442 BIOLOGY. 



liver and blood. Thus each has a function that is peculiar 

 to it; each organ has its business to perform in the 

 diffuse fabric of the animal body. 



2664. Through this variety or change of the offices, 

 the circulation first becomes possible. 



2665. If the secernent process be therefore suppressed, 

 the animal then dies as rapidly as if it had been suffo- 

 cated. It is a suffocation of the opposed pole. Query ? 

 does not many a fit of apoplexy depend upon this ? 



2666. The circulation has consequently two factors, 

 the lung as oxygen-pole, the capillary vessels of the body 

 as hydrogen -pole, the blood as the indifferent water. 

 The circulation is a galvanic process. 



2667. In all extremities of the body the arteriose blood 

 becomes deoxydized, decomposed; it is therefore basic 

 and homonymous with the capillary vessels, so that it is 

 consequently repelled, and driven back into the veins. 



2668. It can, however, flow nowhere else than to the 

 lung, because there resides its opposite pole. Being 

 again oxydized in, it becomes homonymous to, the lung, 

 is repelled by it, and again attracted by the capillary 

 vessels of the body. 



2669. The circulation is therefore a result of dynamic 

 forces, not of mechanical functions. It would occur, were 

 the vessels to be glass tubes. 



2670. The pulsation of the heart is not a cause of the 

 circulation, but inversely rather, its consequence or 

 effect. 



2671. In the circulation the whole organism, or intes- 

 tine, lung and integument, is combined. It is therefore the 

 fundamental system, which includes the whole mass of 

 the body. 



b. FUNCTIONS OF THE ANIMAL SYSTEMS. 



1. Of the Osseous System. 



2672. The functions of the osseous system arc simply 

 mechanical relations, such as solidity, form and motion. 



2673. The motion of the joints presents to our notice 



