NERVE FIBRES. 



317 



at all, has no choice, but must act immediately. It has no 

 power of keeping its thoughts for a time, and using them or 

 letting others know at some- future time what they were. 

 The differences which seem to be differences in kind, and 

 not merely differences of degree, must, I think, be referred 

 back to original differences in the vital power of the bioplasm 

 concerned in the evolution of the two very different living 

 beings. 



The nervous apparatus through which alone the vital 

 power of the highest bioplasm of every creature acts, consists 

 essentially of fine fibres which form, with masses of bioplasm, 

 uninterrupted circuits. The fibres are continuous with the 

 bioplasts, and grow from them. Of the latter, some are central 

 and of considerable size, some peripheral and very small. 



By chemical changes in the matter formed by the 

 bioplasts electrical currents may be produced, and these 

 traverse the fibres. The currents, varying in intensity ac- 

 cording to the changes in the nerve-cells, would be affected 

 by pressure upon the nerve-cords which transmit them. 

 Currents emanating from bioplasts at one part of the circuit 

 would influence the changes in the bioplasts in another part, 

 and the last react upon the first. 



The smallest nerve fibre instead of resembling an ordi- 

 nary telegraph wire, might rather be compared with a bundle 

 of wires, each having its battery (mass of bioplasm in the case 

 of the nerve) connected with it. So that even a very short 

 piece of a nerve fibre would contain numerous bioplasts, or 

 little batteries which continue to act, that is, give rise to 

 nerve currents for some time (the period varying in different 

 cases) after the nerve has been removed from the body. 

 But the current-developing power of the nerve is much 



