236 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



ther, that whatever maintains or re-establishes the 

 regular action of the thoracic viscera, maintains or 

 re-establishes the function of digestion, not because 

 the nerves are affected by such changes, but be- 

 cause the secretory organs depend on these con- 

 ditions of the blood. 



CCLIV. If from a similarity of effects we are 

 authorised to infer a similarity of causes, we may 

 state that the admission of air into the lungs by 

 means of a brass tube is identical with galvanism 

 and the nervous fluid ; but those who support 

 the opinion that the two latter are the same or 

 similar, will be unwilling to allow this conclu- 

 sion, because we know that atmospheric air is 

 not galvanism, nor does it possess any properties 

 like those ascribed to the nervous fluid. 



CCLV. In rabbit third, Experiment I. it 

 is stated that the lungs and heart were about 

 four times as heavy as those belonging to the 

 first ; and these results are in harmony with the 

 symptoms observed during life. In the one, res- 

 piration was performed with facility; in the other, 

 the breathing became difficult immediately after 

 the operation, and the urgency continued to in- 

 crease till death, which happened in four hours 

 after the excision of a part of the nerves. The 

 additional density and increased size of the lungs 

 and heart, and the great distention of the tho- 

 racic and abdominal veins, explain the cause of 

 death and the phenomena remarked previous to 

 this event. 



