68 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



CHAP. III. 



Secreting surfaces are not dependent on nervous 

 communication between their own individual parts 

 and the origin of the nerves, nor does galvanism 

 re-establish or excite their particular functions 

 by maintaining such a relation. 



LVIII. A function may be regarded as the 

 consequence of the inherent properties of an or- 

 gan, as the power of gravitation is attributed to 

 laws impressed on inert matter ; and as the lat- 

 ter is regulated by particular principles, so is 

 the former by the size and activity of those sys- 

 tems essential to its exercise ; but the analogy 

 cannot be continued far, from a difference in the 

 principles by which they are governed. 



LIX. We observe that the kidneys are sup- 

 plied with a great quantity of arterial blood, and 

 we still further remark that the urine secreted 

 bears a proportion to this. The relations and or- 

 ganization of the secreting organs would lead one 

 to suppose that the fluid secreted is to be ascribed 

 to an extraordinary mechanism by which the pro- 

 perties of the blood are changed and appropriat- 

 ed, in one situation evolving mucus, in another 

 bile, in a third gastric juice. These products are 

 modified by two causes, disease or derangement 

 in an organ in which the operations are seated, 



