General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)Bichat, Xavier
Science
General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Bichat, Xavier
Human anatomy; Human physiology
These two first classes being rigorously defined, and their limits
established by nature, I sought to discover in each, orders equally
natural; this was easy in the functions relating to the individual.
In fact, this was the place for the general outline of Aristotle and
Buffon; but it was not to be presented in too general a manner; the
nature and connexion of the functions peculiar to each order, were to
be accurately assigned.
I called the order of functions that connects us with external bodies,
animal life, thus indicating that this order belongs alone to animals,
that it is more with them than with vegetables, and that it is the
addition of these functions that particularly distinguishes them
from vegetables. I called organic life, the order that serves for the
constant composition and decomposition of our bodies, because this life
is common to all organized beings, vegetables as well as animals; and
because the only condition of enjoying it is organization; so that it
forms a boundary between organic and inorganic bodies, as animal life
serves to separate the two classes that form the first.
Animal life is composed of the action of the senses which receive
impressions, of the brain which perceives them, reflects, and wills,
of the voluntary muscles and larynx that execute this volition, and of
the nerves which are the agents of transmission. The brain is truly
the central organ of this life. Digestion, circulation, respiration,
exhalation, absorption, secretion, nutrition, calorification, compose
organic life, which has the heart for its principal and central organ.
I place calorification here, because it is evident from what I have
said under the article upon the capillary systems, that it is a
function analogous to secretion, exhalation and nutrition. It is truly
a separation of combined caloric, from the mass of blood. It is, if
the expression is preferred, a secretion or exhalation of that fluid
in every part of the body. I have not even at present given this place
to heat in my physiological classification: but in reflecting upon the
method of its production, it will be seen that it ought to have it.
The two orders of the first class being established, it was easy to
assign those of the second, which are three in number: 1st. functions
belonging to the male; 2d. those belonging to the female; 3d. those
arising from an union of the two sexes and the product of this union;
these are the three orders.
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