590 OFFICE OF THE 



source of organic or unconscious life, (corres- 

 ponding with that of plants, the vital and na- 

 tural/unctions of the ancients, and those termed 

 vegetative by Harvey,) while he supposed that 

 the brain, spinal marrow, and their nerves, were 

 the organs of sensation, perception, and the 

 power of regulating the movements of the volun- 

 tary muscles. The objections to this theory are, 

 1. That contractility is a property of all living 

 matter, including every description of plants, and 

 even the medullary tissue ; for the brain under- 

 goes contraction and expansion during violent 

 emotions, or active thinking. 2. That all the ope- 

 rations of life, whether voluntary or involuntary, 

 are organic. 3. That among all the lower orders 

 of animals which have neither brain nor spinal 

 marrow, but only ganglionic nerves, and some 

 of them only a single cord extending along the 

 body, as in the earth-worm, there is not a single 

 species destitute of sensibility, consciousness, and 

 volition ; for the lowest worm seeks nourishment, 

 and recoils from the approach of harm : while 

 the more active insects are endowed with far 

 higher degrees of intelligence than many ani- 

 mals which have a brain and spinal marrow, 

 with emotions of love, anger, fear, and perhaps, 

 to a certain extent, the sentiments of justice and 

 benevolence. 



Thus it is, that without resorting to the cruel 

 experiments of vivisection, (which always de- 

 ranges the natural state of the functions, and has 



