28 . 



being, similar to the fabulous Hamadryads, who, immoveably fixed in the 

 trees of our forests, received, without any power to shun them, all the 

 blows inflicted on their rustic abode. Dreams place us sometimes in 

 situations which give us a just idea of their condition. A certain dan- 

 ger threatens our existence ; an enormous rock seems to detach itself, to 

 roll and precipitate itself on our frail machine ; a frightful monster 

 seems to pursue us, and opens a yawning mouth to ingulf us. We strug- 

 gle to escape this imaginary danger, to avoid or to repel it, but an irre- 

 sistible and unknown power, a mighty hand paralyses our efforts, and 

 keeps us rooted to the spot; it is a situation of horror and despair, and 

 we awaken overwhelmed with the uneasiness which we have suffered. 



As there is no part that does not feel, in a manner peculiar to itself, so 

 there is no one that does not act, move, or contract, in a manner peculiar 

 to itself; and the parts which have been found without a power of mo- 

 tion analagous to muscular contractility, have remained in thaf state of 

 immobility, only for want of a stimulus fitted to their peculiar nature. 

 Some physiologists say they have excited a distinct quivering, in the me- 

 sentery of a frog and of a cat, by touching them after they had been pre- 

 viously moistened with alcohol, or muriatic acid, 



In the operation for sarcocle*, I have often perceived that while with 

 my left hand I supported the tumour, and with a scalpel in the right, di- 

 vided the spermatic chord, the tunica vaginalis showed oscillatory con- 

 tractions. It visibly contracts in the operation for hydrocele. The in- 

 jection of an irritating fluid determines evident motions in the tunica 

 vaginalis. The osseous tissue, notwithstanding the phosphate of lime 

 with which it is incrusted, is susceptible of a contraction, whose effects, 

 though slow, are nevertheless undeniable. After teeth have been shed 

 or extracted, the edges of the alveolar process become thinned and 

 the alveolar cavities disappear. These facts appear to me to prove, 

 still better than all the experiments performed on living animals, 

 (experiments of which, by the way, the results ought nbt too con- 

 fidently to be applied to the oeconomy of man) what one should think 

 of the assertions of Haller and his followers, on the insensibility and 

 inirritability of the serous membranes, and of the organs of a structure 

 analagous to their's. 



We will, at present, say nothing of the porosity, of the divisibility, of 

 the elasticity, and other properties which are common to living bodies and 

 inanimate substances. These properties are never possessed in their 

 whole extent, and in all their purity, if that expression may be allowed. 

 Their results are always influenced by the vital power, which constantly 

 modifies the effects which seem to depend most immediately upon a phy- 

 sical, chemical, or mechanical cause, or upon any other agent whatsoever. 



* The contraction of the membrane, formed by the expansion of the cremaster mus- 

 cle, has doubtless assisted in rendering more dittinctthe appearance in question. This 

 effect must be particularly distinct at the moment of dividing- the spermatic chord. 

 The contraction of the same muscles corrugate the skin of the scrotum when tiiis part 

 is exposed to cold, and draw up the testicles towards the inguinal ringf. The contrac- 

 tility of the skin of the scrotum, has but little influence in procuring- this effect. Jt. 



f This assertion may lead to error ; the testicles are raised by the cremasters, and 

 this is, or may be made a voluntary action ; but the corrugation of the scrotum is inde- 

 pendent of the will, and is produced by a contraction directly the reverse of that effect- 

 ed by the cremasters, i. e. laterally, while that of the cremasters is perpendicular. 



Godman. 



