OF ORGANIZED BODIES. 25 



their history is composed of that of their various parts; and 

 and it is properly this study which is the object of anatomy. 

 The physical state of these bodies does not only embrace me- 

 chanical or chemical phenomena, but also those which belong 

 to them in proper, and which are not possessed by inorganic 

 bodies, viz: nutrition and generation, i. e. the organic or vi- 

 tal actions. These particular physical laws assume the name 

 of physiology. 



Anatomy* then may be defined the knowledge of organized 

 bodies, or the science of organization. According to its ety- 

 mology, this word has another signification: it simply means 

 dissection; but it has been consecrated by custom, and it is 

 preferred to the words morphology, organology, (a discourse 

 on form, organs), that have been proposed as substitutes. 

 Anatomy, in fact, is a science of mere observation, and dis- 

 section is the principal means by which we expose the parts 

 of organized bodies in order to be able to observe them. 



Physiologyt is the knowledge of the phenomena of orga- 

 nized bodies, or the science of life; it is also sometimes call- 

 ed Zoonomy, (laws of life,) and biology, (discourse on life). 

 Physiology, like anatomy, is a science of observation; but it 

 treats of the phenomena of organized and living bodies. 



Anatomy and physiology are closely connected; having 

 been taught by observation, that organization and the pheno- 

 mena of life are always in a reciprocal relation, we may infer 

 the condition of the one by the state of the other. 



9. Organized and living bodies, the subjects of anatomy 

 and physiology, are divided into inanimate beings, or vegeta- 

 bles, and animals or animated beings; this division is derived 

 from the well marked difference existing between animals 

 and vegetables of a complicated organization, but is very little 

 so, among those the organization of which is the simplest of 

 all. 



10. The most complicated vegetables are generally form- 

 ed of two distinct parts, separated by a median horizontal line, 

 one descending, and contained in the earth, is the root; while 



* From hva.Ttfj.vcDy I dissect. 



f From <j>y<n?, nature, and x&>o?, discourse. 



