GENERAL VIEW OF THE ANIMAL FUNCTIONS. 93 



species, race, sex, and individuality. These remarkable phenomena 

 are accordingly said to imply the presence of a guiding, controlling, 

 and dictating force, modified in innumerable ways by external and in- 

 ternal conditions, transmissible from generation to generation, and 

 certainly distinct from, though co-operating with, the common physi- 

 cal force of nature. This is truly a "vital" force, a force properly 

 called "organic," on which the very existence of both animal and 

 vegetable organisms depends. It is this force, also known as the 

 " germ force," which develops and maintains the body and all its 

 parts, with their respective vito-physical, vito-chemical, and other 

 so-called vital properties, and so imparts to them even their very 

 highest endowments. 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE ANIMAL FUNCTIONS. 



The life of man, and of the higher animals, consists ultimately, as 

 already said, in the manifestation of the various properties of the 

 structural elements of the different tissues and fluids ; but, in its more 

 obvious effects, it is manifested in certain special acts, which are 

 known as functions, performed by the instrumentality of the parts 

 named organs. Life, as we have seen, is organization in action. 

 These functions are the endowments of the organs, just as the vital 

 properties are the endowments of the tissues ; and, as most organs are 

 constructed of many tissues, the functions of such parts are neces- 

 sarily more complex processes than the fundamental actions of the 

 tissues. 



The functions of animals are divided into two principal groups, 

 named respectively, the animal and the vegetative functions, the former 

 being essentially limited to animal organisms, the latter being com- 

 mon to both animals and vegetables. 



In contemplating the phenomena presented to our notice by one of 

 the higher animals, e. g., by the dog, or rabbit, the dissection of which 

 latter animal has been previously described (page 39), the most obvious 

 fact is their power of moving from place to place, and of performing 

 various other actions, prehensile, offensive, defensive, and so on. 

 These several movements are ascribed to the common function of 

 motion, including the acts of locomotion, prehension, and others, per- 

 formed by means of the so-called passive organs of motion, the bones 

 and joints, and by the active organs of motion, viz., the muscles and 

 their dependencies. 



But the movements of the dog are neither desultory nor irregular, 

 but are evidently directed to certain ends and objects desired by, or 

 useful to, it. For this purpose, the animal must feel, using that term 

 in its widest sense ; it must also be able to perceive, and, to a certain 

 extent, to reason upon, the results of certain external influences, to 

 desire to obtain this or to avoid that ; and it must possess the power 

 of will) issuing in the voluntary control over the muscles, the imme- 

 diately active organs of motion. Besides this, it is endowed with an 

 involuntary regulating power over certain movements, which tend to 

 the preservation of its various organs from injury, or aid in the per- 

 formance of certain important vegetative functions, such as deglutition 



