STRUCTURE OF NERVE APPARATUS. 



129 



We do not know exactly what is essential for nervous action, 

 and the study of the constitution of the ultimate active 

 part of nerve tissues is a matter of the greatest difficulty. 

 But how can we hope, without an accurate knowledge 

 of the construction of the simplest type of nerve instrument, 

 to learn much about the working of the most complex 

 nervous apparatus ? Is not the kind of work performed by 

 an ordinary machine determined by its construction, and 

 has not every bit of the work done a particular form or 

 character stamped upon it which may be traced, as it were, 

 through the machine to its designer? To say that the work 

 done by any machine is the result of force, is, therefore, but 

 a half truth, nay, it is not truth at all, for force alone can- 

 not do the work or produce the machine which performs 

 the work. Both the work and the machine exhibit character 

 or form which was not derived from force, but from mind, 

 or whatever that may be called which governs, directs, 

 designs. There is no mechanism, animate or inanimate, 

 simple or complex, which has resulted only from the influence 

 of ordinary force ; and although it has been asserted over 

 and over again that force forms and builds tissues, not the 

 slightest evidence can be advanced in support of this 

 arbitrary dogma. It would not be more absurd to assert 

 that motion designs, originates, and creates, than it is to 

 maintain that force forms and builds. Nor will all the 

 energy, authority, and influence the physico-chemical school 

 can bring to bear, succeed in forcing thoughtful and in- 

 telligent people to accept such assertions. What strikes one 

 as most wonderful is that any one should try to make people 

 believe that ordinary force can form, or has ever formed, any 



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