many such examples ; and the circumstance has 
 been commonly ascribed to the impetuosity of the parents during 
 
 1 Blumenbach, Comparative Anatomy, § 341. 
 m Petit, Mem. de V Acad, des Sciences, 1733. 
 
496 
 
 OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 
 
 their embraces. Shakspeare, in King Lear, introduces Edmund 
 bursting into this indignant soliloquy : — 
 
 “ Why bastard ? wherefore base ? 
 
 When my dimensions are as well compact. 
 
 My mind as generous, and my shape as true, 
 
 As honest madam’s issue ? Why brand they us 
 With base ? with baseness ? bastardy ? base ? base ? 
 
 Who in the lusty stealth of nature take 
 
 More composition and fierce quality 
 
 Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed 
 
 Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops 
 
 Got ’tween sleep and wake ? ” Act 1. Scene 2. 
 
 “ Hercules, Romulus, Alexander (by Olympia’s confession), 
 Themistocles, Jugurtha, King Arthur, William the Conqueror, 
 Homer, Demosthenes, P. Lumbard, P. Comestor, Bartholus, 
 Adrian the fourth Pope, &c. were bastards ; and in almost every 
 kingdom the most ancient families have been at first princes’ 
 bastards ; the worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, 
 bravest spirits in all our annals, have been base. Cardan, in his 
 subtleties, gives a reason, &c. — Corpore sunt et animo fortiores 
 spurii, plerumque ob amoris vehementiam, &c.” u 
 
 Were this explanation satisfactory, the first fruits of wedded love 
 would still generally be on an equality with illegitimate offspring. 
 If a greater proportion of illegitimate than of legitimate persons 
 have really rendered themselves illustrious, their superior energy 
 may be attributed to the strength of their parents’ constitutions, 
 it not being likely that the weak and delicate so frequently 
 become the prey of unlawful passions as the vigorous, and to the 
 necessity in which such individuals usually find themselves to rely 
 upon their own exertions. Their native excellence was at least 
 not acknowledged by Moses. “ A bastard shall not enter into 
 the congregation of the Lord ; even to his tenth generation shall 
 he not enter into the congregation of the Lord .” 0 
 
 ” Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, vol. ii. p. 16. sq. 
 
 Vanini exclaims, “ O utinam extra legitimum et connubialem thorum essem 
 procreatus ! Ita enim progenitores mei in venerem incaluissent ardentius, accu- 
 mulatim affatimque generosa semina contulissent, e quibus ego forma; blanditiam 
 et elegantiam, robustas corporis vires, mentemque innubilem, consequutus 
 fuissem. At quia conjugatorum sum suboles, bis orbatus sum bonis.” Dc 
 Admirandis Naturce. Parisiis, 1616. 
 
 0 Deuteronomy, xxiii. 2. 
 
OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 
 
 497 
 
 The vulgar are satisfied that mental impressions made upon the 
 mother may affect the offspring. Credulous, as I may seem, I do 
 confess that so many extraordinary coincidences, both in the human 
 and the brute subject, have come to my knowledge, that I dare not 
 affirm the common belief to be unfounded. That neither all nor most 
 malformations can be thus explained, that pregnant women are 
 frequently alarmed without such consequences, even when most 
 dreaded, and that highly ridiculous resemblances are fancied to 
 preceding longings and alarms which were forgotten or may be 
 well suspected to have never existed, is incontestable. But, in 
 other matters, when a circumstance may proceed from many 
 causes, we do not universally reject any one because it is fre- 
 quently alleged without reason. How those who believe the 
 Divine authority of every part of their Bible can reconcile the 
 success of Jacob’s stratagem p (so anciently was the opinion com- 
 mon) with their contempt for the vulgar belief, they best can 
 tell. <i 
 
 A curious fact is recorded by the present Earl of Morton. 
 His lordship bred from a male quagga and a mare of seven- 
 eighths Arabian blood, a female hybrid, displaying in form and 
 colour her mixed origin. The mare was given to Sir Gore Ouseley, 
 who bred from her first a filly and then a colt, by a fine black 
 Arabian horse; but both these in their colour and in the hair of 
 their manes strongly resembled the quagga. The resemblance 
 appears to have been rather less in the colt than in the filly. Dr. 
 Wollaston soon afterwards learnt a similar fact in the case of a 
 sow, which, after littering by a boar of the wild breed, was put, 
 
 p “ And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut 
 tree ; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was' in 
 the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters 
 in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive 
 when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought 
 forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.” Genesis, xxx. 
 
 q The paragraph above was published in the former edition, and since then 
 Sir Everard Horae also has supported the vulgar opinion and given some examples 
 in the Phil. Trans. 1825. p.75. sqq. Indeed, he and Mr. Bauer think that they 
 have even discovered nerves in the placenta, around the umbilical arteries, and 
 in the maternal part of the placenta. A remarkable and most authentic case has 
 just been published by Mr. Bennett, in the Land. Med. and Physic. Journal for 
 July last. A woman gave birth to a child with a large cluster of globular tumors 
 growing from the tongue and preventing the closure of the mouth, in colour, 
 shape, and size, exactly resembling our common grapes ; and with a red ex- 
 
 it K 
 
4*98 
 
 OF THE NISUS FORMAT1VUS. 
 
 long after the death of this, to a boar of a different breed, and 
 produced pigs, some of which were marked like the first boar ; and 
 even in a second litter by a third boar, some slightly resembled 
 the first- r 
 
 M. Girou Buzareingues mentions that a violent blow was given 
 to a bitch while being lined ; that she was paraplegic for some 
 days, and when she produced her eight pups, all, excepting one, 
 had the hind legs wanting, malformed, or weak . 8 
 
 crescence from the chest as exactly resembling in figure and general appearance 
 a turkey’s wattles. On being questioned before the child was shown her, she 
 answered, that while pregnant she had seen some grapes, longed intensely for 
 them, and constantly thought of them, and once was attacked by a turkey-cock. 
 Both growths were successfully removed, and Mr. Bennett has been kind enough to 
 allow me to see them. 
 
 The circumstance of longing during pregnancy is rather curious. The stomach 
 sympathises so strongly with the uterus, that many women experience nausea 
 or even vomiting, chiefly in the morning, soon or immediately after conception, 
 and perhaps during several of the first months : occasionally during the latter 
 months only : some during the whole of pregnancy. Many long for certain nice 
 articles of food, and become much distressed if not gratified ; but others for coals, 
 sealing-wax, flax, tar, chalk, raw meat, and live fish. Tulpius mentions a lady 
 having devoured 1400 herrings in her pregnancy. But Ludovicus Vives tells us 
 of a woman who longed for a bite in the back of a young man’s neck, and would 
 have miscarried if not gratified; and Langius, of another who had set her heart 
 upon biting a baker’s shoulder, which she saw bare and white as he carried his 
 bread to the oven every morning. The husband bribed the baker at so much each 
 bite. The poor fellow stood two very manfully, but when a third was talked of, 
 his courage failed. A woman at Andernach on the Rhine longed for her hus- 
 band, and is declared to have murdered him, ate what she could, and salted the 
 rest. Shenkius, 1. c. cle Gravidis. 
 
 r Phil. Trans. 1821, P. 1. 
 
 s Journal de Physiol, t. vii. 
 
499 
 
 SECT. XLI. 
 
 OF LABOUR AND ITS SEQUELAE. 
 
 594. The foetus, formed by the powers already described, 
 and being now perfect and at the period of maturity, has to 
 come into the world by means of labour. a 
 
 595. This critical period occurs naturally (and physiology 
 treats solely of natural occurrences) at the end of the tenth 
 lunar month from conception, i. e. about the 39th or 40th 
 week. (A) 
 
 596. At that time, the pregnant woman is impelled to bring 
 forth by an absolute necessity, less under the influence of the 
 will than any other voluntary function (287). 
 
 597. Physiologists have differed in their explanations of 
 the causes of so determinate and sudden an event. After all, 
 the exciting cause of labour must be ascribed to an established 
 law of nature, hitherto equally inexplicable with so many other 
 periodical phenomena ; v. c. the metamorphosis of insects, the 
 stages of exanthematic fevers, crises, & c. & c., nor has the 
 mature ovum been inaptly compared, cceteris paribus, to fruit, 
 which, when ripe, falls almost spontaneously to the ground, 
 from the constriction of those vessels which previously con- 
 veyed its nourishment. And in fact it has been remarked 
 that the human placenta, at the approach of labour, is con- 
 tracted, and, as it were, prepared for its separation from the 
 uterus. 
 
 What is usually urged respecting the utmost expansion of 
 the uterus, and other similar excitements to labour, is refuted 
 by many circumstances, and, among the rest, by the numerous 
 examples of extra-uterine, whether tubal or ovarian, concep- 
 
 a Fr. B. Osiander, Handbucli der Entbindungskunst, t. ii. P. i. 
 
 K K 2 
 
5 00 
 
 OF LABOUR AND ITS SEQUEL2E. 
 
 tions, in which, at the expiration of ten months from impreg- 
 nation, the uterus, notwithstanding its vacuity, is seized with 
 the customary, though indeed fruitless, pains. b 
 
 598. Besides this exciting cause, other very powerful effi- 
 cient causes are requisite, as must be manifest from the relation 
 of the ovum to the uterus. 
 
 We are persuaded that the proximate and primary cause, is 
 solely the vita propria of the uterus. (42. 547) c 
 
 Among the remote, the most important appears to be the 
 respiratory effort excited principally by the great connection d 
 of the intercostal nerve with the rest of the nervous system. 
 
 599. We formerly noticed (582) that, in the latter periods 
 of pregnancy, the uterus somewhat subsided, by which cir- 
 cumstance the form of the abdomen is a little changed and 
 the inconveniences induced during advanced pregnancy in 
 the function of respiration are relieved. At the same time, 
 the vaginal mucus (543) is secreted more abundantly, the 
 vagina itself is relaxed, the columns of rugae are almost 
 obliterated, and the labia pudendi swell ; finally, near the 
 approach of labour, the os uteri gradually dilates into a circu- 
 lar opening. 
 
 600. The phenomena of labour generally observe a regular 
 order of commencement and progress, e whence accoucheurs 
 have divided them into stages, of which the moderns enumerate 
 four or five, although they define them variously. 
 
 601. In the Jirst, the true pains occur, peculiar in their 
 nature, proceeding from the loins in the direction of the 
 lower parts of the uterus (recurring, at intervals, indeed, 
 during the wdiole of labour, with various degrees of violence 
 and frequency), mild in the beginning, at which time they are 
 called 'warning and the os uteri begins evidently to dilate. 
 The abdomen now falls still more, the urine is urgent, and 
 abundance of mucus flows from the soft and tumid genitals. 
 
 b I have recorded a remarkable instance of this kind in the Comment. Soc. 
 Scient. Gotlingens. vol. viii. 
 
 c Gonsult J. De Gorter, de actione viventium particulari, p. 38. 
 
 d v. Camper, Demonst. anat. pathol. L. ii. p. 9. 
 
 e v. Smellie, Set of anatomical tables, tab. xi. — xv. 
 
OF LABOUR AND ITS SEQUELS. 
 
 501 
 
 602. In the second , the pains, increasing, are called prepar- 
 ing, and, by the compressing effect of the respiratory organs, 
 a strong inspiration, &c., a segment of the lower part of the 
 membranes of the ovum is protruded through the uterine 
 orifice into the vagina. 
 
 603. In the third, the pains, becoming more excruciating, 
 are called labour pains, and act with still more violence upon 
 the uterus, which is driven downwards and compressed 
 against the foetus, so that the protruded segment of mem- 
 branes becomes extremely tense, is burst asunder, and the 
 greater part of the liquor amnii escapes. 
 
 604. Finally, in the fourth and last stage, the pains, becom- 
 ing dreadfully violent and agitating , f are accompanied by great 
 exertions of the woman herself ; almost always too by shiver- 
 ing, shrieking, tremor of the knees, &c. The head of the 
 child, now on the verge of birth, penetrates, and the face first 
 appears, the vertex usually remaining under the arch of the 
 pubes and the rest of the head in the mean time being farther 
 propelled, and revolving around the impacted vertex as 
 around an axis. Thus the child comes into the world, in the 
 midst of a red discharge, consisting of a second portion of the 
 liquor amnii mixed with blood. 
 
 605. Soon after the expulsion of the child, the delivery of 
 the secundines in the fftli stage commences, attended by a 
 painful though much less violent exertion, and followed by 
 another hemorrhage from that part of the cavity of the 
 womb s to which the placenta had adhered by means of the 
 decidua crassa. h 
 
 f Although, even among my own countrywomen, the symptoms described 
 under these four stages vary greatly in violence and proportionate duration ; 
 nevertheless, however naturally they take place, they universally (excepting 
 some extremely rare cases) so far surpass, even under the most favourable 
 circumstances, the pains experienced by domestic brutes in their labours, that 
 I trust no one who has frequently witnessed labours in both, will seriously doubt 
 the immense difference between them in this respect. 
 
 E B. S. Albinus, Tab. uteri gravidi, vii. 
 
 Wm. Hunter, Anat. of the gravid uterus, tab. x. fig. 3. 
 
 b Nic. Massam and all since his time denominate this portion of the interior 
 of the womb, during or shortly after pregnancy, the cotyledons, from the analogous 
 
 K K 3 
 
502 
 
 OF LABOUR AND ITS SEQUELS. 
 
 606. Immediately that both burthens are expelled, the 
 uterus begins gradually to contract, until it acquires its ori- 
 ginal form and very nearly its original dimensions. 
 
 607. For about a week after labour, the lochia are dis- 
 charged, for the most part very similar to the catamenia, but 
 rather more copious, especially if the mother does not suckle 
 her offspring. About the sixth day their red colour becomes 
 fainter, and afterwards changes to white. 
 
 At the same time the uterus is liberated from the remain- 
 ing shreds of the decidua, and, having thus completed the 
 function of pregnancy, is again ready for menstruation or 
 conception. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 (A) It was formerly believed that pregnancy might be extended 
 to twelve months and even two years. With all deductions for 
 error and temptation, I think a few satisfactory modern cases are 
 recorded of its protraction to one, two, and even eight weeks be- 
 yond the fortieth.* 
 
 appearance observable in the gravid uterus of sheep or goats, in which similar 
 cavities ( acetabula ) exist, receiving what are called the glandular corpuscles of 
 the chorion that correspond with the foetal portion of the human placenta. 
 
 Whatever was hollow, like an acetabulum, was called kotv \ t ] by the ancients. 
 Vide J. Cammerarii Comm, utriusque lingua, p. 256. 384. 
 
 1 See Dr. Smellie’s Treatise on the theory ajid practice of ^Midwifery ; Dr. Bartley’s 
 Treatise on Forensic Medicine, &c. Bristol. Foder6 declares, that to his own 
 certain knowledge his wife went ten months and a fortnight in her two first preg- 
 nancies. M. Dulignac, long a surgeon- major, declared on a trial, that in regard 
 to his three last children his wife was pregnant thirteen months and two weeks 
 with two, and eleven months with the other ; and that he had discovered each 
 of these pregnancies between the fourth and fifth months by the motion of the 
 child and watched them all to their termination. Fodei'6, Mid. Legale, t. ii. 
 
 That there is great variety among brutes was known to the ancients, but M. 
 Teissier has made very extensive observations on this point : — Of 160 cows, 14 
 calved from the end of the 8th month to 8 months and 26 days ; 3 on the 270th 
 day ; 50 from the 270th to the 280th ; 68 from the 2S0th to the 290th ; 20 on 
 the 300th; 5 on the 3S0th. He obtained similar results with 202 mares, 130 
 sows, and 139 rabbits. M. Darcet found that in the same hen’s nest, 1 egg 
 hatched on the 13th day ; 2 on the 17th ; 3 on the 18th ; 5 on the 19th. (Fodere. ) 
 
503 
 
 SECT. XLII. 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 608 . The breasts, most sacred fountains, and, as Gellius 
 Favorinus the philosopher elegantly calls them, the rearers 
 ( educatores ) of the human race, are intimately connected with 
 the uterus in various ways. The functions of neither can 
 properly be said to exist during infancy ; at puberty, both 
 begin to flourish, — when the catamenia appeal’, the breasts 
 assume some degree of plumpness ; from that period they 
 undergo either simultaneous changes, — the breasts beginning 
 to swell and secrete milk during the pregnancy of the womb; 
 or alternate changes, — the catamenia ceasing while the child 
 is suckled, or the lochia becoming copious if the child is not 
 suckled, and s.p. Finally, when age creeps on, the function 
 of each absolutely ceases, — when the catamenia disappear, 
 both the uterus and the breasts become equally inert. I omit 
 pathological phenomena ; v. c. those which occur in irregular 
 menstruation, leucorrhcea, after extirpation of the ovaria, and 
 in other morbid affections. 
 
 609. If this intimate connection is kept in view, we shall 
 not be astonished that nearly every description of sympathy 
 formerly mentioned (56) exists between these organs of the 
 female thorax and abdomen. a 
 
 610. The influence of the anastomotic sympathy between 
 the internal mammary and epigastric artery, b although for- 
 merly overrated, c is evinced by the change which the latter 
 
 a J. Anemaet, De mirabili qucz mammas inter et uterum intercedit sympathia. 
 LB. 1784. 4to. 
 
 b Eustachius, tab. xxvii. fig. 1 2. 
 
 Haller, Icon • anat. fasc. vi. tab.i. 
 
 c As G. R. Boehmer properly remarks, De consensu Uteri cum mammis caussa 
 actis dubia. Lips. 1750. 4to. 
 
 K K 4 
 
504 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 experiences in its diameter during pregnancy and suck- 
 ling. (A) 
 
 611. Both the uterus and mammas appear to have a kind 
 of affinity for the chyle, observable in many diseases, and 
 nearly always in new-born children. 
 
 612. The breast of women, d belonging to the most charac- 
 teristic marks of the human female both by its form during 
 the flower of age and by the longer continuance of this form 
 after the period of suckling than occurs in any other female 
 animal, is composed of a placentiform series of conglomerate 
 glands, divided by numerous furrows into larger lobes, and, 
 as it were, buried in a mass of fat ; the anterior part swells 
 out particularly with a firmer description of fat over which the 
 skin is exceedingly thin. 
 
 613. Each of these lobes is composed of still smaller lobes, 
 and these of acini, as they are termed, to which the extreme 
 radicles® of the lactiferous ducts adhere, deriving a chylous 
 fluid from the ultimate twigs of the internal mammary ar- 
 teries. 
 
 614. These radicles, gradually uniting, f form large trunks, 
 corresponding in number with the lobes, — fifteen or more 
 in each breast. These are every where dilated into large 
 sinuses, but have no true anastomosis with each other. 6 
 
 615. These trunks terminate in very delicate excretory 
 canals, that are collected, towards the centre, by means of 
 cellular substance, into the nipple f which, supplied with ex- 
 tremely fine blood-vessels and nerves, is capable of a peculiar 
 erection on the approach of certain external stimuli. 
 
 616. The nipple is surrounded by the a f cola, 1 which, as 
 
 d A. 11. Kolpin, De structure mammarum. ' Griphisw. 1765. 4to. 
 
 Athan. Joannidis, Physiologies mammarum muliebrium sj>ecimen. Hal. 
 1801. 4 to. 
 
 e v. C. A. Covolo’s two plates at the end of Santorini’s posthumous tables. 
 
 f v. Mich. Girardi, tab. i. annexed to the same plates of Santorini. 
 
 E J. Gotti. Walter, Observ. Anat. p. 33. sq. 
 
 ” Santorini, tab. posth. viii. 
 
 Ruysch, Thes. i. tab. iv. fig. 4. 
 
OF THE MILK. 
 
 505 
 
 well as the nipple, is remarkable for the colour k of the reti- 
 culum under the cuticle, 1 and contains sebaceous follicles. m 
 
 617. The secretion of the breast is the milk , well known in 
 colour, watery, somewhat fatty, rather sweet, bland, resem- 
 bling in all respects the milk of domestic animals, but subject 
 to infinitely greater varieties in the proportion of its con- 
 stituent parts, far more difficult of coagulation from the great 
 quantity of essential salt, to be spoken of presently, which it 
 contains, and affording no trace of volatile alkali. n 
 
 618. When coagulated by means of alcohol, it presents 
 the same elements as the milk of other animals. Besides the 
 aqueous halitus wdfich it gives off when fresh and warm, the 
 serum, separating from the caseous part, contains sugar of 
 milk ° and acetic acid mixed with phosphate of lime and of 
 magnesia, and with oil and mucus. The butyraceous cream 
 is said to consist of globules of various and inconstant size, 
 their diameter ranging between and g-jyo of a line. p (B) 
 
 619. The analogy between chyle and blood, and between 
 both these fluids and milk, q renders it probable that the milk 
 is a kind of chyle reproduced, or rather again separated from 
 the blood before its complete assimilation. This idea is 
 
 k In pregnant women, especially during the first pregnancy, the nipples are 
 usually yellow. 
 
 In the Samojede females, even when virgins, Klingstaedt asserts that they are 
 quite black. Mem. sur les Samojedes et les Lappons, p. 44. 
 
 1 B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. L iii. tab. iv. fig. 3. 
 m Morgagni, Advers. Anat. i. tab. iv. fig. 2. 
 
 n FI. J. Voltelen (Prtes. Hahn), Be lade humano observationes chemicee. 
 LB. 1775. 4 to. 
 
 Parmentier and Deyeux, Precis d’ Experiences et observations sur les differentes 
 especes dulait. Strasburg, 1798. 8vo. 
 
 Thenard, Annates de Chimie, t. lix. p. 262. 
 
 0 Marc. L. Williamoz, Be sale laclis essentiali. LB. 1756. 4to. 
 p Senac. Tr. du cceur, vol.ii. p.276. ed.2. 
 
 Fr. v. P. Gruithuisen, Untersuch. iiber den Unlerschied zwischen Biter und 
 Schleim durch das Microscop. Munich. 1809. 4to. p. 16. fig. 15. 
 
 4 Consult J. Theod. Van de Kasteele, Diss. de analogia inter lac et sanguinem . 
 
 LB. 1780. 4to. 
 
 And Alex. Wilson on the analogy between milk and chyle, Observations relative 
 to the influence of the climate, p. 97. sqq. 
 
506 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 strengthened by the frequent existence in the milk of the par- 
 ticular qualities of food previously taken, r and by the chylous 
 appearance of the watery milk secreted during pregnancy and 
 immediately after labour. s 
 
 620. The reason why this bland nourishment of the foetus 
 becomes more thick and rich by continued suckling, is pro- 
 bably the abundance of lymphatics in the breasts. Those 
 vessels continually absorb more of the serous part of the milk, 
 in proportion as its secretion is more copious and of longer 
 standing, and, by again pouring this part into the mass of 
 blood, promote the secretion (4*77) : after weaning they take 
 up the remaining milk and mix it with the blood. 
 
 621. The milk is secreted in greatest quantity immediately 
 after delivery ; and, if the infant sucks, amounts to one or two 
 pounds every twenty-four hours, until the menses, which 
 usually cease during suckling, (556) return. 
 
 Occasionally virgins, and new-born infants of either sex, 
 nay even men, 1 as well as the adult males of other mam- 
 malia, u have been known to furnish milk. 
 
 622. The abundance of milk excites its excretion, and even 
 causes it to flow spontaneously : but pressure, or the suction 
 of the child, completes its discharge. (D) 
 
 1 v. Among a host of witnesses, Kulpin in Pallas’s Neuen nordischen Bey- 
 trdgen , vol. ii. p. 343. 
 
 s Many circumstances induce me to believe that the lymph of the absorbents is 
 of much importance in the secretion of milk. 
 
 For instance, the swelling of the subaxillary glands almost always observable 
 during the first months of pregnancy. 
 
 But especially the remarkable fact, — that, in advanced pregnancy, when, from 
 the womb compressing by its size the large and numerous lumbar plexuses of 
 lymphatics, the legs have swollen, this oedematous tumour so completely dis- 
 appears immediately after labour that the calves of the legs almost hang flaccid 
 from the lymph finding no impediment in the lumbar plexuses and rushing 
 upwards, and a copious secretion of milk instantly ensues upon the passage of the 
 lymph. 
 
 The momentary thirst (3S0) experienced on applying the child to the breast, 
 from the absorption of fluid in the fauces, may be also mentioned. 
 
 1 This is asserted to be common in Russia. Comment. Bead. sc. Petropolit. 
 vol. iii. p. 278. sq. (C) 
 
 0 I have spoken of this at large in the Hannoverisck. Afagazin, 17S7, p.753.sqq. 
 
OF THE MILK. 
 
