22 GENERAL VIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS. 



see that the actions of the heart, lungs, &c., have intervals of 

 remission. 



The animal functions are much influenced by habit ; the vital 

 or organic are considered by Bichat as removed from its influence. 

 The power of habit over our sensations and voluntary motions 

 is manifest, the more frequently an object is applied to our 

 organs of sense, the less intense is the sensation produced by it ; 

 and the more frequently we perform an act of volition, the more 

 readily is it performed. Yet I think the force of habit equally great 

 over the organic functions. The operation of food and of all de- 

 scriptions of ingesta is most remarkably modified by habit; through 

 it poisons become comparatively innocuous, and divers bear a 

 long suspension of respiration. 



Bichat regards the passions as directly influencing the organic 

 functions only, and springing from the state of the organs of 

 that class. Here he is to me perfectly unintelligible. Vexation 

 indeed disturbs the stomach, and fear augments the quantity of 

 urine ; but does not vexation equally and as directly disturb the 

 mind, confuse the understanding, and occasion heat and pain 

 of the forehead ? Are not, in fact, the passions a part of the 

 mind? a part of the animal functions? They powerfully affect, 

 it is true, the organic or vital functions, but this shows the close 

 connection merely between the two classes of functions. d 



This connection is conspicuous in respiration, the mechanical 

 part of which belongs to the animal functions, the other to the 

 organic ; and in the alimentary functions, in which the food is 

 swallowed and the faeces rejected by volition, and digestion, &c. 

 performed, independently of our influence, by the powers of 

 simple life. So close indeed is this connection, that every organ 

 of the animal class is the seat of organic functions ; in the 

 voluntary muscles, the organs of sense, and even in the brain, 

 circulation, secretion, and absorption are constantly carried on. 

 This connection is likewise apparent in the property of sensibility. 

 In the language of Bichat, there are animal sensibility and contrac- 



d Bordeu, Buffbn, Cabanis, and the anatomist Reil, placed the passions in the 

 thoracic and abdominal viscera, &c. ; the two first in the diaphragm particularly. 

 Gall has shown the absurdity of these authors in his Fonct. du Cerveau, t. ii. 

 p. 93. sqq. We might as well consider the cheeks the seat of the feeling of 

 shame, because in shame we blush. Hippocrates opposed such absurdities in his 

 day. " The heart and praecordia," says he, " feel acutely,* but have not the 

 least intelligence : the brain is the cause of all these things." De Morbo Sacro. 



