Novum Organum

“ Leslie Stephen are agreed that the Novum Organum is the work of a poet, and that it was written by the author of the Plays. But if it is conceded that Shakespeare wrote Novum Organum, it still remains a mystery to Baconians as to who wrote Shakespeare. After Shakespeare’s death, Bacon, in De Augmentis, wrote that “the theatre might be useful either for corruption or for discipline; but in modern times there is plenty of corruption on the stage, and no discipline.” ”

“ Upon the obstacles from want of lime, more imaginary than real, if time is not wasted in frivolous pursuits, in sensuality or in sleep, in mis-application of times of recreation, or in idle curiosity, the Novum Organum contains but one casual, consolatory observation: "We judge also that mankind may conceive some hopes from our example, which we offer, not by way of ostentation, but because it may be useful." ”

“ Macaulay rests his claim of the highest place among philosophers for Bacon not on his inductive theory, to which the historian rightly denies any novelty, but on the new purpose and direction that the search for knowledge is assumed to have received from his teaching. On this view the whole of modern science has been created by the desire to convert nature into an instrument for the satisfaction of human wants—an ambition dating from the publication of the Novum Organum. ”

“ The idea of an entirely specific structure for each cell of an organ—both from the chemical and physical points of view—is based not only on the supposition that, without such a notion, the special duties and functions of the separate cells of the body would appear incomprehensible, but, above all, on the above-mentioned fact that definite secretions given off by particular organs act constantly and only upon cells of a definite system. ”

“ If our ideas concerning the structure of the particular cells of an organ, and the dependence of its functions on this peculiarity, prove correct, then it follows that, as we have already emphasized, each kind of cell must have at its disposal units of its own kind. We may then speak of substances that are "in harmony with" an organ, or even more precisely, "with the cells" ”

“ Now if the compound molecules of the blood, or of an organism considered in the aggregate, have the power of moulding into their own type the matters which they absorb as nutriment; and if they have the power when their type has been changed by disease, of moulding materials afterwards received into the modified type; may we not reasonably suspect that the more or less specialized molecules of each organ have, in like manner, the power of moulding the materials which the blood brings to them into similarly specialized molecules? ”

“ For every structure, therefore, there is a period of emergence from something more general. The earliest discernible germ of any part or organ may be called its primordium. In this sense the ovum is the primordium of the individual, the primitive outer tissue the primordium of all structures of the skin and nervous system, the primitive inner layer of the intestine and all structures connected with it, etc. ”

“ It is thought of as a very minute corpuscle of living matter. Thus there are determinants of hairs and scales, pieces of skin, pits, marks, &c. But every determined organ, or part, or “independent region,” is itself in its turn an “organism,” is indeed a system of an infinite number of interrelated component parts, and each of these again is another, down to the individual cells. And each cell is an “organism” in itself, and so on into infinity. Is all this represented in the determinants? ”

“ As the body is composed of individual organs, and each organ of separate tissues, so each tissue is made up of minute cells. Each cell is a little world by itself, too small to be seen by the naked eye, but open to the microscope. It has its own form and constitution as much as a special organ in the body. It absorbs from the blood such food as suits its purposes. Moreover, the number of cells in an organ is as constant as the number of organs. As the organs expand with the growth of the body, so the cells of each tissue enlarge, but shrink again with age and the decline of life. ”

“ In the early stages of their embryonic development, too, the cells differ relatively little; but those that constitute the adult body differ so greatly that any skilled observer can tell from which organ they came, whether from the brain, muscle, skin, stomach, liver, etc.; that is, they differentiate more and more as these organs mature. This differentiation is, however, all on the way to death and is never reversible; that is, old body cells never grow young. ”

“ It immediately manifests all the phenomena of organic life; it forms its own fluids and circulates them; it is nourished and developed; and, very rapidly from being a rudis indigestaque moles, apparently an inorganic drop of fluid, its organs are generated and its form perfected. It daily gains strength and grows; and, while still within the organ of its mother, manifests some of the phenomena of animal life, especially as regards mobility. ”

“ If regenera­tion takes place in pieces which take up no food the newly formed organs must originate from material absorbed from cells of the animal which are hydrolyzed and whose material serves as food for those cells which grow. Very often this process of diges­tion takes place without loss of the total form of the organ and is overlooked by the pure morphologists. ”

“ The globule of albuminoid matter has developed into distinct members—sense-apparatus, organs respiratory, digestive, circulatory, locomotive, etc.—each of which has a separate task to fulfill, and is distinctly organized for that very purpose. It is no departure from our subject to remark that, though in the organic body one organ may, under certain circumstances, undertake the duties of another, such vicarious action involves grave peril to the organ concerned, and to the entire animal. ”

“ By introducing substances which are out of harmony with the species, and more particularly with the plasma, we bring into the organism bodies which are, in their whole structure, absolutely disharmonious with the cells of the body. ”

“ In order the more thoroughly to investigate these matters it is necessary to consider the mode of growth, and specially the plan of evolution or development of each organ. This is the more needful owing to the common origin of things ultimately very different one from the other, and to the presence of organs which, in the adult state, are identical or nearly so in aspect, but which nevertheless are very unlike in the early stages of their existence. ”

“ When we reflect on the part played in the body by the blood, we readily see that a correct idea of how it carries nourishment to the tissues, and how it brings away from them the products of disintegrated protoplasm is of prime importance in physiology. It is the point from which spring all other ideas of the action of tissues, and until this was known the fine analysis of vital processes could not be made. The true idea of respiration, of the secretion by glands, the chemical changes in the tissues, in fact, of all the general activities of the body, hinge upon this conception. ”

