OF UAlilT, 11 



In this order of sympathies there are three relations to be observed, which actually 

 more or less obtain and constitute the essence of the subject, or the actual condition of 

 the animal functions under consideration : 1st, the relation may respect the increased 

 actions subsisting in two or more organs ; 2d, it may be viewed between the increased 

 functions of one part and the diminished functions of another ; and 3d, it may regard the 

 diminished functions observed in those parts which do not participate in the excitement ; 

 the relation being most immediate in the first, and least so in the third of these forms. 



2. The sympathetic or related actions may be attended with a diminution of the sum 

 of the vital energies throughout the system. In this case the different relations pointed 

 out above, may nevertheless exist, or one or two of them, may only be remarkable ; 

 the chief difference here being that the sympathies of this order are generally induced 

 by agents, which, while they diminish the entire sum of vital energy, act more deci- 

 dedly upon particular organs or systems of parts. 



3." The sympathetic operations may be characterized by a somewhat greater amount 

 of the vital" energies of the whole body. In this order of sympathies the three rela- 

 tions particularized above also subsist ; for although the entire sum of vital actions may 

 be greater than what is usually bestowed on the system, it may be so much increased 

 in some organs as to be greatly "diminished in others. This condition of functional sym- 

 pathy seldom continues long- until it subsides to the first, or, from exhaustion of the vi- 

 tal energies, to the second order just now particularized. 



II. Organic sympathies in -which, in addition to various modifications in degree and dis- 

 fribution, the vital energy of tlie system suffers a change in its kind. 



1. Sympathetic actions in which the general amount of the vital forces is natural in 

 degree but vitiated or modified in kind, the relation being evident 1st, mutually be- 

 tween these functions which are increased ; 2nd^ between the actions which are augmen- 

 ted and these which are diminished : and 3d, between those only which are diminished. 



2. Sympathies ill which the entire sum of vital energy is both reduced in degree 

 and modified in kind ; the relation between its distribution in the various organs being 

 the same as just now pointed out. 



3. Sympathies in which the amount of the whole vital energy is both heightened in 

 degree and modified in kind. In this order the distributed and the relations to which 

 such distribution gives rise, are the same as already adduced. 



The application of this classification, and of the views wliich it embraces to rnedi-* 

 ^ine, must appear evident. 



Of Habit. 

 Note F. 



^Ve have before said that the effects of habit upon our voluntary organs are very 

 different from thoee which result from its influence, on the viscera of organic life. This 

 difference is, however, chiefly in degree ; for, sensibility, as there is eveiy reason to 

 suppose, from its most vivid state of existence until it merges in contractility, and in its 

 various modes of manifestation, differs chiefly in degree, and as is bestowed in some 

 . one mode and degree to all the organs of the body, although it be more particularly 

 limited to one of their tissues, and also as the influence of habit is chiefly exerted upon 

 the sensibility of the system ; so it follows that it modifies more or less/all the animal 

 and organic functions, although it acts in the most manifest manner on those organs 

 which are in the closest relation with the sensorium or functions of the brain. Thus 

 the stimulus which excites the action of the sensorium produces a much less intense ef- 

 fect by repetition, but the repeated employment of the same food, or of the same pur- 

 gative, does not materially less excite the action of the viscera, to which they are respec- 

 tively applied. As the 'influence of habit, therefore, is chiefly an the sensibility of 

 the system, so it follows, that, when the organic sensibility of the involuntary organs 

 is repeatedly excited, it is then that the diminished effects of the excitant upon them 



body is endowed. The other kinds of related function have been pointed out in the 

 above arrangement of this class of sympathies ; and we cannot farther allude to them 

 here ; indeed it would be much beyond our limits to consider fully the different kinds 

 of sympathy in their manifold relations ; we have illustrated one more particularly, be- 

 cause of its importance, and of its having been very generally overlooked. 



