EXTRACT XXXII. A. 



ON WHAT IS SIGNIFIED BY THE EXPRESSION "THE 

 NERVOUS SYSTEM," IN CONNECTION WITH LIFE, 

 NUTRITION, AND VITAL RESULTS. 



THE nervous system is an expression, the origin of which 

 it would be as interesting to know, as it would be difficult 

 to discover, as the history of medicine, from a very remote 

 period, would have to be ransacked for the first mention, 

 in the abstract form, of the subject. 



So remote, however, from the modern understanding of 

 what is meant by the expression, would that knowledge be, 

 that our ignorance is not altogether a matter for regret, 

 inasmuch as, did we know, we would be compelled to 

 unlearn much, before we could take up the subject of its 

 present-day signification, with the hope of still further, 

 adding to its true interpretation, and aiding its adaptation 

 to the solution of, practical, as well as, transcendental, 

 neural problems. 



What then, in short, do we mean to convey by the 

 phrase, " The Nervous System " ? We mean to convey, 

 among other things, that it is responsible for the existence 

 of life, that it determines the operation, and administers 

 the laws, of life, within the organic body, and that, through, 

 and by, it, is afforded a means, whereby psychic phenomena 

 are made possible of accomplishment, and the higher, or 

 immaterial, and dynamic, destinies, of man, evolved, and 

 added to, the possessions of this last born, of all the races 

 of animate beings. 



The nervous system, in man, and the higher animals, 

 is a dual organism, composed of two systems, called, 



