260 THEORY OF DISEASE. 



when hunger is felt, in the form of an abnormal 

 growth, or an abnormal metamorphosis of certain 

 parts of organs. Sijmpathij is the transference of 

 diminished resistance from one part, not exactly to 

 the next, but to more distant organs, when the 

 functions of both mutually influence each other. 

 When the action of the diseased organ is connected 

 with that of another — when, for example, the one 

 no longer produces the matters necessary to the per- 

 formance of the functions of the other — then the 

 diseased condition is transferred, but only appa- 

 rently, to the latter. 



In regard to the nature and essence of the vital 

 force, we can hardly deceive ourselves, when we 

 reflect, that it behaves, in all its manifestations, 

 exactly like other natural forces ; that it is devoid 

 of consciousness or of volition, and is subject to the 

 action of a blister. 



The nerves, which accomplish the voluntary and 

 involuntary motions in the body, are, according to 

 the preceding exposition, not the producers, but 

 only the conductors of the vital force ; they propa- 

 gate motion, and behave towards other causes of 

 motion, which in their manifestations are analogous 

 to the vital force, towards a current of electricity, 

 for example, in a precisely analogous manner. They 

 permit the current to traverse them, and present, as 

 conductors of electricity, all the phenomena which 

 they exhibit as conductors of the vital force. In 

 the present state of our knowledge, no one, proba- 



