ULTIMATE AND PROXIMATE SOLIDS. 17 



The ultimate SOLIDS, which these principles are said to compose, 

 are, the cellular fibre, the muscular fibre, and the nervous fibre. c 



The proximate SOLIDS, said to be composed of these primary, or 

 rather ultimate, or elementary solids or tissues, and forming the 

 different organs, have been variously specified.* 1 



Dr. Carmichael Smyth, in an admirable paper upon inflammation, 

 considered that disease according to the structures which it affects, 

 the skin, cellular membrane, serous membranes, mucous mem- 

 branes, and muscular fibres. 6 Dr. Pinel, some years afterwards, 

 adopted this arrangement f ; and Bichat at length suggested that 

 all diseases might be considered in this manner, and he distributed 

 the proximate solids into twenty-one kinds : 



1. Cellular, 12. Fibro-cartilaginous, 



C 2. Nervous, of animal life, 13. Muscular, of animal life, 



3. Nervous, of organic life, 14. Muscular, of organic life, 



4. Arterial, 15. Mucous, 



5. Venous, 16. Serous, 



6. Exhalant, 17. Synovial, 



7. Absorbent, with its glands, 18. Glandular, 



8. Osseous, 19. Derrnoid, 



9. Medullary, 20. Epidermoid, 



10. Cartilaginous, 21. Pilous. 8 



11. Fibrous (tendino-fibrous), 



c See Appendix, by Dr. Copeland, to his translation of Richerand's Nbuveaux 

 Eldmens de Physiologic, p. 553. sqq. Many writers have asserted the globular 

 composition of various parts of the animal and vegetable frame. Lately, the cel- 

 lular, muscular, and nervous structures were described as consisting of globules, 

 and some novel views presented, by Dr. M. Edwards. (Archives Generates de 

 Medecine, t. 3. Paris, 1823.) But the whole results have been denied by 

 Dr. Hodgkin and Mr. Lister, who repeated the examination with a much superior 

 microscope. Phttos. Magazine, August, 1827. 



Another author professes to have made still more minute discoveries than 

 Dr. Edwards. Dutrochet, Recherches, Anatomiques et Physiologiques, sur la 

 Structure Interne des Animaux et Vegetaux. 



d " The ancients divided the body into similar or homogenous parts, those 

 consisting of particles similar to one another, as the bones, cartilages, muscles, 

 tendons, &c.; and dissimilar, those composed of the similar, as the head, trunk, 

 limbs," &c. 



e Medical Communications, by a Society for the Promotion of Medical Knowledge, 

 vol. ii. 1790. Read to the Society, Jan. 1788. 



f Nosographie Phttosophiquc, 1797. e Anatomic Gentrale, t. i. p. Uxx. 



C 



