434 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



tion is the history of man. Commerce and intercourse have been 

 the two great factors. Education includes marriage, parentage, and 

 all life's responsibilities within its limits. Solemn subject, which 

 never ends but with life ! Subject — the beginning of which is so 

 subtile that no man dare indicate the moment when the first reflective 

 brain-action begins, other than that it begins with the worldly life 

 of the individual. It is the attribute of all the higher forms of ani- 

 mal life, differing only in degree and quality. The so-called in- 

 stincts are not alone the attributes of the lower animals ; man has 

 them also. They may be defined as action, which follows so quickly 

 on thought that thought and action, cause and effect, are not, even 

 by the individual, to be distinguished from one another. This re- 

 mark has no reference to those intellectual peculiarities which dis- 

 tinguish mankind from the lower animals. No action takes place 

 in the animal organism without the irritation of specific nervous 

 centers. Hunger is among the attributes which we enjoy in com- 

 mon with the lower animals. The attempt to stay it is not instinct- 

 ive in the lower animals any more than with man. The manner of 

 staying it is different. In both species it is dependent upon a cer- 

 tain form of irritation of the trophic nerve-endings in the stomach 

 (perhaps intestines also), which is transmitted to certain centers in the 

 brain, and irritates them, causing reflection (in lower animals as well 

 as in man), and, as a natural result, the seeking for food. 



There rules in the community an idea that the different grades 

 of intelligence — the so-called " gifts " (illustrated by the expression 

 " that one person is more gifted than another," one animal possessing 

 a greater development of its instincts than another) — are something 

 special ; some mysterious, spiritual force or forces, which such organ- 

 isms have received from the Creator. They seem to entirely overlook 

 the true conditions which lead to these differences. These differences 

 are founded upon variations in the anatomical structure of the centers 

 of intelligence in different individuals. It is not known whether 

 chemical differences in the elements forming these centers are pres- 

 ent or not ; the anatomical variations, while axiomatically true, have 

 never as yet been demonstrated. This work belongs to the science 

 of the future. Changes in the anatomical structure of the nervous 

 centers of intelligence are immediately followed by variations in the 

 functions of these parts, and finally demonstrate themselves by 

 changes in the phenomena produced, varying in degree according 

 to the anatomical changes of the elements. 



The unit of animal, as well as vegetable life, is the cell. Beyond 

 that we do not need to go. " Omnis cellula e cellula," says the 



