Sect. II.] Fhj/siologij, 281 



he detected, of the new facts wliicli he added, of 

 the ingenious and profound views which he opened, 

 of the doubts he removed, and of the theories he 

 reformed and improved, would exceed the hmits as- 

 signed to this work*. 



But the greatest of Ilaller's discoveries, and tliat 

 which forms an lera in tlie progress of physiology, 

 is the irritabilUij of tlie animal fibre. This irritable 

 or contractile power is tliat property hy which 

 muscles recede from stimuli, and become shorter 

 on being touched by them. It is a power inherent 

 in the muscular fibre, and essential to life. It is 

 so far independent of nerves, and so little con- 

 nected with feeling, which is the leading property 

 of nerves, that, upon stimulating any muscle by 

 touching it with caustic, or irritating it m ith a sliarp 

 point, or directing the electric spark through it, 



* Baron Albert von Haller \vas boin at Berne, October 1 8, 

 17O8, and died in J//"/. He was unqnestionnbly one of the 

 greatest men of tJie age in which he Hved j being equally distin- 

 guished for the extent and variety of his learnin^-, the vigour and 

 comprehensiveness of his mind, the purity of his taste, and the 

 excellence of his moral and religious character. His great attain- 

 ments, and the uncommon powers which he dlspla) cd in almost 

 every kind of knowledge, and particularly in anatomy, physio- 

 logy, medicine, botany, and various branches of Natural History, 

 and also in classical and polite literature, are generally known. 

 He was not less distinguished as a friend to ihe religion of Christ. 

 He not only professed to believe in revelation, and to cherish a 

 warm attachment to theGospel, but, amidst his multiplied a\oca- 

 tions, he spent much time in studying the Scriptures, and the 

 evidences of tlicir divine origin 5 and entered the lists as their 

 avowed advocate and defender. His excellent letters to his 

 Daughter will long remain a monument at once of his regard to 

 religion, and of his paternal tidclily. See Henry's Memoirs of 

 Uallcr, 



