70 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



exact nature of those which tend to diminish it, 

 yet we are sensible that the changes from health 

 to disease, in the present instance, are connected 

 with striking modifications in the circulation of 

 the blood, arising generally from the action of 

 cold, either external or internal, after previous 

 exercise : and we still further remark, that the 

 severity of the symptoms, in every stage of the 

 affection, is characterised by increased force and 

 motion of the blood, the presence of the buffy 

 coat, the increase of temperature, and various 

 other derangements belonging to organic life. 

 If we were to state fully the beneficial changes 

 induced in the same system by bleeding, it would 

 be still more manifest that these depend exclu- 

 sively, for any thing that we know to the con- 

 trary, on the quality of the blood and the mode 

 of circulation. Secretion and absorption in this 

 example bear evident relations to general causes, 

 and to causes which are appreciable. 



LXII. The function of digestion has been as- 

 cribed by WILSON PHILIP to the influence of 

 the nerves of the stomach on the materials of 

 the capillary vessels ; and, in support of his 

 opinion, he asserts that the secretion of gastric 

 juice is stopped as soon as the eighth pair of 

 nerves are divided, and that this process is re-es- 

 tablished as soon as galvanism is transmitted to 

 the organ of digestion. If the appetite be any 

 criterion of the facility with which gastric juice 



