DR. PHILIP ON THE NATURE OF DEATH. 169 



have not the same locality ; the former, as appears from direct experiments, being 

 distributed throughout the whole brain and spinal marrow, and, as far as experiment 

 can determine, equally so, except that the lower part of the spinal marrow either par- 

 takes of them less, or they are there of less power*; while the latter, in all the more 

 perfect animals, are chiefly, and in man almost wholly, confined to the brain ; and 

 because in disease we often see the functions of the one class greatly impaired without 

 those of the other being at all affected, and in the process of dying, we shall find all 

 the sensorial functions finally lost, while all the nervous functions remain, and are 

 only indirectly impaired by the loss of the former. 



The sensorial functions constitute the sensitive system, — that by which we perceive 

 and act, — and consequently are connected with the world which surrounds us. The 

 nervous and muscular, the vital system, that by which we are maintained. 



From the same experiments it appears, that what is called death consists in the loss 

 of the first of these classes of functions, the sensorial, the nervous and muscular func- 

 tions still continuing, which are lost only in consequence of the failure of respiration, 

 the only vital function to which the cooperation of the sensorial power is necessary. 



Many hypotheses have been framed for the purpose of explaining why the motions 

 of the heart and blood-vessels are not, like those of the limbs, subjected to the will. 

 Among these is the hypothesis of Dr. Johnstone of Worcester -(-, adopted from 

 WiNSLOW, Prochaska, and other writers, which professes to rest on the evidence of 

 experiment, and ascribes to the ganglions the power of intercepting the influence of 

 the brain, and consequently of the will. We have seen, however, that the influence 

 of both the bi-ain and spinal marrow reaches the heart and blood-vessels as readily 

 as the muscles of voluntary motion J. 



All that has been written on this question seems only to perplex it. When we dismiss 

 the various hypotheses on the subject, the answer appears easy. There are evidently 

 two conditions necessary to render a muscle subject to the will : the stimulus which 

 excites it must be so, and it must be capable of eff^ecting an end desired. If we had 

 no wish to handle, the muscles of the hand would never have become subject to the 

 will. The heart and blood-vessels in all their usual motions are excited by the blood, 

 the stimulating properties of which the will can neither increase nor impair ; and 

 what act of volition could be performed by these organs ? The only internal organs 

 which can eflfect an end desired, are the rectum and bladder, when their contents have 

 accumulated to a certain extent ; and they are both, under such circumstances, sub- 

 jected to the will. Their action here may be said to be vital functions, to which the 

 cooperation of the sensorial power is necessary ; but, to say nothing of the sensorial 



* Philosophical Transactions for 1815, 1829, and 1833; and my Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of 

 the Vital Functions, Part II. chap. ii. Third Edition : wherever this Inquiry is referred to, the references are 

 to the Third Edition. 



t Essay on the Use of the Ganglions ; published in 1771. 



X Philosophical Transactions for 1815 ; and Experimental Inquiry, Part II. chap. i. and ii. 

 MDCCCXXXIV. Z 