 507 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Women, it is said, have had three, four, and even five 
 breasts : in triangular arrangement ; one under another on one 
 side, or on both sides ; all in a line : the supernumerary ones on the 
 back ; or, in the case where there were five, one under another 
 on each side, and the fifth below all, and in the centre, five inches 
 above the navel. x 
 
 A woman lives at present at Marseilles, with a third perfect 
 breast, four inches below the great trochanter of the left thigh. 
 This gave milk like the other two, and though she never had but 
 one child she continued a wet-nurse for six years. Her own child 
 sucked this femoral breast for three and thirty months, putting his 
 little head under his mother's petticoats and standing or kneel- 
 ing during the business. This woman’s mother had also a third 
 breast, but it was placed on the left side of the chest, and was 
 sucked in common with the others by seven children, y 
 
 I am not acquainted with the dissection of any such cases, but 
 if it is not probable that in the latter, a direct anastomosis exists 
 between the uterine vessels and those of this breast, the influence 
 of the arterial communication in ordinary cases may appear still 
 further improbable. 
 
 The case reminds me of a monstrosity in the same situation as 
 this, — the thigh of a boy, aged fourteen ; seen by Zacchias’s friend, 
 Balthassar Bonannus, “ vir humanitate et doctrina insignis.” z But 
 instead of a breast, there was a female pudendum, labia, hair, and 
 rima : on separating the labia, no opening appeared. 
 
 (B) The lower portion of cows’ milk which had stood some days 
 was found by Berzelius a to have a specific gravity of 1.033, and 
 to contain 
 
 Water - 
 
 Cheese with a trace of butter 
 Sugar of milk 
 Muriate of potash 
 Phosphate of potash 
 
 928.75 
 
 28.00 
 
 35.00 
 
 1.70 
 
 0.25 
 
 x Dictionnaire ties Sciences Medic. Art. Cas rares. 
 y Magendie’s Journal de Physiologie, Janvier, 1827. 
 z Queest. Med. Legates, p. 503. 
 a Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, vol. iii. 
 
508 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 Lactic acid, acetate of potash, with a trace 
 
 | 6.00 
 
 0.30 
 
 of lactate of iron 
 Earthy phosphates 
 
 1000.00 
 
 The supernatant cream contained : 
 
 Butter 
 
 Cheese 
 
 Whey 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.5 
 92.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 We have seen the analogy between vegetables and animals 
 in structure and function, as well as in elementary and proxi- 
 mate principles. The secretions of both may be innocuous 
 or deleterious. The most remarkable analogy in secretion re- 
 spects milk. In South America, Humboldt saw a tree that, 
 if wounded, yields abundance of rich milk, which the negroes 
 drink and grow fat upon, and which affords a caseous coagulum. 
 The tree grows on the barren rock ; has coriaceous dry leaves ; 
 for several months is not moistened by a shower, and its branches 
 appear dry and dead : yet, if an incision is made in its trunk, the 
 milk pours forth. This “ sweet vegetable fountain” is most copious 
 at sun-rise, and the blacks and natives are then seen hastening 
 from all quarters with bowls to the eoxv-tree. 
 
 (C) Mr. Wentzel met with an old Chipewyan, who, on losing 
 his wife in child-birth, had put the infant to his breast and 
 earnestly prayed that milk might flow, and had actually been happy 
 enough to see sufficient produced to enable him to rear the child. 
 The Indian was now old, but the left breast still retained the un- 
 usual size acquired by nursing. b 
 
 A parallel instance is recorded by a Bishop of Cork. His lord- 
 ship had given half-a-crown to a poor Frenchman above seventy 
 years of age, who made the best return he could by showing his 
 lordship what he knew must be a curiosity, — two very large breasts, 
 with nipples larger than the bishop had ever seen in a woman; 
 and related that, his wife dying when his child was two months 
 old, he endeavoured to pacify it at night by putting it to his 
 
 Capt. Franklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Polar Sea, p. 157. sq. 
 
OF THE MILK. 
 
 509 
 
 breast, and at length milk actually came, so that he suckled and 
 brought it up. c 
 
 A lamb, belonging to Sir William Lowther, having lost its 
 mother, sucked a wether “ and brought him to milk and was 
 maintained by him all the summer : he had two considerable teats 
 on his udder, each side whereof was about the bigness of a hen’s 
 egg,” and the milk was made to spurt to a distance of two yards 
 a month after the lamb was weaned. d 
 
 Blumenbach has described a lie-goat which it was necessary to 
 milk every other day for a year ; e so that, to say with Virgil, 
 mulgeat hircos, is not tantamount to calling a man a fool. 
 
 A bull which had been put to cows successfully, but had also 
 female organs, though the vagina was apparently too small to have 
 ever admitted the male organ, gave milk, according to satisfactory 
 testimony. f 
 
 I myself saw two married women with milk in their breasts, 
 one of whom had never been pregnant, but always menstruated 
 regularly, and said this had been the case for nine months ; the 
 other had not been pregnant for upwards of six years, had weaned 
 her child, and at the end of seven months miscarried, and said 
 she had immediately afterwards observed the milk, which had been 
 secreted for six months, and was increasing at the time I saw her. 
 
 I also attended a young single lady, whom I believe never to 
 have been pregnant, but who was subject to amenorrhcea, and had 
 then not menstruated for five months, and laboured, apparently, 
 under ovarian disease : milk oozed very copiously from her 
 breasts, and the medical attendant informed me that the left 
 had secreted it for many months, s 
 
 (D) It may be worth while here to take a general view of the 
 subject of generation. 
 
 c Phil. Trails, vol. xli. p.813. 
 
 d Phil. Trans. No. 214. p.263. 
 
 e Hannoverisck. Magazin, 1787, p. 753. Comparat. Anat. § 364. 
 
 f Phil. Trans. 1799, p. 171. sq. See supra, p. 419. n. '. 
 
 E In the Phil. Trans, abridged, vol. ix. p. 206. sq. is an instance seen by Dr. 
 Stack, in Tottenham Court Road, of an old woman of sixty-four, who had not 
 borne a child for sixteen years, secreting milk after repeatedly applying her 
 grandchild to her breasts for the purpose of quieting it, and continuing to furnish 
 milk in great abundance up to the time of the narration, — four years, to the 
 children of her daughter, who, finding her mother so useful, “ was emboldened 
 to bid fair for an increase of issue, which till then, she knew not how to nourish 
 or provide for.” 
 
 h See Cuvier Lefons d’ Anatomie compares, t.v. Generation. 
 
510 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 Life never occurs spontaneously in matter, but is always pro- 
 pagated from an organised system already endowed with it. Such 
 at least, appears to be the inevitable conclusion from the facts 
 within our observation. No instance has been known of a plant 
 or animal of any species, whose mode of multiplication may be 
 always easily examined, springing up spontaneously ; and although 
 in many other cases the origin often cannot be discovered, yet 
 surely our inability to discover the mode of propagation does not 
 justify us in denying the existence of it; but, the general analogy, 
 the discovery of the modes in which many species propagate 
 which were formerly adduced as instances of spontaneous gene- 
 ration ; the generation of oviparous or viviparous animals, actually 
 observable in some species, whose existence in this particular 
 residence is inexplicable (as certain entzoa found in the cellular 
 texture),’ and the occasionally manifest source of the difficulties 
 which obstruct our enquiries, lead necessarily to the belief, - ' not 
 of the unreality of the fact, but of our deficient penetration. I 
 will recur to this subject in the last note to Sect. XLIV. 
 
 The simplest mode of increase is by the detachment and inde- 
 pendent existence of a portion of a system. In this way trees, k 
 polypes, some worms, and many animalcules , 1 multiply. 
 
 * Cuvier Rcgne Animal, t. iv. p. 2. In the disease of wheat, called the purple, 
 Mr. Bauer has discovered innumerable animalcules in the seed. Their presence 
 appeared inexplicable, yet he found them multiply by viviparous generation. 
 But the difficulty was solved by placing a quantity of them in the depression at 
 the back of a healthy seed, and sowing this ; when he found the stem of the new 
 plant filled with them. Phil. Trans. 1S23. Some animalcules are endowed 
 with so small a sense of delicacy, that three individuals co-operate at procreation. 
 Sennebier’s Introduction to his translation of Spallanzani’s Opusc. dijisica animate 
 e vegetabile, Sec. p.lxxvi. 
 
 k Hie plantas tenero abscidens de corpore matrum 
 Deposuit sulcis ; hie stirpes obruit arvo, 
 
 Quadrifidasque sudes et acuto robore vallos ; 
 
 Silvarumque alias pressos propaginis arcus 
 Exspectant, et viva sua plantaria terra ; 
 
 Nil radicis egent alias : summumque putator 
 Haud dubitat terras referens mandare cacumen. 
 
 Quin et caudicibus sectis (mirabile dictu) 
 
 Truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligno. 
 
 Virgil. Georgica. Lib. ii. 
 
 ’ See Spallanzani’s admirable Obsei-vations et experiences sur les Animalcules. 
 He found a small portion detach itself from the bodies of some, the bodies of 
 others split longitudinally, of others transversely, of others both longitudinally and 
 transversely into four parts, and the new animalcules soon acquired the size of 
 the parent and experienced the same changes in their turn. 
 
OF THE BULK. 
 
 511 
 
 Next comes the formation of the rudiments of a perfectly new 
 being by the system of another. Thus we have the seed of ve- 
 getables, the ova and foetus of animals. This occurs by means 
 of two matters, which in some examples are furnished by the 
 same, and in others, by different, systems. The vegetable king- 
 dom affords innumerable instances of the former, the acephalous 
 mollusca and the echinus are examples in the animal kingdom. m 
 Both the vegetable and animal kingdoms abound in instances of 
 the latter. Here again there are three varieties. The fluid of 
 the male may be applied to the ova of the female after they are 
 discharged from her body, as in some fish of the bony kind and 
 in cephalopodous mollusca ; while being discharged, as in the frog 
 and toad ; or it may be conveyed to the female system, and this, 
 either without the contact of the male, as in those vegetables not 
 hermaphrodite, where the wind, insects, &c. convey it, or by 
 means of copulation, as in the mammalia, n birds, most reptiles, 
 and some fish, hermaphrodite gasteropodous mollusca, Crustacea, 
 
 m It is singular that some hermaphrodites do not impregnate themselves, but 
 mutually impregnate and are impregnated by others ; such are the gasteropodous 
 mollusca and many worms. 
 
 n The fair sex were formerly treated with more politeness than at present. An 
 accidental pregnancy was frequently attributed to the warmth of imagination, the 
 influence of demons, and many other circumstances supposed equally powerful 
 as the deed of kind. In Venette’s Tableau de l' Amour conjugal, and in 
 Bartholin’s works, may be seen an Arret Notable de la Cour du Parlement de 
 Grenoble, which, upon the attestation of many matrones and sages femmes and 
 doctcurs of the University of Blontpellier et autres personnes de qualUe, that women 
 often fall pregnant spontaneously, declares a lady who had brought forth a son 
 although her husband had been absent four years, to be a woman of worth and 
 honour, and the child to be the legitimate heir of Monsieur the husband. When 
 a demon bore the blame, he was called an incubus, and his semen always struck so 
 cold to the ladies “ ut displicentiam magis quant delectationem hide sint con- 
 secutee.” Zacchias, Qucesliones Medico: Legates, lib. vii. tit. 1. Quaest. vii. 7. 
 A demon that played the part of a female, was named a succubus. It was 
 asserted that a mischievous devil would often act as a succubus, and then, meta- 
 morphosing himself into an incubus, deposit in the vagina of some woman the 
 semen which he had received from a man. 
 
 See also Varro, I)e re rust. ii. 1. Columella, vi. 27. and Pliny, Hist. Nat. 
 viii. 17. 
 
 The ancients believed that mares were sometimes impregnated by the wind, — 
 i^avepsaBai. 
 
 Vere magis, quia vere calor redit ossibus, ill* 
 
 Ore omnes versse in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis, 
 
512 
 
 OF THE MILK. 
 
 and insects. In the mammalia, one copulation is sufficient for 
 only one conception ; among poultry its effects are so extensive, 
 that a hen will lay a long succession of fruitful eggs after one 
 intercourse with the cock ; in the aphis and some monoculi, it is 
 sufficient for the impregnation of eight, twelve, or fifteen gener- 
 ations. 
 
 The ovum after its fecundation may be nourished by a fluid en- 
 closed within the same case, and is then hatched out of the body 
 by the common temperature, as in insects, or by that of the parent, 
 as in birds, or hatched within the body of the mother, as in ser- 
 pents ; or it may be nourished by a substance shed around it in 
 the womb, as in the kangaroo, or by means of an attachment of 
 some of its vessels to the maternal system, as in the mammalia in 
 general: — some animals being thus oviparous, others ovovivipa- 
 rous, and others viviparous. 
 
 The mode of nourishment after birth is various. Some are 
 able, without any peculiar arrangement, immediately to support 
 themselves ; for the wisdom of the Creator ordains the delivery 
 of each species of animals at that season of the year when every 
 thing is in the most favourable state for administering to the 
 necessities of the offspring. Some, many insects for example, are 
 born in the midst of food, the parent having instinctively deposited 
 the egg in nutrient matter either found in mass or carefully col- 
 lected by her . 0 Others have food collected daily by the parents. 
 Some, as all the dove kind, are fed by a substance secreted from 
 the crops of both parents ;P others by a fluid secreted by peculiar 
 
 Exceptantque levis auras ; et ssepe sine ullis 
 Conjugiis vento gravidte (mirabile dictu) 
 
 Saxa per et scopulos et depressas convallis 
 Diffugiunt. 
 
 Vir.GiL, Gearg. Lib. iii. 
 
 0 Some insects, — ichneumons, lay their eggs in living caterpillars or other species 
 of their own genus, which are consequently destroyed, so that certain species appear 
 to naturalists created solely fpr the destruction of others. The most frightful ex- 
 ample is the female of a species of sphex ; she digs a hole in sandy ground, drags a 
 large spider or caterpillar into the hole, bites off its legs to prevent its escape, and 
 deposits an egg in the hole, so that the young one may nourish itself with the 
 spinning fluid of the poor animal. Blumenbach, Handbucli des naturgeschichte. 
 
 p Hunter, On a secretion in the crops of breeding pigeons for the nourishment of 
 their young, in his Observations on certain parts, &c. p. 235. 
 
OF THE MILK. 
 
 513 
 
 glands belonging to the female only. <i The instinct which leads 
 the parent carefully to tend the offspring, ceases at the period when 
 the system of the offspring is sufficiently advanced to supply its 
 own exigencies, and the parent does not breed again till this is 
 the case. 
 
 q Mr. Hunter satisfied himself experimentally of the truth of the common 
 assertion, — that the she-ass gives milk no longer than the impression of the foal 
 is upon her mind. The skin of her foal thrown over the back of another, and 
 frequently brought near her, is sufficient. Journal of the Royal Institution , No. 2. 
 
 L L 
 
SECT. XLIII. 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES IN THE SYSTEM BEFORE AND AFTER 
 
 BIRTH, a 
 
 6 23. From what has been said relatively to the functions 
 of the foetus still contained within its mother, and immersed as 
 it were in a warm bath, there must evidently be a considerable 
 difference between its functions and those of the child that is 
 born and capable of exerting its will. The chief points of 
 difference we will distinctly enumerate. 
 
 624. To begin with the blood and its motion, this fluid is 
 remarkable both for being of a darker red, incapable of be- 
 coming florid on the contact of atmospheric air, and for co- 
 agulating less readily and perfectly than after birth. b Its 
 course, too, is very different in the foetus whose circulation is 
 connected with the placenta and who has never breathed, 
 from its course after the cessation of this connection with the 
 mother and after respiration has taken place. c 
 
 a On the subject of this section consult, among numerous others, Trew, De 
 differ, quibusdam inter hominem nalum et nascendum intercedentibus. Norimb. 
 1736. 4 to. 
 
 Andr. and Fr. Roesslein (brothers), De differentiis inter foctuni et adultum. 
 Ibid. 1783. 4to. 
 
 Ferd. G. Danz, Zergliederungskunde des ungebohrnen Kindes niit Annierk. von. 
 S. Th. Soemmerring. Frankfort. 1792. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Also Thcod. Hoogeveen, De foetus humani morbis. LB. 1784. 8vo. p. 28. sq. 
 
 Fr. Aug. Walter, Annotat. Academ. already quoted, p. 44. sq. 
 
 And J. Dan Herholdt, De vita imprimis foetus humani. Havn. 1802. 8vo. 
 p. 61. sq. 
 
 b Fourcroy, Annales de Chimie, t. vii. p. 162. sq. 
 
 e Consult Herm. Bernard, De eo quo differt circuitus sanguinis foetus ab illo 
 hominis nali. Reprinted in Overkamp’s collection, t. i. 
 
 Jos. Wenc. Czikanek, De actuosa hominis nascituri vita $. circulat. fxtus ab 
 hominis nati diversitate. Reprinted in Wasserberg’s collection, t. iv. 
 
OF THE DIFFERENCES, ETC. 
 
 515 
 
 625. First, the umbilical vein, coming from the placenta 
 and penetrating the ring called umbilical, runs to the liver, 
 and pours its blood into the sinus of the vena portae, the 
 branches of which remarkable vein distribute one portion 
 through the liver, while the ductus venosus Arantii d conveys 
 the rest directly to the inferior vena cava. 
 
 Both canals, — the end of the umbilical vein contained 
 in the abdomen of the foetus and the venous duct, become 
 closed after the division of the chord, and the former is 
 converted into the round lioament of the liver. 
 
 o 
 
 626. The blood arriving at the right side of the heart 
 from the inferior cava, is in a great measure prevented from 
 passing through the lungs, and is derived into the left or 
 posterior auricle of the heart, by means of the Eustachian 
 valve, and the foramen ovale. 
 
 627. For, in the foetus, over the opening of the inferior 
 cava, there is extended a remarkable lunated valve , e termed, 
 from its discoverer, f Eustachian, which usually disappears 
 as adolescence proceeds, but, in the foetus, appears to direct 6 
 the stream of blood coming from the abdomen towards an 
 opening, immediately to be mentioned, existing in the septum 
 of the auricles. 
 
 628. This opening is denominated the foramen ovale , h 
 and is the cause that certainly the greatest part of the blood 
 which streams from the inferior cava is poured into the left 
 
 Sabatier, at the end of his TV. Complct d'Anat. vol. iii. p.386. sq. 1781.; 
 and in the Memoires Malhemat. et Physiques de V Institut. t. iii. p. 337. sq. 
 
 But especially J. Fr. Lohstein, Magazin Encyclopedique. 1803. t. iii. vol. li. 
 p. 28. sq. 
 
 d v. Arantius, De humano foclu libellus, p. 97. 
 
 Compare B. S. Albinus, Explicatio tabular. Eastacliii, p. 164. sq. 
 e Haller , De valvula Eustachii. Gotting. 1738. 4 to. 
 
 f Eustachius, De vena sine pari, p.289. Opuscula, tab. viii. fig. 6. tab. xvi. 
 fig. 3. 
 
 E J. F. Lohstein, De valvula Eustachii. Arg. 1771. 4to. 
 h Haller, De foramine ovali et Eustachii valvula. Gotting. 1748. fol. c. f. ae. 
 and much more copiously in his Opera minora, t. i. p. 33. sqq. 
 
 L L 2 
 
516 
 
 or THE DIFFERENCES IN THE SYSTEM 
 
 auricle 1 during the diastole of the auricles. A falciform 
 valve, placed over the foramen, prevents its return, and 
 appears likewise to preclude its course into the right auricle 
 during the systole of the auricles. By means of this valve, 
 the foramen generally becomes closed in the first years of in- 
 fancy, in proportion as the corresponding Eustachian valve 
 decreases, and more or less completely disappears. k 
 
 629. The blood which enters the right auricle and ventricle 
 principally proceeds from the superior cava, and flows but in a 
 very small quantity into the lungs, while, from the right ven- 
 tricle, which, in the foetus, is particularly thick and strong 
 for this purpose, it pursues its course directly to the arch of 
 the aorta, by means of the ductus arteriosus, 1 which is in a 
 manner the chief branch of the pulmonary artery. A few 
 weeks after birth, this duct becomes obstructed and converted 
 into a kind of dense ligament. 
 
 630. The blood of the aorta, being destined to return, 
 in a great measure, to the mother, enters the umbilical 
 arteries (5 72), which pass out on each side of the urachus at 
 the umbilical opening, and after birth, likewise become 
 imperforate chords. m 
 
 631. As the function of the lungs scarcely exists in the 
 foetus, their appearance is extremely different from what it is 
 after the commencement of respiration. They are propor- 
 tionally much smaller, their colour is darker, their substance 
 denser, consequently their specific gravity is greater, so that 
 while recent and sound they sink in water, whereas, after 
 birth, they, caeteris paribus, swim upon its surface. “ The 
 
 ' For an account of the opinion of C. Fr. Wolff, who regards the foramen 
 ovale as another mouth of the inferior cava, opening into the left auricle in the 
 same manner as the mouth commonly known opens into the right, see Woe. 
 Comment. Acad. Scient. Petropol. t. xx. 1775. 
 
 k IT. Palm. Leveling, De valvula Euslachii et foramine ovalL Anglipol. 
 1780. 8vo. c. f. ae. 
 
 1 B. S. Albinus, Annot. Acad. 1. ii. tab. vii. fig. 7. 
 m v- Haller, leones Anat. fasc. iv. tab. iii. vi. 
 
 n Here is not the proper place for explaining the conditions under which this 
 occurs, and the cautions therefore requisite in giving an opinion, in a court of 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER BIRTH. 
 
 517 
 
 right lung has the peculiarity of dilating during the first 
 inspiration rather sooner than the left . 0 (A) The other 
 circumstances attending the commencement of respiration 
 were mentioned in the section upon that function. 
 
 632. From our remarks upon the nutrition of the foetus, 
 it is clear that its alimentary tube and chylo-poietic system 
 must -be peculiar. Thus, v. c. in an embryo a few months 
 old, the large intestines very nearly resemble the small ; but, 
 during the latter half of pregnancy, being turgid with me- 
 conium, they really deserve the epithet by which they are 
 commonly distinguished. 
 
 633. The meconium is a saburra, of a brownish-green 
 colour, formed evidently from the secreted fluids of the 
 foetus, and chiefly from its bile, because it is first observed 
 at the period corresponding to the first secretion of the bile, 
 and, in monstrous cases, where the liver has been absent, 
 no meconium, but merely a small quantity of colourless 
 mucous, has been found in the intestines. 
 
 634. The caecum, is extremely different in the new-born 
 child from its future form, and continued straight from the 
 appendix vermiformis, & c. p 
 
 635. Other similar differences we have already spoken 
 of, and shall now pass over. 
 
 Such are the urachus , (573) 
 
 The membrana pupillaris, (262) 
 
 And the descent of the testes in the male. (510 sq.) 
 
 Some will be treated of more properly in the next section. 
 Others, of little moment, we shall entirely omit. 
 
 justice, founded on tli e examination of the lungs. Among many other writings, 
 the very important posthumous paper of Wm. Hunter may be consulted in the 
 Medical Observ. and Enquiries, vol. vi. p. 284. sq. 
 
 Ph. Corn. Heineken’s dissertation, De docimasia pulmonum incerto vitce et 
 mortis recens nalorum signo. Gott. 1811. 4to. 
 
 And Fr. B. Osiander, Comment, de respiratione, vagitu et vi vitali fcetus humani 
 inter purtum, &c., on which compare the Getting. Gel. Ang. 1820. p. 1955. sq. 
 
 0 Portal, Mem. del' Acad, des Sc. de Paris. 1769. p. 555. sq. 
 
 Metzger , De pulmone dextro ante sinistrum respirante. Regiom. 1783. 4to, 
 p B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acad. 1. vi. tab. ii. fig. 7. 
 
 L L 3 
 
518 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES IN THE SYSTEM 
 
 636 . This is a favourable opportunity for briefly noticing 
 some remarkable parts which are out of all proportion larger 
 in the foetus, and appear to serve important purposes in its 
 economy, although their true and principal design deserves 
 still further investigation. 
 
 They are usually styled glands, but their parenchyma is 
 very different from true glandular structure, nor has any 
 vestige of an excretory duct been hitherto discovered in them. 
 They are the thyreoid, the thymus, and the supra- renal 
 glands. i 
 
 637 . The tlnjreoid gland r is fixed upon the cartilage of the 
 same name belonging to the larynx, has two lobes, is, as it 
 were, lunated, s and full not only of blood, in which it abounds 
 in the foetus, but of lymphatic fluid, and becomes, as age ad- 
 vances, gradually less juicy. ‘ 
 
 638 . The thymus is a white and very delicate structure, 
 likewise bilobular, sometimes completely divided into two 
 parts, occasionally containing a remarkable cavity, " placed 
 under the superior part of the middle of the sternum, always 
 ascending as far as the neck on each side, x of extremely great 
 proportionate size in the foetus, abounding in a milky fluid, 
 
 q F. Merkel, Abhandlungen aus der menschlichen vnd vergleichenden Anatomie. 
 Halle, 1S06. 8vo. He makes it probable that these three organs contribute to 
 the chemical functions of the nervous and hepatic systems, and thus diminish the 
 quantity of hydrogen and carbon. 
 
 r C. Uttini, IJe glandules Uiyroidets usu, in the Comment, instiluti Bononiens, 
 vol. vii. p. 15. sq. 
 
 s Haller, leones Anat. fasc. iii. tab. 3. 
 
