OF ORGANIZED BODIES. 21 



themselves, and which modify the former: they have organi- 

 zation and life. They have each of them a special and un- 

 alterable form, ordinarily rounded, which is apparently owing 

 to the fluids they contain. Their internal form or structure, 

 presents, in fact, a mixture of heterogeneous parts, some solid, 

 and some fluid. The solid parts are called organs, which 

 means instruments, because of the action they exercise. Their 

 particles are intertwined, interwoven tissues, their arrange- 

 ment also being called texture; they are areolar, spongy, or 

 form special cavities, which contain the fluids. These parts 

 may be generally extended or elongated, and are endowed 

 with elasticity. When these parts, or organs are multiplied, 

 as is commonly the case, each one has its determinate form, 

 its peculiar texture, and its proper situation. The liquids, or 

 humours, are contained in the solids, and penetrate through 

 every part. All the parts, be they solid, or fluid, are held in 

 a mutual and necessary state of dependence upon each other; 

 and it is from their union, that organized bodies originate. 

 The solids and fluids have an analogous composition; they 

 contain much water, and some particular combinations, or 

 proximate materials, and may be almost entirely resolved into 

 gas. The substances composing them, have nothing peculiar; 

 they are also to be found in the inorganic bodies whence they 

 have been drawn, and the line of demarcation, which distin- 

 guishes organic from inorganic solids, consists less in their 

 nature than disposition. It is erroneously asserted, that the 

 matter of organic solids differs materially from inert matter; 

 for oxigen, hydrogen, carbon, and in a great many azote, and 

 some earthy substances, are the ultimate elements of them 

 all. 



It is to this peculiar form, to this structure, common to 

 every living body, this areolar or net-work-like tissue, con- 

 taining liquids in greater or less abundance, and of the same 

 nature as itself, that the appellation of organization has been 

 given. 



6. We understand by life, the phenomena peculiar to or- 

 ganized bodies taken as a whole. Life consists essentially in 

 this fact, that all organized bodies during a determined period, 



