Physiological Researches on Life and Death

by Xavier Bichat

VI. Of the education of the animal life as to duration.

The education of the organs of the animal life, is prolonged for a time which we cannot determine, as it is influenced by such a variety of circumstances; but the peculiarity of this education consists in its being the business of each age, to bring to perfection certain organs in particular.

In childhood, the senses more especially are educated; every thing seems to relate to the development of their functions. Environed with bodies which are new to him, the little individual seeks to know them all; he maintains in a sort of perpetual expectation those organs by which his connexions with what is near him are established, and undoubtedly his sensibility is excessively developed. His nervous compared with his muscular system, is proportionally very great; accordingly for the dissection of the nerves, we always prefer the bodies of children.

With the education of the senses, the improvement of the functions of the brain which relate to sensation is necessarily connected. In proportion, then, as the sum of the sensations becomes enlarged, the memory and imagination begin to come into play. The age which follows infancy, is that of the education of those parts of the brain in which these faculties are seated.—It is then, that there have existed a sufficient number of antecedent sensations for the exercise of the memory, and for the discovery of the type of those illusory sensations which it is the business of the imagination to assemble. On the other hand, the little activity of the judgment at this epoch is much in favour of the energy of these two faculties; and then the revolution which puberty brings on, the taste which it develops, and the desires which it creates, contribute very much to extend the sphere of the latter of them.

When perception, memory, and the imagination have been perfected, when their education is finished, that of the judgment commences, or rather becomes more active, for the judgment begins to be exercised upon the very first materials, with which it is presented. At this epoch the functions of the senses, and partly those of the brain have nothing more to acquire, and all the powers of the individual, are concentrated upon the education of the judgment.

Hence it is manifest, that the first portion of the animal life, or that by means of which we are acted on from without, and reflect such action, has at each age a division, which is then particularly unfolded. The first age is that of the education of the senses, the second that of the enlargement of the imagination, the third that of the development of the judgment.

We should never then prescribe the study of the sciences, which exact the exercise of the judgment, at an age when the senses are especially in action; but follow in our artificial methods of education, the same laws which preside over the natural education of the organs. The child should be applied to music and design; the adolescent, to the sciences of nomenclature, and the belles lettres; the adult, to the exacter sciences, where facts are connected by a process of reasoning. The study of logic and the mathematics, terminated our ancient plan of education; it was one advantage at least among its numerous imperfections.

As to the second portion of the animal life, or that by means of which the animal reacts upon external bodies, the state of infancy is characterized by the number, the frequency, and feebleness of its motions; adult age by their vigour; and adolescence by a mixture of the two. The voice, however, does not appear to follow these proportions, but is subject to an influence which proceeds especially from the organs of generation.

I shall not dwell upon the different modifications, which with respect to the animal life are derived from sex, climate, and season. So many have treated of these questions, that it would be difficult to add to what has been said upon them.

In speaking of the laws of education, as they affect the organs of the external life, I have supposed these organs to be in a state of complete integrity, and possessed of whatever is necessary to their perfection.—If they be feeble or delicate, if any defect of conformation exist in them, these laws will only be applicable more or less; for it is manifest that the habit of judging will not rectify the judgment, if the brain be badly constituted; and that the frequent exercise of the larynx and voluntary muscles, will never make up for the irregularity of action occasioned by irregularity of conformation.