“ The knowledge that digestion is the means by which unsuitable products are prevented from passing into the blood and the cells of the body is of the greatest importance for our comprehension of the whole metabolism of the animal organism. Thus, to a certain extent, we may look upon the animal organism as a whole in itself. All the cells of the body have a common architecture, which is bequeathed from generation to generation by means of the sexual cells. The cells which combine into an organ have, besides that, a structure specific for the organ. ”

“ Through histological differentiation the texture of the layers and incipient organs becomes individualised. In its earliest appearance the germ consists of an almost homogeneous mass, containing clear or dark globules suspended in its substance (ii., p. 92) . This homogeneity gives place to heterogeneity; the structureless mass becomes fibrous to form muscles, hardens to form cartilage or bone, becomes liquid to form the blood, differentiates in a hundred other ways—into absorbing and secreting tissues, into nerves and ganglia, and so forth. ”

“ Some molecule now incorporated in our organism escapes from it by expiration, perspiration, etc., to belong to the atmosphere for a longer or shorter time, then to be incorporated into another organism,—plant, animal, or man. The molecules which actually constitute your body were not all made part of your person yesterday, and none of them were there three months ago. Where were they? Either in the air or in another body. All the molecules now forming your organic tissues, your lungs, your eyes, your brain, your legs, etc., have already served to form other organic tissues. ”

“ From the common nutritive fluid, the blood, protoplasm is formed in all the tissues of the body, and we must look upon the characteristic elements and products of these tissues as the result of its destructive metabolism. In each organ of the body the protoplasm appears to have special endowments adapted to their specific functions, but these diverse activities are correlated to serve a common purpose in the life of the individual. ”

“ Only by noting the common characteristics of the cell accumulations termed organs, are we enabled to supply the necessary elements that may be lacking. And thus we arrive at the subject of the chemical analysis of the human body and its various organs, a subject that has been badly neglected throughout the centuries.
It has been determined that the entire human body consists of a certain number of chemical elements, appearing in different aggregations in different parts. These aggregations repeating themselves in the various organs. ”

“ But already we have been able to peer downward and inward, from gross visible matter, through organs, tissues, cells, nuclei, nucleoli, and granules, until, in the so-called structureless protoplasm, our present hunting-ground and limit, we seem to have reached the confines of the inorganic molecule and atom, which are subject to chemical instead of physiological law. ”

“ Numerous experiments have shown, as has already been mentioned, that definite cells depend upon definite secretions having their origin in other organs. If we remove certain organs, for instance the thyroid gland, the accessory thyroids, the sexual glands, the suprarenal bodies, and so on, we get definite degenerative phenomena appearing. In many instances, indeed, the absence of these organs is incompatible with life itself. The same phenomenon manifests itself when the organ is left in its proper place, but through some cause or other gradually discontinues its proper functions. ”

“ Owing to the greater variety in elementary composition, there is in organic substance a more various polar distribution than in crystals; nevertheless, there are sharply defined limits never overstepped, and these constitute what may be called the specific forms of Organites, Tissues, Organs, Organisms. An epithelial cell, for example, may be ciliated or columnar, a muscle-fibre striated or non-striated, a nerve-fibre naked or enveloped in a sheath, but the kind is always sharply defined. ”

“ Further, all epithelial cells, either of the outer or inner surfaces, whether forming special sense-organs and glands, such as the digestive and sweat-glands, or not, are connected with the nervous system. Besides these structures, there is another set of organs as to which we cannot speak definitely at present, which must be considered separately, viz. all the cells, together with their derived organs, which line the body-spaces. Whatever may be the ultimate decision as to this group of cells, it must fall into one or other of the two main groups. ”

“ Purely as a consequence of the chemico-physical nature of the germ, of the properties of the substances included in it on the one hand, and of the implicit structure and configuration of its parts, down to the intrinsic specific undulatory rhythm of its molecules, it must follow that its mass grows exactly as it does, and not otherwise, that it behaves as it does and not otherwise, duplicating itself by division after division, and by intricate changes arranging and rearranging the results of division until the embryo or larva, and finally the complete organism, is formed. ”

“ To understand life, therefore, we must understand protoplasm; for protoplasm, closely as it approximates to colloid matter, is thoroughly alive. A whole family, the Monera, consist simply of a living globule of jelly, which has not even begun to be differentiated. Every molecule, as in a crystal, is of homogeneous chemical composition and an epitome of the whole mass. There are no special parts, no organs told off for particular functions, and yet all life-functions—nutrition, reproduction, sensation, and movement—are performed, but each by the whole body. ”

“ Physiologists are gradually proving the statement that these and all other vital changes are, in ultimate analysis, changes in the protoplasm of the body, and that they are not brought about by any peculiar vital force, but are the direct outcome of the physical and chemical structure of the protoplasm itself; so that vital changes, considered simply as changes, must not be regarded as peculiar, and fundamentally unlike the changes of inorganic matter. ”

“ Among certain lower and microscopic organisms, such for instance as the Rotifera, we are still more palpably struck by the small number of cells which go to constitute a usually complex organ, such as kidney, stomach, ovary, etc. ”

“ The same little protecting organs pave all the great highways of the interior system. Cells, again, preside over the chemical processes which elaborate the living fluids; they change their form to become the agents of voluntary and involuntary motion; the soul itself sits on a throne of nucleated cells, and flashes its mandates through skeins of glassy filaments which once were simple chains of vesicles. ”