Physiological researches on life and death / translated from the French, by F. Gold.

  • Bichat, Xavier, 1771-1802.
Date:
[1815]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological researches on life and death / translated from the French, by F. Gold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    35/302 (page 21)
    , / V / ^-// % A/ ' J // r/* * -.: , - 7 . - , >l -ff ^> ^.a*^ ^liuOJL Ltw -l — '6tHj tffcw. £ <5 PART the FIRST. CHAPTER the FIRST. = 1 JL HE definition of life is usually sought * r G< for in abstract considerations ; it will be found, if I it V*/ s /it ^ mistake not, in the following general expression:— $ ^ ^ •Life consists in the sum of the functions, by which *J \ ^ ~$ death is resis In living bodies, such in fact is the mode of ex- , i •> 5 istence; that whaetver surrounds them, tends to their - C% \£ * destruction. They are influenced incessantly by C ^ \? inorganic bodies; they exercise themselves, the one ^ ^ ^ upon the other, as constant an action: under such V . imstances they could not long subsist, were they -JS <nT 3 } circumstances they could not long subsist, were they J* ^J*'* } not possessed in themselves of a permanent principle o ^^L < -of reaction. This principle is that of life; unknown $w a in its nature, it can be only appreciated by its pheno- ^~* |. ■ mena: an habitual alternation of action and reaction , \ ^li x. -between exterior bodies, and the living body, an alter- ^ (J J •nation, of which the proportions vary according to ^ i jj the age of the latter, is the most general of these ^ | $ 3 phenomena. | ^ ^ There is a'superabundance of life in the child : In <oc^ ^ .lie child, the reaction of the system is superior to ' H c-*vf the action, which is made upon it from without. In S> r\ the adult, action and reaction are on a balance ; the vi ^ ^