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 Another Random Document on
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 The Project Gutenberg eBook of General
Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine,
Vol. 1 (of 3)
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
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Title: General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, Vol. 1

(of 3)

Author: Xavier Bichat

Translator: George Hayward

Release date: December 3, 2017 [eBook #56118]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENERAL

ANATOMY, APPLIED TO PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, VOL. 1 (OF 3)
***
BICHAT. X
Published by Richardson & Lord, Boston.
Transcriber's Notes
 Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation,
spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.
The large TABLE OF PHYSIOLOGY used curved braces to indicate groups. For clarity
and to adjust to different screen/font sizes, these have been replaced by straight lines. In
addition, to fit within page width considerations, the first column of these tables has been
transposed into individual table section headings.
An analytical table of contents for all three volumes was included with volume III. This
has been copied into this volume and the appropriate section has been linked to the
relevant pages.
The outline Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.
 GENERAL ANATOMY,
APPLIED TO

PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE;

BY XAVIER BICHAT,
PHYSICIAN OF THE GREAT HOSPITAL OF HUMANITY AT PARIS, AND
PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

Translated from the French.

BY GEORGE HAYWARD, M.D.
FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES,
AND OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOLUME I.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY RICHARDSON AND LORD.

J. H. A. FROST, PRINTER.
1822.

Table of Contents

PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
TABLE OF PHYSIOLOGY.
 SYSTEMS Common to all the Apparatus
CELLULAR SYSTEM.
NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ANIMAL LIFE.
NERVOUS SYSTEM OF ORGANIC LIFE.
VASCULAR SYSTEM with Red Blood
VASCULAR SYSTEM with Black Blood
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOLUME FIRST.
VOLUME SECOND.
VOLUME THIRD.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

