20 INTRODUCTION. 



tended and moveable beings. They may be considered under 

 two different points of view: in a state of quiescence and in 

 that of motion or action. While we consider objects with re- 

 ference to the first of these, we particularly observe their form, 

 either external or internal; it is to this kind of study, some- 

 times termed Morphology, that anatomy belongs. The se- 

 cond, to which is generally affixed the name of physics, treats 

 of their appreciable changes, i. e. of their phenomena or 

 movements, either as masses, or as molicules, and for this rea- 

 son is divided into two principal branches, Mechanics and 

 Chemistry. 



3. Bodies which have common or general properties, 

 vary, however, in many respects. Organization and life con- 

 stitute a very distinctive character which divides them into 

 two very different series; that of inorganic bodies, and that 

 of such as are organized and living. 



4. It would be useless to dwell longer on inorganic bo- 

 dies, which not having a complicated structure, and their par- 

 ticles being entirely independent of each other, can not con- 

 sequently form the subjects of anatomical consideration. It 

 is sufficient to say, that the movements or phenomena of mass- 

 es executed by these bodies, the object of mechanics, are 

 reproduced with a regularity and constancy which permit us 

 not only to observe them, to produce and repeat them in ex- 

 periments, to determine the laws by which they are produced, 

 but to submit them to a mathematical analysis: that the moli- 

 cular phenomena of these same bodies, the object of chemis- 

 try, may be observed, and may be produced or determined at 

 pleasure by experiments; that certain laws, according to 

 which they are produced, may also be deduced from actual 

 observation and experiments; but that these phenomena are 

 yet beyond the reach of calculation, an instrumental science 

 so well adapted to hasten the progress of those to which 

 it can be applied. The science of organization and of life, 

 is nearly confined to the laws of observation. 



5. Anatomy treats only of organized and living beings. 

 Besides the characters which they possess in common with 

 inorganized bodies, they have others which are peculiar to 



