The spine was the seat of the motive power of the many passions 

 which we possessed, some good enough to obtain the approval of 

 Heaven, and others bad enough to have their origin in " another 

 place." These passions, impulses, and emotions were all put in motion 

 and guided by the action of the nerve trunk, which consisted of a 

 number of fibres running parallel with each other and the ganglia, 

 or knots which the fibres and nerve cells formed at particular points 

 in the cerebro-spinal axis. These ganglia were united in one superior 

 ganglion, which in the higher animals was situated immediately 

 beneath the brain, which surmounted it. The nerve cells were called 

 globular, but, as a me.tter of fact, the prolongations proceeding from 

 them made the form stellate. 



The ganglia were connected with each vertebra by two distinct 

 and separate fibres, one of which was named the sentient and the 

 other the motive nerve. These had two separate, although similar, 

 functions, and in many respects bore an analogy to the phenomena 

 presented by the electric telegraph. As in the telegraph, two wires 

 were required for the efficient performance of the work, so two fibres 

 were required to sustain the nervous torce in its integrity. And as 

 the telegraphic apparatus required stimulating by a relay of electric 

 batteries, so was the amount of nervous energy supplemented by the 

 ganglia or knots which occurred at intervals throughout the system. 



The simpler the animal in construction, the more simple the 

 nervous system. For instance, in the case of the ascidians a single 

 ganglion only was required to perform the offices required, and this 

 single ganglion was typical of the more elaborate nervous system of 

 the higher animals. 



The motions produced by these nerves were quite involuntary, and 

 must in their consideration be kept quite distinct from the actions in 

 which the will was brought to bear ; the ejection of matter from the 

 interior of one of the ascidians being precisely the same as the ejection 

 of a crumb or other foreign matter from the throat of a human being, 

 for the latter could not help the violent action which naturally took 

 place to free the body from the pain and danger attending the lod"-- 

 ment of such for>iign matter in the throat. 



In the case of the articulata, the number of ganglia corresponded 

 with that of the articulations, so that each segment of an insect was 

 provided with its own ganglion. In the higher animals the ganglia 



