92 INTRODUCTION. 



the tissue come the vessels with but very few exceptions, 

 we every where find vessels of different kinds, white or red. 

 The nerves are less abundant than the vessels, and of course, 

 less so than the cellular tissue: the greater number of the or- 

 gans, however, are provided with them. We may, then, 

 regard the organs, as parts into whose composition the cellu- 

 lar tissue constantly enters, vessels almost alwa} r s, and nerv- 

 ous tissue generally. 



The viscera or splanchnic organs take their name from the 

 importance of their offices. They are the organs, the most 

 essential to life; those by which we live ; they are of all the 

 organs the most compound; they are situated in the cavities 

 of the body, called splanchnic. They comprehend the organs 

 of digestion, of generation, and of the urinary secretion, con- 

 tained in the abdomen; of those of circulation and respiration, 

 which are contained in the thorax, and the sensorial and nerv- 

 ous organs, in the cranium and vertebral canal. It is particularly 

 to the thoracic and abdominal organs, and to the latter espe- 

 cially, that is given the name of viscera. 



94. We understand by system or genus, a union of parts 

 of similar texture, such as the bones, the muscles, the liga- 

 ments, &c.: this corresponds to the similar parts of the an- 

 cients. Parts such as the skin, and the cellular tissue extended 

 over the whole body, and thereby presenting regions, and 

 divisions, but not like the preceeding ones, distinct portions, 

 have also been thus designated. Bichat, particularly used the 

 word, system, in this acceptation. The study of the genera 

 of organs, or of the systems constitute the object of general 

 anatomy, which, in this way, embraces every thing that simi- 

 lar parts have in common, and at the same time whatever the 

 generally extended tissues possess in common in the different 

 regions. 



95. The apparatuses are ensembles of organs; sometimes 

 very distinct by their formation, situation, structure and even 

 by their particular action, but which concur in one common 

 end, which is one of the functions of life. It is an error to 

 confound this reunion of parts with that which constitutes a 

 system or a genus of organs. The classification of the appa- 



