tHE PROCESS OF DEATH. 317 



The Solidarity of the Anatomical Elements. — The 

 cause of the mortal process — i.e., of the extension and 

 the propagation of an initial destruction — is therefore 

 to be found in the solidarity of the parts of the 

 organism. The closer it is the greater do the chances 

 of destruction become, for the accident which has 

 happened to one will by repercussions affect the 

 others. 



Now the solidarity of the parts of the organism 

 may be carried out in two ways ; there is a humoral 

 solidarity and a nervous solidarity. 



Humoral Solidarity. — Humoral solidarity is realized 

 by the mixture of humours. All the liquids of the 

 organism which have lodged in the interstices of the 

 elements and which soak the tissues, are in contact 

 and in relation of exchange one with another, and 

 through the permeable wall of the small vessels they 

 are in relation with the blood and the lymph. 



All the liquid atmospheres which surround the 

 cells and form their ambient medium have inter- 

 communication. A change having taken place in one 

 cellular group, and therefore in the corresponding 

 liquid, modifies the medium of the further or nearer 

 groups, and therefore these groups themselves. 



Nervous Solidarity. — But the real instrument of the 

 solidarity of the part is the nervous system. Thanks 

 to it in the living machine the component activities of 

 the cellular multitude restrain and control one another. 

 Nervous solidarity makes of the complex being not a 

 mob of cells, but a connected system, an individual in 

 which the parts are subordinated to the whole and the 

 whole to the parts ; in which the social organism has 

 its rights just as the individual has his rights. The 

 whole secret of the vital functional activity of the 



