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

by Xavier Bichat

Properties of Organic Life.

Of the properties of organic life, the sensible contractility is wanting in the glandular system. But the two other properties are developed in it to the highest degree. They are in constant activity; secretion, excretion and nutrition keep them in incessant action there. It is by its organic sensibility that the gland distinguishes, in the mass of blood, the materials which are proper for its secretion. It is by its insensible contractility, or its tonic forces, that it contracts to throw out those which are foreign to this secretion. The first is on a small scale in each gland, what the animal sensibility of the tongue and the nostrils is on a large one, which allows only aliments suitable for the stomach to be introduced into its cavity; the other does insensibly, what is effected in so evident a manner by the glottis, when it rises up convulsively against a foreign body that attempts to enter it. The blood contains the materials of all the secretions, of the nutrition of all the organs, and of all the exhalations. Each gland draws from this common reservoir what is necessary to its secretion, as each organ does what is proper for its nutrition, and as each serous surface does what is suitable for its exhalation. Now it is by its organic sensibility that each living part of the body distinguishes what its functions require.

When the fluids enter the small vessels of the gland, this sensibility is the sentinel that gives notice of it, and the insensible contractility is the agent which opens or closes the gates of the organ, according to the principles that are presented. This comparison, if I may be allowed the use of it, gives an idea of what then takes place. Every glandular action turns then especially upon these two properties, and as this action is almost permanent, they are then constantly in exercise.

From this it is evident, that all the glandular diseases ought to suppose a derangement in these properties; for, as we have often seen, they are the predominant properties of an organ, those, the exercise of which constitutes its peculiar life, which especially determine its diseases, by their alteration. This is in fact what observation shows us. Here we see these properties increased or diminished, sometimes produce an increase of secretion, as in diabetes, mercurial salivation, immoderate flow of bile, &c.; sometimes a diminution, a suspension even of this function, as in acute diseases in which all the ducts are closed as it were in a moment, as in the suppression of urine, dryness of the mouth, &c. It is the alteration in the nature of the glandular sensibility that puts it in relation with fluids foreign to the glands in a natural state; hence the innumerable varieties of the secreted fluids especially in diseases. I have spoken of these varieties as it regards the mucous fluids. The liver and the kidneys particularly do not experience less numerous ones. The taste, the colour, the consistence and odour of cystic bile appear in a thousand different states in dead bodies. Who is ignorant of the innumerable alterations of which the urine is susceptible? The saliva is less variable; but in diseases how different is it from its natural state. It is sufficient to have noticed for some time the various evacuations in diseases, to see of how many modifications they are capable. Nothing less resembles the urine and bile, than the fluids sometimes thrown out by the bladder and the liver; whence do these varieties arise? From this, that the variable organic sensibility places the organ in relation with substances to which it was foreign in a natural state; and from this, that the insensible contractility allows substances to enter the organ which it before excluded. The same gland without changing its texture, by a modification only of its vital forces, can then be a source of an infinite variety of different fluids; I believe even that the kidney, by taking a sensibility analogous to that of the liver, may secrete bile. Why may it not secrete it, if it can secrete other fluids so different from its own?

In health, each gland has a mode of sensibility nearly uniform, a mode which changes but little; thus each secreted fluid has an appearance, a consistence and a nature always nearly the same. But in diseases, a thousand causes change this mode at every instant. An hysterical paroxysm strikes the kidneys; in an instant they repulse all the principles that colour the urine, and this comes out limpid; the paroxysm passes off, the organ resumes its ordinary sensibility, and the urine returns to its usual state. The influence of the epileptic paroxysm extends to the sensibility of the salivary glands; in a moment, a thick, copious and frothy saliva, wholly different from the natural, comes from the mouth; after the paroxysm, the sympathetic storm is calmed in the gland, and the saliva returns to its ordinary state. If I may be allowed the comparison, the glands are in diseases like the atmosphere in the equinoxes. At these periods, the winds which succeed each other and incessantly change, often make rain, hail and snow succeed each other in a very short time; so the forces of the glandular life, constantly variable in diseases, make the different products of secretion vary with rapidity.

It is not only to secretion that the various alterations of the organic sensibility and the insensible contractility of the glands extend; these alterations when long continued, have an influence also upon their nutrition; they disturb the course of it; hence the changes of texture, the tumours of different kinds, the organic diseases, &c. that are so frequent in the glandular system, a system which presents the greatest field for morbid anatomy. The great number of organic diseases which it exhibits, in our dissecting rooms, compared with most of the other systems, is very striking. The glandular, the cutaneous, the mucous, the serous, the cellular systems, &c. hold the first rank in this respect. Observe also that it is in them that the organic sensibility and the insensible contractility are raised to the highest degree, because they are the only ones in which these properties are brought into action not only by nutrition, but also by various other functions that are going on in the insensible capillary system, viz. by exhalation, absorption and secretion.

Sympathies.

Few systems are more frequently the seat of sympathies than this. In examining them I shall adopt the same order as in the preceding system.

Passive Sympathies.

The glandular texture is affected with extreme ease by all the others. This constitutes its passive sympathies. They take place, 1st, in a natural state; 2d, in diseases.