34 



dressing wounds affected with what is called the hospital gangrene, i 

 have often relieved the pain, by desiring an assistant to apply firm pres- 

 sure above the sore. 



Ninthly. There exists between the force of the muscles, and the sen- 

 sibility of the nerves; between the sensible energy and the force of contrac- 

 tion, a constant opposition, so that the most vigorous athletics, whose mus- 

 cles are capable of the most prodigious efforts, and of the most powerful 

 contractions, are but slightly affected by impressions, and are with 

 difficulty roused into action, as we have explained in giving a history of 

 the nervous and muscular temperaments, which are characterized by this 

 difference. Hence, man has more sensibility than the quadrupeds, 

 although his nerves are smaller than theirs, which seem destined to 

 set the muscles in action, and to serve as nerves of motion, rather than 

 of sensation. 



There is no muscular fibre, however minute, in which we are not oblig- 

 ed to admit the existence of a small nervous filament, to which it probably 

 owes the power of contracting; contractility, at least voluntary contrac- 

 tility, does not appear to be inherent in the muscular fibre, nor independ- 

 ent of the nerves, through the medium of which, the will determines the 

 action of the muscles ; and if these last organs were insulated, contract 

 on the direct application of a stimulus, is there not reason to suspect, that 

 this stimulus acts on that portion of nerves which remains in the muscle, 

 after it has been insulated, and which is intimately united in its fibres ? 

 The animals which have no distinct nervous system, possess at once in 

 all their parts, sensibility and contractility ; these two properties become 

 blended in the organs, as well as in the phenomena of life, and can 

 be perceived separate, only by a pure abstraction of the mind, which 

 considers in succession the impression produced on these beings, and 

 the motion of their substance, which is an immediate consequence of 

 that impression. 



We will not enter any further into a consideration of the laws and phe- 

 nomena of the vital properties, for fear of being led into useless repeti- 

 tions, when we come to the history of the functions over which they pre- 

 side. We will conclude what relates to them, by presenting the two 

 most important features of their history, I mean, sympathy and habit. 



VII. OF SYMPATHY. 



There exist among all the parts of the living body, intimate relations; 

 all correspond to each other, and carry on a reciprocal intercourse of 

 sensations and affections. These links which unite together all the or- 

 gans, by establishing a wonderful concurrence, and a perfect harmony 

 among all the actions that take place in the animal oeconomy, are known 

 under the name of Sympathies. The nature of this phenomenon is yet 

 unknown; we know not why, when a part is irritated, another very dis- 

 tant part partakes in that irritation, or even contracts: we do not even 

 understand what are the instruments of sympathy, that is, what are the 

 organs which connect two parts, in such a manner, that when one feels 

 or acts, the other is affected. But though beyond explanation, sympathy 

 is not the less important in the oeconomy of living beings ; and these 

 connexions between remote parts, constitute one of the most remark- 

 able differences between those beings and inorganic bodies. No- 

 thing similar is observable in dead or inanimate nature, in which all 



