MODERN ASPECTS OF THE LIFE-QUESTION. 757 



inch of the sciatic nerve of a frog measured 40,000 ohms, a resistance 

 eight times that of the entire Atlantic cable. In experimenting to 

 confirm the above law of velocity, Gaugain measured the time of 

 transmission of the electric current through a cotton thread 1*65 me- 

 tre long, and found it to be eleven seconds. Two similar threads 

 placed consecutively, thus forming a conductor twice as long, required 

 forty-four seconds for the passage of the current, or four times as long. 

 From these data the velocity in the short thread is at the rate of only 

 - 15 metre in one second ; and in the long one only about half this 

 rate, of course. Hence the fact that the energy of nerve moves at the 

 rate of only twenty-eight metres per second is really no proof that it is 

 not electricity. 



The higher functions of the nerve-cell, those connected with men- 

 tal processes, is a field too vast to be entered at this time. The double 

 telegi-aph line of nerve, motor and sensor in their effect, but, as Vul- 

 pian has proved, precisely alike in function, are the avenues of ingress 

 and egress. Every sensory impression is received by the thalami op- 

 tici ; every motor stimulus is sent out from the corpora striata. In 

 the acts denominated reflex, the action goes from the spinal cord and 

 is automatic and unconscious. Should the impression ascend higher 

 to the sensory ganglia, the action is now conscious, though none the 

 less automatic. Finally, should deliberation be required before act- 

 ing, the message is sent to the hemispheres by the sensory ganglia, 

 and will operates to produce the act. Based on principles which can 

 be established by investigation, a true psychology is coming into being, 

 developed by Bain, Maudsley, Spencer, and others. A physiological 

 classification of mental operations is being formed which uses the 

 terms of metaphysical psychology, but in a more clearly defined sense. 

 Emotion, in this new science, is the sensibility of the vesicular neurine 

 to ideas memory, the registration of stimuli by nutrition. Reflection 

 is the reflex action of the cells in their relation to the cerebral ganglia. 

 Attention is the arrest of the transformation of energy for a moment. 

 Ratiocination is the balancing of one energy against another. Will is 

 the reaction of impressions outward. And so on through the list. 



Among the physical aspects of the mind-question, the problem of 

 the quantitative changes which take place in the organism is a very 

 curious and interesting one. That the energy of the brain comes from 

 the food will be disputed by no one in these days. Hence, the brain 

 must act like a machine and transform energy. There is, then, a pure- 

 ly physiological representation of mental action, concerned with forces 

 which are known and measurable. The researches of Lombard long 

 ago showed the concomitant heat of mental action. Recent researches 

 are equally interesting, which show that mental operations are not in- 

 stantaneous, but require a distinct time for their performance. By 

 accurate chronographic measurement, Ilirsch has shown that an irrita- 

 tion on the head is answered by a signal with the hand only after one 



