Nervous Force Brown- Stqnard. 



13 



tiona are also of great interest. You well know that there 

 are fishes that possess an electric apparatus. In them 

 the nerves which go to the electric apparatus are enor- 

 mous. Aud thosn uerves convoy nervous force, and not 

 electricity. As soon as the nervous force is felt in that 

 electric apparatus, eUvf rielty is evolved. Electricity-la 

 a transformation ia th:it case of nervous force, just as 

 ue know tlmt beat can 1)0 transformed into electricity 

 or electricity into ln>nt, heat into motion, and motion 

 into heat, &c. There are animals which are phosnhores- 

 ceut, and which are so under an act of their wills, so far 

 as we can judge, and under the influence of the 

 nervous sjvtoui ; so that light also can be 

 evolved as a transformation of nervous force. 

 Tliere are cases of consumption in which 

 lisht has eomo from the lungs. Tlie fact has been 

 pointed out by Sir Henry Marsh and other physicians. 

 The light appears not only at the head of tiie paticnr. 

 but it mar bu radiated into the room. It has baen con- 

 sidered that tlio light was only a peculiar effect of the 

 mucus that came from the lungs of the patient. Ic is 

 not likely that this is the case, because mucus in greater 

 quantity is evolved, and all sorts of mucus, from the 

 chests of people, every day, without any such phenome- 

 non. I have read the history of each individual case of 

 the kind so far as I have been able to get it, and in every 

 one of the cases the patients, I find, were in a terrible 

 Btato of nervousness, so that I cannot but believe that 

 the production of light was in a measure at least, owing 

 to the transformation of nervous force. 



HEAT, ELECTRICITY, AND NERVOUS FORCE. 



There are great transformations also of another kind. 

 You well know that nutrition, which implies chemical 

 change in our system, as well as secretion, which also 

 requires chemical chantre, may take place under the 

 influence of the nervous system. I shall show this more 

 fully in a subsequent lecture. When this transformation 

 occurs, it is quite evident that it is the nervous force 

 that has been transformed into a chemical agent. 



Is nervous force ever transformed into heat ? Tliere 

 is no doubt whatever that heat Is evolved from our sys- 

 tem, and in a great measure owing to the action of nerv- 

 ous force; but the question is whether that tranforma- 

 tion is an immediate one or whether it gors through 

 other transformation*. This is a point which it would 

 be very interesting to determine, but which at the 

 present state of our knowledge is not yet ascertained. 



Now that we have passed in review all those facts 

 showing that nervous force can be transformed into the 

 other forces of nature that we know, almost all of them, 

 the question arises, " Can all the forces of nature be 

 transformed into nervous force?" This is one of the 

 greatest questions tbat we could undertake to consider. 

 Unfortunately, the elements we have for solving it are 

 as yet very few. We do not know positively yet at any 

 rate I do not know, and I have read considerably to find 

 if the question is solved we do not know positively 

 yet whether electricity can be transformed 

 into nervous force. You can easily understand 

 that if it were possible to have such a transformation, a 

 great many weak people would receive manifest advan- 

 t<- 76 in being galvanized. Therefore the question. i- of 

 great importance. There is no douot at all, for this 

 has been established by a good many experimenters, 

 that the elements of the uervuus system bi-neiit in their 

 nutrition under the influence of electricity and galvan- 

 ism; but a direct transformation of electricity into 

 nervous force is not y"et proved. 



As regards light, veri' little is known. You well know 

 that nervous disturbance will come from tho action of 



light. There is no doubt whatever about It. L ight 19 

 certainly a very powerful agent and a moht useful one. 

 Indeed, it is rather too much forgotten that light is 

 almost essential to life; but we do not know if there is 

 any direct transformation of lig'it into nervous force. 

 It seems to bo so in the retina; but I cannot employ any 

 other phrase than the phrase " it seems to bo." It would 

 not appear to bo difficult to solve tho question by experi- 

 ment, and a solution would be of considerable import- 

 ance. 



There are other forces which certainly are transformed 

 into nervous force. There is no doubt as regards mo- 

 tion. Motion increases nervous force in the limb 

 without the least doubt. What the French call massage, 

 which is shampooing, pounding or kneading of the ncsii, 

 increases nervous force without doubt. But there is 

 still some little doubt whether it is not through an im- 

 provement of nutrition, through a chemical change, that 

 the influence takes place. 



There are other forces, heat, for instance, which per- 

 haps are transformed into nervous force. The applica- 

 tion of heat to children is exceedingly useful to help 

 their development. If the air they breathe is cool, and 

 heat is applied to (heir limbs, but not so much to tho 

 body, they certainly grow faster. There is no question 

 that in northern climes, children wlio are not well clad, 

 andarenoc well cared for in regard to Hie heat sur- 

 rounding their boJy, do not grow so well 

 as children who are submitted to the influ- 

 ence of heat. There is one thing which in 

 this country especially is most hurtful and dangerous, 

 and thatis beat applied to the lungs. It is perfectly 

 well known that the mortality of children in tnis coun- 

 try is enormous in tho Summer months, and that chiefly 

 throng!) the influence of heat on the lungs aud on tho 

 belly. Digestion and respiration are disturbed, and 

 death comes, as you know, too trequently. Mora care 

 could easily be attained in that respect, ami it may be 

 that I shall have a chance to speak of it in one of the 

 last lectures of this course. 



A DEAD OX KEPT FIFTY-SIX DAYS WITHOUT PUTRE- 

 FACTION. 



Some physiologists have considered that nerve force 

 is nothing but that which many physiologists admit 

 under the name of vital force. The theory whicn is 

 most important in this respect has bsen put for .vard by 

 M. Flonrens. He considers that a spot in the medulla 

 oblongata is the. focus of vital force. Taera is. you 

 know, a spot which is pierced bv the in it.idors m Spam 

 when they wish to kill a bull immediately. Djith oc- 

 curs instantly. This kind of death is a very interesting 

 one. When we perform the experiment in the labora- 

 tory we find that the animal is so instantaneously and 

 so effectually killed that there is no struggle whatever. 

 The animal lies there, apparently having lost 

 every vital power, and it la certainly a great question 

 to knosv what becomes of the nervous force in those 

 cases. It seems to have been lost altogether. I say it 

 seems, for if we examine a little further we find that it 

 is only dormant. It is accumulated in cei tain parts of 

 the body in immense quantity. The nervous centers have 

 lost it almost altogether, but the nerves are quite rich in 

 nerve force, so much so that I have kept one of those 

 animals tor nearly 56 days in my laboratory without any 

 trace of putrefaction, at a temperature which varied be- 

 tween 45 aud 65. The lack of putrefaction depended 

 certainly on the long persistence of nerve force after 

 ileath. There is in these cases a great mystery however. 

 Tliis nerve force wo can detect very easily. If we 

 galvanize a limb we flud that there is a nerve force 



