78 
POPULAE SCIENCE EEVIEW. 
ment. In truths tlie only idea of life whicli can be of tlie ♦ 
slightest advantage to practical physiologists and physicians ^ 
is that which identifies it by its most important condition — • i 
the condition^ namely of organization.* | 
By this word we understand not merely the building-n^D of 
tissues^ but also the development of forces according to a 
certain type ; and^ by the term organism^ we imply not merely 
the material structure_, but the sum of all the elements, 
material and dynamic, which do actually compose the living 
creature. The development of excessive force (e. g., excessive ^ 
heat) in any part of the organism indicates, not a local exalta- 
tion of life, but the escape of a portion of the tissues from " 
the true bond of vitality or organization. Whatever, then, 
will reduce this excess of action is as truly a stimulus ’’ as 
are those agents which have the power to set in motion vital ; 
functions which have been temporarily arrested. 
There is nothing very novel in the above statements to one »' 
who has been accustomed to follow with any regularity the 
course of scientific inquiry. But it is a surprising fact that 
* the logical consequences of these now familiar ideas seem : 
never to be deduced, at any rate by the great majority of ■. 
persons. Among those lacking deductions we must include i 
the banishment from use of such expressions as over stimu- 
lation.^^ This phrase and all its equivalents are, in fact, 
unphilbsophical and self- contradictory, and it is the purpose of ; 
this paper to explain briefly the true character of the actions 
which have received such names, and the distinctions which ; 
separate them from the effects of true stimulation. . 
Of the excessive functional movements which popular error ; 
has attributed to the effect of over- stimulation we may select ' 
two or three notorious cases. Let us take first the rapid 
action of the heart, which occurs in an acute inflammation of ; 
the lungs, for instance. Here the received idea is that of a 
too-potent stimulus goading on the organ of circulation to 
excessive rapidity of movement. But, in truth, all increased 
rapidity of the heartfe action (beyond certain narrow limits) 
may be taken as a certain sign that some portion of the appa- 
ratus concerned in the movements of that organ has lost its 
vital powers in greater or less degree. It is a phenomenon 
which is doubtless produced by some impression analogous 
to that which, in certain forms of narcotic poisoning, produces 
excessive hurry of the circulation immediately before its com- 
plete arrest. In fact, a certain degree of depression of the 
The word “ Individuation,” employed by Coleridge, is better than this ; 
but in a popular treatise it may be better to avoid words which have a 
technical sound. 