District Clerk's Office.
Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of April, A. D. 1822, in the forty-
sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Richardson &
Lord, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right
whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
"General Anatomy, applied to Physiology and Medicine; by Xavier Bichat,
Physician of the Great Hospital of Humanity at Paris, and Professor of Anatomy
and Physiology. Translated from the French, by George Hayward, M. D. Fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Massachusetts Medical
Society. In three Volumes. Volume I."
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act
for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and
Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein
mentioned:" and also to an Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled,
An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts
and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein
mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving
and Etching Historical and other Prints."
JOHN W. DAVIS,
Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.
 PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
I commenced the present translation while pursuing the study of
medicine in Paris in the winter of 1813-14. It was then my intention
to have completed and published it immediately upon my return to
the United States; but I learnt in England in the spring following,
that a translation of this work was about to appear from the London
press. This information induced me to abandon my undertaking, but
after waiting more than six years for the appearance of the English
edition, and finding from letters received from London, that there
was but little if any expectation of its being published there at all, I
was led to pursue my original plan and complete the translation
which I now offer to the public. In doing this, I was influenced more
by the intrinsic value of Bichat's work than by any and every other
motive. I was unwilling that so many of my professional brethren
should be any longer denied access to this admirable production,
because it was in a foreign language, and though I could have
wished that another had undertaken the task, yet I was resolved to
go through the labour rather than it should not be performed at all.
Some of the writings of Bichat are so well known and so justly
appreciated in this country, that it is perhaps unnecessary for me to
speak of his merits as an author, or offer an apology for translating
the present work. Every thing which he gave to the public bore
unequivocal proofs of being the production of a mind of the most
original and powerful cast, and it is impossible to estimate what the
influence of his labours might have been upon medical science if a
longer career had been permitted to him. As it was, he accomplished
much, and as his writings are more known, their influence will be
more sensibly felt. His manner of investigating physiological subjects
was characteristic of his strong and original mind, and it is difficult to
determine which is the most admirable, his acute and accurate
reasoning, or his ingenious and well conducted experiments. Nor
were these experiments the result of preconceived opinions, he
seems to have brought his mind perfectly unbiassed to every subject
that he investigated, and to have been guided in every instance by
the most rigorous laws of induction. To these high qualifications he
added great perspicuity in his arrangement, remarkable purity and
beauty of style, and an extensive knowledge of disease, which
enabled him to enrich his work with much valuable practical
information. It is not pretended, but that his experiments upon living
animals may have in some few cases led him to erroneous
conclusions, but how numerous were the instances in which he
obtained from them the most satisfactory and important information.
It has, I know, become fashionable of late to undervalue these
experiments, and to deny that any useful application can be made of
them. It is no doubt true, that the sufferings which animals
sometimes undergo in these experiments, are such as to destroy
entirely the order and regularity of all the functions, and of course to
prevent us from determining any thing as to these functions in
health. This probably was the case with some of the experiments of
Magendie on vomiting, and Legallois on the principle of life; but let
us not condemn this mode of investigation because it has been
sometimes injudiciously employed, let us not forget that the
argument is wholly directed against the abuse of it, and that these
experiments have already led to some practical consequences of
immense value. Would the carotid artery have ever been tied in a
living human subject, if it had not been first ascertained that it could
be done with safety in animals?
In translating this work, I have studiously endeavoured to give
with precision the meaning of the author, and have, I fear, by this
means frequently employed French idiomatic expressions. From the
great originality of many parts of the General Anatomy, Bichat found
it necessary in some instances to employ new terms, to which there
were no corresponding words in our language; in such cases, I have
either made use of several, or adopted the term, as one or the other
seemed best calculated to render the meaning more clear and exact.
A few notes only have been given, and these for the most part for
the purpose of explaining what was obscure, rather than of
controverting any thing contained in the original. Upon the whole, I
trust that this work will be a valuable acquisition to our stock of
medical literature, and I shall feel as if my labour has not been in
vain, if I shall have been the means of making my countrymen
better acquainted with the writings of its illustrious author.
Boston, April, 1822.
 PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
The work which I now offer to the public, will appear to them
new, I trust, in three points of view; 1st, in the plan that has been
adopted; 2d, in most of the facts which it contains; and 3d, in the
principles which constitute its doctrine.
1st. The plan consists in considering separately and presenting
with all their attributes, each of the simple systems, which, by their
different combinations, form our organs. The basis of this plan is
anatomical, but the details that it embraces belong also to medicine
and physiology. It has nothing in common, but the name, with what
has been lately advanced upon the anatomy of systems; my Treatise
on the Membranes alone gives an outline of it.
2d. The facts and observations in this work, in addition to what is
already known, form a very numerous series. I shall not give an
analysis of them; the reader will supply it, how little soever he may
know of works on Anatomy and Physiology. Experiments on living
animals, trials with different reagents on organized textures,1
dissection, examinations after death, observations upon man in
health and disease, these are sources whence I have drawn them,
