CHAPTER II. 



THE PROCESS OF DEATH. 



Constitution of organisms. — Partial lives. — Collective life. — The 

 role of apparatus. — Death by lesion of the major appar- 

 atus. — The vital tripod.— Solidarity of the anatomical 

 elements. —Humoral solidarity. — Nervous solidarity. — In- 

 dependence and subordination of the anatomical elements. 



Partial Lives. Collective Life. — With the exception 

 of the physiologist, no one, neither he who is ignorant 

 nor he who is intellectual, nor even the doctor, 

 troubles his head about the life or the death of the 

 element, although this is the basis, the real founda- 

 tion, of the activity manifested by the social body 

 and by its different organs. The life of the indi- 

 vidual, of the animal, depends on these elementary 

 partial lives just as the existence of the State depends 

 upon that of its citizens. To the physiologist, the 

 organism is a federation of cellular elements unified 

 by close association, Goethe compared them to a 

 " multitude " ; Kant to a " nation " ; and others have 

 likened them to a populous city the anatomical 

 elements of which are the citizens, and which pos- 

 sesses an individuality of its own. So that the 

 activity of the federated organism may be discussed 

 in each of its parts, and then it is elementary life, or 

 in its totality, and then it is general life. Paracelsus 

 and Bordeu had a glimpse of this truth when they 

 considered a life appropriate to each part {vita propria) 



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