Elements of Physiophilosophy

by Lorenz Oken

2186. The motor organ is an organ of prehension. The organs of prehension are endowed with independent motion, and therefore move towards the food. The first general organs of motion are the members of the body. In the higher animals the thoracic members are at once the prehensible organs. Instead of the aliment being obliged to flow, as unto the plant, in a state of suspension in water, the animal moves itself toward its food.

2187. The members are the first organs of prehension. But these are repeated in the head as jaws and teeth. The teeth are the second organs of prehension, but the first which belong to the cephalic intestine; they are called organs of seizure or prehension.

2188. The organ of digestion is, however, one of a chemical character. It must be therefore repeated as such in the head. This is shown in the salivary glands. The saliva is the animal gastric juice, and is therefore directly solvent in its properties. It is poison.

2189. After and during the operation of the saliva, the aliments in the mouth are subjected to the action of the molar teeth and ground or chewed. These comminuting or crushing organs are only a repetition of the act of prehension, and consequently belong to the prehensile or biting organs.

2190. The mouth is the stomach repeated in the head.

2191. The union of the intestine with the nervous system is the tongue.

2192. The intestine, when repeated in the head's muscular system, is the organ of deglutition, as is seen in the pharynx and oesophagus.

2193. The prehensile and manducatory, venomous, gustatory, and deglutitory organs, are the forms into which the intestinal system divides, when it is repeated in the after-animal, or in the sphere of animal life. The gustatory organ is the nerve-intestine; the prehensile organ the bone-intestine; the organ of deglutition the muscular intestine; while the poison-organ is the proper cephalic intestine, or the stomach.

2. VASCULAR ORGANS.

2194. The vascular system regarded "en masse," or in a general sense, has to participate in the nutrition of the body; so far it takes the place of the cellular tissue, and cannot therefore be developed for itself into any special organs. If, however, certain vessels separate from the general system, and combine with other systems unto the performance of special offices or functions, organs then originate, which, nevertheless, do not, in a rigid point of view, belong to these systems.