234 MUSCULAR SYSTEM, 



the contractility of the organic muscles is seldom uni- 

 form; one organ having a greater quantum than others. 



Q. Is stimulus applied directly to the organic muscles? 



#. No; a membrane interposes, as the continuous mem- 

 brane from the blood-vessels in the heart, the mucous 

 membrane for the stomach and intestines. 



Q. Does this property remain after death? 



*#. It is obvious after sudden general death ; you do not 

 see it after death from chronic disease. 



Q. In which of the organic muscles is sympathy most 

 frequently and actively developed? 



t/2. In the heart, next in the stomach, then the intes- 

 tines, and lastly the bladder. In this order the sympa- 

 thetic activity is conspicuous. 



Q. What are the two modes in which the heart sym- 

 pathizes ? 



/#. By having its action enfeebled, as in syncope, and 

 hurried, as in fever. This increased action is engendered 

 in three ways; by foreign matters mixed with the blood, 

 by preternatural irritability, and by sympathy. 



Q. What is the sensible organic contractility of the 

 stomach? 



#. Vomiting. 



Q. Is bile found in the stomach in health? 



.#. Bichat says he has always found it in animals. Vo- 

 miting is not occasioned by the bile, but by a sympathetic 

 action of the fibres of the stomach, to which is doubtless 

 superadded in some cases a sympathetic affection of the 

 mucous lining of the stomach. It is these which occasion 

 vomiting, not the 4 bile in the stomach. 



Q. What property in a tissue is affected by disease? 



