Anatomy and physiology : designed for academies and families / by Calvin Cutter.

  • Cutter, Calvin, 1807-1873?
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomy and physiology : designed for academies and families / by Calvin Cutter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    In general, organic matter differs so materially from inor- ganic, that the one can readily be distinguished from the other. In the organic world, the parts are mutually dependent on each other for support. Break the tiny stem of a rose, and it soon withers; or girdle the bark of the forest tree, and it dies, because it cannot receive support from the ascending sap. So, in man ; amputate an arm, and its vitality ceases, for the vessels communicating with it have been severed. But, in inorganized bodies, the results are different. Break off a piece of flint, and it is exempt from those internal changes and effects, which impair and finally destroy organic structure and arrangement. Organized bodies always present a combination of both solids and fluids ; — of solids differing in character and prop- erties, arranged into organs, and these endowed with peculiar functional powers, and so associated as to form of the whole a single system ; — and of fluids, contained in these organs, and holding such relations to the solids, that the existence, nature, and properties of both, mutually and necessarily depend on each other. Every inorganic body consists wholly, either of the solid, or liquid, or gaseous, form of matter; and all its parts are alike in structure and properties, and may exist as well when separated into portions or broken into fragments, as when united in a single volume or mass. But whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, — whether composed of one or more of the chemi- cal elements, the aggregations and arrangements of the atoms of matter, in every substance, take place according to fixed, constitutional laws, and in a regular and determinate manner; so that the intimate structure of each form of matter is always in accordance with its own nature. Organized bodies increase in size by a process called nu- trition, which consists in imbibing substances, and converting them to their own nature, by means of internal organs. They have, within a certain range, their specific proportions, shape, and size, by which they are not only distinguished from in- organic bodies, but specifically from each other. Inorganic bodies, on the contrary, increase in size, or change in shape, Can organic and inorganic bodies he readily distinguished from each other ? What do organized bodies always present ? In what forms do in- organic bodies exist ? What distinctive difference between inorganic and organic bodies ? How do organized bodies increase in bulk ? Inorganic ?