302 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



plicity of the phenomena with respect to cause 

 and effect, and also the consistency of the gene- 

 ral views which have been proposed to explain 

 many other derangements or diseased states of 

 the animal economy. 



CCCXXXI. Dr CULLEN divides the remote 

 causes of Syncope into two general heads. " The 

 one is of those causes exciting and acting in the 

 brain, or in parts of the body remote from the 

 heart, but acting upon it by the intervention of 

 the brain. The other general head of the remote 

 causes of Syncope, is of those existing in the heart 

 itself, or in parts very immediately connected 

 with it, and thereby acting directly upon it in 

 producing this disease."* The division would be 

 correct, if the facts on which it is supposed to be 

 founded were not, in part, ascertained to be falla- 

 cious. He says, " I must assume a proposition, 

 which I suppose to be fully established in physi- 

 ology. It is this : that though the muscular 

 fibres of the heart be endowed with a certain de- 

 gree of inherent power, they are still, for such 

 action is as necessary for the motion of the blood, 

 very constantly dependent upon a nervous power 

 sent into them from the brain ."f 



CCCXXXII. Since the time of CULLEN, the 

 experiments of LEGALLOIS, WILSON PHILIP, and 

 others, have satisfactorily proved, that the action 



* CULLEN'S First Lines, MCLXXIV. 

 f Ibid. MCLXXV. 



