1815.] Anatomy, Physiology, and ‘Pathology. 989 
structure of beings gradually increasing in perplexity, through the 
portions of anatomy and physiology, to the first of the literary and 
moral ones. 
The disadvantages which would result from the-abandonment of 
this order of the organs would be, that we should lose sight of this 
natural independence, that we should reverse the order of the ob- 
viousness of the functions, and that their reference to the three 
natural classes of beings, and their relations to science in general, 
would altogether disappear —that the sciences of anatomy and phy- 
siology would at once be insulated and deranged. 
—— 
The human body, then, consists of organs of three kinds. By 
the first kind, motion from place to place, or mechanical action, is 
effected; by the second, nutrition, or vital action, is maintained 3 
and by the third, thought, or intellectual action, . is permitted. 
Awartomy I therefore divide into three parts; namely, that whieh 
considers the mechanical or locomotive organs, that which considers 
the vital organs, and that which considers the intellectual organs, 
Under the mechanical or locomotive organs, I class, first, the 
bones, which support the rest of the animal structure; second, the 
ligaments, which unite them ; and third, the muscles, which move 
them. 
Under the vital organs, I class, first, the external and internal ab- 
sorbent surfacesy and the vessels which absorb from these surfaces, 
or the organs of absorption; second, the heart, Jungs, and blood- 
vessels, which derive their contents (the blood) fiom the absorbed 
lymph, or the organs of circulation; and third, the glands and 
secreting surfaces, which separate various matters from the blood, or 
the organs of secretion. 
Under the intellectual organs, I class, first, the organs of sense, 
where impressions take place ; second, the cerebrum, or organ of 
thought, where these excite ideas; and third, the cerebellum, where 
volition results from the last. 
To some it may appear that the organs and functions of digestion, 
respiration and generation, are not involved by this arrangement 3 
but such a notion ean originate only in superficial observation, 
Digestion is a compound function easily reducible to some of the 
simple ones which I have enumerated. ‘It consists of the motion of 
the stomach and contiguous parts, of the secretion of a liquid from 
its internal surface, and of that heat which is the common result of 
all action, whether locomotive, vital, or intellectual, and which is 
better explained by such motion than by chemical theories, Simi- 
larly compound are respiration and generation. 
Thus there is no organ nor function which is not involved by the 
yo and natural arrangement I have sketched. 
mpound, however, as the organs of digestion, respiration and 
Generation, are, yet as they form so important a part of the system, 
Vou, VI. N° IV. T 
