88 INTRODUCTION. 



wise we should approximate things of widely different nature^ 

 as all the membranes, and we should separate parts, that with the 

 exception of figure, are precisely alike, as the flat from the 

 long bones, the aponeuroses, from the tendons or ligaments, the 

 nerves from the ganglions, &c.; the fibrous or fasciculated, the 

 lamellated or membranous forms, may belong to parts totally 

 different in all other respects. 



89. The ancients divided the solid parts of the body into 

 similar parts, and dissimilar or organic parts. The similar or 

 homogeneous parts are those which divide themselves into 

 particles similar to each other, as the bones, the cartilages, 

 muscle, tendons, &c. The dissimilar parts are those which 

 are formed by the reunion of similar parts, as the hand, the 

 viscera, the organs of sense, and other compound organs. This 

 idea of Aristotle reproduced with some new developments by 

 Goiter, is the origin and foundation of all the divisions of the 

 organs, subsequently established. The division generally 

 admitted in works of anatomy, of bones, muscles, nerves, 

 vessels and viscera, and some others, is well known. But 

 these genera of organs, comprise compound parts, some of 

 them highly so , and on the other hand these genera, and also 

 all that of the viscera, include organs very different from each 

 other now this deprives us of all the advantages of generali- 

 zation. M. Pinel, in France, and Carmichael Smith,* in 

 England, having drawn the attention of anatomists to the fact 

 that the simple tissues which enter into the composition of 

 dissimilar or compound parts could be separately diseased, 

 and particularly, inflamed, and that their inflammation was the 

 same, whatever was the compound organ of which they made 

 a part, it soon led to a more complete anatomical analysis, 

 than had hitherto been made, especially as regarded the vis- 

 cera. Bichatt developing this prolific idea one worthy of 

 his genius has arranged all the simple organs under the name 

 of tissues or of systems, in twenty one genera. M. Chaussier 



* On inflammation, in Medical Communications, Vol. II. 

 f Anat. generate, appliquee a la physiologic et a la medecine par Xav 

 Bichat. 



