GENERAL VIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS. 23 



tility, and organic sensibility and contractility, besides the common 

 extensibility of matter, which he terms extensibilite de tissu, and 

 common contractility upon the removal of distension, contrac- 

 tilite par defaut tf extension, which, indeed, is greater during life 

 than afterwards. 6 Animal sensibility is accompanied by a perception 



e The following is Bichat's table of the properties of the living body : 



Classes. Genera. Species. Varieties. 



1 



1 C Animal 

 Sensibility -I 2 



1 J [ Organic 

 Vital 1 1 



2 r Animal 1 



Contractility J _ C Sensible Such as the motion of the 



2 f Extensibility l_ Insensible Such as the motion of the 

 Structural { 2 capillaries. 



\^ L Contractility 



Although these are the general properties of the living frame, and sensibility, 

 or more properly excitability, is at the bottom of all the other vital or organic 

 properties except the active power of contraction, yet each part has also some 

 peculiarity, altogether inexplicable, not in the least, I think, to be accounted for 

 on Bichat's supposition of each part possessing a certain degree of organic sen- 

 sibility in relation to its fluids. What causes the vessels of muscle to produce 

 muscle ; of bone, bone ; of membrane, membrane ; what causes the secreting 

 vessels of the liver to form bile, and of the testes semen, we know not. The 

 causes of these circumstances are called by Blumenbach, after Bordeu, vitce 

 proprice ; but it must be carefully remembered, that this expression simply denotes 

 an unknown cause of a fact, and affords no explanation. 



Feeling (I use the word for want of another to embrace consciousness and 

 perception) is in the same manner at the bottom of all the mental properties 

 except the active power of willing, but it alone will not explain them. All 

 matter is probably the same ; but its modifications likewise are so various, that at 

 present we are compelled to speak of distinct kinds of matter. 



The operation of agents on the system is analogous. As far as they all affect the 

 living solid, they may be all called stimuli ; but they differ in something more 

 than degree of stimulus. Each affects particular parts more than others ; each 

 affects in a peculiar way ; some directly depress life, and many occasion opposite 

 results in different parts ; some produce specific diseases, in which the composi- 

 tion of the fluids may be altered ; and here occasionally the specific disease pro- 

 duced is contagious. 



When organic sensibility is heightened in one part, it sinks in another, and vice 

 versa ; unless the change of it should be such as to extend generally, and even 

 then it is still frequently found in the opposite state in some particular part . v. c. 

 we notice coldness and paleness of the feet, and heat and fulness of the head, 



c 4 



