38 OF THE VITAL POWERS. 



cause of strength, health, and beauty; since on it depend 

 the vital elasticity and fulness,* and indeed the tone of 

 parts, so elegantly decribed by Stahl ; for by its means, 

 the mucous tela, to mention one only of its functions, 

 absorbs, during health, the serous fluid (27) like a 

 sponge, and propels it into the lymphatic vessels : in 

 disease, on the contrary, having lost its tone, it is filled 

 with water, giving rise to oedema and similar cachexies. 

 60. Finally, the great influence of this contractility 

 in producing the peculiar constitution and tempera- 

 ments of individuals, is manifest from its universal 

 existence, its close union with the other vital powers, 

 and from its infinite varieties and degrees in different 

 persons. 



NOTES. 



(A) John Hunter divides sympathy into general and partial j 

 such as fever from a wound, and convulsion of the diaphragm 

 from irritation in the nose. Partial sympathy he subdivides into 

 remote, contiguous, and continuous, — Where there is no evident 

 connection between the sympathising parts, sufficient to account 

 for the circumstance, — Where there is proximity of the sympa- 

 thising parts, — and Where, as most commonly, the sympathising 

 parts are continuous.! 



Bichat's division is much better. % It cannot be understood, 

 indeed, till after the perusal of the note to the sixth section. 



* Hence after death, even in young subjects full of juices, the back, loins, 

 and buttocks, having for some time lost their vital tone, are, if the body is 

 supine, depressed and flattened by the superincumbent weight, which now is 

 not resisted : this appearance I regard among tho indubitable signs of death. 



■f Treatise on the Blood, ifc. Introduction. 



I Anatomie Genera/,. T. i. p. 183 sq. 



