388 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



must acquire the most mimite knowledge of tlieir 

 structure. Much has already been done in this direc- 

 tion, but much more remains to do. There is still work 

 for thousands of laborious students ; and all genuine 

 work will aid the science in its progress. Only let men 

 observe with patient zeal, and forego the temptation to 

 say they have seen what they have not seen, but what, 

 from the report of others, they expected to see (a temp- 

 tation which leads to the continuance of error more 

 than any other cause), — only let the same veracity guide 

 them with respect both to what is old and to what is 

 new, equally deterring them from lightly supporting 

 a current assertion, and from lightly promulgatmg a 

 novel assertion, — only let this be done, and the hum- 

 blest workers will bring their quota to the general fund. 

 How much remains to be done may be gathered from 

 the fact that, in the nervous system, which has been 

 studied more than any other, recent investigations have 

 led me to some unexpected results which, unless I 

 greatly deceive myself, must profoundly modify current 

 theory, and must assuredly modify our anatomical 

 statements.* 



We laugh at the German who is said " to construct 

 the Idea of the Camel out of the depths of his moral 



* The facility with which theories are extemporised by many who 

 have little or no knowledge of the nervous structure, is only surpassed 

 by the facility and confidence with which men attribute phenomena to 

 electricity. It may be well, therefore, to state that our knowledge of 

 the nervous system is at present in its infancy; we have not even 

 established a secure basis ; we have not established the primary data. 



