The Hunterian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14, 1853 / by Bransby B. Cooper.

  • Cooper, Bransby Blake, 1792-1853.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14, 1853 / by Bransby B. Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    plants are not identical with those of some of the lower types of animals; motion in an organic body may either depend merely upon the physical properties of some of its structures, or upon vital contractile power inherent in some appropriate apparatus. Hunter has said, in speaking of motion, The simplest organiza- tion is a certain arrangement of matter, so as to pro- duce some action; this may be of two kinds—first, by such as may occur in any matter of which elasticity is one; and secondly, as is capable of producing a motion in itself. Now, the peculiar motions of plants seem to belong to that action which common matter may manifest from mere elasticity, but still so delicate is the construction of the apparatus, and so slight the causes necessary to induce its action, that it is almost impossible to distinguish it in certain plants from the motion induced by irritability; as yet, however, the microscope has not detected any structure resembling the muscular fibres of either the involuntary or voluntary muscles of animals. The motions of animals are principally due to a peculiar property with which muscular fibre is en- dowed, whereby it is capable of contracting under the influence of certain forces resulting from some myste- rious connexion with the volition of the being, so as to approximate parts distant from one another; thus, the motions of limbs, and indeed of the whole body in the act of locomotion, are performed by, and are wholly under the control of, the will of the individual. But not so in reference to the motion of the hollow visceral organs, which perform functions most essen-