Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The physician's vade-mecum / [Robert Hooper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![ously perceive the iiii])ressinns ofotlicrs, citlicr contif?iious or remote. This arises from the universal nervous connexion which subsists in all parts of tlie body, tlirouyh the cerelwo-spiual system. It would he easy to illustrate this faculty by thousands of examples; a few shall suffice. Thus the si^ht of agreeable food will excite the sali- vary glands, as will also its odour ; the siglit or odour of a disagree- able object will cause headache, nausea, vomiting, or fainting ; dis- ease of one eyi‘ will atfect the other, a diseased tooth will cause ])ain ill different parts of the face, ear, eye, head ; it will prevent sleep, derange the appetite, and in an infant will induce diarrhcca ; disorders of the stomach will derange the liver, lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, uterus ; in short, every part of the body. A knowledge of the cause of sympathy enables us to account for most of the symptoms of disease. f). t^ynerijy is the action of every organ directed to one end. Thus we observe a series of functions enijiloyed in the digestive process; as mastication, deglutition, chymification, chylitication, and ahsor]ition. Such are the vital properties; but Life itself can- not be located or described. Functions in Ceneral. Function is defined the action or use of an organ or a series of organs, as that of the lungs in respiration, that of the liver in sc*- creting of Idle, that of the kidney in secreting urine,&c. Functions are subdivided into organic and inteUevtnut, each having a recipro- cal action upon the other. This arises from the intimate connexion between the material and immaterial endowments of our being. Every one knows the influence of the mind and the passions over the corporeal organs in health and disease. The Inleltectnul Functions are comprehended in the term Psi/- clio/o</i/, and their o])erations are ten—.sensation, attention, percep- tion, memory, iiiiagination, analysis, association of ideas, comiiari- son,_ judgment, and reason. The concurrent action of these with those of the organic functions causes our wants, affections, and in- telligence. 'I’lie natural cares of man are, the conservation of his health and the jiropagation of his s])ecies ; the natural affections, •self-love, love of the Su|)reme Ueing, and of all that contributes to his own hajipiness; and, on the contrary, a hatred of all things that diminish this hap[iiness. The natural intelligence arising from the light of reason endows him with |)ower to distinguish good, evil, the existence of a Sovereign Being, and the immortality of the soul. The passions may be either morbific or therapeutic agents. Functions jiurchj oryiiuic.—'I’he organic functions are, the exter- nal sensitive, the internal sensitive, the locomotive, the vocal, the masculine and feminine reproductive, the digestive, the chyliferous absorbent, the circulatory, the resjiiratory, the exhaleut, tlie secre- tory, and the general absorbent.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29289865_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
