INSTINCTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND REFLEX ACTION 323 



In order to give the reader a more comprehensive view 

 of the perfect, intelligent organization of the individual 

 cells that build and direct the actions of the animal and 

 man, I will give Mr. Hallock's description of the brain 

 and nerves of the body. He says : 



"Suppose that a child of intelligent parents was ushered 

 into the world with perfect brain, with no optic nerve to 

 transmit the glorious sensations of the eye, no auditory 

 nerve to conduct the vibrations of the mother's voice, no 

 tactile nerves to convey the touch of the hand. Could 

 such a child live? No matter how perfect might be the 

 child's brain and body, his faculties would remain 

 shrouded in darkness. Perception could give memory 

 nothing to retain and thought could not weave her fabrics 

 without materials. 



"It is the business of the nervous system to transmit 

 the effects resulting from internal or external stimuli. 

 This function of reporting stimuli may be compared with 

 the machinery of an associated press agency, which gath- 

 ers news from the world. The manager may be sitting 

 in his office in New York or London and he cannot see 

 what is taking place in the rest of the world, but there is a 

 click of the telegraph instrument, and he learns that an 

 ocean steamer has been wrecked on the Irish Coast. An- 

 other instrument vibrates with a message that a certain 

 city cannot be heard from. The manager himself sends 

 a dispatch for news and he now illustrates the second 

 capacity of the nervous system, that of transmitting com- 

 mands by its own peculiar automatic power; but he tele- 

 graphs in vain, for the wires leading to the city are 

 broken. 



"These telegraph wires are analogous to the nerves of 

 the ear, eye and other senses. It is the business of these 



