CHAPTER XIV. 



OEGANIC FUNCTIONS. 



Classifica- 

 tion of 

 organic 

 functions. 



Different 

 classifica- 

 tions for 

 different 

 purposes. 



IN the last chapter I have classed the organic functions 

 as vegetative, or nutritive ; animal, or motor ; and 

 mental. The vegetative and animal functions I have 

 classed together as unconscious, in opposition to the mental, 

 which are conscious. These distinctions may be most 

 conveniently stated in the following tabular form : — 



Unconscious functions 

 Conscious functions 



Vegetative, or nutritive. 



[_ Animal, or motor. 

 Mental. 



In speaking of the same subject, however, it is often 

 necessary to adopt different classifications at different 

 times, according as we regard it from different points of 

 view. That adopted above shows the relations of the dif- 

 ferent vital functions as made known from the common, 

 practical point of view of every-day and every man's con- 

 sciousness, which begins with the distinction between the 

 body and the mind. This point of view is no doubt in- 

 sufiicient, and its results need to be corrected by compa- 

 rison with those obtained from other points of view. We 

 are so constituted and so circumstanced, in the intellectual 

 as weE as in the physical world, that the observations 

 taken from any single point of view are necessarily in- 

 complete, and need to be supplemented by others. But, 

 though incomplete, they are true so far as they go, and are 

 untrue only when they are mistaken for the whole truth. 



In the present chapter, I shall adopt a classification of 

 organic functions which is not based, as the former one 