 1 J. Ant. SchmidlmiiHer, iiber die Auydhmtigsgange der Schilddriise. Land- 
 
 ut, 1 804. 8vo. 
 
 u Aug. Louis de Hugo, Be glandtdis in genere et specialist de thy mo. Getting. 
 1746. 4to. fig. 2. 
 
 Morand the younger, Memoires de l’ Acad, des Sc. de Paris. 1759. tab. 22 — 
 24. 
 
 Vincent Malacarne, Memorie della Societa Italiaua, t. viii. 1799. P. i. p.239. 
 sq. 
 
 Flor. Caldani, Congettura sopra Vuso della glandula timo. Venice. 1S08. 4to. 
 
 Sam. Chr. Lucae, Anatomische UntersUchungen der Thymus. Fasc. i. ii. 
 Frankfort on the Maine. 1811. 4to. 
 
 C. Fr. Th. Krause, Opinionum de thymifunctione examen. Gott. ISIS. Svo. 
 
 x Haller, leones Anat. 1. c. 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER BIRTH. 
 
 519 
 
 becoming gradually absorbed in youth, and frequently disap- 
 pearing altogether in old age. y 
 
 639. The sup'a-renal glands , called also renes succenturiati 
 and capsulse atrabiliarise, lie under the diaphragm on the 
 upper margin of the kidneys, z from which, in the adult, they 
 are rather more distant, being proportionally smaller. They 
 are full of a dark fluid of a more reddish hue in the foetus 
 than in the adult. (B) 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Now that the importance of auscultation in examining dis- 
 eases of the chest is generally allowed, this point has been inves- 
 tigated by the ear ; and we are informed that the respiratory 
 murmur immediately after birth is heard equally in both lungs. 3 
 
 (B) Blumenbach has omitted to notice in this section one 
 of the most striking peculiarities of the foetus. — the very great 
 proportionate bulk of its liver. The prodigious size of this organ 
 arises from the distribution of four-fifths of the blood of the um- 
 bilical vein through it, and probably, in a certain degree, as some 
 think, from the great quantity of meconium in its biliary ducts. 
 After birth, no blood is conveyed by the umbilical vein, and the 
 expansion of the thorax readily expresses the abundance of me- 
 conium ; hence the liver must diminish. 
 
 This peculiarity, as well as the great size of the thyreoid, 
 thymus, and supra-renal glands, probably serves some purpose 
 hitherto undiscovered, unless the liver have the same excre- 
 mentory office as the lungs, and therefore at this period does the 
 work of both ; but an evident good effect results from it in relation 
 to the organs of the thorax. In the foetus the lungs are com- 
 pletely devoid of air, and consequently there cannot be much, if 
 any, circulation of blood through the pulmonary artery and veins, 
 
 y Hewson, Experimental Enquiries, P. iii. passim. 
 
 2 See Eustachius their discoverer, tab. i. ii. iii., and tab. xii. fig. 1. 10. 12. 
 
 Haller, leones Anat. fasc. iii. tab. vi. 
 
 Malacarne, 1. c. 
 
 a Mr. Jowitt in Dr. James Johnson’s Med. Chir. Review . 
 
 L L 4 
 
520 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENCES IN THE SYSTEM, ETC. 
 
 and the liver by its magnitude, protruding the diaphragm up- 
 wards, renders the capacity of the chest correspondently small, 
 and at the same time it contains an immense proportion of blood. 
 After birth, the diminished size of the liver allows a great in- 
 crease to the capacity of the chest ; not only is full inspiration 
 allowed, and consequently a free passage to the blood of the pul- 
 monary vessels during inspiration, as Haller remarks , 5 but a cer- 
 tain degree of permanent dilatation of the lungs is allowed (for 
 much air remains in the lungs after every expiration), and since the 
 liver contains, immediately after birth, so much smaller a portion 
 of the blood of the system than before, the greatly increased 
 supply required by the lungs is thus afforded . 0 See Note D. 
 Sect. VIII. 
 
 b Elementa Physiologuz, t. viii. 
 
 c See Mr. Bryce, Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal. 1815. Jan. 
 
521 
 
 SECT. XLIV. 
 
 OF THE GROWTH, STATIONARY CONDITION, AND DECREASE 
 OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 640. Nothing more remains than to survey at one view 
 the natural course of the life of man, whose animal functions 
 we have hitherto arranged in classes and examined indivi- 
 dually, and to accompany him through his principal epochs 
 from his birth to his grave. a 
 
 641. The commencement of formation appears to take place 
 about the third week from conceptioiv(569), and genuine 
 blood is first observable about the fourth, the life of the foetus 
 at this period being extremely faint (82) and little more than 
 that of a vegetable; the motion of the heart (98) has, under 
 fortunate circumstances, been observable at this time in the 
 human embryo, b and even commonly been denominated the 
 punctum saliens, from the days of Aristotle, who observed it 
 in the incubated egg. c 
 
 The original form of the embryo is simple, and, as it were, 
 disguised, wonderfully different from the perfect conformation 
 of the human frame, which deserves to be regarded as the 
 grandest effect of the nisus formativus, and at which it arrives 
 by gradual changes, or, if we may so speak, metamorphoses, 
 from a more simple to a more perfect form. d (A) 
 
 a Vide Const. Anast. Philites, Be decremento seu de marasmo senili. Hal. 
 1808. 8vo. 
 
 b Vide J. de Muralto, Ephemerides N. C. Dec. ii. ann. 1. p. 305. 
 
 Roume de St. Laurent, in Rozier’s Obs. et Mini. s. la Physique. Juillet. 
 1775. p. 53. 
 
 c Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 1. vi. c. 3. Opera, vol. ii. p. 326. 
 d Hence, as I have remarked in another place, {Nova Litteraria Qoettingensia, 
 a. 1808. p. 1386.) human monsters are not unfrequently met with so strongly- 
 resembling the form of brutes ; because the nisus formativus, having been dis- 
 
522 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 642 . The formation of human hone e begins, if I am not 
 deceived, after the seventh or eighth week. First of all, the 
 osseous fluid forms its nuclei in the clavicles, ribs, vertebras, 
 the large cylindrical bones of the extremities, the lower jaw, 
 and some other bones of the face, in the delicate reticulum of 
 some flat bones of the skull, — of the frontal and occipital, but 
 less early in the parietal. f 
 
 In general, the growth of the embryo, and indeed of the 
 human being universally both before and after birth, is more 
 rapid as the age is less, and vice versa. 
 
 643 . About the middle of pregnancy, certain fluids begin 
 to be secreted, as the fat ( 486 ) and bile. In the course of the 
 seventh month, all the organs of the vital, natural, and ani- 
 mal functions have made such progress, that, if the child 
 
 turbed and obstructed from some cause or other, could not reach the highest pitch 
 of the human form, but rested at a lower point and produced a bestial shape. 
 On the contrary, I have never once found among brutes a true example of mon- 
 strosity, which, by a bound of the nisus formativus, bore any analogy to the 
 human figure. 
 
 For fuller information in regard to the resemblance of the very' early human 
 embryo at first to the larva: of reptiles, and afterwards in some measure to the 
 foetuses of quadruped mammalia, consult, after Harvey, De generat. animal. 
 p. 1S4. 2,05. sq. London. 1651. 4to. Grew, Cosmol. Sacr. p. 37. 47. Lister, 
 De humoribus. p. 444. and others, especially Autenreith, O'oservat. ad histor. 
 embryon. faciendum, P. i. Tubing. 1797. 4to. Fr. Meckel, both Aujpitz. zur 
 menschl. u. vergleich. anal. p. 277. sq. and Beytrdg. zur vergleich. anal. p. 63, 
 and elsewhere. And Const. Anast. Philites, 1. c. 
 
 e I say of human bone ; for in the incubated chick it commences much later, 
 — at the beginning of the ninth day, which corresponds with the seventeenth week 
 of human pregnancy. 
 
 Observations, therefore, made on the incubated chick, must not be hastily 
 applied to the formation of the human embryo, — an error committed by the 
 great Haller himself, who asserted decidedly that what he had demonstrated in 
 regard to the incubated chick, was equally applicable to other classes of animals, and 
 to man himself. 
 
 This prejudice subsequently gained so much ground, that some physicians, 
 who endeavoured to settle the forensic disputes respecting premature labour, 
 deduced their arguments from this hasty comparison of the periods of incubation 
 with those of human pregnancy. Vide v. c. Hug. Marreti, Consultation au sujet 
 d'un enfant, <£c. Dijon. 1768. 4to. 
 
 f I have treated of this at large in my osteological work, P. i. S. ii. and iii. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 523 
 
 happens to be born at this period, it is called, in a common 
 acceptation of the word, vital, and regarded as a member of 
 society. 
 
 644. In the foetus, near its full growth, not only is the 
 skin covered by a caseous matter, but delicate hair appears 
 upon the head, and little nails become visible ; the membrana pu- 
 pillaris splits (262) ; the cartilaginous external ear becomes 
 more firm and elastic; and in the male the testes descend. 
 (510 sq.) (B) 
 
 645. About the end of the tenth lunar month, the child, 
 being born (595), undergoes, besides those important changes 
 of nearly its whole economy that were formerly described at 
 large, other alterations in its external appearance ; v. c. the 
 down which covered its face at birth gradually disappears, the 
 wrinkles are obliterated, the anus becomes concealed between 
 the swelling nates, & c. (C) 
 
 646. By degrees the infant learns to employ its mental 
 faculties of perception, attention, reminiscence, inclination, &c. 
 
 whence, even in the early months, it dreams, and s. p. s 
 
 647. The organs of the external senses are gradually evolved 
 and perfected, as the external ear, the internal nares, the 
 covering of the eyes, viz. the supra-orbital arches, the eye- 
 brows, &c. 
 
 648. The bones of the skull unite more firmly ; the fonticuli 
 are by degrees filled up ; and, about eight months after birth, 
 dentition commences. 
 
 649. At this period the child is ready to be weaned, its 
 teeth being intended to masticate solid food and not to injure 
 the mother’s breast. 
 
 650. About the end of the first year, it learns to rest upon 
 its feet and stand erect, — the highest characteristic of the 
 human body. h 
 
 651. The child, now weaned from its mother’s breast and 
 
 ® Consult Tiedemann, uber die Entwickelung der Seelenfukigkeiten bey Kindem, 
 in the Hessisch. Beytr. Yol. ii. P. ii. iii. 
 
 h Jer. Vrolik (prajs. Brugmans), Diss. de homine ad statum gressumgue 
 erectum per corporis fabricam disposito. Lugd. Bat. 1795. 8vo. 
 
524 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 capable of using its feet, improves and acquires more vo- 
 luntary power daily: another grand privilege of the human 
 race is bestowed upon it — the use of speech, — the mind be- 
 ginning to pronounce, by means of the tongue, the ideas with 
 which it is familiar. 
 
 652. The twenty milk teeth by degrees drop out about the 
 seventh year, and a second dentition produces, in the course 
 of years, thirty-two permanent teeth. 
 
 653. During infancy, memory is more vigorous than the 
 other faculties of the mind, and much more powerful than at 
 any other period in tenaciously receiving the impressions of 
 objects : after the fifteenth year, the fire of imagination burns 
 more strongly. 
 
 654. This more lively state of the imagination occurs very 
 opportunely at puberty , when the body, undergoing various 
 remarkable changes, is gradually prepared for the exercise of 
 the sexual functions. 
 
 655. Immediately after the period when the breasts of the 
 adolescent girl have begun to swell, the chin of the boy is 
 covered with down, and other phenomena of approaching pu- 
 berty manifest themselves in either sex. The girl begins to 
 menstruate [55 4), — an important change in the female eco- 
 nomy, accompanied, among other circumstances, nearly always, 
 by an increased brightness of the eyes and redness of the lips, 
 and by more evident sensible qualities of the perspiration. 
 The boy begins to secrete genuine semen (527), and, at the 
 same time, the beard 1 grows more abundantly, and the voice 
 becomes extremely grave. 
 
 By the spontaneous internal voice of nature, as it were, the 
 sexual instinct (71) is now for the first time excited, and 
 man, being in the flower of his age, is capable of sexual con- 
 nection. 
 
 ‘ The fabulous report that prevails even to this day, respecting the want of 
 beard among some American nations, I refuted by a host of witnesses in the 
 Gutting. Magaz. ann.ii. P. vi. p. 418. sq. 
 
 Add, from later writers respecting the North American Indians, J. Hecke^ 
 welder, von den Indianischen Volkerschaften , p.S40. sq. and respecting the 
 Brazilians, Prince Maximilian, Reise, vol. i. p. 135. and elsewhere. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 525 
 
 656. The period of puberty cannot be exactly defined : it 
 varies with climate and temperament, k but is generally more 
 early in the female ; so that, in our climate, girls arrive at pu- 
 berty about the fifteenth year, and young men, on the con- 
 trary, about the twentieth. (D) 
 
 657. Soon after this, growth terminates ; at various periods 
 in different climates, to say nothing of varieties in individuals 
 and families. 1 (E) 
 
 658. The epiphyses of the bones, hitherto distinct from their 
 diaphyses, now become intimately united, and, in a manner, 
 confounded with them. 
 
 659. At manhood — the longer and more excellent period 
 of human existence, life is, with respect to the corporeal 
 functions, at the highest pitch (82), or, in other words, these 
 functions are performed with the greatest vigour and con- 
 stancy ; in regard to the mental functions, the grand prero- 
 gative of mature judgment is now afforded. 
 
 660. The approach of old age m is announced in women by 
 the cessation of the catamenia (556), and not unfrequently by 
 an appearance of beard upon the chin ; n in men, b} r less 
 
 k I have inserted in the Bill. Medic, vol. i. p. 558. sq. an account communi- 
 cated to me by G. E. ab Haller, of procreation in a Swiss girl only nine years 
 of age. 
 
 1 For man has no peculiar privilege of not experiencing the effects of climate 
 in common with other organised bodies, which are commonly known to arrive at 
 their growth much later, cceteris paribus, in cold than in warm climates. 
 
 As to the giants of Patagonia and the dwarfs of Madagascar, mentioned by 
 Commerson, I have reduced the exaggerated accounts of the former to a true 
 statement, and shown that the latter are diseased Cretins, in my Treatise Be gen. 
 hum. var. nativ. p. 253. 260. ed. 3. 
 
 m J. Bern. Fischer, Tract, de senio ejusque morbis. Ed. 2. Erf. 1760. 8vo. 
 
 Benj. Rush, Medical Inquiries and Observations, vol. ii. Philadel. 1793. 8vo. 
 p. 295. sq. 
 
 Bure. W . Seiler, Anatomise c. h. senilis specimen. Erlang. 1799. 8vo. 
 
 Const. Anast. Philites, 1. c. 
 
 n Vide J . Biirlin, Be feeminis ex suppressions mensium barbatis. Altorf. 
 1664. 4 to. 
 
 This remarkable phenomenon, that deserves further investigation, is analo- 
 gous to a change frequently remarked in female birds, which, after ceasing to lay 
 eggs, lose the feathers peculiar to their sex and acquire those characteristic of the 
 male. I have treated of this at large in my commentary de nisus formativi aber- 
 rationibus. Gotting. 1813. 4to. p. 8. (F) 
 
526 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 alacrity to copulate : in both, by a senile 0 dryness and a gra- 
 dually manifested decrease of vital energy. 
 
 661. Lastly, the frigid condition of old age is accompanied 
 by an increasing dulness of both the external and internal 
 senses, a necessity for longer sleep, and a torpor of all the 
 functions of the system. The hairs grow white and partly 
 fall olf. The teeth gradually drop out. The neck is no 
 longer able to give due support to the head, nor the legs to 
 the body. Even the bones themselves — the props of the 
 machine, in a manner waste away, 8tc. p 
 
 662. Thus we are conducted to the boundary of physiology? 
 — to death 'without disease , q — to the senile euSuvucrla, which 
 it is the first and last object of medicine to procure, and the 
 causes of which must be self-evident from our preceding 
 account of the animal economy. r 
 
 663. The phenomena of a moribund person s are coldness of 
 the extremities, loss of brilliancy in the eyes, smallness and 
 slowness of the pulse, which more and more frequently inter- 
 mits, and infrequency of respiration, which at length terminates 
 for ever by a deep expiration. 
 
 In the dissection of other moribund mammalia the struggle 
 of the heart may be perceived, and the right auricle and ven- 
 tricle are found to live rather longer than the left.(llT) 
 
 664. Death is manifested by the coldness and rigidity of 
 the body, the flaccidity of the cornea, the open state of the 
 anus, the lividness of the back, the depression and flatness of 
 
 ° Joach. H. Gernet, De siccitatis senilis effectibus. Lips. 1753. 4to. 
 
 p I do not here repeat what I have said at large in my osteological work, 
 p. 36. sq. upon the remarkable wasting of the bones of old men. 
 
 11 G. Gotti. Richter, De morte sine morbo. Gotting. 1736. 4to. 
 
 r J. Oosterdyk Schacht, Tr. qua senile fatum inevitabili necessitate ex hum. 
 corp. meckanismo sequi demonslratur. Ultraj. 1729. 4to. 
 
 Matt. Van Genus, De morte corporea et causis moriendi. LB. 1761. 4to. 
 reprinted in Sandifort’s Thesaurus, vol. iii. 
 
 C. G. Ontyd, De morte et varia moriendi rationc. Lugd. Bat. 1791. Svo. 
 
 Curt. Sprengel, Instit. Medic, t. i. Amst. 1809. Svo. page 2S9. sq. 
 
 3 See the successive progress of the phenomena of death observed by the indi- 
 vidual himself, a man of middle age, dying of dysentery', in Moritz’s Magas, zur 
 Erfahrungs-Seelen-Kunde, vol, i. P. i. page 63. sq. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 527 
 
 the loins (59 note), and, above all, by an odour truly cada- 
 verous. 1 If these collective marks are present, there can 
 scarcely be room for the complaint of Pliny, — that we ought 
 not to feel assured of the fate of a man though we see him lie 
 dead." (G) 
 
 665. It is scarcely possible to define the natural period of 
 life, or as it may be termed, the more frequent and regular 
 limit of advanced old age. * But, by an accurate examination 
 of numerous bills of mortality, I have ascertained a remarkable 
 fact — that a pretty large proportion of Europeans reach their 
 eighty-fovrtli year, while, on the contrary, few exceed it. (H) 
 
 666. But, on the whole, notwithstanding the weakness of 
 children, the intemperance of adults, the violence of diseases, 
 the fatality of accidents, and many other circumstances, pre- 
 vent more than about perhaps seventy-eight persons out of a 
 thousand from dying of old age, without disease ; nevertheless, 
 if human longevity y be compared, cccteris paribus, with the 
 duration of the life of any other known animal among the 
 mammalia, we shall find that, of all the unreasonable com- 
 plaints about the misery of human life, no one is more 
 unfounded than that which we commonly hear respecting the 
 shortness of its duration. (I) 
 
 1 Durondeau, Nouveaux Mem. de V Ac. de Bruxelles, vol. i. 1788. P. i. 
 
 u C. Himly, Commentatio (which gained the royal prize) mortis hisloriam, causas 
 et signa sistens. Gotting. 1794. 4to. 
 
 Sal. Anschel, Thanatologia s. in mortis naturcim, cttusas, genera, species, e% 
 diagnosin disquisitiones, ib. 1795, 8vo. 
 
 1 Among other well-known treatises on this subject, consult J. Gesner, De 
 termino vitce. Tigur. 1748. 4to. reprinted in the Excerptvm Italicce et Helvetica 
 litterat. 1759. t. iv. 
 
 y Bacon de Verulamio, Historia vitce et mortis. Opera, vol. ii. p. 121. sq. 
 128. sq. London. 1740. fol. 
 
 Chr. W. Hufeland, Makrobiotik, t. i. page 90. and elsewhere, edit. 3. 1805. 
 
528 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Some animals undergo extraordinary metamorphoses after 
 birth. An insect is, on first leaving its egg-shell, a maggot (larva ) ; 
 then it becomes a grub (nymphce orpupce,&c.); and lastly a fly (imago). 
 The frog is at first a tadpole, has no extremities, but, like a fish, 
 tails and gills. Dr. Edwards has proved that, by excluding tad- 
 poles from the light, they will grow to double or triple the size 
 that tadpoles usually attain, but are not metamorphosed to frogs. 
 He thinks that the proteus anguinus, which, like tadpoles, has lungs 
 and gills, is but the first stage of an animal which is prevented from 
 becoming perfect by inhabiting the subterraneous waters of Carni- 
 ola. He concludes, therefore, that light has a great influence 
 upon the human body; and ascribes the observation of Humboldt, 
 that among millions of Caribs, Mexicans, Peruvians, &c, not one 
 instance of deformity appeared, to the exposure of their bodies to 
 light, and much of the sickliness of imprisoned persons and scro- 
 fulous children living in close streets, to the want of light. - 
 
 The influence of food upon the changes of animals is great. 
 Aphidivorous flies are larvae for eight or ten days, pupae for 
 about a fortnight, and perfect insects about nearly as long ; in 
 the whole not living more than six weeks. But a pupa deprived 
 of food underwent no change, and lived a pupa for twelve months. 3 
 
 (B) Dr. Edwards discovered that brutes which are born with 
 their eyes closed, or cannot at first walk about and procure food, 
 or have not integuments sufficiently copious to preserve their tem- 
 perature, are little warmer than the surrounding medium if re- 
 moved from their nest or bed: but that they acquire about the 
 fifteenth day, if quadrupeds, and about the end of the third or 
 fourth week, if birds, the calorific power of adults. In all these 
 the ductus arteriosus is generally large and open, and closes as 
 the calorific powers increase. Upon its state, and not upon the 
 circumstances first mentioned, does the temperature depend. 
 As the calorific powers change rather suddenly, we must sup- 
 pose the completion of the closure to be rapid. b 
 
 The human foetus resembles these brutes in having the eye 
 closed by the membrana pupillaris for many months, and children 
 born before time long continue to require much artificial warmth. 
 But although the temperature of the very young is so easily low- 
 ered, the ill effects of cold are better recovered from than by adults. 
 
 z Be V Influence, $c. P.iv. c. 15. a Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p.404. 
 b 1. c. P. iii, ch. 1. p. 618. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 529 
 
 Life also continues longer without respiration, or with a limited 
 quantity of air, than in adults. b 
 
 These circumstances connect the cold and warm-blooded, and 
 the hybernating and non-hybernating, animals. 
 
 (C) At full time, 0 boys, according to some, d weigh rather less 
 than girls. 
 
 Chaussier states that at full time the navel is exactly central : 
 that at eight months the centre is higher ; at seven still higher ; 
 and at six, precisely at the lower part of the sternum. 
 
 Children born at the end of the sixth and even fifth month 
 have lived. e 
 
 (D) Instances continually occur in both sexes of early puberty, 
 sometimes joined with very rapid growth. The intellect however 
 does not usually keep pace with the body, (or rather the parts of 
 the brain destined for intellect, with the rest of the body) f nor are 
 such individuals commonly long lived. Some males are reported 
 to have been adult before the completion of their first year, an 
 instance of which will presently be given in note E. One of the 
 earliest examples of female puberty is related in the Medico- 
 Chirurgical Transactions : e the girl began to menstruate when not 
 
 b Bohn mentions having seen two female infants alive who had been buried 
 deep in the ground by their incontinent mothers, and not dug up for s&pie hours. 
 He says also that, in 1719, a female infant was dug up alive after being 
 buried for some time at its birth by the mother ; and that in 1764, a new-born 
 child was taken alive from a heap of straw, in which it had been placed, wrapped 
 in several cloths by its inhuman parents seven hours previously. Dr. James Curry 
 has recorded a case upon the authority of a surgeon of the Northampton 
 General Hospital, of a child which was born apparently dead, and, on account 
 of the attention required by the mother, put aside, and then carried by a 
 woman to a wash-house, in the depth of winter. After two hours the surgeon 
 enquired after the child, and by perseverance recovered it. Obs. on App. Death , cjc. 
 
 There can be no doubt that many infant lives are annually lost from the want 
 of perseverance in resuscitating measures. 
 
 c Sir Richard Croft attended where the child weighed 15 pounds ; and on the 
 other hand the weight has sometimes not exceeded 3 pounds. 
 d Phil. Trans. 
 
 e Harvey, Op. p. 545. Mahon, Med. Leg. i. 243. Ed. Med. and Surg. 
 Journ. 1815. Belloc, Cours de MM. Legale, 77. sq. 
 
 f In a recently described case of puberty, in a boy three years of age, the 
 judgment, as usual, is not at all superior to that of other children, but the part 
 of the head stated by Gall as the residence of the organ of sexual love, has been 
 examined, and is so large that Dr. Spurzlieim declares few adults have it of equal 
 size. Med. Chirurg. Trans, vol. xi. The same in vol. xii. p. 76. 
 
