Si4 Cuvierian System of %oology, 



folded round, form those tubes called vessels, which are more 

 or less ramified ; the filaments called fibres may be resolved 

 into the cellular texture ; the bones may be regarded as the 

 cellular texture {la cellulosite) hardened by the accumulation 

 of earthy substances. The general matter of which the cellular 

 texture is composed is called gelatine ; it has the property of 

 dissolving in boiling water, and, by cooling, it forms jelly. 



The cerebral or medullary matter has not yet been reduced 

 to its organic molecules * ; it appears to the eye as a kind of 

 soft pulp, in which we can only distinguish excessively minute 

 globules. It does not seem susceptible of motion, but it is in 

 this cerebral matter that resides the mysterious and admirable 

 power of transmitting the impressions from the external senses 

 to the mind, and of conveying to the muscles the orders of the 

 will; The brain is principally composed of it; the spinal 

 marrow, and the nerves which are distributed over the body, 

 are, essentially, but bundles {faisceaux) or ramifications of the 

 cerebral matter. 



The fleshy, or muscular fibre is a particular filament, the 

 distinctive character of which, in a living state, is to contract 

 when touched or struck by another body, or when it expe- 

 riences, by the intervention of the nerves, the action of the 

 will. 



The muscles, which are the immediate organs of voluntary 

 motion, are only bundles of fleshy fibres ; all the membranes 

 and vessels which exert a compressive force, are furnished 

 with these fibres ; they are always intimately connected with 

 nervous filaments. The substance of the fleshy fibre hjibrine, 

 which is indissoluble in boiling water, and its nature appears 

 to be, to take of itself the fibrous form. 



The nourishing fluid, or the blood, as it exists in the circu- 

 lating vessels, may not only be resolved into the general ele- 

 ments of the animal body, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 

 azote, but it already contains fibrine and gelatine, nearly pre- 

 pared to contract and take the form of membranes or fibres ; 

 at least, it only requires a little rest, to manifest these proper- 

 ties. Another combination, called albumen, is easily discovered 

 in the blood; its characteristic property is, to coagulate in 



* Since the publication of (^uvier's work several important discoveries 

 have been made in the structure of the brain and nerves, by Spurzheim, 

 Bell, Edwards, and others, from which it would appdtir that the structure 

 of the medullary matter and nerves is fibrous, and, according to Dr. Ed- 

 wards, the fibres are composed of minute globules, like the cellular and 

 muscular tissues. It appears, also, that the nerves which convey impres- 

 sions to the mind, are distinct from those which convey the orders of the 

 will to the muscles. 



