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Untitled Article
Ona of them cannot be suspended , even for a abort time , without the extinction of life . They are , therefore , placed in the interior of the bod y ; firmly fixed ; , that they may not be disturbed by the process of locomotion ; enveloped in membranes ; covered by muscles ; sheltered by bones . But the actions of the animal
organs arq not indispensable to life . They are not the immediate instruments of life , but the means by which a certain relation is established between the living body and external objects ; they are therefore placed , where it is necessary to the convenient performance of their functions that they should be placed , on the exterior of the body , and so placed as to afford a defence to the organic organs . 4 ground-work of the animal life is made the bulwark of the organic life . The muscles are the immediate agents by which voluntary motion is effected . The bones are the fixed points and the levers by which that motion acquires precision , rapidity and power . Now the bones are so disposed that , while they accomplish , in the most perfect manner , their primary and essential office in relation to the muscles , they serve a secondary but scarcely less important office in relation to the internal viscera . ' A beautiful illustration was given of this by views of the trunk
of the human body with its bones and muscles , the apparatus for its motion forming and defending a cavity enclosing the heart , the lungs , the great trunks of the venous and arterial systems and the main trunk of the thoracic duct ; all tender and delicate organs ; all performing functions , the cessation of which for a few moments would destroy life .
While the organic organs , the immediate instruments of life , are thus placed deep in the interior of the body , and are protected by the animal organs , the animal organs themselves , and especially the organs of sense , the organs which put us in connexion with the external world , which make us conscious of the presence of good , which give us note of the approach of evil , are placed where external bodies may be brought most conveniently and completely into contact with them , and where alone they can be effectual as sentinels of the system . * The action of the two lives is still more strikingly different .
The action of the organic life , when sound , is without consciousness ; the very object of that of the animal life is the production of consciousness . The final cause of the one is the maintenance of existence . The final cause of the other is the production of conscious existence . We are not conscious when the heart
contracts , but we are conscious when an external object produces in a sentient nerve that change of state which we term an impression , and it is this knowledge which forms so large a part of the unimal life , and constitutes our percipient existence . The functions of the organic life are performed with uninter-
Untitled Article
Functio n * of the Animal Economy . 55
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 55, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/55/
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