172 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 surfaces, etc., etc. See each of these simple textures combining, in 

 different degrees, more or less of these properties, and consequently 

 living with more or less energy. 



There is but little difference arising from the number of vital prop- 

 erties they have in common ; when these properties exist in many, they 

 take in each a distinctive and peculiar character. This character is 

 chronic, if I may so express myself, in the bones, the cartilages, the 

 tendons, etc. ; it is acute in the muscles, the skin, the glands, etc. 



Independently of this general difference, each texture has a particu- 

 lar kind of force, of sensibility, etc. Upon this principle rests the 

 whole theory of secretion, of exhalation, of absorption, and of nu- 

 trition. The blood is a common reservoir, from which each texture 

 chooses that which is adapted to its sensibility, to appropriate and keep 

 it, and afterwards reject it. 



Much has been said since the time of Bordeu, of the peculiar life 

 of each organ, which is nothing else than that particular character 

 which distinguishes the combination of the vital properties of one or- 

 gan from those of another. Before these properties had been ana- 

 lyzed with exactness and precision, it was clearly impossible to form 

 a correct idea of this peculiar life. From the recount I have just 

 given of it, it is evident that the greatest part of the organs being 

 composed of very different simple textures, the idea of a peculiar life 

 can only apply to these simple textures, and not to the organs them- 

 selves. 



Some examples will render the point of doctrine which is important, 

 more evident. The stomach is composed of the serous, organic mus- 

 cular, mucous, and of almost all the common textures, as the arterial, 

 the venous, etc., which we can consider separately. Now if you 

 should attempt to describe in a general manner, the peculiar life of the 

 stomach, it is evidently impossible that you could give a very precise 

 and exact idea of it. In fact the mucous surface is so different from 

 the serous, and both so different from the muscular, that by asso- 

 ciating them together, the whole would be confused. The same is 

 true of the intestines, the bladder, the womb, etc. ; if you do not dis- 

 tinguish what belongs to each of the textures that form the compound 

 organs, the term peculiar life will offer nothing but vagueness and 

 uncertainty. This is so true, that oftentimes the same textures al- 

 ternately belong or are foreign to their organs. The same portion of 



