Organ (human body)

“ And each body-organ again, composed of a congeries or colony of body-cells, has a life of its own on and beyond that of its component cells, and exhibits curious signs too of intelligence and emotion, which often (especially in sickness) affect the moods and thoughts of the entire man. ”

“ Thus the hand is the tool which we make use of to lay hold of anything—so an organ; the eye is the instrument of sight—so an organ; the heart is the machine which causes the blood to circulate—so an organ; the liver fabricates the bile—it is an organ therefore; the bones are the framework which support the weight of the body—so organs; the muscles are the power which sets the bones in movement—organs also, therefore; the skin is the armor which protects them—so an organ: in fact everything within us is an organ. ”

“ The lungs are the principal organs for the function of breathing; the heart, arteries and veins are the organs which have for their function the circulation of the blood; the principal organ concerned in the digestion of food is the alimentary canal, the function of seeing is performed by the organs of sight, the eyes, and so one might continue the catalogue of all the organs of the body and of all the functions performed by the animal. ”

“ One servant or clerk does one kind of work while another does something entirely different. Each portion of the body does a different kind of work. Each one of these parts doing a particular work is called an organ. The stomach is an organ to prepare food and the heart is an organ for sending the blood through the body.
Fig. 5 —On the left are shown the branching tubes which carry blood to all parts of the body; on the right are the brain, spinal cord, and nerves which direct the work of the organs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That the outer world is only for my organs appears inevitable. But what is an organ except so far as it is known? And how can it be known but as itself the state of an organ? If then you are asked to find an organ which is a physical object, you can no more find it than a body which itself is a body. ”

“ In the preceding chapters, we have seen how various and complex are many of the motions necessary to maintain the life of an animal whose organization is superior to all others. We have noted the wonderful mechanism of the muscular system, in producing the varied movements of the body, the different processes by which the food is converted into chyle and mixed with the blood, and the circulation of this fluid to every organ and tissue of the system, that each may select from it the very principles which it requires for its growth. ”

“ There are twelve principal sources of vitality in the human organism; that is, twelve organs from which the two aforesaid vital principles are distributed throughout the body: The heart, the liver, the two kidneys, the lungs, and the spleen are the seat and origin of radical moisture ”

“ The Organ and its Work.—A most interesting question relating to the work of the organ is this: Does the organ work for its own benefit or for the benefit of the body as a whole? Does the hand, for example, grasp for itself or in order that the entire body may come into possession? ”

“ The evolution of a special pumping organ, the heart, associated with the aeration of the body fluids in the gills, led to the perfection of the efficient system of circulation which is found, in the vertebrata.
The blood is to be regarded as alive in as strict a sense as any other- component of the living body. It is a tissue consisting of mobile elements—the blood corpuscles—and a plasma—a colloidal albuminous fluid which is analogous to the more solid intercellular material of other tissues. ”

“ The similarity of the texture of the brain to that of the pancreas, and some other glands of the body, has induced the inquirers into this subject to believe, that a fluid, perhaps much more subtile than the electric aura, is separated from the blood by that organ for the purposes of motion and sensation. ”

“ Not only the brain, but also the organs [392] of sense, as the eyes, the nose, the ears, are perfectly symmetrical; and they as well as the other organs of animal life, as the feet and hands, are double, presenting on each side of the body two separate parts which correspond with each other, and produce a symmetry unknown to our vegetative life, the organs of which are, for the most part, merely single, as in the stomach, liver, pancreas, and spleen. ”

“ Regarding our bodily structure as a kind of living machine, we have studied its various parts, and found that each is designed to perform some special work essential to the well-being of the whole. As yet we have learned of no means by which these organs are enabled to adjust their activities to the needs of other tissues and other organs. We are now prepared to study a higher, a more wonderful and complex agency,—the nervous system, the master tissue, which controls, regulates, and directs every other tissue of the human body. ”

“ There is a trinity in our anatomy. Three systems, to which all the organs are directly or indirectly subsidiary, divide and control the body. First, there is the nutritive system, composed of stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, glands, and vessels, by which food is elaborated, effete matter removed, the blood manufactured, and the whole organization nourished. This is the commissariat. Secondly, there is the nervous system, which co-ordinates all the organs and functions; which enables man to entertain relations with the world around him, and with his fellows ”

“ Among the other great acquisitions gradually evolved we may notice: a well-developed head with sense-organs, the establishment of large internal surfaces such as the digestive and absorptive wall of the food-canal, the origin of quickly contracting striped muscle and of muscular appendages, the formation of blood as a distributing medium throughout the body, from which all the parts take what they need and to which they also contribute. ”

“ First, other congeries of glands occupy but a particular part of the system, or constitute a particular organ, as the liver, or kidneys; but those glands, which secrete the mucus, and perspirable matter, which are called capillaries, are of very great extent; they receive the blood from the arteries, separate from it the mucus, which lines every cell, and covers every cavity of body; and the perspirable matter, which softens and lubricates the whole surface of the skin, and the more extensive surface of the air-vessels, which compose the lungs. ”

