the  counter  proof, — the  acknowledgment  that  true  globules  are
sxclusively  characteristic  of  living  fluids,  in  opposition  to  those
which,  as  simple  products,  are  essentially  inert,  and  hold  in  sus-
pension various  solids,  which  m^ke  them  difficult  to  be  distin-
guished from  true  globules,  notwithstanding  the  determinate  form
of  the  latter.  Microscopical  observations  are  too  delicate,  and
sometimes  deceptive,  to  admit  at  present  of  the  irreversible  estab-
lishment of  this  essential  point  of  anatomical  doctrine.         ,

The  statical  study  of  living  bodies  would  form  but  a  very  incom-
plete introduction  to  the  dynamical,  if  the  fluids  were  left  out  of
the  investigation  of  the  organic  elements,  however  much  remains
to  be  desired  in  our  knowledge  of  them.  The  omission  of  them  in
Bichat's  treatise  leaves  a  great  gap.  Still,  as  the  anatomy  of
solids  must  always  take  precedence  of  that  of  fluids,  Bichat  chose
the  true  point  of  departure,  though  he  did  not  undertake  the  whole
subject.  It  must  be  added  that  the  examination  of  the  fluids  is  so
much  the  more  difficult  of  the  two  as  to  be  well  nigh  impracticable.
