Now if it be possible--and that it is, no one will now attempt to deny--to
divide the brain into distinct faculties, why may not the stomach, which,
it has been admitted by the Lord Mayor and the Board of Aldermen, is a far
nobler organ than the brain,--why may it not also possess several
faculties? As we know that a particular part of the brain is appropriated
for the faculty of _time_, another for that of _wit_, and so on, is it not
reasonable to suppose that there is a certain portion of the stomach
appropriated to the faculty of _roast beef_, another for that of _devilled
kidney_ and so forth?
It may be said that the stomach is a single organ, and therefore incapable
of performing more than one function. As well might it be asserted that it
was a steam-engine, with a single furnace consuming Whitehaven, Scotch, or
Newcastle coals indiscriminately. The fact is, the stomach is not a single
organ, but in reality a congeries of organs, each receiving its own proper
kind of aliment, and developing itself by outward bumps and prominences,
which indicate with amazing accuracy the existence of the particular
faculty to which it has been assigned.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35