170 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 life; 4th, the arterial; 5th, the venous; 6th, the texture of the ex- 

 halants ; 7th, that of the absorbents and their glands ; 8th, the osseous ; 

 9th, the medullary; loth, the cartilaginous; nth, the fibrous; 12th, 

 the fibro-cartilaginous ; 13th, the muscular of animal life; 14th, the 

 muscular of organic life; 15th, the mucous; i6th, the serous ; 17th, the 

 synovial; i8th, the glandular; 19th, the dermoid; 20th, the epider- 

 moid; 2 1 St, the pilous. 



These are the true organized elements of our bodies. Their nature 

 is constantly the same, wherever they are met with. As in chemistry, 

 the simple bodies do not alter, notwithstanding the different compound 

 ones they form. The organized elements of man form the particular 

 object of this work. 



The idea of thus considering abstractly the different simple textures 

 of our bodies, is not the work of the imagination ; it rests upon the 

 most substantial foundation, and I think it will have a powerful in- 

 fluence upon physiology as well as practical medicine. Under what- 

 ever point of view we examine them, it will be found that they do not 

 resemble each other ; it is nature and not science that has drawn the 

 line of distinction between them. 



I'st. Their forms are everywhere different; here they are flat, 

 there round. We see the simple textures arranged as membranes, 

 canals, fibrous fasciaes, etc. No one has the same external character 

 with another, considered as to their attributes of thickness or size. 

 These differences of form, however, can only be accidental, and the 

 same texture is sometimes seen under many different appearances ; for 

 example, the nervous appears as a membrane in the retina, and as cords 

 in the nerves. This has nothing to do with their nature ; it is then 

 from the organization of the properties that the principal differences 

 should be drawn. 



2dly. There is no analogy in the organization of the simple tex- 

 tures. We shall see that this organization results from parts that are 

 common to all, and from those that are peculiar to each ; but the com- 

 mon parts are all differently arranged in each texture. Some unite in 

 abundance the cellular texture, the blood vessels and the nerves ; in 

 others, one or two of these three common parts are scarcely evident or 

 entirely wanting. Here there are only the exhalants and absorbents of 

 nutrition; there the vessels are more numerous for other purposes. 

 The capillary network, wonderfully multiplied, exists in certain tex- 



