ORGANIC MOVEMENTS 91 



the mature germ l we had the intimate structure of mere 

 direction, more or less regulable according to the state of 

 the protoplasm, and the true material structure showing 

 scarcely any regulability at all. In the brain of the adult, 

 as we shall see, we find the two features a simple structure 

 for conduction and then some higher sort of tectonics, and 

 here again only one of them seems to be regulable to any 

 great extent. The hypothetic differences between the 

 young and the adult brain with regard to regulability are 

 paralleled, on the other hand, by the differences of the 

 germ before and after fertilisation and maturation. 



The Connecting Function 



In the first place, the brain is a system of nervous 

 connexions of almost inconceivable complexity for the work 

 of conduction. I think we shall not be very wrong in 

 saying that not only is every part of the brain connected in 

 some way with every other, but also almost every part of 

 the surface of the body is by the aid of the brain connected 

 in some way with every other part. 2 It is to these features 

 that the functional regulability of the brain relates. It is 

 a known fact that cerebral diseases, apoplexy in particular, 

 diminish in their symptoms after a certain time, at least to 

 a certain extent, and it is also known from experimental 

 work 3 that defects in the brain, caused by a localised 



1 See vol. i. page 85 ff. 



2 For man this statement can be proved as follows : You are able to decide 

 voluntarily that when a certain point of your skin is touched you will touch 

 with your finger another certain point of it ; the two points may be any you 

 please. 



3 Experiment is always better than clinical observation : for sickness may 

 also have atl'ected the faculty of regulability and may overshadow it where it 

 exists. 