 6 Vol. iv. 
 
 M M 
 
530 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 three years of age, and soon after acquired large breasts, broad 
 hips, &c. Schurig quotes numerous, and for the most part pro- 
 bably fabulous, instances of fecundity in either sex between the 
 seventh and twelfth year, and one of a little couple, he nine and 
 she eight, who managed to beget a child. h 
 
 The activity of the grand organs of generation, — the testes in 
 the male and the ovaria in the female, is so connected with the great 
 changes which occur in the rest of the generative organs and in the 
 s}^stem at large at the period of puberty, that these changes are 
 prevented if those organs are previously removed, and are in gene- 
 ral proportional to their evolution and activity , 1 and when they 
 have experienced no change at the age of puberty, some of the 
 marks of the other sex, as large breasts in the male, may even occur; 
 and, if their removal is practised after puberty is established, the 
 system more or less relapses into its former condition or acquires 
 more or less the characteristics of the opposite sex. This is well 
 known in regard to brutes and the males of our species. Burck- 
 hardt, one of the latest travellers in Egypt, says that the face of 
 those unfortunate creatures who are emasculated when boys ap- 
 pears “ almost destitute of flesh, the eyes hollow, the cheek-bones 
 prominent, and the whole physiognomy has a skeleton-like ap- 
 pearance and that the operation is usualty performed between the 
 eighth and twelfth year. Windhus, however, in his journey to Mes- 
 quinez met a troop of eunuchs belonging to the king, and says they 
 were the fattest persons he ever saw. We have one instance of the 
 castration of a woman : her ovaria protruded at the groins, and 
 were so troublesome as to induce her to submit to their removal 
 in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital ; she afterwards grew thinner and 
 more muscular, her breasts shrunk away, and she ceased to men- 
 struated When the ovaria have been found deficient, the signs of 
 
 h Spermatol. p. 185. sq. 
 
 1 I say generally, because, for instance, the greatest evolution of the testes is 
 often accompanied either by little beard, or a small larynx, or some analogous 
 circumstance, while the other marks of manhood are strikingly manifested ; and 
 vice versa. A boy only six years of age, without any premature evolution of the 
 organs of generation, is recorded to have had a beard. Philos. Trans. 
 
 k Pott, Works, vol. iii. p. 330. A castrator of sows and other brutes in 
 Germany is said to have been so enraged with his daughter for giving loose reins 
 to her passions, as to have resolved to extinguish them, and to have completely 
 succeeded by removing her ovaria. — “ Ita bilis mota est, ut, aperto latere, cas- 
 traret puellam, quam ab eo tempore nulla tetigit veneris cupido.’ Boerhaave, 
 Pr (elect. Acad. t. vi. p.127. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 531 
 
 puberty had not appeared. 1 The absence of the uterus only is not. 
 attended by any deficiency in the general changes, m nor does its 
 removal destroy desire or give a woman the characters of the male. 
 Nay, where it only is absent there are monthly pains, and frequently 
 most severe ones, in the pelvis, with all the attendant circum- 
 stances of menstruation, as if the discharge were taking place. n 
 
 As puberty sometimes occurs extraordinarily soon, so does 
 it sometimes, though more rarely, extraordinarily late. Pro- 
 fessor Wilson knew a young man whose penis and testes at twenty- 
 six were no larger than in boys of eight ; at this time, however, 
 they began to evolve, he had erections and emissions, fell in love, 
 and in two years, viz., when twenty-eight, they were as large as 
 in other men, and he married and became a father. 0 Dr. Gall 
 remarks that precocity or tardiness may in the same way be the 
 lot of any faculty and its organ. Gessner, one of the best and 
 most amiable poets of Switzerland, was declared by his preceptors 
 incapable of any attainment when ten years of age. One of the 
 most celebrated physicians of Berlin could neither combine his 
 ideas nor speak at thirteen. P 
 
 John Hunter made an experiment respecting the removal of 
 one ovarium only. He took two young sows in all respects 
 similar to each other, and, after removing an ovarium from one, 
 admitted a boar of the same farrow to each, and allowed them 
 to breed. The perfect sow bred till she was about eight years 
 old, — a period of almost six years, in which time she had thir- 
 teen farrows, and in all one hundred and sixty-two pigs ; the 
 other bred till she was six years old, — during a space of more 
 than four years, and in that time she had eight farrows and in all 
 seventy-six pigs. Thus it would appear that each ovarium is destined 
 to afford a certain number only of foetuses, and that the removal of 
 one, although it does not influence the number of foetuses pro- 
 duced by the other, causes them to be produced in a shorter time. 9 
 
 1 Phil. Trans, vol. xcv. 
 
 m Mcmoires de la Society Medicate d' Emulation. Paris, tom ii. 
 
 " See a case read before the Mediciniseh - Chirurgischte Gesellschaft, and to be 
 found in the Land. Med. df Physic. Journal, 1819, p. 512. sq. where another is 
 quoted from Theden. I believe I know a living case of this kind myself, but 
 dissection only can clear up the matter. 
 
 0 Lectures on the Male Urine and Genital Organs, p. 424. 
 
 P 1. c. t. i. p. 1 91. sq. 
 
 q An experiment to determine the effect of extirpating one ovarium upon the 
 number of young produced. In his Observations on certain parts, &c. 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 The sexual organs are usually regarded as the cause of sexual 
 desire. That this is not the case, may be shown by many cir- 
 cumstances. Desire is by no means commensurate with the size 
 of the genitals : even when the genitals are precociously developed 
 desire is sometimes not felt . r Desire is often felt after the re- 
 moval of the testes, and in old age when the genitals are power- 
 less. It must, therefore, depend upon some other part. This 
 part appears to be the cerebellum. Desire is, cceteris paribus, 
 naturally strong or weak in the adult, in proportion to the large 
 or small size of the cerebellum, whether of the lobes or the funda- 
 mental portion called the vermiform process, which alone exists 
 in birds, amphibia, fish, and insects ; s whenever I have accurately 
 known the strength of the sexual propensities in either sex, the 
 size of the occiput has without a single exception corresponded. 
 Before puberty the cerebellum is small ; its proportion in size 
 to the cerebrum is at birth from one-ninth to one-twentieth, or 
 even less: in the adult it is as one-fifth, or at the least as one- 
 seventh, and acquires its full development between the eighteenth 
 and twenty-sixth years ; and the breadth and prominence of the 
 occiput are proportional. In old age, the cerebellum shrinks, and 
 the internal table of the occipital bone following, bony matter is 
 deposited between the two tables, and the bone at the fossae 
 occipitales becomes much less transparent. Gall possesses old 
 crania in which the cerebellum had returned to the dimen- 
 sions of infancy, and the occipital fossae had become shallow. 
 When the cerebellum is precociously developed, desire is felt by 
 the child, even though the genitals are not above the ordinary 
 size.* Inflammation and irritation of the cerebellum are found by 
 
 r A female infant who cut four teeth at the end of the first fortnight, walked 
 and had hair reaching to the middle of her back soon after the seventh month, 
 menstruated and had stiff brown hair on the pubes, and every corporeal mark of 
 puberty at the ninth month, died in her twelfth year, without having shown 
 the least sexual instinct. Al/gemeine Deutsche Leits. fur Gebactskundc. Gall 
 saw a similar case, and others may be found in Buffon. (Gall, 1. c. p. £60.) 
 Gall found the cerebellum had not grown proportionally, — “ had but a very in- 
 significant development.” 
 
 s Gall, l.c. t. iii. p.254. 
 
 * “ At Paris,” says Gall, (1. c. t. iii. p. 261.) “ I saw the son of a mulatto, 
 not quite three years of age ; he threw himself not only upon little girls, but 
 upon women, and urged them boldly and obstinately to gratify his desires. The 
 sexual organs were not prematurely developed, but merely of the dimensions 
 usual at his age, yet he had more than momentary erections, as he was surrounded 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 533 
 
 a multitude of dissections to have existed when great excitement 
 of the genitals occurred before death, and injuries of the cerebel- 
 lum, at the back of the head, have as frequently occasioned impo- 
 tence. Desire is much stronger in the males of all species than in 
 the females ; and, in general, the cerebellum of the male is larger 
 than of the female, — the distance between the mastoid processes 
 is wider ; the back of the neck and head, fuller ; indeed the whole 
 is much thicker ; and if the brains of the two sexes are placed 
 in water, the larger cerebellum of the male is very conspicuous. 
 
 The sympathy of the cerebellum with the genitals, is the reason 
 of the latter being regarded as the seat of desire. If they are 
 removed, desire is generally extinguished ; for the cerebellum is 
 not afterwards developed at puberty, and the back of the head 
 and neck remains small, perhaps smaller than in the female. If 
 one testicle only is removed, Gall has invariably observed, in 
 experiments on rabbits, and some cases in the human subject, 
 that the opposite half of the cerebellum is not developed u or 
 shrinks. Removal of both or one testicle after puberty produces 
 sometimes exactly similar effects. On the other hand, morbid irri- 
 tation of the genitals will sometimes excite intense desire ; and, 
 judging from all the other facts, we should say from exciting the 
 cerebellum. In violent sexual excitement, the back of the neck 
 is flushed, and hotter. Some animals feel the sexual desire at 
 certain periods of the year only ; and at this time the testes, and 
 
 by girls willing to indulge him from the piquant singularity of the thing. He 
 died of consumption before attaining his fourteenth year. His cerebellum was 
 extraordinarily developed ; the rest of his head of the common dimensions. In 
 every other respect, indeed, he was only an ill-educated spoiled child.” 
 
 I beg to omit the argument urged at p. 421, that had Lefort been an imperfect 
 being of either sex, desire would not have been felt, — this being dependent upon 
 the development of the cerebellum, not of the genitals. 
 
 u In the third volume of his large work, printed in 1818, and some years 
 before this in his lectures. Gall declared, from numerous observations, that the 
 fibres of the medulla spinalis ascending from the genital parts till they reach the 
 cerebellum, decussate exactly like the anterior pyramids. Some years afterwards, 
 M. Serres and M. Fleurens made the same discovery, and contended for prio- 
 rity, not mentioning Gall. It is remarkable how many discoveries of Gall’s that 
 were denied or disregarded, have been since made by others, and even frequently 
 contested by two parties, he and his labours being never once thought of. “ The 
 greater part of authors,” says he, “ who have treated of the same subjects as 
 myself, posteriorly to me, practise this same kind of generosity towards me.” 
 ). c. t. vi. p. 26. 
 
 M M 3 
 
534 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 in some instances the vesiculas seminales and prostate gland, 
 enlarge very considerably, as in the male sparrow and frog. 
 Gall found the cerebellum of birds collected at this season, 
 broader and more turgid, and the corresponding prominences of 
 the cranium manifestly greater than in those collected at the 
 beginning of winter. 
 
 The facts adduced by Gall, on these points, in the third volume 
 of his octavo work, are curious and very numerous ; and similar 
 ones, without end, may be found in works upon disease, military 
 surgery, and physiology, from ancient times down to Magendie’s 
 Journal for January last year. It occasionally happens, that apo- 
 plexy or other disease of the cerebellum, is not attended by 
 affections of the genitals ; and I am inclined to believe, that when 
 no excitement of those organs accompanies the disease of the cere- 
 bellum, the disease does not include the vermiform process, which 
 is considered by Gall the fundamental part of the cerebellum, 
 from its being the only part always existing in animals where 
 there is a cerebellum. 
 
 (E) Not only do instances of early pubertjr and full growth 
 frequently occur, but likewise of deficient and exuberant 
 growth. 
 
 Dwarfs are generally born of the same size as other children, 
 but after a few years suddenly cease to grow. They are said to 
 be commonly ill-shaped, to have large heads, and to be stupid 
 or malicious, x and old age comes upon them very early. The 
 three foreign dwarfs exhibited not many years since in London, 
 two men and one woman, had certainly large heads and flat noses, 
 but in other respects were well made. The tallest of the three 
 seemed a sulky creature, but the woman was very ingenious and 
 obliging, and Simon Paap — the least of the three, appeared very 
 amiable. He was twenty-eight inches high, and twenty-six years 
 old. They were not related to each other, and the relations of all 
 were of the common size. Their countenances were those of 
 persons more advanced. The smallest dwarf on record was only 
 sixteen inches high, when thirty-seven years of age. y I saw 
 
 x “ It will not be easy to produce me an instance of any one giant or of any 
 one dwarf perfectly sound in heart and mind, i. e. in the same degree with a 
 thousand other individuals who are regularly constituted. Great mental weak- 
 ness is the usual portion of giants, gross stupidity that of dwarfs.” Lavater, 
 Thysiognomy. 
 
 y Haller, Elementa Physiologies, t. xii. lib. 30. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 535 
 
 a female dwarf, named Crachami, said to be ten years old, 
 who was well-formed, but had the features of a baby, was only 
 nineteen and a half inches in height, and five pounds in weight. 2 
 Her voice was that of an infant. To hear her speak, and see her 
 walk, sit, and behave like a child several years old, was one of the 
 most striking things I ever witnessed. 
 
 The tallest person authentically recorded has never exceeded 
 nine feet, according to Haller. A young man from Hunting- 
 donshire, also exhibited in London a few years back, was of 
 remarkable height. Although only seventeen years of age, he 
 was nearly eight feet. He had a sister of great height, and many 
 of his family were very tall. He was, as is usual, born of the 
 ordinary size, but soon began to grow rapidly. He appeared 
 amiable, and as acute as most youths of his age and rank. 
 
 Giants and dwarfs happily seldom reach their fortieth year, and 
 have not very active organs of generation. As the period of growth 
 is so short in dwarfs, and the period of childhood so short in 
 those who reach puberty early, it is to be expected that their old 
 age will be premature, — that their stationary period and decline 
 will be likewise short. a Giants do not, like dwarfs, I believe, die 
 from premature old age, but from mere exhaustion. 
 
 z See Literary Gazette, May 1. 1824. 
 
 a In the year 1748, Mr. Dawkes, a surgeon at St. Ives, near Huntingdon, 
 published a small tract called Prodigium Willingltamense , or an Account of a 
 surprising Boy, who was buried at Willingham, near Cambridge, upon whom 
 he wrote the following epitaph. But whether it was ever engraved upon his 
 tombstone I have not learned. 
 
 ‘ Stop Traveller, and wondering, know, here buried lie the remains of Thomas, 
 son of Thomas and Margaret Hall ; who, not one year old, had the signs of 
 manhood ; not three, was almost four feet high ; endued with uncommon strength, 
 a just proportion of parts, and a stupendous voice ; before six, he died as it were 
 of an advanced age. 
 
 ‘ He was born in this village, Oct. 31. MDCCXLI. and in the same, de- 
 parted this life, Sept. 3. MDCCXLVII.’ 
 
 Mr. Dawkes viewed him after he was dead, and says the corpse had the aspect 
 of a venerable old man. 
 
 See also a description of him in the Phil. Trans. 1744-5. 
 
 This perfectly authentic case removes all doubts respecting the boy at Salamis, 
 mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. vii. c. xvii.) as being four feet high, and 
 having reached puberty when only three years old ; and respecting the man 
 seen by Craterus, the brother of Antigonus (Phlegon, De mirah. c. xxxii.), 
 who in seven years was an infant, a youth, an adult, a father, an old man, and 
 a corpse. 
 
 M M 4 
 
536 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 The Laplanders are one of the shortest races. Buffon says 
 that their height is but four feet, and that their tallest men do 
 not exceed four feet and a half. 
 
 (F) This change sometimes arises from ovarian disease . 15 
 
 Sir Everard Home mentions a duck, which, when eight years 
 old, not only ceased laying, and acquired the male plumage, but 
 repelled all drakes, and did its best to tread ducks. c 
 
 (G) The heavenly serenity of the countenance of most fresh 
 corpses is a very remarkable, and to me, I confess, a very affect- 
 ing and consolatory, circumstance. I cannot deny myself the 
 pleasure of forcibly drawing the attention of my readers to it by 
 quoting some lines of the mighty Byron. 
 
 “ He who hath bent him o’er the dead 
 Ere the first day of death is fled, 
 
 Before decay’s effacing fingers 
 
 Have swept those lines where beauty lingers, 
 
 And mark’d the mild angelic air, 
 
 The rapture of repose that’s there. 
 
 The fix’d yet tender traits that streak 
 The languor of the placid cheek. 
 
 And, but for that sad shrouded eye 
 
 That fires not — wins not — weeps not now, 
 
 And but for that chill changeless brow, 
 
 Where cold obstruction’s apathy 
 Appals the gazing mourner’s heart. 
 
 As if to him it could impart 
 
 The doom he dreads yet dwells upon, — 
 
 Yes, but for these and these alone. 
 
 Some moments, aye, one treacherous hour, 
 
 He still might doubt the tyrant’s power : 
 
 So fair, so calm, so softly seal’d, 
 
 The fair last look by death reveal’d.” d 
 
 Sometimes the features are much changed for a short time 
 after death, and subsequently resume their usual appearance. 
 
 Hopkins Hopkins, weighing never more than 1 8lb. and latterly but 1 2, died 
 of pure old age at seventeen ; and one of his sisters, but 12 years of age, and 
 weighing only 18lbs. at the time of his death, had all the marks of old age. 
 (Gentleman' s Magazine, vol. xxiv. p. 191.) At the Hospice de Mat emit i, a few 
 years ago, a child is declared to have been born all wrinkled, and with strong grey 
 hair on its head and chin. It appeared in good health, but its hands and feet 
 were of double the usual length. Tablettes Universel/es, 
 
 b Phil. Trans. 1827. 
 
 c Phil. Trans. 1799, p.174. 
 
 d Giaour. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 531 
 
 (H) Our countryman Parr married when a hundred and twenty 
 years of age, retained his vigour till a hundred and forty, and 
 died at a hundred and fifty-two from plethora, induced by a 
 change in his diet. e Harvey, who dissected him, found no decay 
 of any organ/ and, had not Parr become an inmate of the Earl 
 of Arundel’s family in London, he probably would have lived 
 many years longer. Our other countryman Jenkins, who lived 
 a hundred and sixty-nine years, is, perhaps, the greatest authentic 
 instance of longevity. 
 
 Longevity frequently runs in families, and is much disposed to 
 by early rising and matrimony, s 
 
 The duration of life varies in different countries. Dr. James 
 Johnson says the average of all ranks in the peninsula of India 
 falls below what it is in Europe. 11 In another work we read that 
 the sixtieth year is there seldom attained.' On the other hand, 
 Buffon writes that in the American Indians the hair never becomes 
 grey nor the skin wrinkled, and that many Mexicans, especially 
 females, frequently reach their hundredth year, and preserve their 
 muscular force till death. The Laplanders and the people of 
 
 e At 105 he did penance in a white sheet for an illicit amour, which physio- 
 logical fact John Taylor the poet, in 1635, immortalised in the following 
 elegant rhymes : — 
 
 “ Fair Catharine Milton was this beauty bright. 
 
 Fair like an angel, but in weight too light, 
 
 Whose fervent feature did inflame so far 
 The ardent fervor of old Thomas Parr, 
 
 That for love’s satisfaction ’twas thought meet 
 He should be purged by standing in a sheet ; 
 
 Which aged he one hundred and Jive year, 
 
 In Aldersbury Bury’s church did wear. 
 
 Shquld all that so offend such penance do, 
 
 Oh ! what a price would linen rise unto, 
 
 All would be turn’d to sheets, our shirt and s— , 
 
 Our table linen, very porter’s frock, 
 
 Would hardly ’scape transforming. Eccentric Mirror, vol. i. 
 
 Menstruation has continued regularly till the seventieth year [Phil. Trans. 
 1713), and women have lain in at fifty-four. ( Edinb . Annual Register, vol. ix.) 
 
 f Phil. Trans, vol. iii. 1699. 
 
 E See an original and beautiful Account of the State of the Body and Mind in 
 old Age, in the Med. Inquiries and Observations (vol. ii.) of that most interesting 
 writer Dr. Rush. 
 
 h On the Influence of Tropical Climates. 
 
 ‘ Oriental Field Sports, vol. i. p. 236. 
 
538 
 
 OF THE GROWTH AND DECREASE 
 
 the northern coasts of Tartary he also remarks, though living 
 under ground during winter, and in the midst of smoke during 
 summer, for the purpose of keeping off the gnats, are seldom sick, 
 and live to an extreme old age, the old being scarcely distinguish- 
 able from the young. 
 
 Life is often protracted very long after the teeth have fallen 
 out and the hair has turned gray. 
 
 Dr. Rush gives a striking illustration of the weakness of impres- 
 sions made in advanced life, while those of earlier date are 
 well remembered, in the instance of a German woman who had 
 learned the language of the Americans when forty years old, and, 
 though still living in America, had forgotten every word of it at 
 eighty, but talked German as fluently as ever. Bishop Watson’s 
 father married and had a family very late, and when extremely 
 aged would twenty times a day ask the name of the lad at 
 college, though he would “ repeat, without a blunder, hundreds 
 of lines out of classic authors .” 15 
 
 It is a most remarkable circumstance that the system frequently 
 makes an effort at renovation in extreme old age. I myself have 
 known several old persons cut new teeth, and the Philosophical 
 Transactions, the German Ephemerides, Van Swieten's Commen- 
 taries, and other works, record many similar facts, — even that 
 of a complete third set . 1 Dr. Rush mentions an old man in 
 Pennsylvania who at sixty-eight lost his sight and remained per- 
 fectly blind for years, though otherwise in complete health ; at 
 eighty he regained his sight spontaneously without any visible 
 change in the eyes, and could see as well as ever in his life at 
 eighty-four, when the account was written. Dr. Mason Good 
 saw a lady who at an advanced age cut several new teeth, and 
 threw away her spectacles after using them for twenty years, 
 and read the smallest print of newspapers ; and another, who with 
 her new teeth, completely recovered her hearing, although she 
 had for many years been so deaf as to be obliged to feel the 
 tongue of her hand-bell for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
 the bell rang or not. In the Philosophical Transactions a physi- 
 cian mentions that his father cut two new teeth, which afterwards 
 dropped out together with the rest, when in two years fresh ones 
 
 k Anecdotes of the Life and Writings of Bishop Watson, & c. 
 
 1 John Hunter saw such an instance. Kat. Hist, if the Teeth. This was in 
 a female, as I believe is more frequently the case. 
 
OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 
 
 539 
 
 appeared, and he at length had an entire new set, and his grey 
 head of hair turned dark. The grey hairs of several old people 
 have become brown or black. m 
 
 I need scarcely observe that the height and the age of men at 
 present are the same as they were in ancient times. It is a com- 
 mon custom to magnify the past. Homer, who flourished almost 
 three thousand years ago, makes his heroes hurl stones in battle 
 which 
 
 ■ ■ " ou Suo y'&vdpe cpepoiev 
 
 OToi vuv fiporol elai . n 
 
 Yet the giant who was the terror of the Israelites did not pro- 
 bably exceed nine feet in height,, and it was to David who slew 
 him and flourished but a little more than a century later than 
 Homer’s heroes that Barzillai thus excused himself for not visit- 
 ing the royal palace at Jerusalem : — “I am this day fourscore 
 years old ; and can I discern between good and evil ? can thy 
 servant taste what I eat or what I drink ? can I hear any more 
 the voice of singing men and singing women ? wherefore then 
 should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king ?” 0 
 Moses lived five hundred years earlier than David, and writes, — 
 “ The days of our years are threescore and ten : and if by reason- 
 of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour 
 and sorrow : for it is soon cut off, and w e fly away.”P 
 
 i 
 
 (I) The functions of the human machine having now been 
 fully described, it may be useful to consider it in its relation to 
 other animated systems, and to review the chief varieties in which 
 it appears. 
 
 Numerous authors have remarked that a gradation exists among 
 all the objects of the universe, from the Almighty Creator, 
 through arcli-angels and angels, men, brutes, vegetables, and 
 inanimate matter, down to nothing. 
 
 Examples may be found in Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health and Lon- 
 gevity. See also the article Cas Rares, in the JDiclionnaire des Sciences Medicates. 
 
 n Iliad, lib. v. 
 
 0 2 Samuel, xix. 35. 
 
 p Psalm xc. — ascribed to Moses by thost biblical scholars. 
 
540 
 
 GRADATION OF OBJECTS. 
 
