1898] RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM 389 
an orange and to separate it rudely afterwards to load it with a 
considerable quantity of positive electricity. 
I conceive the human organism, therefore, as a machine containing 
some five or six litres of blood employed in appropriating to itself 
the nutritious principles of food, absorbing oxygen, and carrying it 
to the nerve to make it vibrate by discharges of carbon dioxide. 
Yet, this machine being magnificent, it were suitable to imitate 
it by means of some very sensitive springs (muscles) moved by the 
vibrations of a great number of semi-liquid conductors (nerves) in 
communication with proportionated deposits or centres. 
The inheritance of nervous affections or that of the attributes of 
genius may, by consequence, be easily explained. Whenever the 
progenitors have a strong, healthy, and active protoplasma, the 
nutrition of the embryonic neuroplasma of the descendants is 
perfect. All will, in fact, be correlatively nourished, and the germs 
united by molecular attraction will form a strong gastrula, a superb 
neurochord, and later still the three fundamental embryonic brains. 
Féré’s observation regarding the transmission of such nervous 
affections, epilepsy and the lke, as manifest themselves so soon as 
the general conditions of nutrition improve, can be elucidated thus, 
and likewise the singular immunities of wise men as indicated by 
foreign physiologists, and Chalumeau’s famous law. 
A. L. HERRERA, 
Mexico, May 1, 1898, 
[It should be explained that Professor Herrera wrote this article 
in a language with which he is unfamiliar, and that he has had no 
opportunity of correcting the proofs.—Ep. Nat. Sci.] 
