118 PHYSIOLOGY. 



are not? A mackerel, for instance, which dies the moment it is taken 

 out of the water, also putrefies very soon : Is this circumstance owing 

 to the first ? Does an eel, a turtle, or a snake, &c, which are very 

 unw illin g to give up life, keep a long while after life is gone ? 



Loss of Simple Life. 



A young man, aged about twenty, came to St. George's Hospital for 

 consultation about his leg and thigh. They were much smaller than 

 those of the other side, had no motion in the ankle-joint, and but very 

 little in the knee. The limb hung like a motionless body : it was very 

 cold; while, with the same covering, the other limb was warm. In 

 the winter he had chilblains all over the affected foot and leg, which 

 were very painful ; for he had sensation in it T . He had some motion in 

 the thigh-joint, and the little motion in the knee-joint seemed to be 

 owing to the long muscles of the thigh having some power at their 

 upper end. 



Degrees of Simple Life. 



Animals in proportion to their simplicity have the Simple Life in a 

 much greater perfection than the more complicated and perfect. All 

 the natural functions go on with more regularity, and their powers are 

 more. They can make up losses much better. Our simple life is much 

 more confined, and can do much less for the body in case of accidents. 



Is that principle we call 'Habit ' in any way akin to Simple Life, or 

 is it a kind of substitute ? 



Simple Life is in proportion to the imperfection of the animal : even 

 in the most perfect classes of animals it decreases as the animal becomes 

 perfect. Perhaps this is owing to a want of habit in it ; for, as the 

 sensitive life increases in the ratio of perfection, it takes off from the 

 employment of the other principle, which is much less the case in the 

 more imperfect animals. Quaere, How is it in an Idiot ? 



Action adverse to Simple Life. 



Simple Life is much stronger in vegetables than in animals ; for a 

 vegetable, when removed, will live the first year, but [sometimes] die 

 the second. This is owing to the original life still existing, but the 

 roots are not capable of keeping up its continuance. If Simple Life 

 had been of as short duration as in animals, it [the plant] would not 



1 [An interesting case of affection of the motory nerves and not of the sensory ; and 

 explanatory of the meaning of Hunter's ' Simple Life,' which seems synonymous 

 with the ' Irritability ' of Haller.] 