 “ Vast chain of being which from God began, 
 
 Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, 
 
 Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, 
 
 No glass can reach, from infinite to thee, 
 
 From thee to nothing.” i 
 
 Yet this gradation, striking as it is, deserves not the epithet 
 regular or insensible. “ The highest being not infinite must be, 
 as has been often observed, at an infinite distance below infinity.’’ 
 “ And in this distance between finite and infinite there will be 
 room for ever for an infinite series of indefinable existence. Be- 
 tween the lowest positive existence and nothing, wherever we 
 suppose existence to cease, is another chasm infinitely deep ; 
 where there is room again for endless orders of subordinate 
 beings, continued for ever and ever, and yet infinitely superior to 
 non-existence.” “Nor is this all. In the scale, wherever it begins 
 or ends, are infinite vacuities. At whatever distance we suppose 
 the next order of beings to be above man, there is room for an 
 intermediate order of beings between them, and if for one order 
 then for infinite orders ; since every thing that admits of more 
 or less, and, consequently, all the parts of that which admits 
 them, may be infinitely divided. So that, as far as we can judge, 
 there may be room in the vacuity between any two steps of the 
 scale, or between any two points of the cone, for infinite exertion 
 of infinite power.” r 
 
 In fact, at how vast a distance do we see the innate mental 
 properties of man standing above those of the most sagacious 
 brute ! How immensely does the volition of the lowest animal 
 raise it above the whole vegetable kingdom ! And how deep the 
 chasm between the vital organisation of the meanest vegetable 
 and a mass of inanimate matter ! Gradation must be admitted, 
 but it is far from regular or insensible. Neither does it at all 
 regard perfection of system, nor very much the degree, but 
 chiefly the excellence, and, within the limits of the visible world, 
 the combination, of properties. Man, placed at the summit of 
 terrestrial objects by the excellence of his mind and the combi- 
 nation of the common properties of matter, of those of vege- 
 tables, and of those of brutes, with those peculiar to himself, is 
 surpassed by the dog in acuteness of smell and bj- the oak in 
 
 <i Pope, Essay on Man. Epistle 1. 
 
 r Dr. Johnson, Review of « Free Enquiry into the nature and origin of evil. 
 
INANIMATE BODIES AND VEGETABLES. 
 
 541 
 
 magnitude, nor can he boast of more perfection than the gnat or 
 the thistle in their kinds. 
 
 Substances consist of Particles endowed with certain properties 
 without which their existence cannot be conceived, viz. extension 
 and impenetrability ; with others which proceed, indeed, from 
 their existence, but are capable of being subdued by opposing 
 energies, viz. mobility, inertness ; and with others apparently 
 neither necessary to their existence nor flowing from it, but 
 merely superadded ; for example, various attractions and repul- 
 sions, and various powers of affecting animated systems. 
 
 Inanimate substances may be gaseous, liquid, or solid. If 
 solid, the inanimate body has no properties which are not analogous 
 to these or even dependent upon them. It is for the most part 
 homogeneous in its composition, and disposed to be flat and 
 angular, increases by external accretion, has an indeterminate 
 volume, and contains within itself no causes of decay. The rest 
 of the bodies in nature are animated, and are vegetables and 
 animals. 
 
 Vegetables, in addition to the properties of inanimate matter, 
 possess those of Life, viz. sensibility (without consciousness or per- 
 ception) — I would say excitability, for sensibility without the power 
 of sensation is nonsense, — and contractility, or rather express 
 both by the term excitability. s Their structure is beautifully or- 
 ganised, their volume is determinate, and their surfaces disposed 
 to be curved; they grow by interstitial deposition, changing sub- 
 stances to their own nature, and are destined in their very nature 
 for a limited existence, — a period of increase and decay. 
 
 Animals, in addition to the properties of vegetables, enjoy 
 Mind, the indispensable attributes of which are the powers of 
 consciousness and perception, and of volition : the two former, — 
 which are in truth but one, termed consciousness when it takes 
 cognizance of internal impressions, and perception when of exter- 
 nal, — without the latter, would be, like vegetable or organic sensi- 
 bility without contractility, were this possible, useless ; and the 
 
 3 By the former, stimuli act upon them, and by the latter, they upon stimuli : 
 by the sensibility and contractility of the vessels, substances are taken up by the 
 roots, and circulated through the system, and converted into the various parts of 
 the vegetable. Yet this does not imply perception, consciousness, or will. The 
 excitability of the absorbents and secretories of our own system carries on absorp. 
 lion and secretion without our consciousness or volition. 
 
542 
 
 BRUTES. 
 
 latter could not exist without the former, 1 any more than ve- 
 getable or organic contraction could occur without excitability : 
 nor can the existence of mind be conceived without the faculties 
 of consciousness, perception, and volition, any more than the 
 existence of matter without extension and impenetrability. The 
 possession of mind by animals necessarily implies the presence of 
 a brain for its exertion, and of a nerve or nerves for the purpose 
 of conveying impressions to this brain, and at least volitions from 
 it to one or more voluntary muscles. A system which is not 
 thus gifted certainly deserves not the name of animal. 0 
 
 Notwithstanding the vast interval which of necessity exists 
 between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the lowest brutes 
 approach as nearly as possible in organisation, and consequently 
 in function, to vegetable simplicity. They possess merely con- 
 sciousness and perception, and volition, w T ith the appetite for 
 food, or are even nourished by imbibition, and multiply by shoots, 
 fixed like vegetables to the spot which they inhabit. The five 
 senses, sexual appetite, instincts, memory, judgment, 51 and loco- 
 
 1 “ Sense,” says Hamlet to his mother, “ sure you have, 
 
 Else could you not have motion.” Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 u I cannot conceive an animal without consciousness, perception, and volition ; 
 nor can I conceive these in an animal without a brain, any more than the secre- 
 tion of bile without a liver or something analogous. I contend not for the name, 
 but for the thing. Zoologists indeed affirm that many internal worms and all 
 the class of zoophytes have no nervous system. But comparative anatomy is yet 
 imperfect, the examination of minute parts is extremely difficult, and new organs 
 are daily discovered. Blumenbacb, after remarking that, except those animals 
 which inhabit corals and the proper zoophytes, most genera of the other orders of 
 the Linnaean class of vermes are found to possess a distinct nervous system, adds : 
 
 “ Although former anatomists have expressly declared in several instances that 
 no such parts existed.” ( Comparative Anatomy, ch. cxvi. F.) Besides, some 
 beings have been denominated animals without any very satisfactory reason. 
 
 Where the nervous system of an animal cannot be readily detected, its presence 
 may be inferred from motions evidently voluntary, such as retraction upon the 
 approach of footsteps, — proving the existence of an organ of hearing, a brain, 
 and nerves : motion in a part directly stimulated, as the contraction of an hydatid 
 upon being punctured, is no proof of an animal nature, for this is common to 
 vegetables, for instance, the leaves of the dioncea musciyula , which contract for- 
 cibly on a slight irritation. It may likewise be inferred from the presence of a 
 stomach, because, where there is a stomach, the food is taken in, not by absorbing 
 vessels constantly plunged in it, but by a more or less complicated and generally 
 solitary opening regulated by volition. John Hunter contended that the sto- 
 mach was the grand characteristic of the animal kingdom. 
 
 1 I see daily instances of something deserving some such name as judgment 
 
BRUTES. 
 
 543 
 
 motive power, with the necessary organs, are variously super- 
 added, and endless varieties of organisation constructed, so that 
 air and water, the crust and the surface of the earth, are all re- 
 plenished with animals completely calculated for their respective 
 habitations, y 
 
 or reason in brutes. To the incredulous I offer the following anecdote in the 
 words of Dr. Darwin. “ A wasp on a gravel walk had caught a fly nearly as 
 large as itself. Kneeling on the ground, I observed him separate the tail and 
 the head from the body part to which the wings were attached. He then took the 
 body part in his paws and rose about two feet from the ground with it ; but a 
 gentle breeze wafting the wings of the fly turned him round in the air and he 
 settled again with his prey upon the gravel. I then distinctly observed him cut 
 off with his mouth first one of the wings and then the other, after which he flew 
 away with it unmolested with the wind.” Zoonomia : Instinct. — The works 
 of the two Hubers Sur les abeilles and Sur les mccurs des fourmis indigenes furnish 
 an abundance of most interesting instances of reason in those insects. See also 
 Mr. Smellie’s paper in the Transact, of Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. i. 
 p. 39. sqq. 
 
 y An error has been committed not only in representing the gradation regular, 
 but in supposing every species of animal to constitute a distinct step in the gra- 
 dation. “The whole chasm in nature,” says Addison (Spectator, No. 519.), 
 “ from a plant to a man, is filled up with divers kinds of creatures, rising one 
 above another, by such a gentle and easy ascent, that the little transitions and 
 deviations from one species to another are almost insensible.” “ All quite down 
 from us,” says Locke (Essay on the Human Understanding, b. iii. c. 6.), “the 
 descent is by easy steps, and a continued series of things, that in each remove 
 differ very little one from the other. There are fishes that have wings, and are 
 not strangers to the airy region ; and there are some birds, that are inhabitants of 
 the water ; whose blood is cold as fishes, and their flesh so like in taste that the 
 scrupulous are allowed them on fish days. There are animals so near of kin 
 both to birds and beasts, that they are in the middle between both : amphibious 
 animals link the terrestrial and aquatic together, seals live at land and at sea, and 
 porpoises have the warm blood and entrails of a hog ; not to mention what is 
 confidently reported of mermaids or sea men.” “ In respect of our intellectual 
 and moral principles,” remarks Mr. Dugald Stewart (Outlines of Moral Philoso- 
 phy, par. 109), “ our nature does not admit of comparison with that of any other 
 inhabitant of this globe : the difference between our constitution and theirs 
 being a difference, not in degree, but in kind. Perhaps this is the single instance 
 in which that regular gradation which we, every where else, observe in the uni- 
 verse, fails entirely.” 
 
 Now the various kinds of animals do certainly run into each other ; — there 
 are no great peculiarities of construction in single organs between which and the 
 ordinary structure of the same organs in other animals an intermediate structure 
 connecting the two are not continually brought to light by naturalists. No two 
 are so different but that discoveries are continually made of a third intermediate. 
 
544 
 
 MAN. 
 
 Man, besides the common properties of animals, has others 
 which raise him to an immense superiority. His mind is endowed 
 with powers of the highest order that brutes have not, and his 
 body being, like the bodies of all animals, constituted in harmony 
 with the mind that the powers of the latter may have effect, 
 differs necessarily in many points of construction from the body 
 of every brute. Well might Shakspeare exclaim, “ What a piece 
 of work is man ! How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! 
 in form and moving how express and admirable ! in action how 
 like an angel ! in apprehension how like a god ! the beauty of the 
 world ! the paragon of animals !” z 
 
 The orang-outangs approach the nearest of all brutes to the 
 human subject. Possessing expression of countenance, elevation 
 of forehead, and less projection of the lower part of the face than 
 other brutes, anterior extremities that are really arms and hands, 
 and teeth of the same number and pretty much of the same 
 figure as our own ; curious, imitative, covetous, social ; said by 
 some to place sentinels and dispose themselves in a train for the 
 propagation of alarm ; to seem now and then to laugh and weep, a 
 to walk a little occasionally erect, to defend themselves with 
 sticks and stones, to copulate face to face, to carry their young 
 either in their arms or on their backs, and to be very lascivious 
 in regard to our species ; the orang-outangs at first sight afford, 
 if any of the genus can afford, a little probability to the opinion 
 of a close connection between apes and the human race. Un- 
 civilised men, too, make a slight approach in many corporeal 
 
 But connection is not gradation. Many kinds, and the intermediate ones by 
 which they are united, are all on a level in point of excellence and combination 
 of properties, so that a single step in the gradation may comprehend a great 
 number of kinds : — the whole vegetable kingdom forms but one step. 
 z Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 a Le Cat ( Traite de V Existence dujluide des ncrfs, p. 35.), asserts that he had 
 seen the jocko or chimpanse ( simia troglodytes ) both laugh and cry. The reader 
 will remember the lines in Milton’s Paradise Lost (B. ix.), — 
 
 “ Smiles from reason flow, 
 
 To brute denied.” 
 
 The orang-outangs exhibited a few years ago at Exeter-’ Change, — the one a 
 satyrus and the other a chimpanse, are said by their keepers to have sometimes 
 laughed when much pleased, but never to have wept. Steller states the fact of 
 weeping in regard to the phoca ursina ; Pallas, in regard to the camel ; and Hum- 
 boldt, in regard to a small American monkey. Mr. Lawrence, Lectures, p.236. 
 
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN'. 
 
 545 
 
 particulars, as we shall hereafter find, to the structure of other 
 animals, and since, also, the circumstances of their existence call 
 into action few of the peculiar mental powers of our nature, they 
 have been adduced in corroboration of this opinion. But the 
 least examination displays differences of the greatest magnitude 
 between the human and the brute creation. b These we shall 
 review under two divisions, the first embracing the mental, and 
 the second the corporeal, characteristics of mankind. 
 
 In judging of the mental faculties of mankind , 0 not merely 
 those should be considered which an unfortunately situated indi- 
 vidual may display, but those which all the race would display 
 under favourable circumstances. A seed and a pebble may not 
 on a shelf appear very dissimilar, but, if both are placed in the 
 earth, the innate characteristic energies of the seed soon become 
 
 b In La Fontaine’s charming fable of Le Singe et le Dauphin, the former 
 during a shipwreck, near Athens, resolves to profit by his resemblance to man, 
 for whom the dolphin was anciently said to have a great regard. (See Pliny, 
 Hist. Nat. is. 8, 9.) In the hurry, 
 
 Un dauphin le prit pour un homme, 
 
 Et sur son dos le fit asseoir 
 Si gravement, qu’on eut cru voir 
 Le chanteur que tant on renomme. 
 
 Just before landing him, the dolphin asked whether he often saw the Piraeus, 
 to which he unfortunately replied, 
 
 Tons les jours : il est iron ami : 
 
 C’est une vieille connaissance. 
 
 One glance was sufficient to discover the difference between a man and a 
 monkey. 
 
 Le dauphin rit, tourne la t£te ; 
 
 Et, le magot consid^re, 
 
 II s’appercoit qu’il n’a tir6 
 Du fond des eaux rien qu’une bete ; 
 
 II l’y replonge, et va trouver 
 Quelque homme it fin de le sauver. 
 
 “ The difference between the volume of the brain of the orang-outang and man 
 is as 5 to 1 : their convolutions differ considerably in number and structure ; the 
 anterior lobes especially are narrowed into a cone, flattened above, hollowed out 
 below, &c. and the difference is much more striking in other apes.” Gall, 1. c. 
 t. vi. p. 298. 
 
 c In the external senses of at least smelling, hearing, and seeing, man is sur- 
 passed by brutes. Whether they have any sense not possessed by us I cannot 
 pretend to say. 
 
 5? N 
 
546 
 
 CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 conspicuous. A savage may in the same manner seem little 
 superior to an orang-outang, but, if instruction is afforded to 
 both, the former will gradually develope the powers of our nature 
 in all their noble superiority, while the latter will still remain an 
 orang-outang. The excellence of man’s mind demonstrates itself 
 chiefly by his voice and hands. Witness the infinite variety and the 
 depth of thought expressed by means of words : witness his great 
 reasoning powers, his ingenuity, his taste, his upright, religious, 
 and benevolent, feelings, in his manufactories, his galleries of the 
 fine arts, his halls of justice, his temples, and his charitable esta- 
 blishments. Besides the qualities common to all animals, each of 
 which he, like every animal, possesses in a degree peculiar to 
 himself, and some indeed in a degree very far surpassing that in 
 which any brute possesses them, for instance, benevolence, me- 
 chanical contrivance, the sense for music and language, and the 
 general power of observation and inference respecting present 
 circumstances, he appears exclusively gifted with at least feelings 
 of religion and justice, with taste, with wit, and with decided re- 
 jiecting faculties of comparing and reasoning into causes. 
 
 The corporeal characteristics of mankind are not less striking 
 and noble. d Among the beings beheld by Satan in Wilton’s 
 Paradise, 
 
 ££ Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 
 
 Godlike erect, with native honour clad, 
 
 In naked majesty seem'd lords of all.” e 
 
 The erect posture is natural and peculiar to man. f All nations 
 
 d Consult Blumenbach, De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa. Sect. i. De 
 hominis a caeteris animalibus differentia. 
 
 e Paradise Lost, book iv. 2SS. 
 
 f There is little necessity in the present day to attempt the refutation of the 
 ridiculous opinion that man is destined to walk on all-fours. But I do so for 
 the purpose of displaying many peculiarities of our structure. 
 
 It is almost incredible that a thinking man could have entertained it for a 
 moment, any more than the idea of our naturally having tails. Yet this is the 
 fact ; and, in exquisite ridicule of such philosophers, Butler makes Hudibras, 
 after proving to his mistress by his beard that he is no gelding, fruitlessly urge 
 his erect posture in proof that he is not a horse. 
 
 “ Next it appears I am no horse. 
 
 That I can argue and discourse, 
 
 Have but two legs, and ne’er a tail. — 
 
 Quoth she, That nothing will avail ; 
 
 4 
 
CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 547 
 
 walk erect, and, among those individuals who have been disco- 
 vered in a wild and solitary state, there is no well authenticated 
 instance of one whose progression was on all-fours. If we at- 
 tempt this mode of progression, we move either on the knees 
 or the points of the toes, throwing the legs obliquely back to a 
 considerable distance; we find ourselves insecure and uneasy; 
 our eyes instead of looking forwards are directed to the ground ; 
 and the openings of the nostrils are no longer at the lower part 
 of the nose, — in a situation to receive ascending odorous particles, 
 but lie behind it. Our inferior extremities, being of much greater 
 length, in proportion to the others and to the trunk, than the 
 posterior of brutes with four extremities, even in children in 
 whom the proportion is less, are evidently not intended to coin- 
 cide with them in movement ; they are much stronger than the 
 arms, obviously for the purpose of great support : the presence of 
 calves, which are found in man alone, shows that the legs are to 
 support and move the whole machine ; the thigh bones are in 
 the same line with the trunk, in quadrupeds they form an angle, 
 frequently an acute one ; the bones of the tarsus become hard 
 and perfect sooner than those of the carpus, because strength of 
 leg is required for standing and walking sooner than strength of 
 arm,and hand for labour ; the great toe is of the highest import- 
 ance to the erect posture, and bestowed exclusively on mankind ; 
 the os calcis is very large, particularl)>- at its posterior projection, 
 for the insertion of the strong muscles of the calf, and lies at 
 right angles with the leg ; we alone can rest fully upon it, and 
 in fact upon the whole of the tarsus, metatarsus, and toes. The 
 superior extremities do not lie under the trunk as they would if 
 destined for its support, but on its sides, capable of motion 
 in every direction towards objects; the fore-arm extends itself 
 outwards, not forwards, as in quadrupeds, where it is an organ 
 
 For some philosophers of late here 
 Write, men have four legs by nature, 
 
 And that ’tis custom makes them go, 
 
 Erroneously upon but two. 
 
 As ’twas in Germany made good 
 B’ a boy that lost himself in a wood, 
 
 And growing to a man was wont 
 With wolves upon all-four to hunt.” 
 
 Hudllras, partii. canto i. 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 
 
 CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 of progression ; the hand is fixed not at right angles with the 
 arm, as an instrument of support, but in the same line, and cannot 
 be extended to a right angle without painfully stretching the 
 flexor tendons ; the superior extremity is calculated in the erect 
 posture for seizing and handling objects, by the freedom of its 
 motions, by the great length of the fingers above that of the toes, 
 and by the existence of the thumb, which, standing at a distance 
 from the fingers and bending towards them, acts as an opponent, 
 while the great toe is, like the rest, too short for apprehension, 
 stands in the same line with them, and moves in the same direc- 
 tion : were our hands employed in the horizontal posture, the}'' 
 would be lost to us as grand instruments in the exercise of our 
 mental superiority. Quadrupeds have a strong ligament at the 
 back of the neck to sustain the head ; in us there is no such thing, 
 and our extensor muscles at the back of the neck are compa- 
 ratively very weak.? They have the thorax deep and narrow, 
 that the anterior extremities may lie near together and give more 
 support ; the sternum too is longer, and the ribs extend con- 
 siderably towards the pelvis to maintain the incumbent viscera ; 
 our thorax is broad from side to side, that the arms being thrown 
 to a distance may have greater extent of motion, and shallow 
 from the sternum to the spine ; and the abdominal viscera, press- 
 ing towards the pelvis rather than towards the surface of the 
 abdomen in the erect attitude, do not here require an osseous 
 support. The pelvis is beautifully adapted in us for supporting 
 the bowels in the erect posture ; it is extremely expanded, and 
 the sacrum and os coccygis bend forwards below : in brutes it 
 does not merit the name of pelvis ; for, not having to support 
 the abdominal contents, it is narrow, and the sacrum inclines but 
 little to the pubes. The nates, besides extending the pelvis upon 
 the thigh bones in the erect state of standing or walking, allow 
 us to rest while awake in the sitting posture, in which, the head 
 and trunk being still erect, our organs of sense have their proper 
 direction equally as in walking or standing : were we compelled 
 to lie down like quadrupeds, when resting during the leaking 
 
 s As the head is connected with the trunk farther back in brutes than in us, 
 the small length of lever between the occipital foramen and the back of the head, 
 and the length of the head below the foramen, require all this power ; but even 
 in us much more upholding power than we have at the back of the neck would 
 be required for all-four progression, as the head would no longer rest upon the 
 spine. 
 
CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 5 4S 
 
 state, the different organs of the face must change their present 
 situation to retain their present utility, no less than if we were 
 compelled to adopt, the horizontal progression ; aaid, conversely, 
 were their situation so changed, the provision for the sitting pos- 
 ture would be comparatively useless. 
 
 While some, perversely desirous of degrading their race, have 
 attempted to remove a splendid distinction by asserting that we 
 are constructed for all fours, others with equal perverseness and 
 ignorance have asserted that monkeys are destined for the upright 
 posture. The monkey tribe, it is true, maintain the erect posture 
 less awkwardly than other brutes with four extremities, but they 
 cannot maintain it long, and, while in it, they bend their knees 
 and body ; they are insecure and tottering, and glad to rest upon 
 a stick ; their feet, too, instead of being spread for support, are 
 coiled up as if to grasp something. In fact their structure proves 
 them to be neither biped nor quadruped, but four-handed, ani- 
 mals. They live naturally in trees, and are furnished with four 
 hands for grasping the branches and gathering their food. Of 
 their four hands the posterior are even the more perfect, and are 
 in no instance destitute of a thumb, although, like the thumbs of 
 all the quadramana, so insignificant as to have been termed by 
 Eustachius, “ omnino ridiculus whereas the anterior hands of 
 one variety ( simia paniscus ) have not this organ. The whole 
 length of the orang-outang, it may be mentioned, falls very much 
 short of ours. 
 
 It was anciently supposed that man, because gifted with the 
 highest mental endowments, possessed the largest of all brains. 
 But as elephants and whales surpass him in this respect, and the 
 sagacious monkey and dog have smaller brains than the com- 
 paratively stupid ass, ox, and hog, the opinion was relinquished 
 by the moderns, and man was said only to have the largest brain 
 in proportion to the size of his body. But as more extensive 
 observation proved canary and other birds, and some varieties of 
 the monkey tribe, to have larger brains than man in proportion 
 to the body, and several mammalia to equal him in this particular, 
 and as rats and mice too surpass the dog, the horse, and the 
 elephant, in the comparative bulk of their brains, this opinion 
 also gave way, in its turn, to that of Soemmerring, — that man 
 possesses the largest brain in comparison with the nerves arising 
 from it. This has not yet been contradicted, although the com. 
 parative size of the brain to the nerves originating from it (grant 
 
 N N 3 
 
550 
 
 CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 ing that they originate from it) is not an accurate measure of the 
 faculties, because the seal has in proportion to its nerves a larger 
 brain than the house-dog, and the porpoise than the orang-outang. h 
 
 As the human brain is of such great comparative magnitude, 
 the cranium is necessarily very large and bears a greater pro- 
 portion to the face than in any other animal. In an European the 
 vertical section of the cranium is almost four times larger than that 
 of the face (not including the lower jaw); in the monkey it is 
 little more than double; in most ferae, nearly equal; in the glires, 
 solipedes, pecora, and belluae, less. The faculties, however, do 
 not depend upon this proportion, because men of great genius, as 
 Leo, Montaigne, Leibnitz, Haller, and Mirabeau, had very large 
 faces, and the sloth and seal have faces larger than the stag, 
 horse, and ox, in proportion to the brain, and the proportion is 
 acknowledged by Cuvier to be not at all applicable to birds. We 
 are assisted in discovering the proportion between the cranium 
 and face by the facial angle of Camper. He draws two straight 
 lines, the one, horizontal, passing through the external meatus 
 auditorius and the bottom of the nostrils ; the other, more per- 
 pendicular, running from the convexity of the forehead to the 
 most prominent part of the upper jaw. The angle which the 
 latter, — the proper facial line, makes with the former, is greatest 
 in the human subject, from the comparative smallness of the brain 
 and the great development of the mouth and nose in brutes. In 
 the human adult this angle is aboutTrom 65° to 85° ; in the orang- 
 outang about from 55 ° to 65° ; in some quadrupeds 20° ; and in 
 the lower classes of vertebral animals it entirely disappears. 
 
 Neither is it to be regarded as an exact measure of the under- 
 standing, for persons of great intellect may have a prominent 
 mouth ; it shows merely the projection of the forehead, while the 
 cranium and brain may vary greatly in size in other parts ; three- 
 fourths of quadrupeds, whose crania differ extremely in other re- 
 spects, have the same facial angle ; great amplitude of the frontal 
 sinuses, as in the owl and hog, without an}^ increase of brain, may 
 increase it, and for this reason Cuvier draws the facial line from 
 the internal table of the frontal bone. 
 
