124 i\lison on the Nerves. 



hardly add, that if we suppose the nervous system to be des- 

 tined to exercise over secretion, as well as over muscular 

 motion, not an uniform and essential, but an occasional and 

 controlling influence, and that particularly when itself is affected 

 by mental acts or emotions, we shall be at no loss in explaining 

 tlie phenomena which have been thought to denote the depen- 

 dance of secretion on the nervous system. The secretions of 

 the stomach in particular, are so notoriously under the con- 

 trol of various affections of the mind, (acting on them, in all pro- 

 bability, through the medium of its nerves,) that it cannot ap- 

 pear surprising, that they should be very much deranged by 

 division of these nerves. 



Dr. W. Philip's opinion, in regard to the connexion of the 

 nervous system in the living body with muscular action, which 

 appears to me to be perfectly correct, may be thus stated ; That 

 when the nervous system is itself impressed by various agents, 

 mental and physical, it is capable either of exciting or of 

 variously modifying the actions of all the different moving 

 solids of the body ; but that, when not itself impressed by any 

 of these agents, it appears from all that we yet know on the 

 subject, to be absolutely passive and inert in regard to all these 

 moving solids. 



The considerations which I have now stated appear to me suf- 

 ficient to shew, that the same conclusion may be extended to 

 the connexion of the nervous system in the living body with 

 secretion; and in another paper I shall endeavour to shew 

 that we have good grounds for forming the same conclusion 

 in regard to its connexion with animal heat. 



Art. X. Some Account of Messrs. Perkins and Fairman's 

 Inventions connected ivith the Art of Engraving. 



Among the numerous discoveries and inventions that have 

 adorned the present age, there are certainly none of more interest 

 or importance than those of which we propose to give a brief 

 account in this article; indeed they form an epoch in the 

 history of the fine arts, and display a degree of skill and in- 

 genuity in overcoming the various difficulties that must have 



