Copy 1, Volume 1

Human physiology / By Robley Dunglison.

  • Robley Dunglison
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human physiology / By Robley Dunglison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    t Difference between Inorganic and Organized Bodies. Inorganic bodies possess the common properties of matter. Their elements are fixed and uncontrolled under ordinary circumstances. Their study constitutes Physics, in its enlarged sense, or Natural Science. Organized bodies have properties in common with the in- organic, but they have likewise others superadded, which control the first in a singular manner. They are beings, whose elements are undergoing constant mutation, and the sciences treating of their structure and functions are Anatomy and Physiology. 1. Origin.—They differ, in the first place, from each other, in their origin. Inorganic bodies are not born; thev*do not arise from a parent; they spring from the general forces of matter, the par- ticles being merely in a state of aggregation, and their motions are regulated by certain fixed and invariable laws. The animal and the vegetable, on the other hand, are the products of generation ; they must spring from a being similar to themselves, and they possess the principle of life, which controls the ordinary forces of matter. Yet it has been supposed that they are capable of creating life; in other •words, that a particular organization presupposes life. This is not the place for entering into the question of generation. It will be sufficient at present to remark, that in the upper classes of animals, the necessity of a parent cannot be contested; the only difficulty, that can possibly arise, regards the very lowest classes, and analogy has appeared, in their case, to warrant the conclusion, that every living being must spring from an egg or a seed. 2. Shape.—Again; the shape of inorganic bodies is not fixed in any determinate manner. It is true, that by proper management, every mineral can be reduced to a primitive nucleus, which is the same in all minerals of like composition; still the shape of the mineral, as it presents itself to us, differs. Carbonate of lime, for example, although it may always be reduced to the same primitive nucleus, assumes various appearances; sometimes being rhomboidal; at others, in regular hexaedral prisms; in solids, terminated by twelve scalene triangles, or in dodecaedrons, whose surfaces are pentagons. In organized bodies, on the contrary, the shape is constant. Each animal and vegetable has the one that characterizes its species, so that no possible mistake can be indulged; and this applies not only to the whole body, but to every one of its parts, numerous as they are. 3. Size.—The size of an inorganic body is by no means fixed. It may be great, or small, according to the quantity present of the particles, that have to form it. A crystal, for example, may be minute or the contrary, according to the number of saline particles in the solution; whilst organized bodies attain a certain size,—at times by a slow, at others by a more rapid growth,—but in all cases the due proportion is preserved between the various parts, between
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