 In proportion as the face is elongated, the occipital foramen 
 lies more posteriorly ; in man consequently it is most forward. 
 While in man it is nearly in the centre of the base of the cra- 
 nium, and horizontal, and has even sometimes its anterior margin 
 
 11 See Gall. 1. c. t. ii. p. 2SI. sqq. 
 
CORPOREAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 
 
 551 
 
 elevated ; in most quadrupeds it is situated at the extremity of 
 the cranium obliquely, with its posterior parts turned upwards, 
 and is in some completely vertical. On this difference of situation, 
 Daubenton founded his occipital angle. 1 * * * 5 He drew one line from 
 the posterior edge of the foramen to the lower edge of the orbit, 
 and another, in the direction of the foramen, passing between the 
 condyles and intersecting the former. According to the angle 
 formed, he established the similarity and diversity of crania. 
 The information derived from it in this respect is very imperfect, 
 because it shows the differences of the occiput merely. Blumen- 
 bach remarks that its variations are included between 80° and 90° 
 in most quadrupeds which differ very essentially in other points. 
 
 The want of the ossa intermaxillaria has been thought peculiar 
 to mankind. Quadrupeds, and nearly all the ape tribe, have two 
 bones between the superior maxillary, containing the dentes 
 incisores when these are present, and termed ossa intermaxillaria, 
 incisoria, cr labialia. But these do not exist universally in them. b 
 Man only has a prominent chin : his lower jaw is the shortest, 
 compared with the cranium, and its condyles differ in form, 
 direction, and articulation, from those of any brute (Sect. XXI. 
 Note H.) : in no brute are the teeth arranged in such a close and 
 uniform series ; the lower incisores, like the jaw in which they 
 are fixed, are perpendicular, — a distinct characteristic of man, 
 for in brutes they slope backwards with the jaw bone ; the canine 
 are not longer than the rest, nor insulated as in monkeys ; the 
 molares differ from those of the orang-outang and of all the genus 
 simia by their singularly obtuse projections. 
 
 The slight hairiness of the human skin in general, although 
 certain parts, as the pubes and axillae, are more copiously fur- 
 nished with hair than in brutes ; the omnivorous structure of the 
 alimentary canal (Sect. XXI. Note G.) ; the curve of the vagina 
 corresponding with the curve of the sacrum formerly mentioned 
 (page 548.), preventing woman from being, as brute females are, 
 retromingent ; the peculiar structure of the human uterus and 
 
 1 Memnires de V Academie des Sciences de Paris. 1764. 
 
 k In a chimpanse that died at Exeter Change a few years ago, the statement 
 of Tyson and Daubenton was verified, — that this black ape has no intermaxillary 
 bone. The red-haired variety ( Simia Satyrus) has it, and is destitute of 
 
 nails on the hind thumbs and of ligamentum teres at the head of the os femoris, 
 both which structures this chimpanse possessed. The Satyrus is therefore not 
 
 so near the human subject as the Troglodytes. 
 
 N N 4 
 
552 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 placenta ; the length of the umbilical chord and the existence of 
 the vesicula umbilicalis until the fourth month; together with the 
 extreme delicacy of the cellular membrane ; are likewise structural 
 peculiarities of the human race. The situation of the heart lying 
 not upon the sternum, as in quadrupeds, but upon the diaphragm, 
 on account of our erect position, — the basis turned not, as in 
 them, to the spine, but to the head, and the apex to the left 
 nipple ; the absence of the allantois, of the panniculus carnosus, 
 of the rete mirabile arteriosum, of the suspensorius oculi ; and the 
 smallness of the foramen incisivum, which is not only very large 
 in brutes, but generally double, though not peculiarities, are 
 striking circumstances. 
 
 Man only can live in every climate; 1 he is the slowest in 
 arriving at maturity, and, in proportion to his size, he lives the 
 longest of all mammalia ; he only procreates at every season, 
 and, while in celibacy, experiences nocturnal emissions. None 
 but the human female menstruates. 
 
 Man, thus distinguished from all other terrestrial beings, evi- 
 dently constitutes a separate species : — Fact harmonises with the 
 Mosaic account of his distinct creation. For “ a species com- 
 prehends all the individuals which descend from each other, as 
 from a common parent, and those which resemble them as much 
 as they do each other;” and no brute bears such a resemblance 
 to man. m 
 
 He is subject, however, to great variety, so great indeed that 
 some writers have contended that several races of men must have 
 been originally created. We shall now examine the principal of 
 these varieties. 
 
 The most generally approved division of mankind is that 
 of Blumenbach. a Fie makes five varieties; the Caucasian, 
 Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. The following 
 are the characteristics of each. 
 
 1. The Caucasian. The skin white ; the cheeks red, — almost 
 a peculiarity of this variety; the hair of a nut-brown, running on 
 
 1 JBlumenbach accounts for this, and I think justly, by the two-fold operation, 
 of our intellect (1. c. § 18. p. 54.), and of the more accommodating nature of 
 our frame (1. c. § 17.) 
 
 m Cuvier, Discours Preliminaire aux recherches sur les ossemens Fossilcs ties 
 Quadrupedes. 
 
 n 1. c. Sect. IV. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 553 
 
 the one hand into yellow, and on the other into black, soft, long, 
 and undulating. 
 
 The head extremely symmetrical, rather globular ; the fore, 
 head moderately expanded ; the cheek-bones narrow, not pro- 
 minent, directed downwards from the malar process of the supe- 
 rior maxillary bone ; the alveolar edge round ; the front teeth of 
 each jaw placed perpendicularly. 
 
 The face oval and pretty straight ; its parts moderately distinct, 
 the nose narrow and slightly aquiline, or at least its dorsum 
 rather prominent ; the mouth small ; the lips, especially the 
 lower, gently turned out ; the chin full and round : — in short, 
 the countenance of that style which we consider the most 
 beautiful. 
 
 This comprehends all Europeans except the Laplanders and 
 the rest of the Finnish race ; the western Asiatics as far as the 
 Obi, the Caspian, and the Ganges ; and the people of the North 
 of Africa. 
 
 2. The Mongolian. The skin of an olive colour ; the hair 
 black, stiff, straight, and sparing. 
 
 The head almost square ; the cheek bones prominent outwards ; 
 the space between the eyebrows, together with the bones of the 
 nose, placed nearly in the same horizontal plane with the malar 
 bones ; the superciliary arches scarcely perceptible ; the osseous 
 nostrils narrow ; the fossa maxillaris shallow ; the alveolar edge 
 arched obtusely forwards; the chin somewhat projecting. 
 
 The face broad and flattened, and its parts consequently less 
 distinct ; the space between the eyebrows very broad as well as 
 flat; the cheeks not only projecting outward, but nearly glo- 
 bular ; the aperture of the eye-lids narrow, — linear ; the nose 
 small and flat. 
 
 This comprehends the remaining Asiatics, except the Malays 
 of the extremity of the Transgangetic peninsula; the Finnish 
 races of the North of Europe, — Laplanders, &c. ; and the 
 Esquimaux diffused over the most northern parts of America, 
 from Behring’s Strait to the farthest habitable spot of Green- 
 land. 
 
 3. Ethiopian. The skin black ; the hair black and crisp. 
 
 The head narrow, compressed laterally ; the forehead arched ; 
 
 the malar bones projecting forwards; the osseous nares large; 
 the malar fossa behind the infra-orbitar foramen deep ; the jaws 
 lengthened forwards ; the alveolar edge narrow, elongated, 
 
554 ? 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 more elliptical ; the upper front teeth obliquely prominent ; the 
 lower jaw large and strong; the cranium usually thick and 
 heavy. 
 
 The face narrow and projecting at its lower part; the eyes 
 prominent; the nose thiek and confused with the projecting 
 cheeks ; the lips, especially the upper, thick ; the chin somewhat 
 receding. 
 
 The legs in many instances bowed. 
 
 This comprehends the inhabitants of Africa ; with the excep- 
 tion of those in the northern parts, already included in the 
 Caucasian variety. 
 
 4. The American. The skin of a copper colour; the hair 
 black, stiff, straight, and sparing. 
 
 The forehead short ; the cheek bones broad, but more arched 
 and rounded than in the Mongolian variety, not, as in it, angular 
 and projecting outwards ; the orbits generally deep ; the fore- 
 head and vertex frequently deformed by art ; the cranium usually 
 light. 
 
 The face broad, with prominent cheeks, not flattened, but 
 with every part distinctly marked if viewed in profile ; the eyes 
 deep ; the nose rather flat, but still prominent. 
 
 This comprehends all the Americans excepting the Esquimaux, 
 
 5. The Malay. The skin tawny; the hair black, soft, curled, 
 thick, and abundant. 
 
 The head rather narrow; the forehead slightly arched; the 
 parietal bones prominent; the cheek-bones not prominent; the 
 upper jaw rather projecting. 
 
 The face prominent at its lower part ; not so narrow as in 
 the Ethiopian variety, but the features, viewed in profile, more 
 distinct; the nose full, broad, bottled at its point; the mouth 
 large. 
 
 This comprehends the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, of the 
 Marian, Philippine, Molucca, and Sunda isles, and of the penin- 
 sula of Malacca. 
 
 General Remarks. The colour of the hair thus appears some- 
 what connected with that of the skin, and the colour of the iris 
 is closely connected with that of the hair. Light hair is common 
 with a white and thin skin only, and a dark thick skin is usually 
 accompanied by black hair ; if the skin happens to be variegated, 
 the hair also is variegated; with the cream-white skin of the 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 555 
 
 albino, 0 we find hair of a peculiar yellowish white tint ; and, 
 where the skin is marked by reddish freckles, the hair is red. 
 When the hair is light, the iris is usually blue ; when dark, it is 
 of a brownish black ; if the hair loses the light shade of infancy, 
 the iris likewise grows darker, and when the hair turns grey in 
 advanced life, the iris loses much of its former colour ; the 
 albino has no more colouring matter in his choroid or iris than 
 in his skin, and they therefore allow the redness of their blood 
 to appear, the latter being of a pale rose-colour and semi-pel- 
 lucid, the former, from its greater vascularity, causing the pupil 
 to be intensely red; those animals only whose skin is subject to 
 varieties, vary in the colour of the iris ; and if the hair and skin 
 happen to be variegated, the iris is observed likewise variegated. P 
 
 The Caucasian variety of head, nearly round, is the mean of 
 
 ° Albinos spring up among all races of men ; and they cannot be accou.-.ted 
 for, except when descended from albinos, for this variety of body may be here- 
 ditary no less than it is connate and irremediable. It is known to be common 
 to some mammalia and birds, but has never been observed by Blumenbach in 
 cold-blooded animals, (1. c. § 78.) A white rabbit is an instance of an albino. 
 The absence of the pigmentum nigrum renders the eyes extremely sensible to 
 light, whence such persons prefer going out in the evening. In Wafer’s well- 
 known and amusing account of those he found in the isthmus of Darien, he says, 
 “ They see not well in the sun, poring in the clearest day; their eyes being weak; 
 and running with water if the sun shine towards them ; so that in the day time 
 they care not to go abroad, unless it be a cloudy dark day. Besides they are a 
 weak people in comparison of the others, and not very fit for hunting and other 
 laborious exercises, nor do they delight in such, but notwithstanding their being 
 thus sluggish and dull in the day time, yet when moonshiny nights come, they 
 are all life and activity, running abroad and into the woods, skipping about like 
 wild bucks ; and turning as fast Ijy moonlight, even in the gloom and shade of 
 the woods, as the other Indians by day, being as nimble as they, though not so 
 strong and lusty.” Dampier’s Voyages. 
 
 Blumenbac'h was the first who conjectured the true nature of the peculiarities 
 of the albino. 
 
 p The hair is frequently of different shades in different parts. 
 
 John Hunter remarked that the iris in animals agrees principally with the 
 colour of the eyelashes. 
 
 However various the colour of the hair in horses, the iris, he also observes, is 
 always of the same. But then the hair is always of the same at birth, and the 
 skin does not participate in its subsequent changes, being as dark in white as in 
 black horses. In cream-coloured horses, indeed, there is an exception, — the 
 iris agrees with the hair, but then the foals are originally cream-coloured and the 
 skin is cream-coloured. Hunter, On the colour of llie pigmentum of the eye in 
 different animals, 1. c. p. 247. 
 
556 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 the rest, while the Mongolian, almost square, forms one extreme, 
 having the American intermediate, and Ethiopian the other 
 extreme, having the Malay intermediate, between it and the 
 Caucasian. 
 
 The Caucasian variety of face is also the mean, while the Mon- 
 golian and American, extended laterally, form one extreme, and 
 the Ethiopian and Malay, extended inferiority, constitute the 
 other. In the first of each extreme, biz. the Mongolian and 
 Ethiopian, the features are distinct, while in the second, viz. the 
 American and Malay, they are somewhat blended. 
 
 Although this division of mankind is well founded and ex- 
 tremely useful, it is liable, like every artificial division of natural 
 objects, to many exceptions. Individuals belonging to one 
 variety are not unfrequently observed with some of the charac- 
 teristics of another ;<i the characteristics of two varieties are 
 
 “i “ Sooty blackness is not peculiar to the Ethiopian, but is occasionally found 
 in other varieties of men very different and remote from each other, in the Bra- 
 zilians, Californians, Indians, and some South Sea Islanders ; and among the 
 latter, the new Caledonians form an insensible transition with the chesnut co- 
 loured inhabitants of Tongatabu from the tawny Otaheitans to the black New 
 Hollanders.” Blumenbach, 1. c. § 43. 
 
 “ Some tribes of Ethiopians have long hair (Bruce on the Gallas ; African 
 Institution on the people of Bornu) ; on the contrary, some copper-coloured people 
 have the crisp hair of the Ethiopian (the inhabitants of the Duke of York’s 
 island, near New Ireland ; Vide Hunter, Historical Account of the ]>roceedings 
 at Port Jackson). Again, the hair of the New Hollanders, specimens of which I 
 have now before me, is so perfectly intermediate between the crisp hair of the 
 Ethiopian and the curly hair of the islanders of the Pacific ocean, that there has 
 been much diversity of opinion, from the first Dutch to the latest English tra- 
 vellers, to which of the two varieties it should be referred. As to the varieties of 
 colour existing among nations whose hair is usually black, we have sufficient 
 authority for asserting that numerous instances of red hair occur in all the three 
 last varieties.” 1. c. § 52. 
 
 “ The Caffres and the people of Congo have hair not unlike that of Europeans. 
 Even the Foulahs, one of the Negro tribes of Guinea, have, according to Air. 
 Park, soft, silky hair; on the other hand, the inhabitants of many other coun- 
 tries resemble the Africans in their hair, as the savages of New Guinea, Van 
 Diemen’s land, and Mallicollo. And in the same island some of the people are 
 found with crisp and woolly, others with straight hair, as in the New Hebrides. 
 In New Holland there are tribes of each character, though resembling in other 
 particulars.” J. C. Prichard, M. D. Researches into the Physical History of Man, 
 Ed. 1. p. 83. 
 
 “ Many tribes of the Negro race approach very near to the form of Euro- 
 peans. The Jaloffs of Guinea, according to Park, are all very black, but they 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 557 
 
 often intimately blended in the same individual (indeed all the 
 four varieties run into each other by insensible degrees ); 1 and 
 instances continually occur of deviation in one or more particulars 
 from the appearances characteristic of any variety ; s so that the 
 assemblage rather than individual marks must frequently be 
 employed to determine the variety. 
 
 Particular Remarks. The Caucasian variety is pre-eminent 
 in all those mental and corporeal particulars which distinguish 
 man from brutes. It is to the two sexes of this variety that 
 Milton’s lines apply, — 
 
 “ For contemplation he and valour formed ; 
 
 For softness she and sweet attractive grace.” c 
 
 The cranium is very capacious, the area of the face bears to 
 its area but a proportion of one to four, and projects little or not 
 
 have not the characteristic features of the Negro — the flat nose and thick lips : 
 and Dampier assures us that the natives of Natal in Africa have very good limbs, 
 are oval-visaged, that their noses are neither flat nor high, but very well propor- 
 tioned ; their teeth are white, and their aspect altogether graceful. The same 
 author (Dampier’s Voyages ) informs us, that their skin is black, and their hair 
 crisped. Nor are others of this diversity more constant. In the native race of 
 Americans, some tribes are found, who differ not in the characters in question 
 from Europeans. ‘ Under the 54° 10' of north latitude,’ says Humboldt, ‘ at 
 Cloak-bav, in the midst of copper-coloured Indians, with small long eyes, there 
 is a tribe with large eyes, European features, and a skin less dark than that of 
 our peasantry.’ Humboldt’s Essay on New Spain, translated.” 1. c. p. 62. 
 note b. 
 
 “ The features of the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands are very various, 
 insomuch that it is scarcely possible to fix on any general likeness by which to 
 characterize them, unless it be a fulness at the point of the nose, which is very 
 common. But on the other hand we met with hundreds of truly European 
 faces, and many genuine Roman noses among them.” Cook’s last Voyage. 
 Vol. I. 380. 
 
 “ Similar examples,” remarks Blumenbaeh on this passage (1. c. § 55. note.), 
 “ are observed, among Ethiopian and American nations ; and, vice versa, the 
 resemblance of individual Europeans to Ethiopians and Mongoles is very fre- 
 quent and has become even proverbial.” 
 
 r “ The Tartars of the Caucasian variety pass by means of the Kirghises and 
 neighbouring people into the Mongoles, in the same manner as these by means 
 of the people of Thibet into the Indians, by means of the Esquimaux into the 
 Americans, and by means of the Phillippine Islanders even in some measure 
 into the Malays.” Blumenbaeh, 1. c. § 86. 
 
 6 See note 9. p. 556. 
 
 1 Paradise Lost, book iv. 297. 
 
558 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 at all at the lower parts : the intellectual faculties of its indi- 
 viduals are susceptible of the highest cultivation, while the senses 
 of smelling, hearing, and seeing, are much less acute than in dark 
 nations. Philosophy and the fme arts flourish in it as in their 
 proper soil. 
 
 The Ethiopian variety when instructed by the Caucasian has 
 produced instances of mental advancement great indeed, but 
 inferior to what the latter is capable of attaining. “ There 
 scarcely ever,” says Hume, “ was a civilized nation of that com- 
 plexion, nor even an individual, eminent either in action or spe- 
 culation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, 
 no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of 
 the whites, such as the ancient Germans, the present Tartars, 
 have still something eminent about them, in their valour, form 
 of government, or some other particulars.” u Blumenbach, how- 
 ever, possesses English, Dutch, and Latin poetry written by 
 different negroes, and informs us that, among other examples of 
 distinguished negroes, a native of Guinea, eminent for his inte- 
 grity, talents, and learning, took the degree of doctor in philo- 
 sophy at the University of Wittemberg, and that Lislet of the isle 
 of France was chosen a corresponding member of the French 
 Academy of Sciences. “ Provinces of Europe,” says he, “ might 
 be named, in which it would be no easy matter to discover such 
 good writers, poets, philosophers, and correspondents of the 
 French Academy ; and, on the other hand, there is no savage 
 people which have distinguished themselves by such examples of 
 perfectibility, and even capacity for scientific cultivation, and 
 consequently, that none can approach more nearly than the negro 
 to the polished nations of the globe.” x This mental inferiority 
 is attended of course by a corresponding inferiority of the brain. 
 The circumference, diameters, and vertical arch of the cranium 
 being smaller than in the European, y and the forehead particu- 
 larly being narrower and falling back in a more arched form, 
 the brain in general, and particularly those parts which are the 
 organs of intellect properly so called, must be of inferior size. 
 The orbits, on the contrary, and the olfactory and gustatory, or, 
 rather, masticatory, organs being more amply evolved, the area 
 
 u Hume, Essays. Part 1. Essay 21. Note M. 
 
 * Beytr'dge zur Naturgeschichte. Th. i. p. 98. 
 
 v Soemmerring, Be basi cranii et originibus nervorum cranio egredienlium. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 559 
 
 of the face bears a greater proportion to the area of the skull, — 
 as 1.2. to 4. ; the proportion is greater in the orang-outang, and 
 in the carnivora nearly equal. 2 The senses here situated, as well 
 as that of hearing, are astonishingly acute, though not only in 
 this, but also in the three following varieties, and the correspond- 
 ing nerves, at least the first, fifth, and facial, of great size. a 
 
 The ossa nasi lie so flatly as to form scarcely any ridge ; the 
 face, as we have formerly seen, projects considerably at its lower 
 part; b the lower jaw is not only long but extremely strong; the 
 
 z Cuvier, Ltqons d' Anatomic Comparee. 
 
 3 Soemmerring, 1. c. 
 
 The native Americans pursue their enemies through the desert by the sense 
 of smell, and have distinct terms for the odour of an European, a Negro, and an 
 American Indian. (Humboldt, Political Essay on New Spain. Translated, vol. i. 
 p. 245. Haller, El. Phys.) Negroes in the Antilles can distinguish blacks from 
 whites in pursuit by the same sense. The bodies of all men have doubtless a 
 peculiar odour, though the inferior races only enjoy the sense of smell sufficiently 
 acute to make very nice distinctions in regard to it. In them, too, it is much 
 stronger. I recollect walking one night many years ago with a physician, — 
 Dr. Walshman, to the house of a poor man in the suburbs of the town. The 
 wife came to the door with a candle in her hand, and, opening a dark room on 
 one side of the passage, begged me to walk into it while she lighted the physician 
 to her husband. My nose was presently struck by a very strong smell, some- 
 thing like that of bacon. At the return of the light I perceived three or four 
 little mulattos asleep in a sort of bed, and after leaving the house Dr. Walshman 
 informed me that the woman’s husband was a black. 
 
 b Camper, ( Dissertation physique sur les differences reelles, que presentenl les 
 traits dll visage cliez les hommes de differens pays et differens ages ) gives the follow- 
 ing proportions of the facial angle : 
 
 European 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 80 or 90 
 
 Chinese 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 75 
 
 Negro 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 70 
 
 Orang-outang 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 58 
 
 Monkey 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 42 
 
 Mr. White of Manchester ( Essay on the regular gradation) states them rather 
 differently : 
 
 European 
 
 - 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 90 
 
 Asiatic 
 
 - 
 
 75 
 
 80 
 
 American - -x 
 
 _ , 
 
 70 
 
 75 
 
 African 
 
 * 
 
 60 
 
 70 
 
 Orang-outang 
 
 - 
 
 50 
 
 60 
 
 Monkey 
 
 - 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 Cuvier gives 75° for the facial angle of the young orang-outang, 1. c. viii. 
 Art. i. 
 
560 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 chin not only not prominent but even receding, and the space 
 between it and the lower teeth is small, while that between the 
 upper teeth and the nose is large ; the meatus auditorius is nearer 
 the occiput, — more remote from the front teeth than in the Eu- 
 ropean; the foramen magnum occipitale lying farther back, the 
 occiput is nearly in a line with the spine ; the body is slender, 
 especially in the loins and pelvis, whose cavity likewise is small ; 
 the length of the fore-arms and fingers bears a large proportion 
 to that of the os humeri ; the os femoris and tibia are more con- 
 vex, and the edge of the latter, according to a remark of the late 
 Mr.Fyfe of Edinburgh, very sharp ; the calves are placed high ; the 
 os calcis instead of forming an arch is on a line with the other 
 bones of the foot, which is of great breadth ; the toes are long ; 
 the penis large and frequently destitute of fraenum. Mr. White, 
 from whom many of these remarks are derived, describes the 
 testes and scrotum as small. Mr. Billmann of Cassell has ob- 
 served that the stomach is shorter, more globular at its cardiac 
 extremity ; and the observation is confirmed by Soemmerring, who 
 finds that of the ape still shorter ; c the skin is thicker, d and, 
 finally, the term of life generally shorter, than in Europeans. 
 
 Nearly all these facts demonstrate rather a less distance of the 
 Negro than of the European from the brute creation. But with 
 an inferiority to the Caucasians so slight if compared with his 
 immense superiority over the most intelligent brutes, so insensibly 
 running into the Caucasian and all the other varieties, so liable to 
 innumerable diversities of conformation as well as bearing some 
 resemblance to brutes, and so certainty bearing no more resem- 
 blance to them in some points nor so much in others as many 
 tribes of other varieties, the poor negro might justly class those 
 of us who 'philosophically view him as merely a better sort of 
 monkejr, or who desire to traffic in his blood, not onty below him- 
 self but below apes in intellect, and below tigers in feeling and 
 propensity. 
 
 “ Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem 
 Perpetuam. Stevis inter se convenit ursis.” e 
 
 c Mem. of the Bavarian Acad of Sciences, vol. viii. p. 77. sqq. 
 d The temperature of the Negro lias been said to be two degrees cooler than 
 that of Europeans, and the voluptuous therefore to prefer a Negress in summer, 
 a fair Circassian in spring and autumn, and an European brunette in winter. 
 e Juvenal. Sat. xv. 16S. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 561 
 
 “ The unconscious admiration which that traveller detected 
 himself in bestowing upon the native beauties, affords,” says the 
 writer of a critique of Major Denham’s Travels in Africa , d 
 “ one more example of this truth, that, however much Europeans 
 may have doubted whether negroes were men, there has never 
 been a difference of opinion as to whether negresses were 
 women,” 
 
 The skin of the negro has a peculiar velvet-like softness, and is 
 lubricated by an oily secretion. 
 
