OUR PHYSICAL MOTIONS. 69 



action, and that the muscular fibres are conductors ; so that 

 our conclusion amounts, we may almost say, to as com- 

 plete demonstration as the subtle nature of electricity 

 allows. In fact, our nerves and muscles seem to be a 

 series of telegraphic wires and electric mechanism com- 

 bined, by which our volition has accomplished its pur- 

 poses in our physical nature ever since the creation of 

 animal life, and that, great and marvellous as modern 

 electric and telegraphic discoveries are, they are after all 

 only a lucky stumble upon an old law, and an unconscious 

 imitation of an old application of it, as commonplace as 

 humanity and as hoary as antiquity itself. 



We also know from Ampere's theory that currents of 

 electricity influence each other, so that of two transverse 

 currents the stronger controls the weaker, and are there- 

 fore prepared to find that where the distance between 

 them is not sufficiently great, or the insulation not 

 perfect, singular and marked effects might be produced 

 from their proximity. And all this suggests to us that 

 the normal and strictly legitimate electric action of 

 animal bodies is far more extensive, and far more wonder- 

 ful and powerful in the most familiar and ordinary results 

 of animal motion, than anything Mesmerism and Animal 

 Magnetism have been able to establish. Indeed, we are 

 led to conclude that, if there be any grain of truth in the 

 pretensions which Mesmerism has made, it is only a dimly 

 and feebly perceived fragment of this great and common 

 law of animal life on which it has alighted, and which it 

 cannot fully explain. And if so, it is well to observe that 

 its experiments, unless conducted under the light of 

 science, may in many instances be injurious and exhaust- 

 ing to the parties operated on, in consequence of their not 

 being conducted in strict deference to the normal laws 

 of animal action ; and that they ought to be discouraged 

 in all but adequately enlightened and prudent hands ; for 

 everything done in the way of experiment on man ought 



