CHAPTER I.

THE WHOLE BODY, THE SUBJECT OF PHY

SIOGNOMY.

PHYSIOGNOMISTS have erred in considering the head alone as the subject of their science. That science applies to the whole body. The basis of its first distinctions, is the relative development of the three different systems-locomotive, vital, and mental, of which the body is composed. These, therefore, must be the first subjects of our enquiry.

In viewing the human organs in a general manner, a class of these organs at once obtrudes itself upon our notice, from its consisting of an apparatus of levers, from its performing motion from place to place, or locomotion, and from these motions being of the most obvious kind. A little more observa

tion presents to us another class, which is distinguished from the preceding by its consisting of cylindrical tubes, by its transmitting and transmuting liquids, or performing vascular action, and by its motions being barely apparent. Further

investigation discovers a third, which differs essentially from both these, in its consisting of nervous particles, in its transmitting impressions from external objects, or performing nervous action, and in that action being altogether invisible.

Thus, each of these classes of organs is distinguished from another by the structure of its parts, by the purposes which it serves, and by the greater or less obviousness of its motions.

The first consists of levers; the second, of cylindrical tubes; and the third, of nervous particles. The first performs motion from place to place, or locomotion; the second transmits and transmutes liquids, or performs vascular action; and the third transmits impressions from external objects, or performs nervous action. The motion of the first is extremely obvious; that of the second is barely

apparent; and that of the third is altogether invisible.

Not one of them can be confounded with another for, considering their purposes only, it is evident that, that which performs locomotion, neither transmits liquids, nor sensations; that which transmits liquids, neither performs locomotion, nor is the means of sensibility; and that which is the means of sensibility, neither performs locomotion, nor transmits liquids.

Now, the organs employed in locomotion are the bones, ligaments and muscles; those employed in transmitting liquids are the absorbent, circulating, and secreting vessels; and those employed about sensations are the organs of sense, cerebrum, and cerebellum, with the nerves which connect them.

The first class of organs may, therefore, be termed locomotive, or (from their very obvious action) mechanical; the second, vascular, or (as even vegetables, from their possessing vessels, have life) they may be termed vital; and the third may be named nervous, or (as mind results from them) mental. B 5

The human body, then, consists of organs of three kinds. By the first kind, locomotive or mechanical action is effected; by the second, nutritive or vital action is maintained; and by the third, thinking or mental action is permitted.

Anatomy is, therefore, divided into three parts, namely, that which considers the locomotive or mechanical organs; that which considers the nutritive or vital organs; and that which considers the thinking or mental organs.

Under the locomotive or mechanical organs, are classed, first, the bones, or organs of support; second, the ligaments, or organs of articulation; and third, the muscles, or organs of motion.

Under the nutritive or vital organs, are classed, first, the absorbent vessels, or organs of absorption; second, the blood-vessels, which drive their contents from the absorbed lymph, or organs of circulation; and third, the secreting vessels, which separate various matters from the blood, or organs of secretion.

Under the thinking or mental organs, are classed, first, the organs of sense, where impressions take

place; second, the cerebrum, or organ of thought, where these excite ideas; and third, the cerebellum, or organ of volition (placed under the back part of the brain, or immediately over the neck), where acts of the will result from the last. *

* To some it may appear, that the organs and functions of digestion, respiration, and generation, are not involved by this arrangement; but such a notion can originate only in superficial observation.

Digestion is a compound function easily reducible to some of the simple ones which have been enumerated. It consists of the motion of the stomach and contiguous parts, of the secretion of a liquid from its internal surface, and of that heat, which is the common result of all action, whether locomotive, vital, or mental, and which is better explained by such motion, than by chemical theories. Similarly compound are respiration and generation.

Thus, there is no organ nor function which is not involved by the simple and natural arrangement here sketched.

Compound, however, as the organs of digestion, respiration and generation are, yet, as they form so important a part of the system, it may be asked, "With which of these classes they are most allied?" The answer is obvious. All of them consist of tubular vessels of various diameter; and all of them transmit and transmute liquids. Possessing such strong characteristics of the vital system, they are evidently most allied to it.

In short, digestion prepares the vital matter, which is taken up by absorption — the first of the simple vital functions; respiration renovates it in the very middle of its course between the two portions of the simple function of circulation; and generation, dependent on secretion the last of these