266 THE ENGINES OF THE HUMAN BODY 



messages have to be submitted to the central government 

 and duly approved or censored before they are passed 

 on to their destination. If the transport units which 

 conduct the alimentary traffic go on strike and wish to 

 call out the units which prepare the supply of fuel for 

 the body, they cannot send their message direct : it has 

 to pass through the government telephone exchanges. 

 To modern minds it may seem that the administrative 

 units take an unfair advantage of the monopoly controlled 

 by them. Nothing can happen in the commonwealth 

 of the body without it coming to the knowledge of the 

 central administration. And yet the population of living 

 units included within the human body far exceeds in 

 numbers the total population of the earth. And they 

 are ruled with unmatched ability. Is the administrative 

 system of the human machine the ideal towards which 

 the modern national machine is tending ? There are 

 signs that this is the case. 



Is there a wireless installation in the nervous system of 

 the human body ? We are certain only of this much : 

 we are totally unaware of the wireless waves which, in 

 these modern times, fill the air day and night. Their 

 messages beat against our eyes, ears, and brains, and yet 

 we are unconscious of them until we take special contriv- 

 ances which can convert these messages into sound waves. 

 We cannot see X-rays until they are turned into light 

 rays. It seems reasonable to conclude that if wireless 

 messages had been emitted by living things, or by the 

 surroundings among which life was carried on, that Nature 

 would have provided her higher creations with contriv- 

 ances for converting wireless waves into nerve messages. 

 She has provided contrivances for turning light and 

 sound waves into nerve messages. There is thus no 

 evidence which leads us to believe that Nature has ever 

 used her wireless waves to provide a communicating 

 system for linking living units together. Herein Man 

 seems to have stolen a march on Nature. 



