OF LIFE. 23 



tion; secondly, that which decomposes the animal: these 

 operations are incessant. 



Q. What processes are involved in the assimilative 

 functions? 



#. Digestion, circulation, respiration, and nutrition. 



Q. What processes are concerned in decomposition? 



#. Absorption, circulation, exhalation, and secretion 

 form the second order of the functions of organic life. 



Q. State the relations that the brain and sanguiferous 

 system bear to these animal and organic vital functions. 



*#. As the brain is a central system between external 

 bodily impressions, and the reaction of volition which 

 follows, so does the sanguiferous system sustain a central 

 position, in organic life, between assimilation and decom- 

 position. 



Difference between Animal and Organic Life. 



Q. What is the essential distinction in the organs of ani- 

 mal and organic life? 



/?. In those of animal life there is symmetry; in organic 

 life there is the utmost irregularity. 



Q. Give examples of these two properties. 



A. The double organs of vision, of hearing, the hemi- 

 spheres of the brain, the double sets of nerves, are in- 

 stances of the symmetry of the organs of animal life. The 

 liver, the heart, the spleen, the intestines are always sin- 

 gle and often very irregularly disposed. There is irregu- 

 larity in the number of lobes composing the right and left 

 lungs: the divisions of the pulmonary artery are unlike 

 each other in several respects. These are a few of the ex- 

 amples of the irregularity in the conformation of the or- 

 gans of organic life. 



