The organic functions are directed by spirit, as well in the new-born as in the educated adult. Functions cannot be percented. We may speak of them in a comparative way, or a relative amount. Functions in physiology is applied to and refers to the action of an organ, or a part of an animal or plant. Function particularly refers to the special duty to be performed by an organ or parts.
Functional activity refers to the physiological or pathological action of an organ.
Instead of examining the cells of dead tissue with a microscope for aberrant functions I have given my investigations to functional deviation in living tissue. I want to repeat, in order to emphasize one of the physiological principles of chiropractic, that the performance of functions, normal or abnormal, depend upon the condition of the organ and the quality of innervating nervous tissue. The vegetative function is that office in the human economy which controls the power of growing. It is concerned with nutrition and growth. The processes of assimilation of nutritive material and its conversion into living substances is known as anabolism.