430 BIOLOGY. 



sists in the secretion of juices, of which there are princi- 

 pally two kinds, the general and special. 



2572. The general intestinal juice is mucus ; it acts by 

 rarefying. 



2573. The gastric juice is of an aqueous, mucous, and 

 acid nature. It acts as an acid and is endowed with che- 

 mically solvent properties. 



2574. The bile is of a basic, inflammable, alkaline 

 nature. It acts also chemically by analysing and pre- 

 cipitating. 



2575. The saliva is the gastric juice of the head. It 

 is a juice secreted under the influence of the sensibility, 

 and is on that account indifferencing, and nullifying in its 

 effects ; it is the highest poison. 



2576. As the indifferent saliva precedes the gastric 

 juice, so does the indifferent pancreatic fluid the bile. 



2577. The proper function of the intestinal system is 

 the digestion with all its divisions. There is an animal 

 and a vegetative, or oral and abdominal digestion. 



a. Oral Digestion. 



2578. Oral digestion is a mortifying or putting to 

 death of the food. 



2579. Since what is organic only serves as aliment for 

 the animal, but nothing can be assimilated to the latter, 

 without its having been previously reduced to the original 

 condition of Infusoria, so also must the first act of the 

 digestive process depend upon this, or converting the 

 organic into primary organic bodies. 



2580. This reduction to the primary condition is a 

 putting to death of the organic individual. Organisms 

 only which have been killed, can be converted into infu- 

 sorial matter, and are then nutriment for the animal. The 

 first act of digestion is consequently an act of putting to 

 death. 



2581. The act of killing consists of two moments, the 

 mechanical and dynamical, or in lacerating and poisoning. 



