THE GENERAL CONSTITUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 81 
posed upon minds that took every thing to be real except 
the reality itself. | 
Some biologists of the same school have been led by 
a similar mistake to the notion of a supposed property 
inherent in living tissues, the peculiarity of which is the 
power they have of setting up action under the most vary- 
ing influences. They have given this property the name 
of ¢rritability, the same peculiarity formerly regarded by 
Broussais as a specific one, and used by him as the main- 
stay of his theory. This irritability, neither specific nor 
spontaneous, is nothing else than the manifestation of one 
of the five fundamental properties of organized substance. 
At least it is always reducible to that, as Robin has 
shown, and could not from any point of view be regarded 
as anew property. The anatomical elements are in a state 
of incessant transformation, and therefore the least thing 
may disturb their equilibrium, and bring about what is 
called irritation. Let a single atom of their mass experi- 
ence a derangement of any kind, the remainder of them 
undergoes its reaction, and all the properties of the element 
are differently affected. Heat, cold, electricity, chemical 
substances, in a word, any causes that can affect the mo- 
lecular condition of the elements, thus act on organized 
substance. Itis the instability in a system of such restless 
and fleeting changes which makes it so quick to feel all in- 
fluences, so irritable; but, we repeat, irritants call forth in 
it nothing more than the exhibition of the properties we 
have mentioned. 
“Cleave an atom,” the Persian poet says, “and you will 
find in it a sun.” So the anatomical element, examined in 
its deepest recesses, yields us the magnificent vision of life. 
It unveils for us its secret machinery, its hidden energies, 
its latent springs, its concealed forces; teachings full of 
light, which have transformed the conceptions of philaso- 
phy regarding the world of life. 
