16 



ing a complete analogy of structure, or a capacity for the interchange 

 of functions, 



Man, then, and the whole animal kind, carry about within themselves, 

 the supply of their subsistence; and absorption, by an inward surface, is 

 their distinguishing characteristic. It is inaccurate to ascribe to Boer- 

 haave the comparison of the digestive system of animals, to the soil in 

 \vhich plants suck up the juices that feed them, and the chylous vessels, 

 to real internal roots. I find the same thought well expressed* in the 

 work on humours, which, justly or falsely, bears the name of Hippo- 

 crates. Q?iemadmodum terrx arboribus, ita animalibus ventriculus. 



The digestive tube, that essential part of every animal, is the part of 

 which the existence and action are the most independent of the concur- 

 rence of the other organs, and to which the properties of life seem to ad- 

 her;, if one may say so, with most force. Hallerf who has made so many 

 and such interesting inquiries into the contractile power of the muscular 

 orgins, examining them under the two-fold relation of their irritability, 

 as it is more or less lively, or more or less lasting, looks on the heart, as 

 the one in which these two conditions are found in the highest combina- 

 tion. He gives the second place to the intestines, the stomach, the blad- 

 der, the uterus, and the diaphragm, and, after these, all the muscles un- 

 der the command of the will. I had at first admitted, with every other 

 writer, this classification of the contractile parts; but more than a hun- 

 dred experiments on living animals have satisfied me, that the intestines 

 are always the last part in which the traces of life may be discovered. 

 Whatever may be the sort of death by which they are destroyed, peri- 

 staltic motions, undulations, are still continued in this canal, while the 

 heart has already ceased to beat, and the rest of the body is all an inani- 

 mate mass. Mr. Jurine had already observed on the pulex monoculus, 

 that, of all the parts of the body of this little white-blooded animal, the 

 intestines were the last to die. 



If the intestinal tube be the ultimum moriens, if it be the last organ in 

 which life lingers and goes out, it is to it we ought to direct, in prefer- 

 ence, the stimulants that are capable of recalling life incase of asphyxia. I 

 think that, after the blowing of pure air into the lungs, the means that 

 ought next to be attended to is the injection of acrid and irritating clys- 

 ters, thrown in with force. The large intestines are connected with the 

 diaphragm by a close sympathy, as is proved by the phenomena of fecal 

 evacuation ; the irritation of them is the surest means of accelerating; it; 

 and this irritation is the easier, as the alimentary canal is the last part 



that is forsaken bv life. 







V. OF LIFE4 



After having thus laid down, between organic bodies and organized 

 living beings, and again between animal and vegetable nature, aHine of 



* An error. The words are, * UO-TT^ TOM ftvfyta-iv H y*, xru> TVO-IV faourtv H F A2THP, XM 

 Tettu xti d-tt/.Aivu x*i 4 u ;t y> ' Which is thus rendered by the accurateFcissius, ut se habet 

 terra in arboribus ita in animantibus venter al'.t calet'acit et refrigerat.' As the earth does 

 to trees, so the belly supports, heats, and cools animals. Though the book on the 'hu- 

 mours,' is received as genuine by Galen and Erotian, it must be remembered that com- 

 mentators have always been able to make HIPPOCRATES support their notions. In the 

 sentence quoted, all the viscera of* the abdomen are referred to, in general terms; 

 x,\ is the word used, when the particular organ, the stomach, is meant. Godma-n. 



f Opera jnhiora t 3 vol. 4to. Sec Appendix, Note A. 



