32 
PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
factory that we cannot engage in the publication of reviews 
of all such works. In the first part of M. Colin’s book, 
much space is devoted to the subject of the digestive func- 
tions; in fact, as much as 258 closely printed pages of a 
full-sized octavo. Bernard’s last course of lectures was 
devoted to the study of the functions of the various glands, 
the secretions of which are poured into the alimentary canal. 
I intend, therefore, to engage in an analysis of both the 
works of Bernard and Colin on the digestive functions. 
Bernard’s first lecture is devoted to the demonstration of 
the fact that physiology is an experimental science, or rather, 
as it would have been folly to engage in any lengthy dis- 
cussion to prove anything so obvious and generally accepted, 
Bernard has simply pointed out the fallacy of drawing 
conclusions respecting the functions of organs by the study 
of their anatomy. 
It would appear, as Bernard very wisely suggests, that 
inasmuch as we can deduce that the bladder and stomach 
are reservoirs because saccular, that arteries and veins are 
conduits for a fluid because tubular, that bones form levers 
from their character and distribution, the functions of all 
parts may likewise be learned. The inspection of the 
valves led to the discovery of the circulation, so that the more 
we study anatomy, the more shall we acquire physiological 
knowledge. Such is not always the case, as many examples 
will prove. To what have the dissections of the brain, the 
spleen, the thyroid, and supra-renal bodies, served? The 
fifth pair of nerves with many others has been dissected 
and described by celebrated anatomists, but such study has 
led to no result so far as the acquiring a knowledge of 
function is concerned. 
Bernard shows in a happy manner that even in the first 
case where a saccular organ is supposed to act as a reser- 
voir or a tube to carry fluid, it is only by a study of analo- 
gies that similar usages have been ascribed to it. It is 
in consequence of a knowledge of the use of peculiarly con- 
structed objects that serve for daily purposes, that the 
function of similarly formed internal organs of the body 
have been determined. But this is not absolutely true 
with reference to the stomach and bladder, or with the 
blood-vessels, which he adduces as instances ; inasmuch as 
the full stomach or bladder, or the blood-vessels, exposed 
with their contents, would sufficiently indicate that food, 
that urine were contained in the first two — in fact, that they 
acted as reservoirs ; and that blood passed through the 
second. To my mind a more striking example of Bernard’s 
