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General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3) cover

General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1 (of 3)

Chapter 12: SECOND CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SPECIES.
By Xavier Bichat
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The work constructs an anatomical framework that treats simple tissues as distinct systems whose combinations form organs, and uses systematic experiments — dissection, reagent tests, and observations on living animals and patients — to define each tissue's characteristic organization. It distinguishes animal properties, such as sensibility and contractility, from organic properties, rejects explanations that rely on a single speculative vital principle, and applies rigorous induction to physiology: physiological phenomena arise from inherent tissue properties, disease reflects their augmentation, diminution, or alteration, and therapy seeks to restore the part to its natural state.

TABLE OF PHYSIOLOGY.

PROLEGOMENA.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ORGANIC TEXTURE.

Section I.
1st. Of the organic texture of animals.
2d. Of simple textures, in general.
3d. Of organs, in general.
4th. Of the apparatus, in general.4
Section II.
1st. Of the properties of texture.
2d. Division of the properties of texture. Extensibility.
Contractility. 1st. By want of extension.
2d. By horny hardening.
3d. Characters of the properties of texture.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON LIFE.

Section I.
1st. Of life and its functions.
2d. Classification of functions Of those relating to the individual. Animal functions.
Organic functions.
Of those relating to the species. Functions of the male.
Functions of the female.
Functions relating to the union of the sexes, and the product of this union.
3d. Of the differences and relations that exist between the two classes of functions.
4th. Of the differences and relations that exist between the two orders of the first class.
5th. Of the differences and relations that exist between the three orders of the first class.
Section II.
1st. Of the vital properties.
2d. Division of the vital properties Animal properties Sensibility.
Contractility.
Organic properties Sensibility.
Sensible and insensible contractility.
3d. Characters of the vital properties.
4th. Of the causes which modify the Habit.
Sex.
Climate.
Seasons.
Age, &c.
5th. Of the peculiar differences of the vital properties, in each simple texture, in each individual Of that which is called individual life.
6th. Of the general differences of the vital properties in different individuals Of temperament.
Of the passions.
Of the character.
7th. Sympathies of vital properties.
8th. Division of sympathies Animal sympathies Of sensibility.
Of contractility.
Organic sympathies Of sensible contractility.
Of insensible contractility.

OF THE FUNCTIONS.

FIRST CLASS.—functions relative to the individual.

ORDER FIRST.—Functions of Animal Life.
Genus I. Sensations.
1st. Of the general sensations, or feeling, external.
internal.
2d. Of particular sensations Hearing.
Seeing.
Smelling.
Tasting
Feeling.
3d. Of pleasure and of pain.
Genus II. Cerebral Functions.
1st. Relative to sensation Of perception.
Of imagination.
Of memory.
2d. Relative to the understanding Of attention.
Of the ideas.
Of the judgment.
Of the reasoning faculty, &c.
3d. Relative to motion Of the will, which is determined by the judgment. Of the opposition of these two causes.
the passions
4th. Connexion of the cerebral functions with life Of concussion.
Of apoplexy, &c.

Genus III. Locomotion.
1st. Of the immoveable attitudes on the feet   Standing.
on the knees.
on the pelvis.
on the head, &c. &c.
—Prostration.
2d. Motion Of the superior extremities. Prepulsion.
Repulsion.
Diduction.
Pressure.
Elevation, &c.
Of the inferior extremities. Walking.
Running.
Leaping.
Of the trunk. Support, raising weights.
Of the whole body. Swimming.
Of gesture considered as an auxiliary to the voice. 1st. Gestures of the face.
2d. Gestures of the head in general.
3d. Gestures of the superior extremities.
Genus IV. Voice.
1st. Of the voice of brutes   Dumbness.
2d. Of speech. Of stuttering.
Of lisping, &c.
3d. Of singing true.
false.
4th. Of declamation.
Genus V. Nervous transmission.
1st. Transmission to the brain of sensations general.
particular.
2d. Transmission of motion to the locomotive organs.
to the vocal organs.
3d. Mode of transmission.

OF THE INTERMISSION OF THE FUNCTIONS OF ANIMAL LIFE.

Sleep.
1st. natural. partial of the senses.
of the brain ... Of sympathetic sleep.
of the muscles.
general.
2d. unnatural.
3d. Dreams and somnambulism.
ORDER SECOND.—Functions of organic life.
Genus I. Digestion.
1st. Of hunger and thirst.
2d. Of aliments.
3d. Of taking of aliments solid.
fluid.
4th. Of mastication, of lubricating with saliva and deglutition.
5th. Alteration of the alimentary mass. in the œsophagus. Action of the liquor of the œsophagus.
in the stomach. Action of the gastric liquor.
in the small intestines Action of the bile.
Action of the pancreatic liquor.
Action of the intestinal liquor.
6th. Separation of the substances that are nutritive from those that are not.
7th. Absorption of the nutritive substance; course of the chyle in the lacteals.
the mesenteric glands,
the thoracic duct.
the blood vessels.
8th. Excretion of the non-nutritive substance Of the peristaltic motion.
Of the fecal matter.
Of the intestinal gas.
9th. Of vomiting, as it has its seat in the pharynx and œsophagus.
the stomach.
the small intestines.
the large intestines.
—Sympathetic vomiting.

