ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 87 



by the sympathetic nervous system ; and that this is so is 

 again an argument in favour of an insulation, without 

 which stability could not be obtained. 



" There may be fallacies which I am unable to detect, 

 but my belief is that in the normal state in quiescent nerves 

 there is an electrical equilibrium, that current passes only 

 on liberation of impulse from brain centres in the case 

 of the sympathetic from emotion at one end and from 

 irritant at the other and that, to control this discharge of 

 energy, insulation is imperative and will be demonstrated. 

 To experiment with a cut nerve opens the road to many 

 flaws which are obvious. 



" From Mr. Baines' point of view it is necessary to prove 

 this insulation. That impulses pass along a nerve is 

 granted, but that this impulse is in the nature of an electrical 

 impulse has to be shown ; but to object because the word 

 ' current ' is used instead of ' impulse ' seems an unneces- 

 sary obstacle to understanding, for the nature of a current 

 may be interrupted as well as continuous. 



" The whole arrangement of the nervous system, 

 nodes, synapses, medulla, sheath, ganglia, etc., points to an 

 electrical system with many makes and breaks, shunts, 

 etc., and we have shown before that the fundamental 

 energising of the body is an electrical phenomenon. 



" Returning to the blood-stream and for the moment 

 leaving out the specialised organs and glands, we come to 

 the question of connective, fibrous, and elastic tissues. 



" Subcutaneous and other vascular connective tissues 

 may be regarded as the padding of the body. We have a 

 multitudinous cell-life, vascularity, and a controlling nerve 

 supply. Here, then, we have a storage of energy separate 

 from the closed circuit of the nervous system ; closed in 

 relation to the other tissues of the body. In this tissue, as 

 in the specialised organs, the interchange from blood to cell 

 goes on, but in this case we get some diffusion through 