 The Malays have but little hair upon the chin, and possess a 
 great development of the parts of the head above the ears. 
 
 The Mongolians are remarkably square and robust their 
 shoulders high ; their extremities short and thick. 
 
 The Americans have small hands and feet, and are nearly des- 
 titute of beard. Shorter in the forehead than the Mongolians, 
 they have not so great intellectual distinction. 
 
 Not only have the five varieties their distinctive characteristics, 
 but the different nations comprehended in each variety have each 
 their peculiarities, both mental and corporeal : among the Cau- 
 casians for example, the Germans, French, Spaniards, and Eng- 
 lish are extremely different from each other. Nay, the provinces 
 of the same country differ, and the families of the same pro- 
 vince, and, in fact, every individual has his own peculiar coun- 
 tenance, figure, constitution, form of body, and mental cha- 
 racter. 
 
 A question here presents itself. — Are the differences among 
 mankind to be ascribed to the influence of various causes upon 
 the descendants of two, — or of more, but all similar, primary 
 parents ; — or to original differences in more than two primary 
 parents ? 
 
 This being a physical subject, is now always physically inves- 
 tigated, without reference to the Bible, except as an historical 
 work, in conformity both with the opinion of Locke, that only 
 matters above human reason are the proper subjects of revelation ; 
 and of Bacon, that religious and philosophical enquiry should be 
 kept separate, and not pompously united. e A true revelation 
 cannot suffer by the progress of philosophy ; but philosophy 
 
 d Westminster Review. 182S. 
 e See supra, p. 72. 75. sq. 
 
 o o 
 
562 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 has seriously suffered by ignorant appeals to Scripture. Besides, 
 many will not listen to arguments from Scripture in matters of phi- 
 losophy, alleging the want of proof of inspiration. Dr. Bostock, 
 one of the most careful and amiable of enquirers, does not hesi- 
 tate to say, that “ we do not find that the writer of the Book of 
 Genesis lays claim to an}' supernatural source of information 
 with respect to natural phenomena, while the whole tenor of 
 his work seems to show, that on such topics he adopted the 
 opinions which were current among his contemporaries.” f 
 
 In favour of the opinion that we all are brothers, it may be 
 urged, — 1. The universal simplicity of nature’s causes would in- 
 duce us to imagine that, as, if the varieties among us are accidental, 
 two individuals were evidently sufficient for the production of the 
 rest of mankind, no more than two were originally created. Nor 
 should I deduce a contrary presumptive argument from the length 
 of time during which immense portions of the earth must have thus 
 remained unpeopled. One of nature’s objects seems the exist- 
 ence of as much successive life as possible, whether animal or 
 vegetable, throughout the globe. For this purpose, every 
 species of animal and vegetable possesses an unlimited power of 
 propagation, capable of filling the whole w r orld, were opportunity 
 afforded it. The opportunities of exertion are indeed very scanty, 
 compared with the power : climate, soil, situation, may be un- 
 favourable ; one vegetable, one animal, stands in the way of 
 another ; even the impediments to the increase of some, act 
 through them as impediments to others. The incessant ten- 
 dency of the power of multiplication to exert itself, seizes every 
 opportunity the moment it is presented, and thus, though every 
 living object has a fixed term of existence, and may be carried off 
 much earlier by innumerable circumstances, all nature constantly 
 teems with life, s The slow increase of mankind could not inter- 
 
 f An Elementary System of Physiology, vol. iii. p. 286 . 
 
 e From this physiological fact it follows, that if a species is not kept down by 
 disease or violence, or, as should be the case with mankind, by good feeling, to 
 such numbers as can find support, the excess must regularly perish. To vege- 
 tables this can be no cruelty. As all the brute creation are preyed upon, their 
 numbers may be always sufficiently thinned without starvation. Violent deaths 
 are too insignificant to operate much in restraining the numbers of mankind, and 
 terrible as is the havoc of disease, the rapid increase of nations, who can command 
 any extent of land they require for food, proves it not to be the great restrainer 
 of population. Starvation, however, is not necessary to limit our numbers, be- 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND, 
 
 563 
 
 fere with this apparent object of nature ; the deficiency of our 
 race must have invariably been fully compensated by the oppor- 
 tunities which it afforded for the multiplication of other existences : 
 for that man alone was not designed to enjoy the earth, is shown 
 by the vast tracts of land still but thinly peopled. The infinitely 
 rare opportunities afforded for the maturity of the intellectual and 
 moral powers born with every human being, may afford still 
 greater surprise than the extent of country unoccupied by man. 
 
 2. Analogical and direct facts lead to the conclusion that none 
 of the differences among mankind are so great as to require the 
 belief of their originality. 
 
 Animated beings have a general tendency to produce offspring 
 resembling themselves, in both mental and corporeal qualities. 
 
 “ Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis ; 
 
 Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum 
 Virtus : nec imbellem feroces 
 Progenerant aquilae columbam. ” h 
 
 An exception occasionally occurs, much more frequently, we 
 are told, in the domestic than the wild state, — the offspring differs 
 in some particular from the parents ; and by the force of the 
 general tendency transmits to its offspring its own peculiarity. 
 By selecting such examples, a breed peculiar in colour, figure, 
 the form of some one part, or in some mental quality, may be 
 produced. Thus, by killing all the black individuals which ap ■ 
 pear among our sheep and breeding from the white only, our 
 flocks are white ; while, by an opposite practice pursued in some 
 countries, they are black : thus a ram accidentally produced on 
 a farm in Connecticut, with elbow-shaped fore-legs and a great 
 
 cause it is the imperious duty of every man to abstain from getting children unless 
 he has property or work sufficient to feed them when they come into the world. 
 
 These palpable facts have been luminously stated by a celebrated member of 
 my own college at Cambridge, and how any one can deny them, or pretend there 
 is impiety in Mr. Malthus’s Essay on Population, I cannot comprehend. Mr. 
 Mills (Supp. to Encyclop. Brit. art. Savings Banks), considers that the addition 
 made by Mr. Malthus to the admitted doctrine of population being commensurate 
 with food is, that man’s tendency to marry, and prolific powers, cause a greater 
 number to be born than can be fed. 
 
 h Horace, 1. iv, od. 4. 
 
 O O 2 
 
564 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 shortness and weakness of joint indeed in all four extremities, 
 was selected for propagation, and the dy/.uv breed, unable to 
 climb over fences, is now established : ‘ thus some breeds of 
 bares have horns like the roebuck : the Dorking fowl has two 
 hind claws ; and fowls in short are bred in every conceivable 
 variety. k Individuals, distinguished from others by no greater 
 differences than those which thus spring up accidentally, cannot 
 be supposed to belong to a separate species. Upon the compa- 
 
 1 Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, No. 2. 
 
 k The offspring most frequently resembles both parents, but the proportion of 
 resemblance to each, both on the whole and in regard to particular parts, is 
 various, — some children favouring the father most, some the mother, though 
 usually resembling each enough to preserve a family likeness, — some parts being 
 as it were an equable compound of the same in both parents, (as the skin in the 
 mulatto offspring of a black and white,) some an unequal compound, (as when 
 the offspring of a black and white is white with patches of black or with 
 merely a black penis, Phil. Trans, vol. 55. Bartholin, Hist. Anat. Schurig, 
 Spermatologia, p. 146.) and others again similar to the same as seen in one parent 
 only ; and it is remarkable that the resemblance to the parents, whether in regard 
 to common or uncommon peculiarity, is occasionally not observed in the imme- 
 diate offspring, but re-appears in the third or even a later generation. 
 
 As the different properties of both parents are on the whole pretty well blended 
 in the offspring, we may, by breeding successively from offspring and one of the 
 original parents, at length produce an offspring exactly resembling this parent. 
 (590.) Some dissolute Europeans are said to have begun with a black woman, 
 and copulated with their offspring till they made her the great grandmother of a 
 white. 
 
 National features, form, and in a great measure even character, arise from a 
 nation marrying among themselves, and will be more marked in proportion to 
 the rarity of connection with foreigners. Hence the amazing peculiarity of the 
 Jewish race. 
 
 The advantage of crossing breeds is well known, and may be explained by the 
 transmission of the parent’s qualities. If any unfavourable deviation in structure 
 or constitution occurs, and is transmitted, and the descendants who receive it 
 hereditarily intermarry, the deviation is doubly enforced in their offspring : but 
 if a connection is made with another family or breed it is, on the contrary, diluted. 
 Could a race, however, have all its wants well supplied, and, at the same time, 
 have no unhealthful habit, so as to acquire no tendency (p. 459.) to unfavourable 
 deviation, I do not think that the soundness of breeds would require crosses. 
 The Arabians never allow the mares of the noble race to be covered by any but 
 stallions of their own rank, yet the excellence of the breed is maintained. 
 (D’Arvieux, Travels in Arabia , p. 168.) Their horses have every comfort, and 
 yet are not subjected, like our domestic animals and most of ourselves, to un- 
 natural habits. The degeneracy of many plants unless their soil is changed, is 
 quite another circumstance. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 565 
 
 rison of these differences depends the analogical argument first 
 employed by Blumenbach. Finding the ferret ( must el a fur o ) to 
 differ from the pole-cat (m. putorius) by the redness of its eyes, 
 he concludes it is merely a variety of the same species, because 
 instances of this deviation are known to occur accidentally in 
 other animals; but he concludes the African elephant is of a 
 species distinct from the Asiatic, because the invariable difference 
 of their molar teeth is of a description which naturalists have 
 never found accidental. Now there exist among mankind no 
 differences greater than what happen occasionally in separate 
 species of brutes. 
 
 The colours of the animals around us, horses, cows, dogs, cats, 
 rabbits, fowls, are extremely various, — black, white, brown, grey, 
 variegated. 
 
 The hair of the wild Siberian sheep is close in summer, but 
 rough and curled in winter sheep in Thibet are covered with 
 the finest wool, in Ethiopia with coarse stiff hair ; m the bristles of 
 the hog in Normandy are too soft for the manufacture of brushes ; n 
 goats, rabbits, and cats of Angouri, in Anatolia, have very long 
 hair, white as snow and soft as silk . 0 
 
 The head of the domestic pig differs as much from that of the 
 wild animal, as the Negro from the European in this respect ;P so 
 the head of the Neapolitan horse, denominated ram’s head on ac- 
 count of its shape, from that of the Hungarian animal, remarkable 
 for its shortness and the extent of its lower jaw;i the cranium of 
 fowls at Padua is dilated like a shell, and perforated by an im- 
 mense number of small holes cattle and sheep in some parts of 
 our own country have horns, in others not ; in Sicily sheep have 
 enormous horns ; s and in some instances this animal has so many, 
 as to have acquired the epithet polyceratous. 
 
 The form of other parts is no less various. In Normandy, pigs 
 have hind-legs much longer than the fore , 1 at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, cows have much shorter legs than in England ; u the differ- 
 ence between the Arabian, Syrian, and German, horses is suffi- 
 
 1 Pallas, Sjricileg. Zoologica. 
 
 m Blumenbach, 1. c. § 23. 
 
 ” 1. c. ° 1. C. V 1. C. q 1. C. 
 
 r Pallas, Spic. Zool. fasc. iv. p. 22. Sandifort, Museum Analomicum Acad . 
 Lugd. Batav. t. i. p. 306. 
 
 s Blumenbach, 1. c. § 30. 1 1. c. u 1. c. 
 
 O O 3 
 
566 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 ciently known ; the hoofs of the pig may be undivided, bisulcous, 
 or trisulcous. 
 
 These are regarded by naturalists as but accidental varieties, 
 yet they equal or surpass the varieties existing among mankind. 
 We are consequently led by analogy to conclude, that the dif- 
 ferences of nations are not original but acquired, and impose no 
 necessity for believing that more than one stock was at first 
 created. 
 
 3. Direct facts harmonise with this conclusion. All races 
 run insensibly one into another, and therefore innumerable 
 intermediate examples occur where the distinction between 
 two varieties is lost. Again, no peculiarity exists in any variety 
 which does not show itself occasionally in another. Many in- 
 stances of these facts have been already related (page 556, note °). 
 The difficulty of regarding the negro as of the same stock 
 with ourselves vanishes on viewing these circumstances, and on 
 reflecting that he and ourselves are two extremes, one of which 
 may have sprung from the other by means of several intermediate 
 deviations, although experience may not justify us in supposing 
 any single deviation of sufficient magnitude. 1 Lastly, both the 
 
 x In regard to colour, however, the Albino proves how great a change may 
 take place in one generation. In the Memoirs, of the London Medical Society, 
 (vol. iii.) is described a case, where not only patches of the hair of the head of an 
 European changed from black to perfect white, first on one side and then on the 
 other, and in the course of seven years every hair became white excepting the 
 eyebrows, but the skin also from being swarthy became fair. (I may add that the 
 irides remained unchanged, and that another case is annexed to it where half 
 the hair was black and lank, and the other half light and frizzled.) I recollect 
 accounts of other persons, who belonged to the dark races, turning white, — one 
 of a negress, in Maryland, forty years of age, who had been turning white during 
 the last fifteen years, and had become scarcely inferior in any part of her surface 
 to an European, and was still changing, (Phil. Trajis. vol. li.), — one in the 
 Manchester Memoirs, (vol. v. P. I.) of a negro about forty years of age, whose 
 skin had so changed in two years that the narrator was convinced that all the 
 black portions remaining did not exceed a square foot, and the change still con- 
 tinued to proceed very rapidly, — one of a man, born in Bengal, near sixty years 
 of age, who left India in his tenth year, and had for nine years been changing to 
 white, (Dr. Duncan, jun. Eeportsin the Practice of the Clinical. H'ard of the It o uni 
 Infirmary of Edinburgh. 138.), — one mentioned by the Due de Rochefoucalt 
 Liancourt. (Travels through the United States, vol. v. p. 124. sqq.) The duke 
 says, that the change had been proceeding for three years, was still going on, 
 and the wool of the head had changed to European hair, and that several such 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 567 
 
 males and females of all the varieties breed together readily and 
 in perpetuity, y — an assertion which cannot be made in regard to 
 any different species of brutes. 
 
 The cause of the differences of our species has been more or 
 less sought for in climate, alone or in conjunction with other ex- 
 ternal circumstances, by Aristotle, Hippocrates, Cicero, Pliny, 
 Plutarch, Galen, nearly all the Greek and Roman historians and 
 poets, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Buffon, Zimmerman, Blumenbach, 
 Dr. Smith of America, &c. Lord Kaimes denied the power of 
 these circumstances to produce the diversities of either mind or 
 body ; and Hume expressly wrote an essay to prove the insuf- 
 ficiency of climate with respect to the varieties of national charac- 
 ter. Now the intensity of light unquestionably affects the colour 
 of the surface, although not to the degree of Ethiopian blackness ; 
 heat the texture and growth of the hair ; and quantity of nourish- 
 ment the size. But the effects of these circumstances are gene- 
 rally considered superficial, even on animals necessarily less pro- 
 tected against their influence than man. The skulls of foxes 
 belonging to northern regions are not different from those of 
 France or Egypt : the tusks of the elephant, and the horns of the 
 stag and rein-deer, may acquire a larger size when the food is 
 
 instances, though less complete, had occurred. Another will be seen in the 
 Journal of the Royal Institution, No. xii p. 379. A Sussex girl was, a few 
 years ago, a patient in St. Thomas’s Hospital, whose family were all white, 
 but whose left shoulder, arm, and hand, were of a negro-blackness, except that a 
 stripe of white ran between the elbow and arm-pit. (Dr. Well’s Works.) I once 
 saw a young Welsh-woman whose left upper arm was remarkably dark. The 
 shoulder was almost as black as a negro’s, but became gradually lighter down the 
 arm, and abruptly terminated an inch below the elbow. The greater part of the 
 upper arm was covered with fine scanty hairs. A white woman in twenty years 
 became as black as a negress, without any evident reason, according to a state- 
 ment in the Lotidon Medical and Physical Journal. (1811. p. 24.), — another 
 suddenly became black from mental distress, and remained so ; and the blackness 
 was not from jaundice, congestion of blood, &c. ; but a change in the colouring 
 matter of the rete mucosum. Journal General, vol. lxviii., where a second is 
 referred to. And other such cases may perhaps be discovered, though those 
 which I have read appear to have been instances of cutaneous disease. 
 
 y Examples have already been mentioned (563. B.) of what is a still stronger 
 argument, — the simultaneous production of two individuals of different varieties, 
 — of a negro and a Caucasian, by the same mother. 
 
 O O 4 
 
568 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 more favourable to the production of ivory or horn, but the 
 number and articulations of the bones, and the structure of the 
 teeth, remain unaltered . 2 Nor are these changes, any more than 
 those induced by mechanical means, as pressure, division, &c. 
 transmitted to the offspring : the child of the most sunburnt rustic 
 is born equally fair with other children; even all the children 
 among the Moors are born white and acquire the brown cast of 
 their fathers only if exposed to the sun ; a although the Jews have 
 most religiously practised the rite of circumcision from the days 
 of Abraham, their foreskin still remains to be circumcised. b Were 
 it therefore true that all dark nations are the inhabitants of hot 
 climates, as the confined knowledge of the ancients led them to 
 believe, it would still be untrue that the change effected, for in- 
 stance, in the colour of the parent’s skin, had descended to the 
 offspring. But modern discovery has made us acquainted with 
 light nations inhabiting the wannest regions, with dark nations in- 
 habiting the coldest, and with others of various shades of colour 
 although in the same climate. c Many protected parts are as 
 
 z Cuvier, Discours Preliminaire aux Rccherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des 
 Quadrupedes. Natural varieties only are meant. Local situation can produce 
 the most intimate structural diseases ; witness Cretinism. 
 
 3 Poiret, Voyage en Barbarie, t. i. p. 31. Vide Blumenbach, 1. c. 
 
 b Paley, Natural Theology, c. 23. p. 472. 
 
 c Lord Kaimes, M. de Virey, and Dr. Prichard, have quoted many instances 
 of these facts. “ We found,” says Humboldt, “ the people of the Rio Negro 
 swarthier than those of the lower Orinoco, and yet the banks of the first of these 
 rivers enjoy a much cooler climate than the more northern regions. In the 
 forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco, are several tribes 
 of a whitish complexion, the Guiacas, Guajaribs and Arigues, of whom several 
 robust individuals exhibiting no symptom of the asthenical malady which charac- 
 terises Albinos, have the appearance of true Mestizos. Yet these tribes have 
 never mingled with Europeans, and are surrounded with other tribes of a dark 
 brown hue. The Indians, in the torrid zone, who inhabit the most elevated 
 plains of the Cordilleras of the Andes, and those who are under the 45° of south 
 latitude, have as coppery 7 a complexion as those who under a burning climate 
 cultivate bananos in the narrowest and deepest tallies of the Equinoctial region. 
 We must add that the Indians of the mountains are clothed, and were so long 
 before the conquest, while the aborigines, who wander over the plains, go quite 
 naked, and are consequently always exposed to the perpendicular rays of the sun. 
 I could never observe that in the same individuals those parts of the body which 
 were covered were less dark than those in contact with a warm and humid air. 
 We every where perceive that the colour of the American depends very little on 
 he local position in which we see him. The Mexicans, as we have already 
 observed, are more swarthy than the Indians of Quito and New Granada, who 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 569 
 
 black as those which are exposed. Nor are the varieties of man- 
 kind more dependent upon the varieties of food. 
 
 But with civilisation and barbarism they appear certainly con- 
 nected. We should beforehand be inclined to imagine that 
 the most excellent development of every animated species would 
 be effected where all its wants were best supplied, its powers all 
 duly called forth, and all injurious or unpleasant circumstances 
 least prevalent : and vice versa. Every one knows the effect of 
 cultivation in the vegetable kingdom. But experience teaches us 
 that changes brought about in an animal after birth are not in gene- 
 ral transmitted to the offspring : the causes of change in a species 
 must therefore operate, not by altering the parents, but by dis- 
 posing them to produce an offspring more or less different from 
 
 inhabit a climate completely analogous, and we even see that the tribes dispersed 
 to the north of the Rio Gila are less brown than those in the neighbourhood of 
 the kingdom of Guatimala. This deep colour continues to the coast nearest to 
 Asia, but under the 54° 10' of north latitude, at Cloak Bay, in the midst of 
 copper-coloured Indians, with small long eyes, there is a tribe with large eyes, 
 European features, and skin less dark than than that of our peasantry.” Political 
 Essay on New Spain, translated. 
 
 The Jews settled in the neighbourhood of Cochin “ are divided into two classes, 
 called the Jerusalem or white Jews, and the ancient or black Jews.” — “ The 
 white Jews look upon the black Jews as an inferior race, and not as a pure cast, 
 which plainly demonstrates that they do not spring from a common stock in 
 India.” Buchanan, Christian Researches in Asia , 219, &c. 
 
 The white appear to have resided there upwards of seventeen hundred years. 
 
 Dr. Shaw and Mr. Bruce describe a race of fair people in the neighbourhood 
 of Mount Aurasius, in Africa, who, “ if not so fair as the English, are of a shade 
 lighter than that of any inhabitants to the southward of Britain. Their hair also 
 was red, and their eyes blue.” They are imagined to be descendants of the 
 Vandals. Bruce, Travels. 
 
 The Samoiedes, Greenlanders, Laplanders, Esquimaux, &c. are very swarthy ; 
 nay, some of the Greenlanders are said to be as black as Africans. 
 
 “ Do we not in fact behold,” says M. de Virey, “ the tawny Hungarian, dwell- 
 ing for ages under the same parallel and in the same country with the whitest 
 nations of Europe ; and the red Peruvian, the brown Malay, the nearly white 
 Abyssinian, in the very zones which the blackest people in the universe inhabit ? 
 The natives of Van Diemen’s land are black, while Europeans of the correspond- 
 ing northern latitude are white, and the Malabars in the most burning climate, 
 are no browner than the Siberians. The Dutch, who have resided more than 
 two centuries at the Cape of Good Hope, have not acquired the sooty colour of 
 the native Hottentots ; the Guebres and Parsees, marrying only among them- 
 selves, remain white in the midst of the olive-coloured Hindus.” J. T. Virey, 
 Histoire Naturelle du genre humain, t. i. p. 124. 
 
570 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 themselves. Such is John Hunter’s view of the question, and 
 it is certainly confirmed by every fact . 0 Uncivilized nations ex- 
 posed to the inclemency of the weather, supported by precarious 
 and frequently unwholesome food, and having none of the dis- 
 tinguished energies of their nature called forth, are generally 
 dark coloured and less distant from brutes in conformation; 
 while those who enjoy the blessings of civilisation, i.e. good food 
 and covering, with mental cultivation and enjoyment, generally 
 acquire in the same proportion the Caucasian characteristics. 
 The different effects of different degrees of cultivation, says Dr. 
 Smith, “ are most conspicuous in those countries in which the 
 laws have made the most complete and permanent division of 
 ranks. What an immense difference exists in Scotland between 
 the chiefs and the commonalty of the highland clans. If they 
 had been separately found in different countries, the philosophy 
 of some writers would have ranged them in different species. 
 A similar distinction takes place between the nobility and 
 peasantry of France, Spain, of Italy, of Germany. It is even 
 more conspicuous in eastern nations, where a wider difference 
 exists between the highest and the lowest classes in society. 
 The naires or nobles of Calicut, in the East Indies, have with 
 the usual ignorance and precipitancy of travellers been pro- 
 nounced a different race from the populace; because the former, 
 elevated by their rank, and devoted only to martial studies and 
 achievements, are distinguished by that manly beauty, and ele- 
 vated stature so frequently found with the profession of arms : 
 especially when united with nobility of descent ; the latter poor 
 and laborious, and exposed to hardships without the spirit or 
 
 d I fear that John Hunter has not generally the credit of this observation, but 
 the following passage shows it to be clearly his. “ As animals are known to pro- 
 duce young which are different from themselves in colour, form, and disposition, 
 arising from what may be called the unnatural mode of life, it shows this curious 
 power of accommodation in the animal economy, that although education can 
 produce no change in the colour, form, or disposition of the animal, yet it is 
 capable of producing a principle which becomes so natural to the animal that it 
 shall beget young different in colour and form ; and so altered in disposition, as 
 to be more easily trained up to the offices in which they have been usually em- 
 ployed ; and having these dispositions suitable to such changes of form.” Hun- 
 ter, On the Wolf, Jackal/, and Dog, 1. c. 
 
 e May not some circumstances that produce a change in the offspring by acting 
 through the parent, produce the same change likewise in the parent, although the 
 change in the latter is not the cause of the change in the offspring ? 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 571 
 
 the hope to better their condition, are much more deformed and 
 diminutive in their persons, and in their complexion much more 
 black. In France, says Buffon, you may distinguish by their 
 aspect not only the nobility from the peasantry, but the superior 
 orders of nobility from the inferior, these from citizens, and 
 citizens from peasants .” — “ The field slaves in America,” con- 
 tinues T)r. Smith, “ are badly clothed, fed, and lodged, and live 
 in small huts on the plantations, remote from the example and 
 society of their superiors. Living by themselves, they retain 
 many of the customs and manners of their ancestors. The 
 domestic servants, on the other hand, who are kept near the 
 persons, or employed in the family of their masters, are treated 
 with great lenity, their service is light, they are fed and clothed 
 like their superiors, they see their manners, adopt their habits, 
 and insensibly receive the same ideas of elegance and beauty. 
 The field slaves are in consequence slow in changing the aspect 
 and figure of Africa. The domestic servants have advanced far 
 before them in acquiring the agreeable and regular features, and 
 the expressive countenance of civilised society. The former are 
 frequently ill-shaped, they preserve, in a great degree, the African 
 lips, and nose and hair. Their genius is dull, and their counte- 
 nance sleepy and stupid. The latter are straight and well pro- 
 portioned, their hair extended to three or four, sometimes even 
 to six or eight inches : the size and shape of their mouth hand- 
 some, their features regular, their capacity good, and their look 
 animated ” f 
 
 Dr. Prichard has “ been assured by persons who have resided 
 in the West Indies, that a similar change is very visible among 
 the Negro slaves of the third and fourth generation in those 
 islands, and that the first, generation differs considerably from the 
 natives of Africa.” £ 
 
 The South Sea Islanders, who appear to be all of one family, 
 vary according to their degree of cultivation. The New Zea- 
 landers, for example, are savages and chiefly black ; the New 
 Hollanders, half civilised and chiefly tawny ; the Friendly Is- 
 landers are more advanced and not quite so dark, several are 
 lighter than olive colour, and hundreds of European faces are 
 found among them. 
 
 f On the Causes of the Variety in the Complexion and Figure of the Human 
 Species, p. 85. sq. 
 