and they are the sources of nature. I have not, however, neglected
authors, those especially who make the science of the animal
economy a science of facts and experiments.
I will make but one remark upon the experiments contained in this
work; amongst them will be found a series upon the simple textures,
which I subjected successively to desiccation, putrefaction,
maceration, ebullition, stewing, and to the action of the acids and
the alkalies. It will be easily seen, that it was not the object of these
experiments to determine the composition, or ascertain the different
elements, and consequently give a chemical analysis of simple
textures; for this purpose they would have been insufficient; but
their object was to establish the distinctive characters of these
simple textures, to show that each has a peculiar organization, as
each has a peculiar life, and to prove by the different results which
they gave, that the division which I have adopted is not speculative,
but that it rests upon the diversity of their intimate structure. The
different re-agents, which I used, were only to assist me where the
scalpel was insufficient, and on this account, therefore, I presume
these experiments will have some influence upon Anatomy.
3d. The general doctrine of this work has not precisely the
character of any of those which have prevailed in medicine. Opposed
to that of Boerhaave, it differs from that of Stahl and those authors
who, like him, refer every thing in the living economy, to a single
principle, purely speculative, ideal, and imaginary, whether
designated by the name of soul, vital principle, or archeus. The
general doctrine of this work consists in analyzing with precision the
properties of living bodies, in showing that every physiological
phenomenon is ultimately referable to these properties considered in
their natural state; that every pathological phenomenon derives from
them augmentation, diminution, or alteration; that every therapeutic
phenomenon has for its principle the restoration of the part to the
natural type, from which it has been changed; in determining with
precision the cases in which each property is brought into action; in
distinguishing accurately in physiology as well as in medicine, that
which is derived from one, and that which flows from others; in
ascertaining by rigorous induction the natural and morbific
phenomena which the animal properties produce, and those which
are derived from the organic; and in pointing out when the animal
sensibility and contractility are brought into action, and when the
organic sensibility and the sensible or insensible contractility. We
shall be easily convinced upon reflection, that we cannot precisely
estimate the immense influence of the vital properties in the
physiological sciences, before we have considered these properties
in the point of view in which I have presented them. It will be said,
perhaps, that this manner of viewing them is still a theory; I will
answer, that it is a theory like that which shows in the physical
sciences, gravity, elasticity, affinity, &c. as the primitive principles of
the facts observed in these sciences. The relation of these properties
as causes to the phenomena as effects, is an axiom so well known in
physics, chemistry, astronomy, &c. at the present day, that it is
unnecessary to repeat it. If this work establishes an analogous
axiom in the physiological sciences, its object will be attained.
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
There are in nature two classes of beings, two classes of
properties, and two classes of sciences. The beings are either
organic or inorganic, the properties vital or non-vital, and the
sciences physiological or physical. Animals and vegetables are
organic—minerals are inorganic. Sensibility and contractility are vital
properties; gravity, elasticity, affinity, &c. are non-vital properties.
Animal and vegetable physiology, and medicine form the
physiological sciences; astronomy, physics, chemistry, &c. are the
physical sciences. These two classes of sciences have relation only to
different phenomena; there are two other classes that correspond to
these, which relate to the internal and external forms of bodies and
their description. Botany, anatomy, and zoology, are the sciences of
organic bodies; mineralogy, &c. of the inorganic. The first will occupy
us, and we shall fix our attention especially upon the relations of
living bodies with one another, and their relations with those that do
not live.
I. General remarks upon physiological and physical sciences.
The differences between these sciences are derived essentially
from those existing between the properties that preside over the
phenomena, which are the object of each class of sciences. So
immense is the influence of these properties, that they are the
principle of all phenomena; whether we examine those of
astronomy, of hydraulics, of dynamics, of optics, of acoustics, &c. we
shall finally arrive by a connexion of causes to gravity, to elasticity,
&c. as the end of our researches. So the vital property is the primum
mobile to which we must ascend, whether we consider the
phenomena of respiration, of digestion, of secretion, circulation,
inflammation, fevers, &c.—In giving existence to every body, nature
has imprinted upon it a certain number of properties, that
particularly characterize it, and by means of which it contributes in
its own manner, to all the phenomena that are developed, succeed,
and continually connect themselves in the universe. Cast your eyes
upon that which surrounds you; turn them upon objects the most
distant; whether, aided by the telescope, they examine those that
swim in space, or, armed with the microscope, they enter the world
of those, whose minuteness almost evades our view, every where
you will find on one side physical properties, on the other vital
properties, brought into action; every where you will see inert bodies
gravitating upon each other, and reciprocally attracting; living bodies
gravitate also, but above all they feel, and possess a motion which
they owe only to themselves.
These properties are so inherent in bodies, that we cannot
conceive of their existence without them. They constitute their
essence and their attribute. To exist and to enjoy them are two
things inseparable. Suppose that of a sudden they are deprived of
them; instantly all the phenomena of nature cease, and matter alone
exists. Chaos was only matter without properties; to create the
universe, God endowed it with gravity, elasticity, affinity, &c. and to a
part he gave sensibility and contractility.
This mode of considering the vital and physical properties,
sufficiently shews, that we cannot ascend above them in our
explanations, that they afford the principles, and that these
explanations are to be deduced from them as consequences. The
physical sciences, as well as the physiological, then, are composed
of two things; 1st. the study of phenomena, which are effects; 2d.
the research into the connexions that exist between them and the
