ON THE NERVES IN GENERAL. 485 



which the cyst unites: in the end the whole of the blood being 

 absorbed, the cyst, contracting by degrees, forms adhesions, 

 and becomes a yellowish cicatrix which perhaps finally dis- 

 appears. 



The cicatrices and the other alterations of the nerves will be 

 examined hereafter. 



769. The nervous system, which holds so high a station 

 in the regular exercise of the functions, fulfils one as import- 

 ant in the production of diseases:* it is that which receives and 

 which propagates the impression of morbific causes, which de- 

 termines the irregular motions of the muscles, of the heart, 

 and of the arteries, which produces morbid sympathies; and 

 as its action extends to the cellular tissue which forms the base 

 of the organs, to the blood which penetrates and bathes them, 

 one may conceive that it is foreign to no morbid action, and 

 that it is the principal agent of a great number among them. 



The maladies called general, essential, or dynamic, have no 

 more probable seat than the nervous and vascular systems, the 

 centres of the animal and vegetative functions, than the blood 

 and the nervous agent which traverse them, and which are in 

 a mutual, intimate, and necessary dependance. 



It is in the regular relation of these two great systems and 

 of their functions, that life and health consists; it is from the 

 the derangement of their harmony, that disease and death re- 

 sult. 



SECTION II. 



ON THE NERVES IN GENERAL. 



770. The nerves,t nervi, are white cords formed of me- 

 dullary filaments, attached by one extremity to the nervous 



* Georget, op. clt. Lob stein, Discours sur la preeminence du systeme 

 nerveux; Strasbourg", 1821. 



f J. C, Reil, ExercitatiowsanatomicxdestructuranervoTuni; Halse, 1797, 

 fol. 



