Medicine. 225 



ingenuity and learning, Haller, with much greater 

 force and conclusiveness of reasoning, persisted in 

 opposing his doctrine of Vis Insita^ as a primary, 

 essential, and inherent quality of the living fibre, 

 dependent on its original structure and organiza- 

 tion, and entirely independent of the nerves. Not 

 many years ago Professor Monro, of Edinburgh, 

 in his Observations on the Structure and Func- 

 tions of tlie Nervous System, renewed the at- 

 tempt, though it is conceived without success, to 

 invalidate the doctrine of Haller. 



In pursuance of this interesting doctrine, Hal- 

 ler contemplates the living body under a four-fold 

 division, into parts, 1. Iirilable; 2. Inirritable; 

 3. Sensible; 4. Insensible. Among irritable p^iYtsi 

 he ranks the heart, the muscles generally, the dia- 

 phragm, the oesophagus, the stomach, the intes- 

 tines, the gall-duct, the arteries, the absorbents, 

 and the bladder. Among inirritable parts he 

 reckons the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the 

 spleen, and the nerves. Among sensible parts he 

 enumerates the brain, the spinal marrow, the 

 nerves, the skin, the internal membranes of the 

 stomach, intestines, and bladder, the ureters, the 

 muscular flesh, and the breasts. Among iiisensible 

 parts he considers the dura mater, the pia mater, 

 the periosteum, the peritonaeum, the pleura, the 

 pericardium, the omentum, the cellular texture, 

 the cuticle, the rcte mucosum, the fat, the ten- 

 dons, the capsules and ligaments of the joints, the 

 bones, the marrow, the teeth, and the gums. 



From this account, given by Haller, of the va- 

 rious parts which are united to form an animal 

 system, it results that the irritable and sensible por- 

 tions are comparatively few and small; that the 

 great mass of the body consists of inirritable and 

 insensible parts, which serve to combine, envelope 

 and defend the former, and thereby to constitute a 



