Final Causes and Contemponeous Physiology (translated from the Revue des duex Mondes) [pp. 291-321]

1876.] FINAL CAUSES. 29S
that the structure of organs is but a secondary element in physiology, and further, that the organ itself is only a secondary
object; and that it is necessary to go further, to penetrate more
deeply, in order to discover the laws of life. The organ, as
well as the function, is only a resultant. In the inorganic
kingdom nature shows us compound bodies, which are resolved
by chemistry into simple elements; in like manner, in the domain of life, the organs are compounds, of which physiology
must investigate the elements. This revolution was brought
about by the immortal Bichat. It was he who thought of investigating and studying the first elements of organization,
which he called the tiSS2tCS. The tissues are not organs; the
same organ may be composed of many tissues, and the same
tissue may serve for several organs. The tissues are endowed
with elementary properties, which are inherent, immanent, specific; it is no n~orc possibic to dcdiicc, 4 priori, t/2c propertics of tissues tItan t/tc propertirs ofoxygon; observation and experience
alone can discover them. In philosophic physiology, or general
physiology, the only object is then the determination of the
elementary properties of living tissues. It is for descriptive
physiology to show how these tissues are combined in different organs, according to the different species of animals, and
to explain the functions by the working of these elementary
properties of living matter, of which they are only the resultants. Wherever a certain tissue exists, it exists with a certain
property. Muscular tissue will everywhere be endow#d with
the property of contracting; nervous tissue with the property
of transmitting sensations or movements. The tissues, in
their turn, are not the last elements of organization; beyond
the tissues is discovered the true organic element, which is
the cell. Thus the functions of organs are nothing more
than the various actions of the cells which constitute them.
Hence, it is evident that form and structure, however important they may be from the standpoint of descriptive physiology,
play but a secondary r5le in general physiology.
Another physiologist, M. Charles Robin, whose authority in
histology and micrography is well known, expresses on this
subject ideas analogous to those of M. Claude Bernard, and
goes even further. M. Claude Bernard, while limiting science
to the investigation of the elementary properties of living mat