“ When an organ is exercised properly, there is an increased blood supply to it, and, consequently, stimulated nutrition and growth in various parts, such as in the muscular, nervous or other tissues.
When an organ is disused there is diminished blood supply, and, consequently, diminished growth and functional capacity. In man it is known that certain activities, such as coal-heaving, shoemaking, etc., produce recognizable effects upon the muscular system, the skeleton, and other parts of the body. ”

“ By themselves the muscles, nerves, and sense organs cannot carry on power development; they require the aid of a great many other organs to do this. Just how these other organs work will be described later; at present it will be enough to recall that every muscle, every nerve, and every sense organ is actually made up of a great many of the tiny construction units—the cells about which we were talking a few pages back—and that every one of these cells must be developing power all the time if it is to go on living. ”

“ That the essential identity of bodily organs and tools is no ingenious paradoxical way of putting things is evident from the fact that we speak of bodily organs at all. Organ means tool. There is nothing which reveals our most genuine opinions to us so unerringly as our habitual and unguarded expressions, and in the case under consideration so completely do we instinctively recognise the underlying identity of tools and limbs, that scientific men use the word “organ” for any part of the body that discharges a function, practically to the exclusion of any other term. ”

“ Several systems of vessels in which the most important functions of animal life are carried on—the absorbent system, for example, and even that portion of it which receives the food after it is digested, and which conveys it into the blood, are invisible to the naked eye, except under peculiar circumstances: whence it must be evident, not only that the interior of the human body must be laid open, in order that its organs may be seen; but that these organs must be minutely and patiently dissected, in order that their structure may be understood. ”

“ Each organ is to every other as an excreting organ. In other words, to insure perfect health, every tissue, bone, nerve, tendon, or muscle should take from the blood certain materials and return to it certain others. To do this every organ must or ought to have its period of activity and of rest, so as to keep the vital fluid in a proper state to nourish every other part. ”

“ A number of organs working together for the same purpose form a system. The chief systems of the body are the digestive system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the muscular system, and the nervous system. ”

“ Hence the whole muscular system may be considered as one organ of sense, and the various attitudes of the body, as ideas belonging to this organ, of many of which we are hourly conscious, while many others, like the irritative ideas of the other senses, are performed without our attention. ”

“ This distinction is diagnostic but not perfectly characteristic; that is, we may safely classify as an animal any organism in which we find a definite, sharply-limited body, and complicated internal viscera, such as a digestive tract, respiratory organs, blood-vessels, internal reproductive organs, and a nervous system and sense-organs; while we may, with almost equal safety, refer to the vegetable kingdom an organism in which the nervous, sensory, and circulating organs are wanting, and the processes of absorption and respiration take place through the outer surface. ”

“ He fashioned as many lungs, livers, hearts, brains, bladders, spleens, intestines, matrices and generative organs as were required, and, lastly, he made with subtle art, and in sufficient quantity, all the organs by means of which human beings might breathe freely, feed themselves, and enjoy the reproduction of the species. ”

“ For like reasons, we are compelled to believe that the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, kidneys, muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, and other organs and parts of the body are directly and specially made by the Creator. ”

“ If we take for comparison those that assimilate to our general form, anatomy shows us that our organs are the same as theirs; we find in them muscle for muscle, nerve for nerve, that is found in man himself. Physiology, in turn, has demonstrated that, in the body of man, the organs, the muscles, the nerves, have the same animal functions. ”

“ The supply is regulated on the principle that only one set of organs shall be excessively active at one time--now the limbs, now the digestive organs, now the brain; and all the blood in the body that can be spared goes to the support of those organs which, for the time being, are in a state of labour. ”

“ For example, from the outer germ-layer there comes, in all animals, the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, nerves and sense-organs; the outer covering of the body with parts like scales, feathers, hair. The middle layer splits into two sheets and is very complex. It gives rise, in all animals, to muscles, heart, blood-system, connective tissue, including cartilage and bone, etc. ”

“ Reflecting, now, on the organic and physico-chemical conditions required for the support of life and the discharge of its functions, we find that they are the same in the brain as in all the other organs. The blood acts on the anatomical elements of all the tissues by supplying their indispensable conditions of nutrition, temperature, and humidity. When a diminished supply of blood flows to any organ, its activity of function declines, and the organ rests; but if the blood is quite cut off, the elementary properties of the tissue slowly change, while at the same time its function perishes. ”

“ Besides the heart and the great vessels the chest contains the lungs, the chief organ of respiration, which, with the rest of the respiratory system, will now be treated. The nose and mouth, through which the air first enters the body, have already been spoken of. From them the air passes through the larynx to the trachea, thence to the bronchi, and so to the lungs, where the supply of oxygen for the tissues is taken from the air by the hemoglobin of the blood. ”

“ It would sound more accurate if one could say "demanding some end-organ different from those which we know that we possess." But we know too little of the range of perceptivity of these end-organs in the skin which we are gradually learning to distinguish—of the heat-feeling spots, cold-feeling spots, and the like—to be able to say for what purposes a new organ would be needed. ”