MARIE FRANgOIS XAVIER BICHAT 175 



flammation, and have placed to the account of the subjacent viscera 

 that v^rhich most often belongs only to this. There are almost as many 

 cases of peritonitis as of pleurisy, and yet while these last have been 

 particularly noticed the others are almost entirely overlooked. Often- 

 times that part of the peritoneum corresponding to an organ, is much 

 inflamed ; v;^e see it in the case of the stomach ; we observe especially 

 after the suppression of the lochia or the menses, that it is the por- 

 tion that lines the pelvis that is first aflFected. But soon the affection 

 becomes more or less general ; at least examinations after death prove 

 it satisfactorily. 8th. Certainly the acute or chronic catarrh of the 

 bladder, or womb even, has nothing in common with the inflamma- 

 tion of that portion of the peritoneum corresponding with these or- 

 gans. 9th. Every- one knows that diseases of the periosteum have 

 oftentimes no connection with the bone, and vice versa, that frequently 

 the marrow is for a long time affected, while both the others remain 

 sound. There is no doubt that the osseous, medullary and fibrous 

 textures have their peculiar affections which we shall not confound 

 with the idea we may form of the diseases of the bones. The same 

 can be said of the intestines, of the stomach, etc., in relation to their 

 mucous, serous, muscular textures, etc. loth. Though the muscular 

 and tendinous textures are combined in a muscle, their diseases are 

 very different, nth. You must not think that the synovial is sub- 

 ject to the same diseases as the ligaments that surround it, etc. 



I think the more we observe diseases, and the more we examine 

 bodies, the more we shall be convinced of the necessity of considering 

 local diseases, not under the relations of the compound organs, which 

 are rarely ever affected as a whole, but under that of their different 

 textures, which are almost always attacked separately. 



When the phenomena of disease are sympathetic, they follow the 

 same laws as when they arise from a direct affection. Much has been 

 said of the sympathies of the stomach, the intestines, the bladder, 

 the lungs, etc. But it is impossible to form an idea of them, if they 

 are referred to the organ as a whole, separate from the different 

 textures, ist. When in the stomach, the fleshy fibres contract by 

 the influence of another organ and produce vomiting, they alone re- 

 ceive the influence, which is not extended either to the serous or 

 mucous surfaces ; if it were, they would be the seat, the one of ex- 

 halation, the other of sympathetic exhalation and secretion. 2d. It 



