The institutes of medicine / by Martyn Paine.

  • Martyn Paine
Date:
1859
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The institutes of medicine / by Martyn Paine. 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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    &c, or as the want of air throws into action the respiratory muscles, or as odors, light, &c, produce their sensations ] By facts of the foregoing nature, and by all those considerations which have been made in relation to the differences in the vital con- stitution of the different tissues, and of different parts of one and the same continuous tissue (as of the alimentary and pulmonary mucous membrane, § 133, &c), it becomes perfectly obvious that the proper- ties of life are something perse, something besides organization itself, or organic functions, and upon which the agents of life exert their im- mediate impressions ($ 1029, 1030, 1034, 1041). There can, therefore, be no appreciation of the laws of organic be- ings, of the modus operandi of natural, morbific, or remedial agents, of healthy or morbid processes, of voluntary or involuntary muscular motion, of the results of the operation of the nervous power and sen- sibility, or even of perception, without a critical reference to the prop- erties of life as the efficient causes, and as receiving the impressions which may be created by external and internal agents (§ 872). 190, a. Irritability, and other vital properties, are naturally modi- fied, in kind and degree, in the different tissues, in tissues of the same order, and in different parts of one and the same continuous tissue (§ 133, &c, 199, 203, 227-232, 441). These natural modifications are shown in all parts by the peculiar action of the natural stimuli of life; as blood upon the heart and blood-vessels, food on the stomach, bile on the intestines, urine on the bladder, the will, through the nervous power, upon the voluntary muscles (§ 215, 227, 486), and by the differences that arise from their action on parts to which they are not peculiar. And so of the diversi- fied effects of external agents on different parts. 190, b. There are remarkable modifications of irritability in the ova of oviparous and viviparous animals, and in seeds. Semen is the only natural stimulus of the former, in their absolute state of ova ; while in the ova of viviparous animals, the actions, after being roused by the stimulus of semen, must go on to a full development of the organ- ic being, and in undisturbed connection with the parent; but, in the ovipai-ous, when the ovum has acquired a certain development, the actions cease spontaneously, the properties of life no longer obeying the vital stimuli as in the other case. These properties then become dormant (and in the seed, also), and nature, having fulfilled her final cause, the ovum is expelled from the body, and the seed cast off, that they may be subjected to new agents. Semen will not now act upon the egg, but heat and atmospheric air become necessary to restore the actions, and carry out the process originally instituted by the spe- cific stimulus of semen. There are certain oviparous animals that present other peculiarities, and other changing modifications, of irritability in respect to their ova. At certain seasons their ova undergo a partial development from the influence of season, and from the stimuli supplied by the female pa- rent. These influences, however, finally cease to operate, and the ovum is expelled to undergo the action of semen in the external world. This action again modifies irritability, and adapts it to other vital stimuli. Again, it may be affirmed of many oviparous animals, at least, that a partial development of the cvum takes place, though imperfectly, G
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