EVIDENCE PROVING THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE 119 



that thought is conveyed to a central part near the 

 base of the brain by the white fibres the organic 

 telegraph wires, and thence to that part of the spinal 

 cord enclosed in the backbones, or, as they are called, 

 the vertebrae. Here we have in the spinal cord 

 the main telegraph cable, conveying the nervous 

 impulses to the various parts of the body. Thus, just 

 above the vertebral column, white fibres, or thread- 

 like processes, converge, and from there are carried 

 special lines to the eyes, the nose, the tongue, the ears. 



with the help of our strongest microscope, and the significance of 

 which we rather guess than know. Its complex mechanism is 

 capable of the most intricate psychical functions. But even this 

 elementary organ of mental activity, of which there are thousands in 

 our brain, is only a single cell. Our whole intellectual life is but the 

 .sum of the results of the activity of all such nerve-cells or mind-cells. 

 In the centre of each cell lies a large transparent ball, which encloses 

 a smaller dark body. This is the nucleus which contains the 

 nucleolus. Here, as everywhere, the nucleus determines the indi- 

 viduality of the cell and shows that the entire formation, notwith- 

 standing its minute and complex structure, is in form only a single 

 -cell." ("The Evolution of Man," Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 1883, vol. i. 

 pp. 127, 128.) "The human nervous system, like that of all other 

 Mammals, is, in its developed condition, a very complex apparatus, 

 the anatomical arrangement and the physiological activity of which 

 may, in general terms, be compared to a telegraph system. The 

 central marrow (medulla), or central nervous system, represents the 

 principal station, the innumerable 'ganglion-cells ' . . . which are 

 connected with each other and with numerous very delicate con- 

 ducting lines by their branched processes. The latter are the 

 peripheric ' nerve-fibres ' distributed over the whole surface of the 

 body ; these, together with their terminal apparatus, the sense- 

 organs, &c., constitute the ' conductive marrow/ the peripheric 

 nerve-system. Some, as sensory nerve-fibres, convey the sensations 

 of the skin and of other sense-organs to the central medulla ; others, 

 as motor nerve-fibres, transmit the impulses from the central marrow 

 to the muscles." (Idem, vol. ii. p. 209.) 