Genus II. Respiration.
1st. Of the air.
2d. Mechanical phenomena Inspiration.
Expiration.
3d. Chemical Phenomena relative to the air.
to the blood.
4th. Connexion of respiration with life. Of asphyxia, &c.
Genus III. Circulation.
1st. general Circulation of red blood.
Circulation of black blood.
Action of the heart.
Action of the arteries.
Action of the veins.
Connexion of the circulation with life. Of syncope, &c.
2d. abdominal.
3d. capillary general phenomena of the motion of the blood.
change of red to black.
pulmonary its relation with the general.
change of black to red blood.
Genus IV. Exhalations.
1st. in general of their agents.
of their phenomena.
of their alterations.
—Sympathetic exhalations.
2d. in particular. Exhalations serous.
cellular of fat.
of serum.
synovial in the grooves of the tendons.
in the articulations.
medullary in the middle of the long bones.
in the extremities of the long bones, in the short and flat ones.

Genus V. Absorptions.
1st. in general. Of their agents.
Of their phenomena.
Of their alterations.
—Sympathetic absorptions.
2d. in particular. Absorptions serous.
cellular of fat.
of serum.
synovial in the grooves of the tendons.
in the articulations.
medullary in the middle of the long bones.
in the extremities of the long bones, in the short and flat ones.
Genus VI. Secretions.
1st. in general Of their agents.
Of their phenomena.
Of their alterations.
—Sympathetic secretions.
2d. in particular. Secretions lachrymal.
salivary and pancreatic.
hepatic.
renal.
mucous.
sebaceous.
Genus VII. Nutrition.
1st. Of the double nutritive motion.
2d. Composition of organs Nutritive matter, considered in the chyle.
the blood.
—Assimilation.
the organs themselves.
3d. Decomposition of organs.
4th. Causes that modify nutrition.
5th. Of nutrition considered in infancy Of increase in height.
youth Of increase in thickness.
adult age.
old age Decrease.
6th. Of natural death.

Genus VIII. Calorification.
1st. Phenomena of animal heat.
2d. Entrance of caloric by respiration.
digestion.
absorption.
3d. Its latent state in the blood.
4th. Its disengagement in the capillary system.
5th. Its exit from the body.
6th. Of the sympathies of heat, and of sympathetic heat.

SECOND CLASS.—FUNCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SPECIES.

A COMPARISON OF THE TWO SEXES. HERMAPHRODISM.

ORDER FIRST.—Functions peculiar to the male. Phenomena of puberty in man.

Genus I. Production of the semen.
1st. Secretion in the testicle.
2d. Residence in the vesiculæ.
3d. Excretion .... Of erection and its phenomena.
4th. Of the semen.
5th. Of eunuchs.

ORDER SECOND.—Functions peculiar to the female. Phenomena of puberty in woman.

Genus I. Menstruation.
1st. Of its seat.
2d. Of its periodical return.
3d. Of its alterations.
4th. Of its cessation.

Genus II. Production of milk.
1st. Secretion in the breast Difference of this secretion from others.
Relation between the breast and womb.
2d. Excretion spontaneous.
by suckling.
3d. Of the milk.
Genus III. Of the fluids of women proper for generation.
What these fluids are.
What is their influence.

ORDER THIRD.—Functions relative to the union of the sexes, and the product of this union.

Genus I. Generation.
1st. Sexual intercourse.
2d. Conception Its phenomena in the womb.
in the tubes and ovaries.
Hypotheses.
Genus II. Gestation, relative
1st. to the mother General state of her functions.
State of the womb.
2d. to the fœtus Of its animal life; it is almost nothing.
Of its organic life Functions that it wants.
Activity of assimilation.
Of monsters.
Genus III. Parturition and subsequent phenomena
1st. Causes and mechanism of parturition.
2d. Of the lochia.
3d. Phenomena of the new born infant Development of its animal life.
Functions added to its organic.

This is a sketch of the general plan that I have adopted in my lectures. Those who have attended them, will find here some changes in one part, and additions in another. But they can easily arrange under it all the facts that are contained in this work, if they wish to refer them to a physiological classification, instead of distributing them according to the anatomical order in which I present them here.

Though a line of demarcation separates each order of functions, it is not necessary, however, to take, in too exact a sense, the divisions pointed out above. Each order is connected with the others, more or less intimately. For example, in the first class, when one order ceases, another is soon annihilated. It is thus that I have shewn elsewhere that the heart, which is the principal agent of organic life, being interrupted, the brain, which is the central organ of animal life, is immediately stopt for the want of excitement, and the functions over which it presides are destroyed. It is thus also, as I have shown, that the brain, having under its immediate superintendence, respiration, by the means of the diaphragm and intercostals, which receive the cerebral nerves, has the circulation directly under its control, and thus the whole of organic life, which ceases when its action is interrupted. It is on this account that I have considered respiration as the link that connects animal with organic life, and have proved that a fœtus without a brain, or without something to supply its place, cannot live out of the womb of its mother. Every thing is connected, every thing is united in the animal economy. We live without and within in a distinct manner, but one life cannot be preserved as a whole, independent of the other. Thus, though the functions should be studied abstractedly, we should always have in view their connexion, when we consider the whole of them as simultaneously in operation.

It will be seen that in the Descriptive Anatomy, I have adopted a classification analogous to that of physiology. The one differs, however, a little from the other, because the same organs often serve for many functions, and especially because certain functions, such as exhalation, nutrition, calorification, have not, to speak correctly, any distinct and determinate organs.