MEDICINE vVND SURGERY. 323 



The seat of this intellectual power is supposed to be the brain. The brain 

 and spinal marrow communicate with every part of the body by means of 

 the nerves. It is by these that the muscles are made to act under the di- 

 rection of the will. By directing my will to the muscles of the fore-arm, 

 I readily bend it on the upper arm, because there is direct communica- 

 tion with the brain by means of the nerves. If these be divided, I might 

 will my arm to move, but it would remain motionless. The brain being 

 the seat of impression, naturally leads us to the organs of sense, which 

 are dependant on the nerves. To judge of the qualities of bodies, tlieir 

 temperature, and size, we are gifted with the faculty of touch. From the 

 hand being so minutely supplied with nerves, no part is better fitted to 

 the purpose. 



*' We have as yet provided only for the lowest degree of sensitive ex- 

 istence. It has been beautifully observed by a distinguished writer — 

 *• We must open channels of communication with different objects, we 

 must apprise this being of his danger, we must inform him of the situa- 

 tion of those objects which are subservient to his wants, we must shew 

 him the surrounding world, we must lift up the curtain of darkness which 

 conceals it, and admit him to the glorious spectacle of nature's scenery, 

 and apprise him of the eventful changes that are hourly transacting 

 around him, and in which he is called upon to play his assigned part. 

 To the sense of touch, then, we add those of si(/ht and hearing.'' By the 

 beautiful construction of the eye, a faithful delineation of the external 

 scene is painted on the expansion of the optic nerve, and by it conveyed 

 to the brain. By the curious mechanism of the ear, sound is collected, 

 which, striking on the expansion of the auditory nerve, recognizance is 

 taken of it^by the brain. In addition to these faculties, and also depend- 

 ing on the nerves, we are gifted with the organs of smell and taste; the 

 former residing in the nose, the latter in the tongue. 



" To perpetuate and preserve a being thus formed. Providence in his 

 wisdom has made male and female. By a process veiled in mystery new 

 beings spring forth, grow by the same power, exhibit the same succession 

 of phenomena, and after having in their turn given rise to another race of 

 beings, yield, sooner or later, to the imperious laws of mortality. All 

 living bodies must die — death is the necessary effect of life, which, by 

 its very action, seems gradually to alter the structure of the human body, 

 so far as to render its continuation impossible ; for the living body under- 

 goes a gradual but constant change during the whole period of its ex- 

 istence.'* 



I'urther proof cannot be required of the lofty position which 

 medicine and surgery hold in the extensive and populous town 

 of Birmingham; and while talent of such order exists in the 

 heart of the kingdom, so favourable to the inculcation of medical 

 knowledge, we may venture to predict that the metropolis, in the 

 course of time, will have a competitor capable of dividing the 

 advantages and attainments, which are now, with few exceptions, 

 so exclusively confined to the range of its jurisdiction. 



