189 



occasional kind. So far as these questions can be decided will 

 occupy but a short discussion. 



17. It matters but little which of the agencies we have sup- 

 posed to occur in this conversion is chosen as an example ; whether 

 the direct spiritual, or that through the medium of the secretions; 

 the latter is the more probable. As the effects of the functions of 

 the intestines have never been observed except during the integrity 

 of the organs, and whilst their connexions were preserved; we can- 

 not, in the present state of the facts, pronounce that they derive 

 properties from any distant source necessary to their function. 

 Hence, we cannot, from any evidence which has been attained re- 

 specting these parts, affirm that their function, or any part of it, is 

 produced by that life which we have called the regular dependent. 



18. As the secreting function of the intestines (or the superior 

 ones of which we are chiefly speaking) is unremitting, so in deciding 

 by what form of life it is accomplished, our choice lies only between 

 the assimilating and the regular dependent. But, as the conversion 

 of chyme into chyle is not equally unremitting (seeing that there 

 are times when the duodenum may be supposed, if not empty, to 

 have accomplished the end of its function upon the chyme dis- 

 charged into it), so we cannot affirm but some part of the process 

 may be dependent upon the occasional life. In other words, it is 

 to be inquired, if it should be found that the operation of the vital 

 properties is not wholly through the medium of the secretions, 

 whether those properties operating directly which are engaged in 

 the conversion, are latent in the structure of the intestines, or 

 whether their presence is excited or derived by a disturbance of 

 natural or quiescent relations, which might occur upon the intro- 

 duction of a substance foreign to the foetal condition. My mean- 

 ing will be found more fully expressed in the beginning of the 

 article on the stomach. 



19. In the case of the stomach, the operation of the regular 

 dependent life has been assumed, 1st, because the secretion is un- 

 remitting, which decides it, if dependent, to be regular; and, 2nd, 

 because the secretions have not been found to take place, when the 

 communication of the stomach with a nervous centre has been in- 

 tercepted, which last, if the experiments may be relied on, proves 

 the dependence. 



20. But, in the case of the stomach, as in that of the intestines, 

 it would be difficult to decide on the question of an occasional 

 dependent life; seeing that the dependence of processes which 

 might involve the direct operation of spiritual properties, in diges- 

 tion on the one hand, and in chylification on the other, can- 

 not be known but by a division of nerves, which might prevent or 

 impair those secretions from defect of which all the other agents of 

 the function may be rendered inefficient. 



21. In order to decide whether the conversion of chyme into 

 chyle is attributable in any way to properties derived from a 

 foreign source, the faint success which has been obtained in some 



