THEORY OF B1CHAT. 



modern physiologists who have not adopted the 

 views of Cullen, maintain with Haller, that all 

 the phenomena of life may be referred to two 

 fundamental properties, irritability and sensibi- 

 lity, the one inherent in the muscular fibre, and 

 the other, in the medullary tissue. But as these 

 properties cannot exist in any part of the body 

 before they are formed, it is self evident that 

 they are secondary effects of the organizing 

 principle ; while it is equally manifest, that the 

 vital attraction, the vital affinity, and the vital 

 contractility of Dr. Alison, are modifications of 

 one and the same power by which the blood is 

 formed, united with the different organs, and the 

 whole maintained in a state of activity. 



The theory proposed by Bichat was only a 

 modification of that adopted by Cullen ; for he 

 referred the contractile power of the heart and 

 all the involuntary organs to the ganglionic 

 system of nerves, which he regarded as the 



the actions of animal life, except in parts endowed with the vital 

 principle, whether the latter be something superadded to bodies, 

 or only a peculiar arrangement of their parts." (Experimental 

 Enquiry, pp. 156219248265267, &c.) 



It is painful to trace the flounderings and contradictions of so 

 great an experimenter as Dr. Philip, who has overlooked the 

 admirable precept of Newton, that no more causes of natural 

 things ought to be admitted, than such as are true and sufficient 

 to explain the phenomena. For if neither galvanic electricity, 

 nor nervous influence, can excite the actions of life in parts not 

 endowed with the vital principle, why admit them as causes of 

 secretion and the evolution of animal heat ? 



