IS THE BRAIN A VOLTAIC BATTERY? 143 



mass. But although there is no doubt that in the expression 

 of thought chemical changes takes place in the nerve matter, 

 it has by no means been proved, nay, I cannot admit that 

 the arguments advanced render it even probable, that thought 

 itself results from chemical change. It would be more in 

 accordance with what we know to conclude that thought 

 preceded and determined the chemical change occurring in 

 particular particles of the brain matter, than that it was a 

 consequence of it. Chemical change will not alone account 

 for any vital acts whatever. If the movements of part of 

 a mass of living matter in advance of other parts were due 

 to chemical action, such movements would soon be pro- 

 duced in the laboratory, but chemistry has not yet advanced 

 one step in this direction. The special action of any par- 

 ticular apparatus is not usually explained by asserting that 

 it is due to the disintegration and oxidation of its con- 

 stituent parts of wheels and cranks, for example but yet 

 some will have it that the action of the cerebral apparatus 

 is to be satisfactorily accounted for by the disintegration 

 and oxidation of the matter of which it is composed. 



Is the Brain to be looked upon as a Voltaic Battery ? 

 " Another hypothesis, to the legitimacy of which no objec- 

 tion can lie, and one which is well calculated to light the 

 path of scientific inquiry, is that suggested by several 

 recent writers, that the brain, is a voltaic pile, and that each 

 of its pulsations is a discharge of electricity through the 

 system. It has been remarked that the sensation felt by 

 the hand from the beating of a brain bears a strong re- 

 semblance to a voltaic shock, and the hypothesis, if followed 

 to its consequences, might afford a plausible explanation of 



