Page:Physiological Researches upon Life and Death.djvu/32

Rh that the other is made up of two only; that there is a manifest inequality of volume between them; that the two divisions of the pulmonary artery resemble each other neither in their course nor in their diameter; that the mediastinum upon which runs the median line deviates perceptibly to the left, we shall see that the symmetry was but apparent, and that the common law suffers no exception.

The organs of exhalation and absorption, the serous membranes, the thoracic canal, the great right lymphatic vessel, and the secondary absorbents of all the parts have throughout an unequal and irregular distribution.

In the glandulous system, we see the cryptæ or mucous follicles everywhere disseminated without order, under their respective membranes. The pancreas, liver, and salivary glands even, though apparently more symmetrical, are not found exactly subjected to the median line. The vs differ from each other in their position, the number of their lobes, (in the infant) the length and size of their artery and their vein, and above all, in their frequent varieties.

These numerous considerations lead us evidently to a conclusion the reverse of the preceding, that is to say, that the peculiar attribute of the organs of internal life, is the irregularity of their external forms.

follows from the view which has been taken, that animal life is, as it were, double, that its phenomena executed at the same time on two sides, form in each of those