 K 1. c. ed. 2. t. ii. p. 565. sq. 
 
572 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 The people of Otaheite and the Society isles are the most 
 civilised and the most beautiful : the higher orders among them 
 have a light complexion and hair flowing in ringlets ; the lower 
 orders, less cultivated, are less pleasing. 
 
 “ The same superiority,” says Captain King," “ which is ob- 
 servable in the Erees (nobles) throughout the other islands, is 
 found also here (Owyhee). Those whom we saw were, without 
 exception, perfectly well formed ; whereas the lower sort, besides 
 their general inferiority, are subject to all the variety of make and 
 figure that is seen in the populace of other countries .” 1 
 
 Climate, however, has not been shown to have no effect : but 
 its power, being in itself not generally very considerable, cannot be 
 strongly manifested when opposed. In fact, a diminution of the 
 sun’s influence does dispose to the production of light varieties : the 
 inhabitants of hilly situations are, caeteris paribus, fairer than the 
 people below, and persons of the same tribe and degree of 
 civilisation lighter in the northern parts of Europe and Asia than 
 those in the more southern ; whiteness, too, is very common in 
 the north among animals which nearer the equator are variously 
 coloured; a pair of brown mice kept in a dark place are said to 
 generate a white offspring. Blumenbach mentions that small birds 
 fed on hemp-seed in a chamber, become black. k Some statements 
 have been lately made respecting New South Wales, that show 
 the influence of the climate of that country to be considerable. 
 
 “ It appears, indeed, that the change which takes place in the 
 physical constitution of all Icinds of animals on transplantation to 
 New South Wales, is something quite astonishing. It was long 
 since remarked, that prostitutes who had never borne children 
 in Europe, became prolific mothers in the Australian colonies, and 
 that married women who had long left off child-bearing, recom- 
 menced, in some cases even at the advanced period of fifty years, 
 after a short residence in these regions ; and the observation 
 appears to be confirmed, that not only the human race, but most 
 of the quadrupeds produced from animals imported, improve their 
 breed and increase considerably in size. Mr. Dawson, the intel- 
 ligent manager of the Australian Agricultural Company, thus 
 
 h Cook, Voyages, vol. iii. book v. c. 7. 
 
 * If the kingdom of Hayti continues, some highly interesting physiological 
 questions will be determined : — We shall know what cultivation the African 
 race is capable of, and what influence civilisation has upon the system of succes- 
 sive generations. 
 
 k Med. Gazette, No. 2. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 573 
 
 writes in a private journal with which we have been favoured. 
 
 ‘ Both the climate and the soil appear by nature intended to 
 produce fine wool and fine animals too, even from the worst 
 beginnings. The latter seems a paradox. The extensive range 
 that can be afforded to every animal keeps it in good condition, 
 and, perhaps, the native grasses may have more of good in them 
 than their appearance indicates. However this may be, the 
 climate clearly has a wonderful effect on the size of all animals, 
 even upon man, who is almost universally tall here, although born 
 of diminutive parents. From this I am led to believe that the 
 climate governs chiefly, and thus every breeding animal intro- 
 duced here will attain a size not known in Europe. From what 
 I know of the origin of the breed of horses introduced here, and 
 the size of the stock that has almost promiscuously been pro- 
 duced from them, I have strong grounds for inferring that the 
 produce of such horses as we have imported will be something 
 extraordinary.’ ” 1 
 
 The late inestimable Bishop Heber, in speaking of India, 
 says, “ It is remarkable, to observe how surely all these 
 classes of men (whites, — Persian, Greeks, Tartars, Turks, and 
 Arabians), in a few generations, even without any intermar- 
 riage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little less 
 dark than a negro, which seems natural to the climate. The Por- 
 tuguese have, during three hundred years’ residence in India, be- 
 come as black as Caffres. Surely this goes far to disprove the 
 assertion which is sometimes made, that climate alone is insuf- 
 ficie..: to account for the difference between the negro and 
 the European. It is true that in the negro are other peculiarities 
 which the Indian has not, and to which the Portuguese colonist 
 shows no symptom of approximation, and which undoubtedly do 
 not appear to follow as naturally from the climate as that swarthi- 
 ness of complexion which is the sole difference between the 
 Hindoo and the European. But if heat produces one change, 
 other peculiarities of climate may produce other and additional 
 changes, and where such peculiarities have three or four thousand 
 years to operate in, it is not easy to fix any limit to their power. 
 I am inclined, after all, to suspect that our European vanity leads 
 us astray in supposing that our own is the primitive complexion, 
 
 1 Quarterly Review, Jan. 1828. p. 7. Review of Two Years in New South 
 Wales, fye. by P. Cunningham, surgeon, R. N. 1827. 
 
574 ; 
 
 VARIETTES OF MANKIND. 
 
 which I would rather suppose was that of the Indian, half way 
 between the two extremes, perhaps the most agreeable to the eye 
 and instinct of the majority of the human race. Colder climate 
 and a constant use of clothes, may have bleached the skin as ef- 
 fectually as a burning sun and nakedness may have tanned it : and 
 I am encouraged in this hypothesis by observing that of animals 
 the natural colours are generally dusky and uniform, while white- 
 ness and a variety of tint almost invariably follow domestication, 
 shelter from the elements, and a mixed and unnatural diet. Thus, 
 while hardships, additional exposure, a greater degree of heat, 
 and other circumstances with which we are unacquainted, may 
 have deteriorated the Hindoo into a negro, opposite causes may 
 have changed him into the progressively lighter tints of the 
 Chinese, the Persian, the Turk, the Russian, and the Englishman.” “ 
 
 Volney gives us a singular instance of the power of climate 
 upon different races ; not, indeed, in producing variety, but in 
 mysteriously affecting generation. 
 
 “ During fiv.e hundred and fifty years that there have been 
 Mamlouks in Egypt, not one of them has left subsisting issue; 
 there does not exist one single family of them in the second 
 generation ; all their children perish in the first or second 
 descent. Almost the same thing happens to the Turks ; and it is 
 observed that they can only secure the continuance of their 
 families, by marrying women who are natives, which the Mam- 
 louks have always disdained. Let the naturalist explain why 
 men, well formed, and married to healthy women, are unable to 
 naturalize on the banks of the Nile, a race born at the foot of 
 Mount Caucasus ! and let it be remembered, at the same time, 
 that the plants of Europe in that country are equally unable to 
 continue their species ! Some may refuse to believe this extra- 
 ordinary fact, but it is not on that account less certain ; nor does 
 it appear to be new. The ancients have made observations of the 
 same nature : thus, when Hippocrates asserts, that among the 
 Scythians and Egyptians, all the individuals resemble each other, 
 though they are like no other nations ; when he adds, that in the 
 countries inhabited by these two races of men, the climate, seasons, 
 elements, and soil possess an uniformity no where else to be found, 
 
 m Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta 
 to Bombay, by the late Reginald Heber, D.D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta, p. 54. sq. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 575 
 
 does he not recognize that kind of exclusion of which I speak? 
 When such countries impress so peculiar a character on every thing 
 native, is it not a reason why they should reject whatever is foreign? 
 It seems, then, that the only means of naturalizing animals and 
 plants would be to contract an affinity with the climate, by alli- 
 ance with the native species; and this, as I have before said, 
 the Mamlouks have constantly refused. The means, therefore, 
 by which they are perpetuated and multiplied, are the same by 
 which they were first established ; that is to say, when they die, 
 they are replaced by slaves brought from their original country.” 11 
 
 Being curious on this point, and having a most intelligent and 
 valued friend who lately travelled in Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, 
 and even spent seven months in the Desert of Arabia, I applied to 
 him for information, and received the following note : — 
 
 “ Dear Elliotson, Limmer’s Hotel, March 3. 
 
 “ I have just received your note, and have great pleasure in 
 giving you what information I am able on the subject of the Eu- 
 ropeans in Egypt. You asked me yesterday if I had not told you 
 Volney was incorrect in the statement he has made in p. 108. 
 concerning the Mamlouks? I do not remember having told you 
 anything to that effect: the subject which he seems to have been 
 misinformed upon is the climate of Syria, which does not interest 
 you. 
 
 “ From the various enquiries I made in Egypt I consider Volney 
 to be perfectly correct. The persons whom I asked had never 
 read his work, and till I asked them had never given their attention 
 to the subject; yet still they could not bring one instance to their 
 recollection of the children (of two whites) born in the country 
 ever coming to maturity. I was also told that children begotten 
 by Europeans out of natives (a circumstance which, however, 
 rarely happens, owing to the Copts and Arabs being very par- 
 ticular on that subject) entirely lose their appearance of European 
 origin in the third generation. The physiognomy of the Copts is 
 very striking ; I never remember seeing the least European mixture, 
 which would be visible if they had made alliances with the Turks 
 who are as different in the form of face as can well be imagined, — 
 
 Voyag e en Egyyte et en Syrie, t. i. p. 87. sq. 
 
576 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 the Turks have Roman noses ; the Georgians Grecian ; the Mam- 
 louks both ; but the Copts are snubs. 
 
 “ I was told at Damietta, the port on the eastern branch of the 
 Nile, that an Italian family had flourished amazingly ; afterwards 
 I heard the mother was a Maltese, which, if true, more strongly 
 corroborates the fact, as the Maltese are supposed to be of 
 Arabian origin: they speak a kind of jargon so like Arabic as 
 to make themselves understood by the natives on their arrival in 
 Egypt. 
 
 “ What Volney also says about the vegetables is equally true. 
 When I left Cairo, a gardener hearing that I was going to Jaffa 
 and Damascus, and likely to return, begged me to bring him melon 
 and cauliflower seed, as, though those plants thrive exceedingly 
 well in Egypt, unless the seed be renovated constantly, it dege- 
 nerates so as quite to become another plant. This is also the 
 case, I understand, with the Brussels sprouts, so celebrated in 
 the Netherlands. Plants raised from seed from Brussels thrive 
 well in this country ; but seed saved here, though it ripens 
 thoroughly, greatly degenerates in the second generation. 
 
 “ The race of Mamlouks has been entirely destroyed by the 
 present Pacha, Mahommed Ali. Only a few escaped the general 
 massacre in the citadel, and fled to Dongola. These few have 
 been gradually dying off. When I was in Cairo I heard from a 
 person lately arrived from Abyssinia that only a very few were 
 left. One old man, the only one in Cairo, I used to see daily in 
 a public garden. I had some conversation with him several 
 times, but he was quite superannuated, and could give no infor- 
 mation. In fact, had he been capable, his life would not have 
 been spared. 
 
 “ Ever your’s most truly, 
 
 “ J. S. Crompjon.” 
 
 The hereditary transmission of habits is well described by a 
 recent author. 
 
 “ Every one conversant with beasts knows that not only their 
 natural, but many of their acquired qualities are transmitted by 
 their parents to their offspring. Perhaps the most curious exam- 
 ple of the latter may be found in the pointer. 
 
 “ This animal is endowed with the natural instinct of winding 
 game, and stealing upon his prey, which he surprises, having first 
 made a short pause, in order to launch himself upon it with more 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 577 
 
 security of success. This sort of semicolon in his proceedings 
 man converts into a full stop, and teaches him to be as much 
 pleased at seeing the bird or beast drop by the shooter’s gun as 
 at taking it himself. The staunchest dog of this kind, and the 
 original pointer, is of Spanish origin, and our own is derived from 
 this race, crossed with that of the fox-hound or other breed of 
 dogs, for the sake of improving his speed. This mixed and fac- 
 titious race of course naturally partakes less of the true pointer 
 character ; that is to say, is less disposed to stop, or, at least, he 
 makes a shorter stop at game. The factitious pointer is, however, 
 disciplined in this country into staunchness ; and what is most 
 singular, this quality is in a great degree inherited by his puppy, 
 who may be seen earnestly standing at pigeons or swallows in a 
 farm-yard. For intuition, though it leads the offspring to exer- 
 cise his parent’s faculties, does not instruct him how to direct 
 them. The preference of his master afterwards guides him in his 
 selection, and teaches him what game is better worth pursuit. 
 On the other hand, the pointer of pure Spanish race, unless he 
 happens to be well broke himself, which, in the south of Europe 
 seldom happens, produces a race which are all but unteachable, 
 according to our notions of a pointer’s business. They will make 
 a stop at their game as natural instinct prompts them, but seem 
 incapable of being drilled into the habits of the animal which 
 education has formed in this country, and has rendered, as I have 
 said, in some degree, capable of transmitting his acquirements to 
 his descendants. 
 
 “ Acquired habits are hereditary in other animals besides dogs. 
 English sheep, probably from the greater richness of our pastures, 
 feed very much together ; while the Scotch sheep are obliged to 
 extend and scatter themselves over their hills for the better dis- 
 covery of food. Yet the English sheep, on being transferred to 
 Scotland, keep their old habit of feeding in a mass, though so 
 little adapted to their new country : so do their descendants; and 
 the English sheep is not thoroughly naturalized into the neces- 
 sities of his place till the third generation. The same thing may 
 be observed as to the nature of his food, that is observed in his 
 mode of eating it. When turnips were introduced from England 
 into Scotland, it was only the third generation which heartily 
 adopted this diet, the first having been starved into an acqui- 
 escence in it. In the same manner it required some years to 
 
 p P 
 
578 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 establish the English practice of bringing up calves by hand in 
 Scotland ; the first who were so fed being cheated into swallowing 
 milk, as the English calves at first are, by dipping the finger in 
 the bowl and giving it the animal to suck. Nor was this mode of 
 administering nourishment (slowly and reluctantly admitted by 
 Lowland calves) ever, I believe, cordially adopted by their moun- 
 tain kindred. The Highland beast has shown himself the worthy 
 imitator of the Highland man, and is as obstinate in his opposition 
 to this as his Celtic master is to any other southern improvement 
 which can be offered to him .” 0 
 
 The effect of civilization on corporeal strength was proved by 
 Peron, p who ascertained, by means of Regnier’s Dynamometer, the 
 bodily power of the complete savage of Van Diemen’s land to be 
 inferior to that of the more cultivated New Hollander, of the latter 
 to that of the still more cultivated inhabitant of Timor, and of the 
 last very considerably to that of Europeans. The weakest French- 
 man was equal in the hands to the strongest man of Van Diemen’s 
 Land, and the weakest Englishman stronger than the strongest 
 New Hollander : the average strength of Europeans in the loins 
 exceeded that of the most powerful individuals of either Van 
 Diemen’s Land, New Holland, or Timor. 
 
 On account of all these facts, and of the consideration that a child 
 is continually produced differing remarkably from both its parents 
 and that such an individual born in ancient times might have given 
 origin to a large nation resembling himself, I can discover no 
 reason for not believing that we are sprung from two parents. 
 
 Perfection, in other words, the highest compatible point of 
 utility or agreeableness, or of both, is nature’s universal aim in 
 her productions, but it is in general obtained slowly, and the 
 more so in proportion to the excellence or degree of the qualities 
 to be perfected. Animals and vegetables have to pass one period 
 before they burst into birth, and another before their full powers 
 and proportions are reached; and man, whose perfections are 
 very excellent, arrives at his acme very late. 
 
 0 Thoughts and Recollections by one of the last century. 
 p Voyages des Decouvertes aux Terres Ausirales. 
 
VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 579 
 
 It is in this respect with species as with individuals, — their 
 improvement is gradual. 
 
 In conformity with such observations, some suppose that all 
 mankind were once so far below the excellence of which they 
 are susceptible, — that this was to be acquired so slowly, that the 
 Caucasian variety once did not exist. They support this opinion 
 by the remark of Mr. Hunter, — that the changes of colour in 
 brutes are always from the darker to the lighter shades, i by the 
 numerous instances of individual blacks turning permanently 
 white, whereas individual whites have rarely been known to turn 
 black, and by the asserted probability of the most ancient people 
 of the earth, from whom Europeans must be descended, having 
 been genuine Ethiopians or Negroes. r 
 
 Those who oppose the opinion of our descent from two parents, 
 urge that the five millions of human beings that may at present 
 exist could not have descended from one pair without a chain of 
 wonders ; that accidents, diseases, &c. might have happened to 
 our first parents, and the peopling of the earth would thus have 
 been left to chance ; that no reason can be given for mankind 
 wishing to leave their place of birth and traverse continents and 
 oceans, that indeed mankind is generally indisposed to migration ; 
 
 11 “ Animals living in a free and natural state are subject to few deviations from 
 their specific character ; but nature is less uniform in its operations, when influ- 
 enced by culture. Considerable varieties are produced under such circumstances ; 
 of which the most frequent are changes in the colour. 
 
 “ These changes are always, I believe, from the dark to the lighter tints ; and 
 the alteration very gradual in certain species, requiring in the canary-bird several 
 generations ; while in the crow, mouse, Sec. it is completed in one. But this 
 change is not always to white, though still approaching nearer to it in the young 
 than in the parent ; being sometimes to dun, at others to spotted, of all the 
 various shades between the twa extremes. This alteration in colour being con- 
 stantly from dark to lighter, may we not reasonably infer, that in all animals 
 subject to such variation, the- darkest of the species should be reckoned nearest to 
 the original ; and that where there are specimens of a particular kind, entirely 
 black, the whole have been originally black ? Without this supposition it will be 
 impossible, on the principle I have stated, to account for individuals of any class 
 being black. Every such variety may be considered as arising in the cultivated 
 state of animals.” Hunter, On the colour of the pigmentum nigrum of the eye, 
 1. c. p.243. 
 
 r Dr. Prichard, 1. c. chap. vii. viii. ix. Rudolphi mentions Pallas, Schelver, 
 Doornik and Link, as supporters of this opinion. We have just seen the senti- 
 ments of a Bishop. 
 
 P P 2 
 
580 
 
 VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 
 
 and that the supposition is supported by no other authority than 
 “ a very improbable Jewish tradition.” s 
 
 I confess myself unable to discover the weight of these as- 
 sertions. 
 
 So high is the power of circumstances to alter the constitution 
 estimated by some writers, that they would have us believe every 
 species and variety in the whole vegetable and animal kingdom 
 to be the same, and to differ solely by modifying influences. 
 Common matter, they contend, becomes vivified under favourable 
 circumstances into vegetable, and then into animal, or at once into 
 animal . 1 Many individuals of the simplest animal race, M. 
 Lamarck argues, gradually acquire more complexity, accordingly 
 as the circumstances in which they may be placed are favourable 
 to the development of various powers and structures. These 
 produce their like, and many of their progeny become variously 
 influenced still farther, and so the change has proceeded till all 
 the varieties of vegetables and animals, from mildew to the 
 banian-tree casting a shadow of 11,000 feet in circumference, 
 from the microscopic animalcule to man and the mammoth, have 
 been produced. The reason that man and the brutes around us 
 appear exactly the same as they are mentioned in the oldest his- 
 tories, he ascribes to the shortness of the period, long as it seems 
 to us in comparison with our own career of life. The earth, he 
 believes, from its marks of great antiquity, to have existed for 
 innumerable ages, quite long enough to explain all the diversities 
 of animals considered as changes gradually effected ; and the re- 
 motest ages of which we have records, to be too modern for 
 obvious alterations to have been subsequently effected, though 
 change has, doubtless, silently proceded. The effect of circum- 
 stances he illustrates by our tame geese and ducks, which have, 
 with their wildness, lost the power of elevated or protracted flight, 
 and undergone some changes of structure. Upon this doctrine he 
 explains the similarity of structure in all animals, — how every 
 species runs insensibly into others ; the modifying influences having 
 
 s ’ Dr. Rudolphi, professor in the University of Berlin. Gruttdriss der Phy- 
 siologic. 
 
 1 Blumenbach believes the spontaneous generation of the animalcule vibrio 
 aceti, because it is found only in the artificial mixture of vinegar and paste. But 
 as animalcules abound in vinegar, why should it not merely be a variety 
 occasioned by the influence of the paste ? Handbuch der Naturges. th. ix. 
 
VARIETIES Of MANKIND. 
 
 581 
 
 operated in infinite degrees, and affected certain parts more than 
 the rest. He considers, that except those races of animals which 
 man has extirpated, the others whose fossil remains attest their 
 former existence, but which are thought to be extinct, really 
 exist at present, but so modified by the evolution of various parts 
 that they appear under the form of new animals. u 
 
 Great as the power of circumstances is in altering structure and 
 habits, I cannot believe that the kangaroo’s peculiarities arose 
 from some animals happening to have used their fore-extremities 
 too little, and their hind extremities and tails very much ; or 
 the web of aquatic birds, from their progenitors having happened 
 to separate their claws as much as possible in swimming. Spon- 
 taneous generation is doubtful, and I think Lamarck’s principles 
 apply to the production of varieties only, and those chiefly among 
 the lower species, and that there is neither proof nor probability 
 that the enormous diversities of animals, from man to the animal- 
 cule of a vegetable infusion, can be attributed to external cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Still there is nothing atheistical, but the very highest sublimity, 
 in the conception. We have reason to believe that among the 
 myriads of worlds and systems of worlds in the universe, world 
 after world, and system after system are, like countries, and 
 like animals and vegetables, silently and successively destroyed, 
 and others produced. Our new earth Lamarck imagines to have 
 been endowed by the Creator with such powers that, under certain 
 circumstances, portions of its matter became animated and or- 
 ganised, and these animated portions he imagines to have been 
 endowed with the property of becoming more and more compli- 
 cated in their structure and excellent in their properties, till in the 
 course of countless ages the world came to abound as it does, in 
 all the varieties of living beings, with the human race at their 
 head. 
 
 Philosophie Zoologique, vol. ii. Paris, 1809. 
 
582 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Page 161. for “ Oronoco,” read “the Orinoco.” 
 
 Page 21 Q. for “Meckel’s” read “ Gasser’s.” 
 
 Page 221. Experiments similar to some which have been 
 lately made, were performed above a century and a half ago. 
 In 1673, M. Duverney removed the cerebrum and cerebellum 
 from a pigeon, and found the animal “ live some time, search for 
 aliment, &c.” He removed the cerebrum from a dog without a 
 fatal result for some time : the removal of the cerebellum was 
 instantly fatal. Yet, by instituting artificial respiration, he sus- 
 tained life for an hour after the removal of the cerebellum. In 
 one experiment, the dog “ lived twenty-four hours, and his heart 
 beat well.” The instantly fatal result of the division of the spinal 
 marrow at the first vertebra he prevented also by artificial respir- 
 ation, and found that “ the motion of the heart continued, and the 
 animal could move his body.” See Phil. Trans, vol. xix. 
 
 Page 488. The reference to the Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal, 
 should be vol. xvii. The experiments are by Dr. Mayer of Bonn. 
 Those with madder, and on the continuance of the foetal circul- 
 ation in warm water, are by Dr. Chapman, and will be found in the 
 Philadelphia Journal, No. I. 
 
 Page 485. I cannot deny myself the gratification of stating, 
 that since this Note was written I have witnessed the complete 
 extirpation of a scirrhous and ulcerated uterus, fundus, cervix 
 and os, through the vagina, by Dr. James Blundel, without injury 
 of any neighbouring organ, hemorrhage, or the least unpleasant 
 circumstances either during or after the operation; and that the 
 woman is now at the end of three weeks perfectly well. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Lontion : 
 
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