1 823.] Abstract of Bichat 



system is therefore necessarily nlways 

 enoaijed in the performance of fnnc- 

 tions, whose object is to resist death. 



Life, according to Bichat, is the 

 state of being prodnced by the posses- 

 sion and exercise of what he calls the 

 vital properties ; yet he docs not always 

 adhere with logical strictness to this 

 definition, but rather uses the term 

 sometimes to designate collectively the 

 vital properties themselves, and this, 

 perhaps, is its best and most convenient 

 sense. His essential doctrine, how- 

 ever, is, that there is no one single in- 

 dividnal presiding principle of vita- 

 lity, which animates the body ; but that 

 it is a collection of matter gifted for a 

 lime with certain powers of action, 

 combined into organs wliich are thus 

 enabled to act; and that the result is a 

 series of functions, the connected per- 

 formance of which constitutes it a 

 living thing. 



This is his view of life, considered 

 in the most general and simple way. 

 But in carrying the examination fur- 

 ther, he points out two remarkable 

 modifications of life, as viewed in dif- 

 ferent reliitionS; one common both to 

 vesretables and animals, the other pe- 

 culiar to animals. The vegetable ex- 

 ists entirely within itself, ami for itself, 

 depending upon other substances only 

 for the materials of nutrition; the 

 animal, on tlie contrary, in additioii to 

 this internal life, has aucdher, by which 

 be connects himself with objects about 

 him, maintains relations witli them, 

 and is bound to them by the ties of 

 mutual dependence. This a.'fords a 

 priiiei|dc, upon which to form a dis- 

 tinct classilication of our functions. 

 Those which we have in common with 

 the vegetable, which are necessary 

 merely to our individual bodily exist- 

 ence, arc called the functions o{ orga- 

 nic life, because they are common to all 

 organized m;ilter. 'J'hose, on the 

 other hand, wh'ch are peculiar to ani- 

 mals, wliich in them are superadded 

 to the [)Ossession of the organic fnnc- 



in 11)02. Great stress is laid on liis opi- 

 nions by tliQ contiiu'iilal piiysioloiiisls; 

 hilt lif sfPins to liave no Kiispicioii of the 

 recently proinidf;nted doetrine, that atii- 

 Rial stien^tli, c'nerey, and life, is (icrived 

 uiert-ly from the fixutiun and translierred 

 motion of llie atoms ot' f;as within wliich 

 the aiiiiiial lives. Atnuisplii'iic <jas is eoin- 

 poscd ot moving atoms, the fixation of 

 ivliieh hy respiration, transfers their nio- 

 nientnin, and «:oncenlrales their eneifiy 

 and heat in the animal .system.— Editoh. 

 1 



s Theory of Life. 415 



tions, are called the functions of ani- 

 mal life. 



Physiologically speaking, then, we 

 have two lives, the concurrence of 

 which enables us to live, and move, 

 and have our being; both equally 

 necessary to the relations we main- 

 tain as human beings, but not equally 

 necessary to the simple existence 

 of a living thing. By our organic 

 life, food proper for our nutrition is 

 first submitted to the operation of 

 digestion, is then thrown into the cir- 

 culation, undergoes in the lungs the 

 changes which respiration is intended 

 to effect, is then distributed to the 

 organs to be applied to their nutrition; 

 from these, after a certain period, is 

 taken away by absorption, thrown 

 again into the circulation, and dis- 

 charged at length from the S3stein by 

 means of the .several exhalations and 

 secretions. This is the life by which all 

 the parts of the body are kept in a 

 state of repair; it is the life of waste 

 and supply ; necessarily subservient to 

 tlie performance of those functions, 

 which are the distinguishing characte- 

 ristics of our nature, but not at all 

 engaged in their performauco itself. 

 By our animal life, on the contrary, 

 we become related to the world about 

 us ; the senses convey to us a know- 

 ledge of the existence of other things 

 besides ourselves ; a knowledge also of 

 their qualities and their capacities for 

 producing pleasure or pain; we feel, 

 we reflect, we judge, we will, and 

 react upon external things, by means 

 of the organs of locomotion and voice : 

 according to tjic result of these mental 

 operations, we become capable of 

 communicating and receiving plea- 

 sure and pain, happiness and misery. 

 In fact, by the organic life we merely 

 exist negatively ; by the animal, that 

 existence becomes a blessing or a 

 curse, a source of enjoyment or of 

 suffering. 



It is not at all pretended that the 

 idea of this division wtis entirely origi- 

 nal with Bichat. Most physiologists 

 have had some faint conception of it, 

 and others have more distinctly recog- 

 nized it under a somewhat different 

 modilication, and with a different title. 

 But he lias made it i)e(!uliarly his own 

 by the ingenious and novel manner in 

 which hr has staled, explained, and 

 illustrated it; the detailed appli( alion, 

 which he has made of it, totlie various 

 liha-iiomena of <hc living system; and 

 the beautiful and almost poetical air 

 uhicli 



