80 Dr. Wilson Philip 



on which the division of the functions of the animal body into 

 sensorial, nervous, and muscular, adopted in my Inquiry, is 

 founded. 



With regard to the last, I have already had occasion to refer 

 to the experiment, which appears to prove the separate and in- 

 dependent existence of the power on which the muscular func- 

 tion depends *. It will be necessary to speak more at length of 

 the others. 



It appears from many experiments, that after the operations 

 of the sensorial power can no longer be observed, that is, after 

 all signs of sensation and voluntary power finally cease, and the 

 animal^ is what we call dead, it is not immediately reduced to 

 the state of inanimate matter. Some of the vital powers for a 

 certain length of time survive. It has long been known that, in 

 the newly-dead animal (the term dead I shall employ in its usual 

 though not very correct acceptation,) the nerves are still capable 

 of conveying impressions to the muscles, and the muscles of 

 performing their function ; so that the action of the latter may 

 still be excited, by dividing or bruising the former. It appears 

 from experiments laid before the reader in the above Inquiry, 

 that the nerves also still possess the power of decomposing and 

 re-combining the elementary parts of the bloodf, and also that 

 of occasioning an evolution of caloric from this fluidj:. 



The foregoing powers, then, surviving the sensorial power, 

 are independent of it, and of the causes which maintain its exist- 

 ence in the animal economy. They also differ essentially from 

 the sensorial power in another respect, that most of them evi- 

 dently are, and all of them may be, the operation of a chemical 

 agent, acting on parts endowed with the vital principle; while 

 the sensorial functions, sensation and volition §, are of a nature 



• Exper. 32, and the observations after this experiment. 



t Exper. 61, 6-2,63. 



J Exper. 64, 65, 66. 



§ I speak only of the sensorial powers essential to the life of the ani- 

 mal. The others are equally distinct from the effects of any chemical 

 agent, but they form no [lart of the object of this paper. See the above 

 Inquiry, page 206, et secj . 



