tains saline substances in a state of solution, and even animal matter it- 

 self is found in it fluid, and that in three different conditions, under the 

 form of gelatine, of albumine, or fibrine. The first of these substances, 

 solidified, forms the basis of ail the organs of a white colour, to which 

 the ancients gave the name of spermatic organs, such as the tendons, the 

 aponeurosis, the cellular tissue, and the membranes. Albumine exists in 

 abundance in almost all the humours; the fibrine of the blood is the ce- 

 ment which is employed in repairing the waste of a system of organs, 

 which, in point of bulk, hold the first rank among the constituent parts 

 of the human body I mean the muscular system. The chemists sus- 

 pect, and not without reason, that the animal matter passes successively 

 through the different states of gelatine, albumine, and fibrine $ that these 

 different changes depend upoji the progressive animalization of the ani- 

 mal matter, which is at first gelatinous, a hydro-carbonous oxycle, con- 

 taining no azote, and acidifiable by fermentation, becomes more closely 

 combined with oxygen, takes up azote, so as to become albumen, sub- 

 ject to putrefaction, and finally fibrine, by a super-addition of the same 

 principles. 



The solid parts are formed into different systems, to each of which is 

 intrusted the exercise of a function of a certain degree of importance. 

 Limiting the term organic apparatus, or system, to a combination of 

 parts which concur in the same uses, we reckon ten, viz. 1 the digestive ap- 

 paratus, consisting essentially of the canal which extends from the mouth 

 to the anus; the absorbent, or lymphatic system, which is formed of the 

 vessels or glands of that name: the circulatory system, which consists of 

 an union of the heart, the veins, the arteries, and the capillary vessels ; the 

 respiratory, or pulmonary system ; the glandular^ or secretory system; the 

 sensitive system, including the organs of sense, the brain, and spinal mar- 

 row; the muscular system, or that of motion, including not only the mus- 

 cles, but their tendons and aponeuroses; the osseous system, including 

 the appendages of the bones, the cartilages, the ligaments, and the syno- 

 vial capsules, the vocal system, and the sexual, or generative system, dif- 

 ferent in the two sexes. Each of these organic systems contains in its 

 structure several simple tissues, or u similar parts," as the ancients called 

 them : these tissues in man may be enumerated "es follows, cellular tis- 

 sue, nervous tissue, muscular tissue, besides that horny substance which con- 

 stitutes the basis of the epidermis, the nails and the hair*. 



* One of the oldest divisions of the primary textures of the body, and one winch near- 

 ly coincides with that given by the author, acknowledges three tissues only, viz the 

 cellular, nervous, and muscular. This arrangement has been adopted by the majority of 

 physiologists since the time of Ilaller. It may be shown tht all the textures and organs 

 of the body result either from the various distribution of these primary tissues ; or from 

 the cellular only, in consequence of a greater condensation of its substance, or approxi- 

 mation of the molecules of matter entering into its constitution, and owing to a deposi- 

 tion of earthy substance between its interstices, sis in the bones. It may/ however, be 

 a matter of doubt whether the muscular texture does not arise from the union of the 

 cellular tissue with the nervous substance ; the former combining 1 with the h'brillae of the 

 organic or ganglial nerves to form the muscular fibre generally, whether involuntary or 

 voluntary, while the latter class of muscles derives its peculiar characters and functions 

 from the accession of the fibrillae of voluntary nerves to the ganglial and cellular tex- 

 tures. If this position be allowed, the involuntary fibres will appear to result from the 

 combination of the cellular substance with the ganglial nerves only, the voluntary from 

 the union of the cellular with both the ganglial and cerebral matters composing the ex- 

 tremities of their ramifications ; the muscular fibre varying 1 its character and phenome- 