physical or vital properties, which are the causes.
For a long time these sciences have not been so considered; every
fact that was observed, was made the subject of a particular
hypothesis. Newton was the first to remark, that however variable
the physical phenomena were, they could all be referred to a certain
number of principles. He analyzed these principles and found that
attraction enjoyed the most important place among them. Attracted
by each other and by their sun, the planets describe their eternal
courses; attracted to the centre of our system, the waters, air,
stones, &c. move or tend to move towards it: it is truly a sublime
idea, and one that serves as the basis to all the physical sciences.
Let us render homage to Newton; he was the first who discovered
the secret of the Creator, viz. A simplicity of causes reconciled with a
multiplicity of effects.
The epoch of this great man was the most remarkable of human
wisdom. Since that period, we have had principles from which we
draw facts as consequences. This epoch, so advantageous to the
physical sciences, was nothing to the physiological; what do I say? it
retarded their progress. Mankind soon saw nothing but attraction
and impulse in the vital phenomena.
Boerhaave, though brilliant in genius, suffered himself to be
dazzled by a system which misled all the men of learning of his age,
and which made a revolution in the physiological sciences, that may
be compared to that effected in the physical, by the vortices of
Descartes. The plausibility of the theory and the celebrated name of
its author, gave to this revolution an empire, which, though rotten in
its foundation, was not easily overthrown.
Stahl, less brilliant than profound, rich in the means that convince,
though deficient in those that please, formed for the physiological
sciences an epoch more worthy of notice than that of Boerhaave. He
perceived the discordance between the physical laws and the
functions of animals; this was the first step towards the discovery of
the vital laws, but he did not discover them. The soul was to him
every thing in the phenomena of life; it was much to neglect
attraction and impulse. Stahl perceived that these were not true, but
the truth escaped him. Many authors, following his steps, have
referred to a single principle, differently denominated by each, all
the vital phenomena. This, called the vital principle by Barthez,
archeus by Van Helmont, &c. is a speculation that has no more
reality than that which would refer to a single principle all the
physical phenomena. Among these we know that some are derived
from gravity, some from elasticity, others from affinity, &c. The same
in the living economy, some are derived from sensibility, others from
contractility.
Unknown to the ancients, the laws of life have begun to be
understood during the last age only. Stahl had already remarked the
tonic motions, but he did not generalize their influence. Haller was
engaged particularly with sensibility and irritability; but in limiting
one to the nervous system, and the other to the muscular, this great
man did not consider them in the correct point of view; he made
them almost insulated properties. Vicq d'Azyr changed them into
functions in his physiological division and ranked them with
ossification, digestion, &c. that is, he confounded the principle with
the consequence. Thus you see, notwithstanding the labours of a
crowd of learned men, how much the physiological sciences still
differ from the physical. In these, the chemist refers all the
phenomena that he observes to affinity: the natural philosopher, in
his science, every where sees gravity, elasticity, &c. In the others,
we have not as yet ascended, at least in a general manner, from the
phenomena to the properties from which they are derived.
Digestion, circulation, or the sensations, do not bring the idea of
sensibility or contractility to the mind of the physiologist, as the
movement of a watch proves to the mechanician that elasticity is the
primum mobile of its motion; or as the wheel of a mill or of any
machine, which running water sets in motion, proves to the natural
philosopher that gravity is the cause. To place upon the same level
in this respect these two classes of sciences, it is evidently necessary
to form a just idea of vital properties. If their limits are not
accurately assigned, we cannot with precision analyze their
influence. I shall present here only general considerations on this
point, which has been treated sufficiently in my Researches upon
Life; what I shall add now will be but as a supplement to what has
been explained in that work.
II. Of vital properties, and their influence upon all the phenomena
of the physiological sciences.
 To assign the limits of these properties, we must follow them from
bodies that are hardly developed, to those which are the most
perfect. In the plants that seem to form the transition from
vegetables to animals, you discover only an internal motion that is
scarcely real; their growth is as much by the affinity of particles and
consequently by juxta-position, as by a true nutrition. But in
ascending to vegetables better organized, you see them continually
pervaded by fluids, that circulate in numerous capillary canals, which
mount, descend, and run in a thousand different directions,
according to the state of the forces that regulate them. This
continual motion of fluids is foreign to the physical properties, the
vital ones only direct it. Nature has endowed every portion of a
vegetable with a faculty of feeling the impression of fluids, with
which their fibres are in contact, and of reacting upon them in an
insensible manner, to favour their course. The first of these faculties
I call organic sensibility, the other, insensible organic contractility.
This is very obscure in most vegetables; it is the same in the bones
of animals. These two properties govern not only the vegetable
circulations, which correspond in some measure to the capillary
system of animals, but also the secretion, absorption, and exhalation
of vegetables. Remark, in fine, that these bodies have only functions
relative to their properties; that all the phenomena that animals
derive from properties which they have more than vegetables, as the
great circulation and digestion, for which there must be sensible
organic contractility; as the sensations, for which there must be
animal sensibility; and locomotion, the voice, &c. for which animal
contractility is necessary; remark, I say, that these functions are
essentially foreign to vegetables, since they have not vital properties
to place them in action.
For the same reason the catalogue of their diseases is less
extensive. They have not the class of nervous diseases, in which the
animal sensibility takes so great a part; they have not those of
convulsions or paralysis, which are formed by an augmented or
diminished animal contractility; they have not those of fevers, or
gastric diseases, which evidently arise from a disorder in the sensible
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